What IN THE WORLD are the Newbury Park boys doing??

You answered your own question about NP being 9:00 guys with different coaching. Lange had Stember and didn’t turn him into an 8:40 guy.

what dont you understand?

Nothing like racing six weeks in a row then going after a fast time. yeah thats good coaching

I fully understand that they currently plan on going to the CIF State Meet.

Wouldn't they have to start at the Marmonte League prelims and finals in order to qualify for CIF SS prelims?

Ok let me explain it again. They don’t have to “race” any of them. Just show up and participate, do it as a workout, part of a long run, whatever and they will be good enough to advance.

Really?

From Prepcaltrack:

prepcaltrack.com

CIF-Southern Section Track & Field Preseason Divisional Rankings!

Rich Gonzalez

Open link

NOTE: Although Newbury Park is ranked atop Division 1 in the boys rankings, we do believe they will bypass the postseason in favor of competing in unattached meets here and across state lines rather than going through the multiple rounds in hopes of competing at the state meet. The plan could change, but at this time it appears they will not compete in the CIF-SS postseason. However, we do list them here in the preseason based on their excellent point-scoring projections.

You don't have to repeat yourself. It's you who doesn't get that the overall stress of going through the entire CIF series is inconsistent with their doing what they are doing (setting amazing records on the national stage), and that maybe what they are doing is best for them AND the school. They may race very fast, but they don't over-race. And that's not even getting into fitting those six weeks racing into a meaningful training sequence aimed at those big national races. Maybe they will, maybe they won't, but I totally get having them go on a national tour instead. Good for the sport. And then, over the next few years we'll get to see them challenged by other teams as running becomes the cool thing to do and all the HS kids are getting Norwegian tatoos!

I personally don't think it's "good for the school" or "good for the sport". I think skipping State meet is a terrible precedent to set. So does every top ranked athlete do that now? I am a coach of a highly ranked team in the state so I too am trying to find a way to make all the races fit, but that's the job.

I see where you're coming from, but knowing how Rich Gonzalez is, I'm going to bet he's right on this one. The athletes from NP competing in the CIF postseason will almost for sure be their second-tier athletes (which might still be good enough to make an impact individually, but not as an overall team) that can't make it into the big invites, just like last season when only Aaron Cantu and Hector Martinez showed up for CIF-Prelims. The top kids flew out to Alabama instead to compete the day before prelims.

There was no official state meet last year, though, so it's not an apples to apples comparison.

I truly believe that doing State and possibly winning it with only distance runners would be a much more memorable experience for the individuals and team than flying to whatever the currently popular national meet is.

Everyone is focusing on the four kids and their choice. That’s not the story here. They can choose to do whatever they want individually. The coach is the story. He is the coach of the 100 or however many kids are on the track team and he represents the school, not the Young and Sahlman families. if he is organizing the effort and attending those meets instead of the CIF meets, that would be hard to take from an athletic director, track coach or other track athlete point of view.

You're focusing on the coach and that's wrong. It's all about the kids. The coach has nothing to do with it. No one has to do anything. It's HS athletics and those kids can choose and the coach should support their choice.

I don't know what will happen later in the season but I do know that the NP4 will attempt to break the 4 x mile record at the New Balance Indoor Nationals at the Armory on Sat., March 12. The schedule above does not show any meet for NPHS on that date, so I guess there's no conflict for Brosnan to be in NY.

Are you dense? Did you read what I wrote? The kids can do what they want. The coach should be coaching the school team at school meets ahead of non school meets with individuals.

Read carefully here. If the coach is the one organizing the effort by these individual kids to go to these non school events and is attending those events instead of the school events, that would be hard to except from the school.

You’re the dense one who seems obsessed with the coach here. Who cares what the kids or coach does. They schools seems to support them and they should all be proud of their accomplishments.
believe it or not some schools do what’s best for the kids and don’t care what people like you think

They get support from the coach and school to be great. How dare they - haha.

I think an individual state championship for one of those boys should be important. I don't know about their school but competing at State and winning it would be a much bigger deal then winning an out of state competition.

Then you don’t understand How good the Newbury Park boys really are. They definitely have better opportunities then 5/6 weeks of CIF.
And if they choose to skip CIF it’s their choice. To cry about it does no good.

Stember was a middle distance runner with no interest in the 2-mile in HS or 5000m in college. He was in sub-4:00 shape when he was running those 1600m races with the super fast last 600m so he reached his potential. Your comment is similar to saying Ryun’s coach failed in turning him into an 8:40 runner and the same for Webb’s.

The NP brothers would absolutely not be 9:00 2-milers somewhere else. If that was true, 9:20 would be the new 9:00 in the U.S.