How would you react if you were this kids coach? Sprints to front of XC race to take selfie?

Agreed. He's a kid, not a collegiate athlete. It was funny, and more power to the kid for having a good time. He got way more outta that move than he did out of running XC.

wtfunny wrote:

Agreed. He's a kid, not a collegiate athlete. It was funny, and more power to the kid for having a good time.

All my high school teammates were just kids, and NONE of them would have considered doing stupid shit anywhere close to this. It's highly disrespectful to your competitors, not to mention the sports booster's money and volunteer's time.

Awesome.

Wasn't important meet so who cares!

blamb wrote:

Wasn't important meet so who cares!

If it's not important why are they there? Every meet costs money to enter and travel to... if they ever consider cutting the xc program they better hope someone cares.

Not a big deal (kinda funny), but should not just be overlooked. After explaining to the importance of not making those he represents look bad, I would have him write an email apology to the coaches and teams of the other schools, apologize to his team before practice and maybe sit out the next meet. It isn't more than a slap on the risk, but it makes him take responsibility for his actions.

I think the important thing to understand is that the journalist's--not the runner's--photo won the award because it exposed the idiocy of a self-infatuated younger generation.

Narcissus lives.

But wait: wasn't Narcissus the beautiful young Greek so enamored (in love with: en-amor-ed) with the beautiful young man he saw when he peered into a stream that he was immobilized, frozen to the spot, removed from the currents of life, and turned into a plant.

Yes. And that's why the photo won an award. Because Narcissus is about immobilization. The photo reveals that even at the moment of maximum mobility, the younger generation is immobilized within self-adoration.

Sheesh.

POW wrote:

Not a big deal (kinda funny), but should not just be overlooked. After explaining to the importance of not making those he represents look bad, I would have him write an email apology to the coaches and teams of the other schools, apologize to his team before practice and maybe sit out the next meet. It isn't more than a slap on the risk, but it makes him take responsibility for his actions.

I'm sorry that I took the lead, ran out in front of a cross country race and took a photo of myself that ended up in Runners World magazine and got national attention, making all your sorry asses look like shite.

How does that make us look like shite?

KudzuRunner hits the nail on the head.As a coach, I am not sure how it would have been handled. If the kid was a problem in the first place, he might have been removed. If he was a goofy kid, but steadily improving and worked in practiced, there would probably have been a stern, but reasonable, talking to.As much as we value individual success, high school cross country and track are team sports. The success of the team depends on everyone buying into the team culture and the coach's training. That means not only the varsity buy into the culture, but the JV needs to buy into as well because they will be the varsity in the near future.If the JV don't see consequences to screwing around, they don't see the same reason to take the sport as seriously as the varsity.From my experience, while our team won a conference and league title based on getting naturally talented kids, the back end of the varsity lineup (5-6-7 runners) started as 24:xx, 24:xx, and 44:xx in their first seasons. Buying into the value of hard work and the team concept turned them into 16:50, 17:34, and 18:35 5k runners. And the team needed those performances to win those titles.There is a time for goofing around, but the sport must be respected. And I am sure the cross country team that wins a title is going to value their high school memories more than some goofy selfie.

KudzuRunner wrote:

I think the important thing to understand is that the journalist's--not the runner's--photo won the award because it exposed the idiocy of a self-infatuated younger generation.

Narcissus lives.

But wait: wasn't Narcissus the beautiful young Greek so enamored (in love with: en-amor-ed) with the beautiful young man he saw when he peered into a stream that he was immobilized, frozen to the spot, removed from the currents of life, and turned into a plant.

Yes. And that's why the photo won an award. Because Narcissus is about immobilization. The photo reveals that even at the moment of maximum mobility, the younger generation is immobilized within self-adoration.

Sheesh.

blamb wrote:

Wasn't important meet so who cares!

It may not have been an important meet to Skyview, but the majority of the teams in the meet appear to have run their varsity runners. Skyview is a 4A school. Over half of the schools in the meet were 2A or smaller. I don't think this was a big meet for anyone, but it wasn't some big fun run for all the schools.

Some punishment seems appropriate, but the best lesson moving forward might be to remind athletes that your competitive goals for a race may not be the same as all the other schools in the race. If you have athletes running a race as more of a workout, or JV runners running a varsity race, they need to respect the field as a whole and behave appropriately. Running to the front and taking a selfie doesn't seem consistent with that.

Ship of fools wrote:

Very classic for the current generation. Imagine this crop of fools running the nation in 30 years. Holy cow.

Honestly, it is only up from here. Nothing could be worse than what the Boomers have done. Holy smokes, you have somehow managed to ruin business, politics, the economy, nature and marriage (nice divorce rate) in one fell swoop. You're the poster children of a disastrous generation.

I would have laughed about it in private. Take him out of the next meet. He didn't hurt anyone else and it's not a big deal.

In All Honesty wrote:

Ship of fools wrote:

Very classic for the current generation. Imagine this crop of fools running the nation in 30 years. Holy cow.

Honestly, it is only up from here. Nothing could be worse than what the Boomers have done. Holy smokes, you have somehow managed to ruin business, politics, the economy, nature and marriage (nice divorce rate) in one fell swoop. You're the poster children of a disastrous generation.

10/10 great post

Another note, on the high school level, our state has a relatively strict sportsmanship and "anti-bullying" policy. The sportsmanship obligations are read at the starting line before every meet. A coach can challenge the results of a race or meet if there has been a violation of the policy. It can be a big deal and disqualify a school's results. Even if there were separate JV and Varsity races, a governing body could sanction the school and results from both races could be voided or barred from future races.

As much as some people think that this is all fun and games due to being a low-level race, it could have a serious impact. Even if the kid's head coach got a chuckle out of it, an opposing team's coach could be pissed.

The coaches of the boys xc team got a scare out of this because the girls xc team had girls who behaved inappropriately at a finish line making fun of an opposing runner who collapsed and started puking about 50 meters from the finish. Peeved off the opposing coaches and the parents. Although the boys and girls teams are separate and have separate coaches, the governing body could sanction the school and both programs. Which, if the opposing coaches pushed the issue, could have wrecked our conference title.

I know it rubs people the wrong way to think this is how the world works, but it does matter how others and society perceive you. Your actions do not happen in isolation. A good coach is aware of this and instructs his runner regarding proper behavior and to be aware how other teams/coaches could react.

slopenguinrunner wrote:

Another note, on the high school level, our state has a relatively strict sportsmanship and "anti-bullying" policy. The sportsmanship obligations are read at the starting line before every meet. A coach can challenge the results of a race or meet if there has been a violation of the policy.

It can be a big deal and disqualify a school's results. Even if there were separate JV and Varsity races, a governing body could sanction the school and results from both races could be voided or barred from future races.

Therefore due to the "anti-bullying" policy, the state and other coaches can bully the kid because he took a photo of himself from the front of the race.

TAA wrote:

I would have laughed about it in private. Take him out of the next meet. He didn't hurt anyone else and it's not a big deal.

I think it reflects poorly on his attitude. The issue for me is this kind of behavior is often done by the same guy that leads 5 kids to get slurpees on a long run, doesn't take a workout seriously, etc..

All athletes have different reasons for joining a cross country team. To me, that is fine. Not everyone is out to "become a runner". I don't care if an athlete is out for fun, because of friends, etc. but they are on a cross country team not a jogging club. You can be fast or slow, want to be a life-long runner or not, but whatever your reason for joining the team, when you're running a race your goal should be (or at least on some level appear to be) to run the race to the best of your ability.

I don't care if you're out for fun, or to lose weight, but in a race you're not out to laugh with teammates, high five spectators, or take a selfie. All athletes do not have to be held to the same exact standards, but the ones doing the activities above are a net negative for your whole program.

"Highly disrespectful"?

Hardly. Sure, it was mildly disrespectful, mostly to himself and prolly his coach, but nothing too serious, imo.

to me, a far bigger issue is the way this culture seems bent on pretending insignificant stuff like this are signs of the impending apocalypse. The histrionics over a kid and his selfie, on selling cakes and pizzas, and kids dropping an N bomb under their breath and brash young men claiming to be the best in the game are astonishing.

Wtfunny wrote:

"Highly disrespectful"?

Hardly. Sure, it was mildly disrespectful, mostly to himself and prolly his coach, but nothing too serious, imo.

I believe it was you who encouraged the behavior, saying "more power to him." Now you seem to be changing your tune.

I don't think it was that bad, I am not saying to kick him off the team or anything. But it was very stupid and disrespectful to everybody competing in and working at the meet, and he should be taught not to do it again. Even a 15 year old should be able to learn that much maturity.