The Future of Footlocker XC

If you someone who "ate probably a thousand Kenyans out there," please alert the authorities, that may be the worst case of genocide ever witnessed by a poster on these message boards.

Futsum will not be at NXN Finals. If the top kids are there, why isn't he. Families don't have to go to watch a race in Portland unless their child qualifies same applies if they drive to FL ..... they must qualify 1st. Futsum choose the easier path by choosing FL regardless of any outside factors. He passed on racing the best field. It is not a bash just a fact. To be one of the best you need to run with the best end of story.

factual checker wrote:

CC Nut wrote:

Runners seem now to be recognizing NXN as both the national team/individual championship and event of choice in the post season now after 7 years of NXN events.

Do you work for Nike? Give me one year the FL champs hasn't been the better runner.

Nike is for teams. Footlocker for individuals. Yes individuals can enter Nike but unless it is different this year the best have been going to FL.

This year. According to dyestat, most of the top individuals are either running both championships, or ONLY NXN. The only way to stop this progression is for Footlocker to merge with NXN and bring teams into it. The fact that Craig Lutz is only focusing on NXN since his team qualified is proof enough of where things are headed. On a side note, I have heard that the NFHS is considering sanctioning a national championship (individual and team) where all teams and individuals can compete under their school names and coaches. If they choose to recognize footlocker and bring in teams as well, then footlocker will be ultimately win out. If NXN is recognized, then footlocker will die.

The point of my post is indeed a perfect analogy with that being that the FL event is in the grave and looks the part. True the event is run by a bunch of "huckleberries" such as Doggie Boy and MM.

Where do you get that most are running both? 17 of the top 25 individuals have either qualified already and/or are running NXN regionals. Not likely to see Driggs at FL MW due to NXN team commitments.

NXN does not need FL to grow and survive. If the NFHS does their own thing they will not bring in FL as their concept is teams/individuals and a number of years ago Nike had already spoken to the NFHS about the concept. You are dreaming if you think FL will play a role in any fashion. It will take money to play that game and it is easy to see who has the $$$$.

No I in Team, but one in WIN wrote:

athlete's foot wrote:

That is stupud.

As far as I can tell from experience as a runner and now as a coach. XC is the most team oreiented sport there is, think about it, everyone practices the same position, in team sports everyone practices their position, in xc everyone does the same basic thing, it is a brotherhood. We all run together, suffer together, and win or lose together

Well, I was D. 1 scholarship runner. I'm sure your experience as a scrub runner was team "oreiented" because you would never experience individual success, not too mention "stupud."

athlete's foot wrote:

You seek out challenges and try to conquer them. Lucas won the easy race last year, now he is moving up to a higher challenge.

No, the NXN champion won the easy race and was destroyed in the real race.

The NXN Champion ran about 5 hard races week after week.

STATE - NXN South - FL South - NXN - FL Nats

And the footlocker champion, the winner of the "real race", was destroyed last I remember by Joe Rosa in track season (who finished 3rd in the girly race).

You guys exaggerate much. FL?NX are sales jamborees totally paid appearances. No true sports competition hires paid actors like FL?NX.

Duck Walk wrote:

Futsum will not be at NXN Finals. If the top kids are there, why isn't he. Families don't have to go to watch a race in Portland unless their child qualifies same applies if they drive to FL ..... they must qualify 1st. Futsum choose the easier path by choosing FL regardless of any outside factors. He passed on racing the best field. It is not a bash just a fact. To be one of the best you need to run with the best end of story.

Actually FL has a long history of having all the best runners. Even a year ago the first runner in Portland could finish only 4th place at Footlocker Nationals.

Yet you take it upon yourself to bash kids who would rather go to Footlocker Nationals than Corporate Nike.

sacul wrote:

The fact that Craig Lutz is only focusing on NXN since his team qualified is proof enough of where things are headed.

I would say he saw the writing on the wall a year ago, so he knows where they'd be headed if he showed up at Footlocker again.

Duck Walk wrote:

The point of my post is indeed a perfect analogy with that being that the FL event is in the grave and looks the part. True the event is run by a bunch of "huckleberries" such as Doggie Boy and MM.

The only huckleberries are you Sad People at Nike.

No I in Team, but one in WIN wrote:

athlete's foot wrote:

That is stupud.

As far as I can tell from experience as a runner and now as a coach. XC is the most team oreiented sport there is, think about it, everyone practices the same position, in team sports everyone practices their position, in xc everyone does the same basic thing, it is a brotherhood. We all run together, suffer together, and win or lose together

Well, I was D. 1 scholarship runner. I'm sure your experience as a scrub runner was team "oreiented" because you would never experience individual success, not too mention "stupud."

athlete's foot wrote:

You seek out challenges and try to conquer them. Lucas won the easy race last year, now he is moving up to a higher challenge.

No, the NXN champion won the easy race and was destroyed in the real race.

Dude he effing won a national championship the week before. Its ok if he only get 4th because hes getting a little tired.

THough I am rooting for FL, Lutz is probably my favorite runner.

athlete's foot wrote:

Lucas V. already has his Footlocker title. I'm glad you weren't my coach, probably wouldn't develop the talent with future in the sport on your team, in favor of running only weak races that your team can do well in.

That is stupud.

As far as I can tell from experience as a runner and now as a coach. XC is the most team oreiented sport there is, think about it, everyone practices the same position, in team sports everyone practices their position, in xc everyone does the same basic thing, it is a brotherhood. We all run together, suffer together, and win or lose together

You seek out challenges and try to conquer them. Lucas won the easy race last year, now he is moving up to a higher challenge.

Also great to see Jim Rosa lining up next to his team at NXN, a real class guy and a real competitor. Looking forward to watching the National Championship from Portland.[/quote]

Xc coudl be team oriented, but definately isnt the most. You can meet 5 random people from anywhere in the world on race day and win a race together. You cant do that in football or anything.

And another reason is that if you are on a sucky team then youre screwed. You either suck with them, or run good on your own. I for sure wouldn't want to have to be stuck with my team. Already i'm with them enough because our coaches don't separate sub 16'ers from 22 min runners.

Greenman wrote:

How was a field of Gedyon, Moussa, both Rosa's, Wills along with Lutz an easy race at NXN in 2009? Also least you forget that Lutz was doubling back not Lukas. Get your facts correct and LV won the easy race at FL in 2009, but that will not be the case in 2010 with NXN.

Calling teammates "scrub runners" you must have been popular as a D1 Scholarship runner. All members of a team achieve individual success only at their own individual level and that contributes to the overall team success. Answer me this, when CC was introduced as a sport especially on the HS level was it for individuals only or as a team sport?

Hes sayign that because if you are on a team that makes NXN obviously you will be happy because individually you arent good enough. Face the facts, you can't run agains tthe good people, you just got lucky and live near other decent people.

And CC has team and individual titles, what other sports have that? Not basketball or football or soccer or volleyball or field hockey, or lacrosse, or water polo, or ice hockey. So cc is more individualistic than those

They recruit an individual -.- not the whole team. Being a 16:10 guy on the 15th best team in the country wont get you shit.

The top 40 runners i nthe country is better than liek 4 good guys and 300 crappy kids who are there for fun.

Chyeaaa! Billy Orman is the man. Qualified for NXN but passing it up to try to qualify for FL again. And no hes not bitching out, ive talked to him before. He said that he loved the atmosphere and that it felt like he was actually elite.

Also more of the best kids are running NXN for their teams, not themselves. If their teams didn't need them they coudl just have easily went and ran FL.

Here's another one Nigel that can be used to describe the demise of FL. Can you guess the movie as it basically described the main character?

From Revelation 6:8 King James Bible Interpretation

"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat upon him was Death, and Hell followed with him"

The rider of the pale horse brought with him justice and hope and he assisted those that wished change by casting aside those who had been in place prior to his arrival and created hope and a new vision for the future. NXN is the future and FL is the past.

By the way, the Hilton issue was a chip failure as many know and as you stated the Hilton coach brought the scoring issue to meet management and it was corrected. Who said in it's initial year's many Top 5 teams were left out? The NTN/NXN selection committee has always done their best and there will always be those that disagree. Are you competent enough to serve on the committee? Very few might know the circumstances surrounding the departure of Josh Rowe and how did he annoy anyone into accepting the regional issue. Regionals were part of the format from day #1 and Josh as many know was a champion within Nike pushing for the event after FL's pass on the concept. If I am mis-interpreting your text I apologize, but it is hard to determine where you stand. You are correct on the alcohol adventure at several FL Finals including one obviously drunk elite athlete socializing with the FL athletes.

I must admit I really don't get the whole "it's all about the team" thing.

I'm no expert but looking at the NXN teams, it looks like basically the same set of teams each year, with minor variations. And not to over generalize, but it seems most of them are cut out of the same mold - high achieving upper middle class kids from schools in affluent districts.

My kid went to a lousy public school in a poor district. The xc coach was the wrestling coach. The coach did no recruiting - my kid recruited his friends. There was minimal coaching other than 'get out there and run.'

My kid ran and ran and made it to FL nationals twice. On his own pretty much. He never would've made it if it were 'all about the team.' Most years there was no one else on the team sub 19 minutes.

From the rantings about team rankings that I see on message boards like dyestat from hysterical parents, I sometimes think this "it's all about the team" is just a pile of bs to get their mediocre-talent kids into a feel-good national meet.

I think it's all about the individual. Put in the work. Lay down the miles. Put it on the line. Foot Locker works just fine for that.

Anyone think Nike didn't have another motive when they had their elite high school camp this summer? "Hey kids, here"s Adam Goucher. You are going to run NXN if we give you some Lunarglides, right? But don't tell anyone."

Frankly, Nike is gaining steam, but to say it is better is a joke. Are people forgetting Saucony is the lead sponsor on Foot Locker now. They aren't just going to let it fold into NXN. They'll use it as a platform like Nike does to sell the $hit out of some Kinvaras

Hey don't you and many others understand that NXN has an individual component for athletes not competing on teams? NXN competes with FL for the best individual athletes and the NXN format also doesn't penalize an elite kid running with their team as he/she can also qualify if the team does not.

So it just so happens this year that the preponderance of the Top Boy's have chosen NXN over FL, but not the girls (yet). What is hard to understand about that. NXN serves both interests and FL does not as that was Nike's model. Nike does recognize the individual and can reward them even if their team does not make it. That is a win/win scenario.