In high school cross country and track, how common was it for people to quit and why?

almost everyone quit. i didnt because i had talent

About 1/2 quit because we held cuts after freshmen year. Guys had to run a 6 minute mile and many guys knew they couldn't do it. 50 guys normally made the team.

WAAAYYYYY back in the day I ran track and loved it, was pretty good (in context) too. The coach, who was a nice man but knew very little about track or running in general, was also the XC coach. He asked several track runners to try XC because nobody in the HS wanted to do XC. It was freaks and geeks I hate to say.

The first practice was us running three miles or so and it was August and it was hot as balls. Everyone showed up and the coach just pointed out a single track little trail around this big county park and told us to start running loops. No orientation or intro meeting, no explanation of the sport, no discussion of pacing, I had no idea what this really was, probably didn't even know what distances we were talking about. No water, nobody knew each other. It was miserable. Having no context for what this even was, I hated every step and never went to another practice.

My HS XC career lasted exactly one practice. Running in general has stuck though as I'm an old man and still laying down a lot of miles, slowly, so there's that.

This you Jamin?

On my HS team, we didn't have cuts. New kids would come out every spring. About half of those new kids would quit before the first meet because they gave up while getting in shape.

Sub-8 Mile wrote:

On my HS team, we didn't have cuts. New kids would come out every spring. About half of those new kids would quit before the first meet because they gave up while getting in shape.

Why would they give up?

Most quit because the practices were too hard and they were very far behind the front runners.

Are you going to quit Davey?

You need to quit whining so much.

Coach watching wrote:

About 1/2 quit because we held cuts after freshmen year. Guys had to run a 6 minute mile and many guys knew they couldn't do it. 50 guys normally made the team.

My sophomore year I started with 6:36 and couldn't break 6:00 at the end of the season training under a poor coach. Three months of my on training I went 4:59 my first ever track race and went on to run sub-10:00 my senior year (after many injury and health struggles).

Oh, and that initial 6:36? I ran 26.2 of them consecutively just three years later.

(Years on, after barely scratching into the top 100 times in my state in HS, I got second at masters nationals 27 years later. And still training hard when I want to after 48 years of it, enjoying every step. I don't give up on things that I love)

Not too many people on my high school team quit. There was no sports requirement at the school and why would you join cross country if you didn't want to do it?

College nearly everyone quit before the end besides a few. An incoming class of 8-10 freshman would end up becoming a senior class of 1-2.

david45 wrote:

Sub-8 Mile wrote:

On my HS team, we didn't have cuts. New kids would come out every spring. About half of those new kids would quit before the first meet because they gave up while getting in shape.

Why would they give up?

I guess they thought it was too hard for them. It wasn't actually hard training, though. It was more of a fitness program that included some faster running mid-late season.

The worst were the football players who were told to go out by the FB coach. Of course they were all sprinters. Of course they were not leaders. Of course, they hardly did any workouts.

it's very common for people to quit because running is a very tough sport. it's a battle against yourself.

YMMV wrote:

Coach watching wrote:

About 1/2 quit because we held cuts after freshmen year. Guys had to run a 6 minute mile and many guys knew they couldn't do it. 50 guys normally made the team.

My sophomore year I started with 6:36 and couldn't break 6:00 at the end of the season training under a poor coach. Three months of my on training I went 4:59 my first ever track race and went on to run sub-10:00 my senior year (after many injury and health struggles).

Oh, and that initial 6:36? I ran 26.2 of them consecutively just three years later.

(Years on, after barely scratching into the top 100 times in my state in HS, I got second at masters nationals 27 years later. And still training hard when I want to after 48 years of it, enjoying every step. I don't give up on things that I love)

What State were you in that was that deep? And how many guys were in your race at Masters Nationals? I’ve seen where some years they only have a couple guys in some events. A guy on my FB would always brag about winning National Masters Titles but he could barely break 18 as a 40 year old.

They cut themselves wrote:

Most quit because the practices were too hard and they were very far behind the front runners.

Why didn't the coach account for the difficulty of practice for new runners?

My state was likely one of the deepest in the nation at the time. I didn't even make it to my district qualifier in any case.

Masters was reasonably competitive that year in the 800/1500, I had to Q out of prelims (masters track 5K is rarely very competitive at nationals, most of the top guys prefer getting $ on the roads). I had one of the slowest PRs in the 800 final, but ran the most perfectly-executed race of my life. In a later year I was ranked top10 U.S./top40 world by time, but didn't go to nationals. I had my (same as HS) states' fastest time 16x for 400-3K ages 40-50.

Coach watching wrote:

About 1/2 quit because we held cuts after freshmen year. Guys had to run a 6 minute mile and many guys knew they couldn't do it. 50 guys normally made the team.

Why do you have cuts?

My HS team had very few who did not complete the entire four years. As a coach, I have had good retention rate, as well. However, my predecessor turned them over like I go through toilet paper (well, before I had to ration). The key is to relate to the runners and make it a fun sport because we don't get the lights and cheers like some sports do.

Don't misread that to think I don't make them work. Other teams complain about long courses, but ours are ready because we put in the miles and other work teams around here do not.