Do it like a NBA mixtape and film your kid running a 5k time trial on the track. Edit the video to include splits and mail it to all the coaches nationwide.
Do it like a NBA mixtape and film your kid running a 5k time trial on the track. Edit the video to include splits and mail it to all the coaches nationwide.
same thing for my son. no summer practices which is actually nice so he did whatever he needed. what he does during the school year is get up early and do the bulk of his training before school starts. Yes, headlamp, 5 am start. It works for him either way because it's so hot where we live and getting on a track after school with football season is not going to happen. we even drive him to the local trail and does workouts and such before school. It's grueling and tiring but it's what we got. Then the afternoon he'll do his double with the team which is usually a 3-4 mile jog and strides.
I have a high school junior who trained alone all summer long, he reached 60 miles per week, and was hoping to keep building up once the school year started. Unfortunately the coach, who by the way doesn’t work with the athletes over the summer because he wants to get paid by them, this coach, once the school started, imposes his will and drops the mileage to 25mpw, most of it low intensity. he refused to register the athletes in any invitationals except for one mediocre one. He is a dual meet warrior, and he thinks adding invitationals will cause burnout! As you know, running unattached is not an option for XC, so we are stuck, trying to figure out how to rescue the season, and do the best we can. We are adding extra workouts and long runs just to keep up the mileage, but it’s hard with the school year in full swing and days getting shorter. It is also hard to train all summer long alone, have dreams and goals, just to be crushed by someone who just care about winning some stupid dual meets and ending the season mid October. Talking to the athletic director and the principal won’t change anything, because he’s been there for 25 years.
let me know how to approach this situation? How can we rescue this season?
Wow, that sucks for the kid! Imagine training so hard all summer and then having your coach mess it all up. Hope they find a way to make the season work!
unfortunately the invitationals we were interested in don’t accept unattached, the only option left is some community races, I was not aware that he can participate in open college races. as for the coach, there is no law that prevents him from working with the team over the summer. He has the right not to do it, it is not right that he comes in September and gets to make all the decisions. Coaching is a moral obligation, that you do what’s best for your athletes, not what fulfills your ego.
Does your kid and the team have the opportunity to qualify for and run in the state championship? It sounds like this coach is not the best and you have some legitimate grievances, but I think you’re way too focused on mid season invites. It’s not the best, but also not a horrible strategy to run dual meets all season, get in some good long runs and tempo runs on your own on the weekend, and run great at the state meet and then Nike regionals.
Now, if the coach for some reason is not letting the team race at your state’s qualifying race for the state meet, I think that is something you absolutely should talk to the AD about.
You mean you want OP to get off their lazy butt and stop complaining? The audacity!! How immoral of you!
The majority of HS programs are expected to be and are basically glorified PE. Not too serious — 25 MPW of mostly easy running is right in keeping with this. Running isn’t a serious sport in the eye’s of many ADs. Compete in dual meets, don’t get complaints from parents for overworking Jimmy, and it’s good enough.
If the kid truly has some talent - sub 16 at 50 mpw - and the coach won’t let the kid train or compete seriously, transfer. The AD almost certainly won’t care and if the coach was serious about maximizing kids’ talent, you wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place. The system is what it is and you’re almost certainly not going to change it.
Apologies in advance for the length, but this is worth the read from someone that’s been around the block.
XC season
Open meets (8K college races??) and road races are not the move. He’s got to stay in shape and use the dual meets as workouts (more on this later). 25mpw and crappy meets won’t do that. Train hard and try to make an impact on the conference, regional and state level.
Training
This is the important part. You're not going to change the coach’s mind so you have only one option, with two paths.
He’s got to do what scores of kids have done forever- wake up early and train hard, against his coach’s wishes and possibly in secret. If he ran 60mpw in the heat of summer, he’s dedicated enough to do this. His coach has him running 25mpw so he’s got another 25-30 in supplemental running (w/ workouts) to do.
Path 1: hire a private coach
Path 2: Do the research and you become his coach (I will be your guide or get one of countless others)
I much prefer path 2. All of the info is out there, you just need to do some work. Based on your posts, I assume you’re invested enough to do so. Research threshold training, ask for help, use ChatGPT, etc. It’s all out there for you.
Sorry that you have a coach who is lazy, but it happens. But this is not an excuse to not do everything you can to get great.
Indoor Track
Track times are more impactful for recruiting and this is where he can/should be entered unattached in college meets. More and more HS kids are running them and it’s easier to find heats for his ability-level and beyond. Tons of opportunities if you’re in the northeast but indoor tracks have exploded around the country everywhere except for California.
Beyond Indoor Track
Cross that bridge when you get to it. Focus on the next five months. train hard and smart. If he’s committed, 3x per week have him training in the am even if that means going easier at practice and in dual meets.
running unattached is definitely an option for xc ---> directathletics.com
Not in every state
Yes it is. You just can't also compete in the state HS competitions—you lose your state eligibility.
The important thing to know is whether you lose it for that season, or the rest of high school. (And, also if relevant, for track.)
But, yes, the option is to basically pull out of school-based competition and compete unattached. Runners have done this. Some focus on road races since those tend to be more plentiful; some can work their way into XC invitationals.
Also, it should be noted that not all states bar competitions outside of the school experience. Some do (many?; I dunno). The state I grew up in did not; the state I live in now and my kids run in now does. (You get up to 2 in-season out-of-school competitions; must be approved by Athletic Director.)
Finally, in other sports I know many kids only do club or non-school competitions if really serious.
A simple example is gymnastics—you think the USA's women's gymnasts come from high school gymnastics teams? Nope. Club.
Tennis is another excellent example. Top youth tennis players rarely compete primarily in high school tennis; they compete in youth circuits across the country.
Less common is basketball, baseball, and soccer. Depending on your state, the top baseball or soccer or basketball kids may not be playing in high school.
Case in point, the state I grew up in has a lot of basketball talent and no in-season, non-school competition limits. Top players play for their high school basketball teams, which is a big deal, but also their AAU travel teams, which are also big deals (and from which colleges predominantly recruit).
Where I live now? Basketball seems to be AAU teams for the really talented kids, and high school for the less talented kids (or less serious).
Soccer is more of the same; where I grew up soccer had a mix of kids playing club and travel teams plus some high school. All the top kids played on travel club teams; some also chose to play on high school teams (but not all). Where I am now with those limits? The top kids play only travel club. Some well-healed places appear to carefully curate their travel club seasons to not overlap with high school soccer, though.
Anyhow, long story short is you can always opt out of the school sports complex. It can be tough because you have to cobble the season together on your own, but it's not unheard of.
Every year there are home schooled runners who don't run in their state-sanctioned meets but you see on some of these more open invitationals. I've also seen some who are not home schooled, but opted out. (Come to think of it, Sadie Engelhardt[sp?] opted out of her senior track season and ran outside of CIF.)
it is not right that he comes in September and gets to make all the decisions.
How is it not right? Making all the decisions is part of being the head coach. I get your frustration about the low mileage limit and dual meets but the coach calls the shots. Instead of talking to the coach you've chosen to consult a bunch of strangers online. This smacks of looking for more material to bad mouth the coach behind his back rather than manning up and talking to the coach.
I feel your pain. My son was part of a XC team that allowed private coaching and they were pretty successful. New coach came in and banned all outside training after her first year because she “knew what she was doing “. Her workouts are terrible, she incorporates no long runs. She uses her meets as “workouts” and runs 10 meets in a season with no taper. Needless to say her boys no longer make it to state as a team. Her girls made it on pretty low mileage and some luck in a non competitive section. I could go on and on about specific reasons why she is a terrible coach but I digress. There is just such a range of coaching at the high school level you don’t know what you will get. Some schools invest in their programs and others just have a you get what you get philosophy. My advice have your son continue to train and add extra miles on his own and enter some larger road 5k and do an end of season meet like runninglane for some faster competition. If you are able to consult a private coach I would suggest that also. Good luck.
goofy to word it as "refuses to register athletes for invitationals." that implies the schedule is done for your son or not. XC is usually done as a team sport. the coach makes a schedule and you go. maybe some schools rest a kid a week or two. but the kid would still be on the bus and the team would be running that meet. maybe some teams double schedule then split squad.
this isn't do i send a kid or set to drake or penn or texas relays but the rest to a normal meet.
it sparks distrust from me when you approach this not sincerely as a team scheduling question but as though he didn't "register" your kid.
i also don't buy your premise here. only the fastest kid in your team or perhaps even area needs the extra seasoning. everyone else is chasing most of the season whether it's a dual or big meet. you don't give times or places, or say he's the best kid on the team.
we're also a few weeks into meets and you don't discuss this in terms of concrete results.
He’s doing extra work on his own. as I said in my original post, time is limited, he’s got tons a lot of school work, and with 2 hours he spends with the coach practice, even though most of it gets wasted on talking and stretching, he had only weekends and a small window to do extra running and lifting.
the coach has no clue about his summer training, he didn’t bother to know, he just comes in and dictates his own clueless training. It is not just my son, I see some of his teammates strava, some hit 50 miles per week in the summer, now they running 27 miles.
Damn season already ruined for several of the fastest on the team
Here is what college coaches are looking at for recruiting:
A. Track performances (marks)
B. XC performances in well known invitationals against other athletes that they are also targeting
C. Performances and placement at state championships and postseason championships like NXN, New Balance Nationals, Brooks PR, etc.
D. Demonstrated progression during their high school career
These, along with athlete interest from filling out recruiting forms, are what puts you on the radar. If you have what a team needs, then your grades, test scores, maturity, and personality become factors.
No one is scouring Athletic.net and Milesplit hoping to stumble upon greatness at the Tri-Rivers League Preview meet or Farmburg Central vs. Smallville Union dual meet. Agents are now contacting P4 schools offering talent to the highest bidder. Y’all need to stop believing in naive fantasies about some alumni Sunday driving and discovering some gazelle like child running effortlessly through cornfields and then busting off a call to his old coach with a hot tip.
I really think that this board is crawling with old men that haven’t been in the game for over 20 years plus hopeful kids and their parents with no real clue how things are done in 2025.
the vast majority of what you named are what the critics pointed to. they care about track times. they care about XC times. for XC they'd like to know how you do at the very biggest meets, either state progression or postseason. none of that is being denied to his kid except the rare regular season meet a XC coach might be wowed by.
my response as someone who ran d3 but had a TF coach who loved d1 meets (and had a d3 soccer coach who loved to schedule ranked tournament regulars) is unless they are one of the dominant teams in the state, the vast majority of the team might find a harsh schedule demoralizing.
another signal that sparks distrust is it sounds more like you think coaches should preside over summer workouts. setting aside some states' rules against it, coaches are typically also either subject matter teachers or multiple period PE coaches. they work hard. they put their feet up in the summer.
at most, in the states where they are allowed, they might hand you a plan or point you to a book. not really heard of coaches giving up vacations and down time to physically show up and coach offseason.
more pointedly, if you wanted that, it's generally found by private coaching/club. you do the prestige summer meets. a club coach puts you through the paces. you end up with limited time even before XC starts once that's done.
re the summer beef, i don't think most Actually Serious Ambitious would be begging for practice last summer. they''d have been too busy running club and going to like junior olympics or nike outdoors or something. which would have consumed through july. maybe a college TF camp in there someplace. you claim to want big meet experience and wow recruiters but you were jogging offseason mileage instead.
kind of like, in soccer, the most ambitious kids spend their spring and summer with the end of select league ball, ODP, college camps, and the odd international tournament. they wouldn't care if their select coach left fall season practice until mid-august. they were busy and perhaps enjoyed the break.
Former HS and college coach: If there is no option to change schools, I would add morning runs (if the practices are in the afternoon). That gets your mileage back up and a little intensity on one or two of them could be all you need.
Maybe the coach said he doesn’t want to burn them out at Invitationals but the real reason is he doesn’t want to work Saturdays. Especially if his stipend doesn’t change no matter what he does. If this is the situation, you could approach the coach and offer to ride the bus to an Invitational.