Need Ideas - HS XC Invites not cancelled 2020 for Solo-Unattached Competition

You would not be allowed to enter him into high school meets.

Delaware and Maryland are not having fall sports.

PA says they are but the governor recommends no and this will come to a head on 8/21 and the season will be canceled.

You won't find an invitational in NJ willing to accept an out of state individual unattached. Their season may be canceled as well.

Your best bet would have been open NCAA meets, but those are all canceled.

IDK the status of New York state or the other states you mentioned but again, invitationals rarely accept unattached individuals.

So therefore you may be left looking at whatever open meets are out there. Maybe something at Franklin Park in Boston. Probably best to just accept reality.

I’m okay with him not being able to run in hs dual meets if he can get into Invites with stronger competition as an unattached/solo athlete. CIAC can’t control where or when an athlete competes if he chooses not to be a part of his hs team. I’m prepared to do this with or without his hs and CIAC blessing. Obviously that would knock him out of hs dual meet competition with no blessing, but the upshot is competing at a higher level that colleges will potentially recognize. Ideally we’d get hs approval for outside competition in addition to official schedule of course. I think the CIAC ought to recognize the need for stronger athletes to seek out stronger competition on their own in this covid environment.

No high school state associations allow unattached athletes to compete. He would have to run in road races or open college races. Or find someone who is willing to hold a race for all the high school athletes whose seasons are cancelled. He will in no way be allowed to run in an official high school race as you have been told already.

There won't be any competing in fall xc as others have said. Best bet is to find some road races being held and run those. Also, time trial on the track with video and gps data should be accepted by most college coaches.

No competition until September 24th... You are overreacting. Most CT meets usually aren't until the first week of September. It's barely a delay at all. Also CT is in one of the best positions in the nation. If you can't find a meet in CT you likely won't find one in the neighboring states.

Iowa high school sports have been going strong for the past 2 months. State tournaments were held 2 weeks ago. 4 and 5 star football players have transferred in from all over the country. I expect that some XC runners will do the same.

This is precisely why school dominated programs are wrecking the sport. If the club system in the US was stronger - it's not, it is generally a joke - then sports would be able to exist outside the confines of overly cautious school mandates. it wouldn't be difficult to organize XC meets with some element of social distancing (chip timing separated starts) if anyone with even a modest imagination were in charge.

Clubs are not free as high school teams are. They can be quite expensive.

Free? You must be under the age of 22 or a deadbeat who does not pay taxes. Nothing is free. High School Athketics are funded from taxes.

I O W A wrote:

Free? You must be under the age of 22 or a deadbeat who does not pay taxes. Nothing is free. High School Athketics are funded from taxes.

so, basically free for poor people.

Yes. Everything is free for poor people. Most don't understand that somebody else is paying for it though.