One of my runners jogged the 4x800.

Relays show you who someone really is.

I had a buddy run 2:07 in the open 800 all year long, then pull a 1:59 anchor leg out of his rear end at states because he didn't want to let his teammates down.

This kid is self centered, and most of that is on him. However, this also doesn't sound like the greatest team atmosphere to be a part of. How can the 3rd and 4th best distance runners be slackers AT practice? I get if they don't train in the offseason, but slacking at practice is the coach's fault.

Thanks for the update. Let that be a lesson to you....if you jog your relay, you will wind up going nowhere in life!

Keep in mind that this was with the old coach. We got a new coach a few years back and he's done a great job. Our 4x800 which I'm on is ranked top 3 in the state now

Hoppy Largedale wrote:

What backwater state runs the 4x800 first event?

Colorado H.S. track leads off with the 4×800 🤔

Is this school in or near Naples, by any chance?

I didn't wade through the whole thread, and was surprised it was so long when I took a look. So, I don't know if many posters really support the runner. In a thread this long someone must but I am pretty sure most were shocked, appalled, and in vigorous opposition to what he did.

I applaud the kid. I don't blame him for not caring in the least about a relay. The only relay I ran in HS was 50 miles long and my leg was around 10. I wasn't willing to run DMRs (although I don't know if they existed yet then) and paid no attention whatsoever to the coach. In fact, we never met. I showed up for a total of 1 track practice all through HS. I went to the track and there were guys, one of whom I knew, running half-lap repeats, so I did a few with them. Somehow, didn't meet the coach even then.

I am not a team player nor on a team. Nor was I at this kid's age. The team is a waste of time, the coach is a clown, these meets are meaningless, and I really applaude the guy's effort - or lack thereof. Hopefully he is not sorry or apologetic and goes his own way as opposed to feeling like he needs to bow down to this self-proclaimed coach.

Good News! wrote:

I am not a team player nor on a team. Nor was I at this kid's age. The team is a waste of time, the coach is a clown, these meets are meaningless, and I really applaude the guy's effort - or lack thereof. Hopefully he is not sorry or apologetic and goes his own way as opposed to feeling like he needs to bow down to this self-proclaimed coach.

The other half of sport is to fight for something beyond yourself, to learn how to interact with others and support a mission that is sometimes futile.

Some like yourself do not have the mental capacity to learn life lessons.

The kid is a douche and he showed that to all his peers and competitors. His punishment is his tarnished legacy and loss of respect from his teammates.

You would have gained nothing by suspending him from next event or meet except a hornet's nest from mommy and daddy.

After he graduates, send him a Christmas card every year addressed to 2:28.

missilesilo wrote:

The kid is a douche and he showed that to all his peers and competitors. His punishment is his tarnished legacy and loss of respect from his teammates.

You would have gained nothing by suspending him from next event or meet except a hornet's nest from mommy and daddy.

After he graduates, send him a Christmas card every year addressed to 2:28.

I assume he's graduated by now...

The issue of working with kids with different levels of commitment and different agendas must be a common problem for coaches, such as when putting together relay teams of runners who have other events ahead of them in the same meet, even the same day. However, I agree with comments that the coach must bear some of the blame here.

Compare this team with schools running in the recent New Balance Nationals Indoor meet, where some distance kids ran multiple top-level relay legs. Take the obvious success story in Loudoun Valley (The Jungle), for instance. Some of their kids ran top-level splits on THREE winning distance relay teams – Jacob Hunter, Connor Wells, and Sam Affolder! In fact, Affolder was named Track & Field News magazine’s high school athlete of the year, and the clincher was his running at NBNI, all relay splits: a 4:06 1600 anchor leg in Friday’s DMR NR-setting win, then a 4:06 split in Saturday’s 4xMile NR-setting win, and then a 1:51 split in the 4x800 3rd all-time (I think) race/win.

Yeah, they’re a special school, with tremendous coaching, but racing a kid in three distance events on successive days (all relays, in The Jungle’s case) is something any team can/should train for! Coaches are sometimes saddled with bad eggs, but a coach should still have some ability to get more out of his or her kids. Or, as has been pointed out, the order of runners in the OP’s example should have been changed so that the anchor could save himself for a chance to excel in a later individual event, without pissing off his teammates or coach, if he found himself in a position where an all-out effort wouldn’t have advanced his team.

Back in high school, I was on such a 4x800 team in the state meet. On a team which clearly had the potential to win a medal, an injury to our second runner knocked us out of contention. Our anchor, one of the top contenders in the open mile that same day, took it easy in order to save himself for the later race. We, his teammates, completely understood.