The Future of Footlocker XC

Anyone who has been to FLN wants to get back. Not so for all the NXN folks. Many kids who went there as individuals felt totally left out of the "team" experience. The team kids felt like they spent all the time with their team and did not meet all the other runners as they do in San Diego. Only those who can't make FLN, or are really close with their team are chooding NXN over FLN. Hope to see FLN around a long time.

As someone who is merely a fan, and not a high school athlete or coach, I can say that NXN is almost impossible to follow, at least as far as the teams go.

For Crissakes, they can't even use their real names! I can figure out which "clubs" are which schools from my own area, but other than that, I'm at a lost and am totally bored by it.

The beauty of Foot Locker is that it's individuals only, and easy to keep track of the top few. The team race is a distraction, IMHO.

Kids have to grow up at some time and learn how to be on their own. They can learn to be self-dependent in college on the T&F team or see if they make a national team where you are it, i.e. there's no team.

It seems like NXN got a huge turnout from underclassmen last year on the boys side last year and I suspect this is the reason that this turned the scales in their favor this year. I wouldn't automatically assume that this will be the case next year.

I like the idea of making the NXN finals top 10 the "5th" FL region.

Didn't read many replies in this thread. If i was a kid back in HS again i would compete at FL. It has all the history and tradition. It would be a great feeling winning it(which is great enough0 but to think of all the great ones that won FL before you.

HIstory wrote:

Didn't read many replies in this thread. If i was a kid back in HS again i would compete at FL. It has all the history and tradition. It would be a great feeling winning it(which is great enough0 but to think of all the great ones that won FL before you.

You sound like my dad. He still buys the newspaper. Things change with time.

san diego wrote:

Anyone who has been to FLN wants to get back. Not so for all the NXN folks. Many kids who went there as individuals felt totally left out of the "team" experience. The team kids felt like they spent all the time with their team and did not meet all the other runners as they do in San Diego. Only those who can't make FLN, or are really close with their team are chooding NXN over FLN. Hope to see FLN around a long time.

I doubt that. I know the NE is firmly in the NXN camp. Also, if thats the case, then why are the majority of top boys going to NXN? It seems that most people on this thread remember FL from their high school days, and do not have a grasp on how high schoolers actually feel about the races. After years of choosing FL, my team chose NXN last year, not because we had any chance to qualify, but we hoped to have a better experience. And I would say that was the case.

Obviously FL is still strong, but almost everyone on here is giving FL more credit than it is due at the moment. Just glad FL switched back to good uniforms. Those basketball unis in 08 were atrocious.

N & F both directly benefit from marketing and sales leads gained by each other's separate HS XC trade showcases. They want both races to continue because it means more customers.

Coaches are making a fool out of themselves inventing a controversy between N & F when in actuality N & F work together very closely to sell products. The kids could care less, they just want to get out of high school. The parents could care less, they just want the kids out of the house. N & F could care less, they just want to sell merchandise.

runn wrote:

I'm a high school coach- Nike is seen as the real thing. Footlocker is for runners who can't make it at NXN so the settle for Footlocker.

FL missed the boat when they let Nike take over and didn't go with the team thing.

Anyone who thinks XC is an individual sport hasn't been watching.

You're a high school coach.

And you think xc is not an individual sport.

Have any of your runners ever been recruited by college coaches?

My kid got letters and calls from about a hundred of them this year and not one of them asked about the team.

Have you had a lot of college recruiters coming knocking to recruit your whole team?

If not, what exactly are you talking about? YOU might get applause from your peers for putting together great teams, but the name of the game for individual kids is individual performance.

Any college coaches reading this? Are you planning on not recruiting the Foot Locker national finalists this year?

having these two meets coexist is a bigger injustice than the BCS in college football. ideally, footlocker should take on a team title, which imo would beat out nike because of the prestige/experience of the footlocker organization. Nike has the upper hand right now, providing both a team and indi title. footlocker needs to respond to nike's move of a few years ago or they're toast in a matter of years.

HS xc dad wrote:

[quote]runn wrote:

I'm a high school coach- Nike is seen as the real thing. Footlocker is for runners who can't make it at NXN so the settle for Footlocker.

FL missed the boat when they let Nike take over and didn't go with the team thing.

Anyone who thinks XC is an individual sport hasn't been watching.

You're a high school coach.

And you think xc is not an individual sport.

Have any of your runners ever been recruited by college coaches?

My kid got letters and calls from about a hundred of them this year and not one of them asked about the team.

Have you had a lot of college recruiters coming knocking to recruit your whole team?

If not, what exactly are you talking about? YOU might get applause from your peers for putting together great teams, but the name of the game for individual kids is individual performance.

Any college coaches reading this? Are you planning on not recruiting the Foot Locker national finalists this year?

Hey Dad,

I'm a coach, had a kid recruited by Stanford (ended up going there, multiple time AA), anyways, what they asked was, would this athlete give up individual track events to be part of a relay? They said, we want runners who put the team ahead of themselves, those are the kind of kids we want.

Just something to think about.

Coaches need to stop making an O.J. trial out of N & F. They want both NXN and FLN and the regionals that go with it to continue separately forever.

I just bought a Samsung HDTV at Walmart. Do you think Walmart wants Samsung to stop advertising or that Samsung wants Walmart to stop advertising and attending sales & marketing conventions ? No way. Every dollar Walmart spends on advertsing helps Samsung's bottom line and vica-a-versa. That's why they have agreed to do business together as supplier and retailer.

The same relationship exists bewteen Footlocker and Nike. Yet, stupid ass high school XC coaches have to try and make NX/FL XC into some kind of Rodney King trial, just because they are stuck at the high school level and can't get a college gig.

I'm a coach, had a kid recruited by Stanford (ended up going there, multiple time AA), anyways, what they asked was, would this athlete give up individual track events to be part of a relay? They said, we want runners who put the team ahead of themselves, those are the kind of kids we want.

Just something to think about.

So the most important quality was the fact that he would be part of a relay and not the fact that he ran really fast?

Please. XC is about the individual. Good teams are made up of good individuals. The whole "team" national championship is a pissing contest for coaches.

No shit. Coaches want team players. But how many kids do you know who feigned an injury to study ? I sure as hell did. I faked like I was a team player so that I could be on the travel squad. My parents made sure I had a hard science major since we were lower middle class and I had only one 5 year full ride to do it in.

You're a high school coach.

And you think xc is not an individual sport.

Have any of your runners ever been recruited by college coaches?

My kid got letters and calls from about a hundred of them this year and not one of them asked about the team.

Have you had a lot of college recruiters coming knocking to recruit your whole team?

If not, what exactly are you talking about? YOU might get applause from your peers for putting together great teams, but the name of the game for individual kids is individual performance.

Any college coaches reading this? Are you planning on not recruiting the Foot Locker national finalists this year?

What do you think college coaches are recruiting for? The kid isn't being recruited to wipe the coaches butt. He's being recruited FOR the team. The coach isn't recruiting just so he can coach once single kid. He wants a good team and a good fit for the kid.

Long live NXN.

"Anyone who thinks XC is an individual sport hasn't been watching." Spoken like a true runner and coach.

Not sure I understand your logic.

Think back on some of the big names in high school running, FL winners, who were highly recruited and went on to have stellar collegiate careers. You're telling me they were recruited because they were on good teams? Come on.

You're a college coach. You're going to pick the fifth runner on the fifth place team at nxn, or the fifth place finalist at FL? Maybe you'd go with the team guy.

No one is talking about recruiting asshole prima dona kids. I'm just saying that individual performance is a big deal, whether you are blessed by running with Arcadia or stuck in Podunk USA where everyone else plays football.

The result of me conforming to the training/activities of the rest of my college team: multiple stress fractures and other various injuries. Every time I tried to make an individual training suggestion to my coach, it was like talking to a wall. When I took it upon myself to tweak my training a bit and do "my own thing", I almost got kicked off the team for insubordination. My teammates were too lazy to drive 10 minutes to a non-asphalt area to run. I started driving to this grassy place to run by myself (and even asked if anyone wanted to join me) and experienced great criticism from the coach for not being a team player. Once I started training on asphalt with the team again, less than 2 months later I was down with a stress fracture (surprise, surprise!). I am still running/competing post collegiately, but I have not had a stress fracture in over 5 years. I am not elite by any means, but I am running a lot better now than in college when I was forced to be a team player. The concept of group think has a negative association for a reason.

Heh so NX is better because it was better for you.

You should be working for Nike.

Neither of you give a shit about what is best for the kids.

NXN was the greatest experience of my coaching and athletic career, bar none. Nike treated all of the participants very well, and my guys had a great time. I've known a bunch of FLN runners, and my assistant coached one in his earlier gig, and I've never heard a negative thing about FLN either. It seems as if both have their merits.

And you pretentious twits who are talking about what's "best for the kids"? What the hell makes you think you know what's best for the kids? If they want to go and have the wherewithal to make it, what the hell is it to you where they go?