JUSTICE FOR BILL ARIS

They’re not training as hard or putting in as much mileage as Bill’s runners in the past. Kids are soft these days and so are the parents. You can’t be telling them to run 60 miles a week if they can’t do it mentally and physically. Same coach all these years, different kids.

Okay?

I don’t agree with the assessment that the current runners suck. They do appear to be young, and that Coach Aris is being careful with their overall development - including holding their mileage back significantly. Flies in the face of claims of overtraining. The runners in 10th grade look like they were running really well until Coach Aris was yanked from them a month ago.

When he returns to coaching in cross country next fall, I would expect great things from the boys over the next few years. And there’s a great group of incoming 9th grade girls who love Coach Aris and are doing his summer program. I would expect the same from them.

Fair assessment. I agree. However for the kids whose parents badmouthed Bill in front of them and are involved I don’t see how mentally or emotionally they’ll be able to thrive under Bill when he comes back.

Word in the community among current parents and runners is that those voices are condensed to only 2-3 current families, 1-2 current runners, and a third who reportedly quit the track team.

Knowing Coach Aris, his intentions will be to forgive, heal, and move forward.

At the start of freshman year of cross country, most runners are 13-14 years old. My exact words were "Just because a high school coach can convince a 14-year-old to run extremely high mileage it doesn't actually make it safe or responsible or the right thing to do."

I never said they have 8th and 9th graders running 100 mpw because I do not know.

But if a coach is talking to a high school freshman and telling them they need to build up to extremely high mileage by their junior or senior year, that would be catching them at a very young, naive, and impressionable age to influence their decision. Those athletes would not know the negative consequences of training extremely high mileage. You can't excuse the coach by saying "the athlete agreed to do it and didn't complain" and that makes it acceptable and honorable and praiseworthy. Coaches in high school have a responsibility to protect the athlete's health FIRST AND FOREMOST. Both short term and long term health.

I have no idea what their current runners are doing, I am just discussing the example that Rojo is bragging about. You seem to know all of the details of the complaints, so why don't you share the exact complaints with us?

Unfortunately, we do not know the details of the complaints. We all only know what the media has broadcasted - snippets from the juicy letter written by a transaction attorney ten months ago which was never shared with Coach Aris.

I couldnt agree more with your assessment of high school coaches having a responsibility to protect the athlete’s health first and foremost! Bravo! Anyone who has spent more than a few months with Coach Aris and truly knows him, knows that your statement describes his coaching method to a T!

I do know what the current runners are doing, and also what the former runners were doing. This supposed “high mileage system” that people so generously claim is flat out wrong. Coach Aris has a tiered system based on training group, determined by age, experience, pace, ability, and years running. Top end back in the day - 70 miles per week, with the most experienced boys, the most veteran and older runners, maxing in the 80s during base training, and 60-70 for the majority of the year. A very select few hit as high as 90s - 20 years ago. The girls program was and still is scaled back by quite a bit. Years ago - 60-70 miles per week during base training, for the most veteran runners, with the majority of the year in the 45-55 miles.

Current day? A LOT lower.

Can you tell me what are the negative consequences of high mileage? I'm dead serious.

I truly believe 99% of the world can do 100 mpw in HS. Everyone could walk for 4 hours a day if they needed to. There's your 100.

High mileage doesn't hurt you. Intensity is what hurts you.

But let's say you actually run it too hard. What are the negative consequences? I was running like 30 mpw in HS and had 3 stress fractures. So what. The negative consequences were I didn't get to run in college.

First reasoned post in this thread

You are ignoring the fact that many elite pro runners cannot even run anywhere close to 100 miles per week - even at a low intensity. That disproves your whole theory.

But I'm not talking about high mileage in general, I am talking about the NEGATIVE HEALTH CONSEQUENCES for high mileage FOR 14-17 YEAR OLD CHILDREN.

Since your genetic peak in long distance running naturally would occur in your late 20s and early 30s, the only way to "peak" in high school is to overtrain so hard that you RUIN your long term potential and it actually DECREASES your genetic peak.

Overtraining in high school can have devastating effects on an athletes body and mind. It makes athletes really injury prone, lowers bone density, damages growth plates, lowers testosterone and effects other hormone levels, and causes eating disorders as well as severe mental burnout, just to name a few.

Completely agree with this assessment. High mileage must be gradually grown into. Coach Aris, as an example, generally builds from the 30-40 mpw range as a typical freshman to 60-70 mpw range as a senior, adding 7-10 mpw to that range each year, as and if the runner can handle it.

What are the sexes of the athletes who are upset or whose families are upset?

Great question.

The parents of one girl. Can’t blame her. She’s a good kid.

The parents of one boy. Can’t blame him. He’s a good kid.

The parents of a girl who was labored by injury since 7th grade. She quit the team this spring.

The parents of a girl transfer some years ago. More to come on that.

Who the hell cares if they don't reach your genetic peak?

The reality is 99.9999% high school aren't going to ever hit their genetic peak at age 28 in any sport as they are going to have jobs, lives, careers, etc.

If I was a girl at FM, I'd much rather 'overtrain' in HS and run a 4:30 1500 but win 4 national titles than take some relaxed approach but run 4:25 at age 28 in some all comers meets that is totally meaningless.

When I was coaching, my assistant would always talk about how we were coaching them for the long term. One day, it hit me. "That's pretty stupid. Most of them will never run another step competitively after college." So i'd build them up for 3 years and occasionally tell a senior -"hey if you want to go for it and take a risk, feel free as this is it for you."

Now we know you don't know what you are talking about. Overtraining does not cause eating disorders.

Under-eating combined with overtraing could definitely cause a downward REDs spiral but it doesn't start with overtraining. It starts with the eating disorder.