Athletic Director refuses to send us to nationals

Did you make your state meet? If not, who’s kidding who, rich kid?

Not sure why everyone is being such a hater. The point is not to get a scholarship or recruited, it's to have fun. NBN is fun, you should definitely go. In Massachusetts, where I grew up, the MIAA would suspend you if you ran a non-MIAA sanctioned meet in your official school jersey/team name. Not sure if this is still the case, but everyone would just enter as a club team, buy a set of four $5 singlets so the relay would match, and go anyway. If your high school mascot was the Warriors you would enter as Warrior Track Club. Who cares what your AD says.

You mentioned that your school was expensive. So, am I right to assume it is a private school. If so, I'm surprised your AD can withstand parental pressure (you mentioned the parents are willing to foot the bill.) The only other concern would be missing school days or certain school events that are deemed more important. Good luck on what I consider a Senior Graduation Trip.

Oops - wrong thread.

Do you really need the school's permission to run relays at NON? I thought the whole thing was that it's actually these fake "club" teams?

No. It is a club event. We are going to see more and more of these AI generated threads.

My question is why was this not thought about before? I realize that you do not know ahead of time if you will qualify or not, but you plan for this just in case. Sounds like your coach never spoke to the AD and administration until recently. Live and learn and figure out how to make it work next year.

This, 100%. The negativity on this thread is astounding. OP, you sound like you have a fun team, and good on you to take on the responsibility of figuring this out on behalf of your teammates. I hope it works out for you, and that you guys make some great memories.

I was thinking of running one of these meets exactly BECAUSE I won't qualify for states. In NY to qualify for the state meet out of your State Qual meet you need to finish top 2. Realistically I have no shot. If I want to extend my season past June 2nd or whatever and get more opportunities to run faster, those are great meets to try and do that in. Its not about getting scholarships for me. Its about if I'm fit and race ready why not get a few more cracks at lowering my PRs after my HS season is officiall over?

kinda off topic but on the subject of national meets, would it be worth it to go to adidas national in the steeple chase. would be able to go there without flying only a 3 hour drive,

thoughts?

Seriously, what can of relay teams can afford EXTREMELY expensive schools?

re "save it for college XC," my personal experience playing in summer leagues and tournaments with my old select soccer team (turned U23 team) was great preparation for college. the team practice schedule and tournament plans keep your fitness work honest.

it might be less than a real nationals but a lot of those summer trip tournaments are the ones i remember. heck, one of those trips guided where i went to college. "i like the weather here...." saving money sounds clever and adult but to me i got good travel and memories out. and i actually found the process of working, saving money, and traveling with few adults to be independence building. just like my experience with family members living at my parents' home pinching pennies and going to juco, supposedly adult rational stuff, results in kids who haven't lived on their own much, and are somewhat resentful they are home and everyone else went 4 year and flew the nest. they don't have debt but their experiences are usually an extension of HS.

to be fair, personally i found the best time for such trips is before senior year, not after. that gives you time to financially recover before college. but i did those tournaments during college too, it just squeezes cash between saving for trip and saving for college. but it sounds like you're doing well so this means less for you.

re getting into NON, i can see where there might be an issue whether you can use existing times. but did your club do HS meets or what? i would call/email meet organizers and spell out the basics. we have this time. it can be verified online here. it meets the standards for the EE or championship. but our HS won't sanction us competing so we would be "club" or "unattached." if we use the same runners, can we use that time? see what they say.

if they accept the time, sign up as unattached or if you can find a club to sanction you, club. if they say, sorry, can't.........nothing is stopping you and your team from going to some youth meet outside of HS season and laying down a qualifying time. now you would be in a race between (a) meet entries close june 5 and (b) NON will meanwhile begin filling up. but if you run early enough a post-HS meet, you use that time. you then just don't enter as a HS team. but i doubt you want to if they won't fund or sanction it.

if you can make the relay qualifying time during HS the same lineup should be good for a shot at qualifying outside of school. your school can't tell you what to do during youth club season any more than my HS had anything to do with my youth select soccer.

If you break any of those times, your team is close to the best HS teams of all-time, not just this year. No school in my state has ever reached these times in 100 years, and we have produced Earl Jones, Brian Diemer, Ritz, Grant Fisher, Brazier, and a dozen Foot Locker winners.

This would be like not bothering to go to state meet unless you break 8:50. You are a special kind of negative moron.

I don't know, how many cans are there?

Maybe he thought we were talking D3.

Consider the above and also that one of the biggest problems young people in our country have with being future stars is over-competition and overtraining. It's been true for a very long time that youngsters compete in so-called national championships in all three (XC, Indoor T&F, and Outdoor T&F) from January to December. In track, we see 'elite meets' in April, early May, and June! Plus, there is no time to train because EVERYONE runs two meets per week all season from March to mid-June! Wacky but true.

To many A.D.s and even some Head Track & Field Coaches relay teams sound like also-rans. It does not matter that the football teams house 100 kids in a hotel the day before a home game. However, my concern is that there are way too many 'elite' competitions. Many of those are not really 'elite' but certain kids will get their best time of the season in April because of these meets. Joe Newton of York H.S. of Illinois said it best. "I like to stay close to home and train."

In NY they have a super standard that gets you to states, even if you dnf at the state qualifying meet. and the standards are fairly reasonable.

what are you qualified for in nats that is not reasonably close to the state super standard?

see page 19, for those interested:

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/http://tullyrunners.com/download/Section%203%20Outdoor%20Track%20Packet%202024.pdf