Who pays for these high school kids to fly all over the country to these meets?

crumpet wrote:

answer wrote:

Desperate parents

Desperate society that believes you have to give every opportunity to your kids, or they may fail.

Sort of like big money university choices as well.

Not really. Kid will get much more out of a top notch university vs. a top notch track meet. Let's face it, very few people make a living off of their running talent. I'd invest in my kid's education any day over developing their athletic talent.

His analogy was fair. You used the term invest while he did not. He was pointing out that Parents fall into the trap of thinking that spending $250k instead of $100k is an investment. Maybe it is just an additional expenditure of $150k just like the $5k that parents spend traveling to these meets is an expenditure that won’t be financially recouped. If it is treated purely as a leisure activity or vacation, that is different. I suspect that one of the earlier referred to runners was Stephanie Jenks. She forfeited Hs xc eligibility to compete in college meets because she was better than her competition. Karissa Schweizer was quietly competing in the same state at that time. Maybe staying local pays off in the long run.

I knew a kid who ran 4:06 for the mile (Mike Serna), but was barely recruited so he went to a Junior College (Orange Coast), he said it was because he had not run that fast as a junior (he ran about 4:14 as a junior) his older brother was a High School legend (Ralph Serna) He seemed too good not to have hardly any offers.

All this talk about scholarships seems like we're focusing too much on one aspect. High School kids primarily go these elite meets because they are fun. Some athletes have few chances to race in highly competitive races so its a great opportunity to race and compete against the best- remember the joy of competing is arguably the most important reason an athlete participates in a given sport. With experience as an athlete and a coach, these Big meets are simply way more fun than dual meets or local invitationals. These meets are often the highlight of an athlete's high school career- not always in terms of performance- but in the enjoyment and memories made. That's why parents pay for the kids to travel-because their kids love it, not solely because their kids might get a scholarship out of it.... and I'm assuming parents travel because they enjoy watching their kids have fun and competing in something they love.

Some top high school girls that make it NXN, Foot Locker, or both and also Brooks may only be offered a partial athletic scholarship somewhere like Stanford. One I know was offered 25% first year and an additional 25% more each year at Stanford. The same girl was offered 100% at another school that is also very good academically but not as competitive in cross country and track. She is among the top 5 to 10 all time female distance runners from my state and my state is competitive. She did not fly all over the country. She did travel out-of-state to NBN indoor and outdoor as do many of the top runners from my state.

No way Jose wrote:

The scholarship topic made its way into this thread. So here we go again. Boys are rarely getting scholarships unless at a school that nobody ever heard of. If Parents are paying big bucks to go to these meets with the thought that it will earn little Jonny a scholarship, not a good idea. The rumor is that Hasty is walking on at Oregon his first year. He is the top distance recruit in the country. We have seen real life examples on this site of Parents with boys running 4:10 who walk on at average distance programs. Yes, there are boys getting partial scholarships, but many times that just means books. They sit there smiling with their pen and paper on the evening news and people assume they are like the football and basketball kids on both sides of them but they are not.

I tell parents that all the time- instead of paying money (as in travel leagues) to get a scholarship that isn't going to happen, put the money in a college fund.

In my area you don't see people going to the big track meets and we've had 4:10-4:15 and sub 9:10 guys.

A scholarship is a scholarship and if it helps you get an education with less debt then it's good.

I had 3 boys in one year get scholarships-it doesn't matter what schools, they were schools they wanted to go to.

Not Oregon but good academic schools that fit their needs.

WHo pays? TAXPAYERS!

This is the correct answer. I have no clue why everyone is talking about scholarships. I went to FL South my senior year and it was one of the coolest experiences of my running career. I remember that race distinctly, and only remember maybe one race at my home course which we ran about 20 times. It's like people are getting offended in this thread that someone would have the audacity to go to an event for love of the sport and to have a good time while possibly running fast while there.

100-200-400 I'll kick your butt! wrote:

Amusing. Our masters club analyzed the top medal winning clubs which all happen to all be in the South Western USA: HSI, WCE, OTC, and Altis. Our conclusion is parents and spouses pay the travel bills of Olympic and IAAF Worlds medalists.

The OTC big names like WIll Claye, Brittney Reese, Erica Bougard, etc. get sponsor money. But everyone else fends for themselves.