York Shocker: Newton out as XC coach at York!!!!!!

This is the type of shit that keeps me from teaching at a public high school. You aren't allowed to be passionate about anything. Everything must be moderation, moderation, moderation. With the proper amount of mad-made laws, which of course aren't really laws by definition, we can ensure all of our kids will be mediocre at everything they do. Oh joy.

Any word on who turned him in?

will we ever know?

You are absolutely right punish the kids. Ban every single one for the rest of their high scholl careers. How dare they be motivated enough to actually want to train in the off sesaon and you wonder why the US is so far behind in distance running.

This whole deal is a good reason why public schools should have NO extra-curriculars. They should ONLY focus on essentials - reading, writing, science, math, history. Everything else should be done privately.

In other words, the club system.

Newton and his supporters cannot bite the hand that feeds them. If he doesn't like the rules, then he needs to get out of the public sector and into private coaching.

Reality bites.

You get a Senior who's a leader and put him in charge over the summer. It's called Captain's Practice and every good football team does this. The Coach knows everything going on but isn't there. Those are the rules and they're there for a reason. It's ludicrous for a XC coach to break this rule.

Does anyone know exactly what the violation was? We are assuming that it was more than 25 contacts this past summer. If so, how many? And what was Newton's reponse to the charges?

.....that want to improve or even run after high school. He's been breaking the rules for years. It's time for Joe to retire. JOE MUST GO!

From Today's Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cs-061028newton,0,7526044.story?coll=cs-hs-crosscountry-print

Newton and assistant coach Charlie Kern were suspended for the rest of the cross-country season by the school Friday for violating IHSA by-law 3.153, which limits summer contact between coaches and athletes to 25 days. Kern also was suspended for the track season.

"[Coach Newton's] first priority is his athletes," York Principal Diana Smith said. "He accepted the suspension and felt it was appropriate. He's been very upfront."

The independent summer camp in question, which York junior Tom Achtien called a "bonding experience" for the team, will now become a York cross-country camp.

"We're over the grief and the sadness," said Achtien, who finished second (15:17) on Saturday as York won the Class AA sectional at Niles West. "We have to win it for him now."

----

Ok, I'm guessing here.

Newton's camp was open to runners from other schools (per an earlier post) and he did not think it qualified under the IHSA by-law 3.153. Therefore, he did not think he was violating the rules. The prinicpal saw it otherwise and chose to suspend him in order to head off harsher displine fromt he IHSA. (remember this the same IHSA that ruled Jorge Torres ineligible for track as he used an outside coach. They really don't take kindly to exceptional athletes, unless they are in basketball or football.)

Again this is my guess. Anyone want to try their hand, or provide first hand knowledge?

Newton officiated at our Conference Championship in 98 or 99. At the time he looked about 110 years old. Quite frankly, I thought your post was going to be an obituary.

a big boost for runners wrote:

.....that want to improve or even run after high school. He's been breaking the rules for years. It's time for Joe to retire. JOE MUST GO!

Please list the schools whose alumni have outperformed York's over the last 10-20 years. Provide the athletes' names and performances.

I was on vacation in Phoenix and just got home to read all this. I'm astonished. Newton is always so damned careful not to violate rules. I can only assume that (a) he got careless and lazy, (b) he got arrogant, or (c) he simply made a mistake without realizing it. Obviously I think (c) is most likely. I say this because I know from personal experience that in the summer running program he usually has the team captains run the practices each morning, so he does not need to be there, and he allows other runners from other schools to attend, so likely did not know he was running afould of the regs- which he would immediately assume was his own fault. He will show up enough to ensure that the program runs smoothly, but I've never seen him end up at all that many summer practices, though since it has been a few years that may have changed. I think this would be a shameful way to put an end to his career. I tend to agree with one of the posters that this might finally be the thing that makes him give up coaching- the rules are changing, the kind of discipline he lays down is out of style, the old school training programs are passe, and he continues to take shit for his high mileage approach. The bigger shame is that Newton will end up missing exactly 10 days of the season and York will win state anyway under Stan Reddle; Charley Kern will miss everything through the end of the '07 season. And he is the heir apparent to Newton. And a genuinely nice person, and a 4.07 miler himself.

Then again, Newton may decide he does not want to out on a sour note and he'll come back next year just to win state again. But, y'know, he's coming up on 80 now.

Someone posted that he thought a 17-mile day was not believable. The summer running program, for the really committed, consists of a "team"-based morning practice, usually anywhere from 10-17 miles, and then an optional on-your-own afternoon run, an easy slow 5 miler or so. Not everyone runs the afternoon run, as some kids have to work, some have other commitments, etc. But the longest day my kids had during summer was 24 miles. That summer they ran 1300 miles each.

It might also be an intepretation issue.

Is it possible that he has been running the summer program exactly as you describe all along and the prinicpal "just decided" that now it violates the rules?

If so, would Newton complain in public? Also, do we know anything about the principal? Would she defend Newton or view anything that gets in the way of football a distraction? What is her agenda?

Old Runner Guy wrote:

Also, do we know anything about the principal? Would she defend Newton or view anything that gets in the way of football a distraction? What is her agenda?

Principals have been known to have agendas but maybe this one decided to drop the hammer before the IHSA did.

Is this the Charlie Kern that ran for Sweethome High School in WNY, and still holds the section 6 1600m record?

greenliner wrote:

Charley Kern will miss everything through the end of the '07 season. And he is the heir apparent to Newton. And a genuinely nice person, and a 4.07 miler himself.

As an outsider from Britain this rule seems ridiculous.

Why should there be a limit to how much time a young athlete spends running and with their coach? It is almost the complete opposite to what Kenyan and Ethiopian kids are doing at the same age.

Obviously kids should not be overtrained at a young age but that should be for the coach and parents to manage.

Someone turned him in, does anyone know who?

Greenliner

see if you can find out which coach turned him in.

dukes wrote:

see if you can find out which coach turned him in.

greenliner seems to be a reputable adult male with strong York sentiments. Doubtful he'll supply some bitter dyestat moron the name of the coach so bitter dyestat moron can burn the coach's house down or make harrassing phone calls in the middle of the night.

daman, you're the only one who has "conspiratized" the Newton thing into another coach ratting Newton out. A legendary coach broke a rule and now he has accepted the consequences. Sure, you'd love to find out who ratted him out and lead the parade around town with that coach's head on the end of a stick. But is that really necessary?

Part of being an adult is admitting where you went wrong and making the adjustments necessary to ensure that it won't happen again. It sounds like Newton is doing this.

Of course there are going to be cries of jealousy and many conspiracy themes are going to be vetted on all the message boards where you're vetting your conspiracy themes.

I ran against York many times and never was very fond of them. But as years have progressed, I realize Newton is a good man and that his influence on the sport in this state is indeed a blessing. Because York raises the bar so high, that's one reason why cross-country is such a treasured sport in Illinois. Indirectly, we all benefit.

Newton wouldn't want you to whine and bitch about this, daman. He is too good of a teacher to allow this to turn into a mud-slinging session. A lot of things that transpire in life are unfair, and as soon as you realize this, you'll be able to set aside your angry conspiracy diatribes and move on. Joe Newton got caught. End of story.