Grace Ping not allowed to run Nike Nationals

You can go to college and "compete" with anyone there if you're capable academically. Do we tell kids who are academically advanced that they need to go back to middle school and compete at that level?

Yes, Nike can do whatever they want as it's their meet. But make a clear rule going forward that no male or female who is not enrolled in HS can compete.

Wack that she competed last year, but will not be allowed this year.

Perhaps I am mistaken, but I thought that Nicole Blood ran Varsity at her High School for 6 or 7 years. I believe it was a k-12 private school.

Nike made the right choice from their perspective. They have attempted to abide by individual State association rules as much as possible to avoid conflict.

Unfortunately, the eligibility rules for NXN and NXR posted on Nike's site for public consumption for 2016 are different than posted in prior years. The posted eligibility rules do allow a runner, such as 8th-grader Grace Ping from a State such Utah, to compete at NXN and NXR. Grace Ping competed and qualified. If she had not qualified, nobody would care that much.

Again unfortunately, this opens up "Pandora's Box" as described on other websites (Colorado Milesplit). Nike reverted to following State association rules and Grace Ping can not compete at NXN. NXN is Nike's meet and Nike makes the rules, despite being after-the-occurrence.

Grace Ping's entry in the NXR Southwest championship race was well publicized before-hand. Nike had the opportunity to do something then and they did - they allowed her to compete. Oops!

Don't know how long Grace Ping's family is planning to reside in Utah, but there was a solution to this problem. She could have transferred to a school in Minnesota or New York before their NXR meets. Perhaps transferred to Edina, Willmar, Saratoga or Fayetteville-Manlius school districts. Then she could legitimately compete according State association rules and everybody would be happy. Especially the California coaches who are fans of including middle schoolers in varsity competition (Just kidding), but it was a possibility.

The problem with a "high school" rule is that there are all types of students that can't be easily defined. You have private school students that their school has no affiliation with the state association. You have home schooled kids. You have very young kids who have moved up in grade. You have older kids who are in lower grades. You have kids who don't compete on their school teams even when offered. What would they say about a 12 year old home school who identifies as a sophomore and is set to enroll in college in the next two years. That happens.

You can't pigeonhole the extreme outliers and you can't legislate for or against them in any fair way. Running a 16:44 at 12 is definitely an outlier.

The best way to handle outliers like that is let them compete up to their ability. Contrary to what some people think, there aren't all of the sudden going to be a bunch of 12 year olds good enough to qualify for a national high school meet.

This reminds me of when Lebron James was in high school. His team was so much better than most of the local teams, it made no sense for them to play against them when they had the opportunity to play against some of the best teams in the nation. The state Association was so pithy about this they tried everything they could to take the opportunity away from them. They did change rules making it more difficult for future teams to travel out of state to play. When Lebron's team played a local team that was ranked #10 in the state in the same divison, Lebron's team was ahead by 50 points after 3 quarters. What happened after Lebron graduated? The team went right back to playing the types of teams they had before.

My guess though is that this has very little to do with any of the above and has more to do with the "bottom line". Since Nike likes to sponsor(brainwash) a lot of high school teams, it wouldn't surprise me if the Utah association or other states threatened to make those types of deals much harder to do. Generally when bad decisions like these are made, it usually comes down to following the money to explain why.

profit at stake...... wrote:

My guess though is that this has very little to do with any of the above and has more to do with the "bottom line". Since Nike likes to sponsor(brainwash) a lot of high school teams, ...

Also possible is that old-man Salazar has tried to recruit her for NOP but failed--the family wants nothing to do with someone considered by many working in the shady zone. Rupp will eventually become a NOP coach and take the program over from Salazar. Salazar wants Rupp to have some good recruits.

she should just blow off NXN and run Footlocker next year.

If she identified herself as a transgender she could do whatever she wants. God bless America.

7th grade wrote:

TrackCoach wrote:

Did you miss this part? Not allowed as 8th grader. Allowed as 7th grader.

As a 7th grader, she competed for her local high school team in Minnesota. Denying her entry would go against the state association's rule in Minnesota, which is something that NXN has tried to comply with all along.

This year, she is an 8th grader in Utah, where middle schoolers do not participate on their local high school teams. It's a different situation.

Perhaps you missed that.

JoJoCo wrote:

she should just blow off NXN and run Footlocker next year.

And compete in the meet that has refused to allow her entry for the last 2 years for the same reason NXN is denying her this year? Makes sense...

Coach Soles wrote:

Lets keep college championships for college men and women only. High school championships for high school boys and girls only. If anyone wants to start a middle school championship, I'm all for that, but get them out of the high school races and keep an even playing field for all of the teams entered so we are all playing by the same rules.

I'm also glad the girl she displaced at NXR Southwest gets to go. Would suck to be a the first high school girl out for a high school championship because a fast middle schooler took your spot. Probably the same feeling teams have when other teams get to qualify and race middle schoolers against them...

I'm rooting for Grace Ping to be an amazing high school athlete over the next 4 years. :)

Agree with Doug on this 100%.

Ryan Ping moved the family to 7000 feet and now Grace is at 16:49 for 5k.

Oh? wrote:

7th grade wrote:

Did you miss this part? Not allowed as 8th grader. Allowed as 7th grader.

As a 7th grader, she competed for her local high school team in Minnesota. Denying her entry would go against the state association's rule in Minnesota, which is something that NXN has tried to comply with all along.

This year, she is an 8th grader in Utah, where middle schoolers do not participate on their local high school teams. It's a different situation.

Perhaps you missed that.

THANKS!

I am not sure why people are making this so difficult. There are no villains in this matter, NXN is abiding by a state rule...plain and simple.

Another thing is that I'm pretty sure Nike allowed this a few other years. I think on 2 occasions Iowa 8th graders qualified in the NXN Heartland girls' race and they were allowed to go. It was just overlooked and no one really ever spoke of it.

Oh? wrote:

Perhaps you missed that.

The race has nothing to with Utah. You obviously missed that.

amazing how there is the entire generation that was never taught what the word NO means.

No you cannot compete because your not old enough. Simple when she is of age she can run.

nobody looks best in a spoon wrote:

amazing how there is the entire generation that was never taught what the word NO means.

No you cannot compete because your not old enough. Simple when she is of age she can run.

I agree. Jr high girls like her should be spending more time baking and studying up for their home ec class tests rather than wasting their time running in national meets.

nobody looks best in a spoon wrote:

amazing how there is the entire generation that was never taught what the word NO means.

No you cannot compete because your not old enough. Simple when she is of age she can run.

Ahem, she competed in last year's event as a 7th grader.

TrackCoach wrote:

NXN is abiding by a state rule...plain and simple.

NXN is not being held in Utah.

It's too bad that she's not allowed to compete... Its okay though, she only has to wait 1 more year. But it sucks she traveled to and competed in the Southwest Regionals, just to be denied entry to the Nationals. They should never have let her compete at regionals, if that was the case. I also agree that Nike should make it the same for all states - either all middle schoolers are eligible for nationals, or none are - regardless of the states rule, it should be the same for everyone. Just my opinion.