My 2 cents wrote:
futurelookin wrote:
If you're planning on running in college, it wouldn't hurt to run unattached in some 8k meets.
If he plans on running in college, then he should be on his HS team. In my opinion, if I was a college coach and a kid was not running on the HS team it would raise red flag. I would wonder if he had an attitude, was uncoachable, didn't get along with people, were his grades bad, etc. etc. Even if none of those were true, you would wonder if you want someone that might have issues on your team.
College coaches really don’t care. In recruiting they get a pretty good idea about a potential athlete, and they would have the grades if they are cleared through NCAA clearinghouse, plus ACT and SAT scores.
Many college coaches feel hs coaches over race kids and if private coached then they can race less and train better.
College coaches can also know that there are hs coaches that aren’t very good.
The issue with not racing for your school for XC is getting into meets. There are open college meets you can do and Nike Cross Country Regionals or Footlocker Regionals.
More hs runners are privately coached these days and are finding ways to make it work.
Maybe more Meet Directors will start allowing unattached runners in.