Will California have invitationals (or CIF postseason) this season for track and field?

CAHSTrackMeets? wrote:

I heard someone mention that if they call an invitational a club dual meet then they can invite individuals and have them form "club teams" basically two all star club teams and have them compete against eachother in that way. What are you all hearing out there?

High school kids aren't allowed to compete for a club during the high school season in California (in track and xc, there are exceptions for some sports). So that idea wouldn't work unless they all ran under fake names to keep from getting caught by this rule. But letting kids run under fake names is a terrible idea for a meet director, since then you're exposed to all liability since nobody's liabilty waiver matches. You'd be uninsurable.

Originally people were talking about that when high school sports didn't look like they would happen. But high school sports are back in, so CIF has reimplemented this rule.

I've heard CIF post season is cancelled for track. I haven't heard anybody say they plan to reinstate it.

I don’t think any big meets will happen. As it stands right now you can only competed within your county or an adjoining county and against those from either one.

Actually they threw out rule 600 this year correct? So you could compete for a club or unattached but you could compete in a CIF sanctioned meet or against a school team.

The club rule has been taken out of affect for this year. Athletes are allowed to compete in club and cif during season this year.

Apparently if county health officials approve tournaments/invitationals they can happen with teams directly in county or directly adjacent counties, and this is even in Purple tier. I wonder what that means if counties move down to even lower tiers. Every discussion surrounding HS sports is incredibly frustrating bc there is only talk about letting team sports compete in head to head matchups, whereas dual meets are essentially meaningless in track. Track is an INDIVIDUAL sport at its core.

If high contact sports like football can safely happen, theres no reason that invitationals with modifications (social distancing and/or much more competitive entries and therefore smaller field sizes) could also happen. For example an Arcadia with California entries only, only invitational divisions limited to 50ish% of their normal field? So for laned races everyone spaced apart one lane, longer distance events run in two fields of 25% normal capacity, fastest time overall wins? The jabronis can compete in duals and smaller invites until they prove worthy to compete with the big boys. Limit each athlete to one event only instead of four to reduce potential close contacts, and scrap the relays entirely (highest covid risk) obviously this is not ideal, but its much, much better than no invites!

Something like this can be easily facilitated, and I haven't seen public discussion about any ideas like this, and this is better than no invites at all. It is frustrating that these decisions are being made by CIF/ government officials with no knowledge about how track and field works as an INDIVIDUAL sport with its various events. They don't realize that a top thrower, pole vaulter, etc. most likely will never even have a conversation with teammates in other event groups, especially during covid therefore super spreaders wont spread quite as much to the WHOLE team as a football player could. These idiots just make largely blanket decisions without considering options outside the box that can actually create some form of normalcy for High School track athletes.

CAHSTrackMeets? wrote:

Does anyone know if meets like the Arcadia Invite or Mt. Sac relays or any other invitationals will actually happen this track and field season? It seems like the CA state guidelines restrict tournaments or meets with more than two teams and I was wondering if anyone had heard about ideas on how to get around this?

I heard someone mention that if they call an invitational a club dual meet then they can invite individuals and have them form "club teams" basically two all star club teams and have them compete against eachother in that way. What are you all hearing out there?

California will be just duel meets this season. Not a chance for an invite. A few might do multi schools, but the sate of California has failed the kids this year.

California Dreamin Runner wrote:

CAHSTrackMeets? wrote:

Does anyone know if meets like the Arcadia Invite or Mt. Sac relays or any other invitationals will actually happen this track and field season? It seems like the CA state guidelines restrict tournaments or meets with more than two teams and I was wondering if anyone had heard about ideas on how to get around this?

I heard someone mention that if they call an invitational a club dual meet then they can invite individuals and have them form "club teams" basically two all star club teams and have them compete against eachother in that way. What are you all hearing out there?

California will be just duel meets this season. Not a chance for an invite. A few might do multi schools, but the sate of California has failed the kids this year.

So basically the Top Runners will be doing Time Trials with no Competition, as it is rare for a school or even a district to have more than 1 good distance runner, good meaning for example 1:52 for 800, 4:10 for a mile, sub 9 for 2 miles, I guess that is what they have to do to get scholarships without any big meets, usually good runners run as easy as possible to get points, example a 4:35 for a 4:05 miler, 10 minutes plus for a sub 9 minute 2 miler etc., and in dual meets in the rare occasion when both schools in the dual meet have a good runner, they avoid each other example one runs the mile the other runs the 2 mile, now when each school has a good runner, maybe they can work together so they both get a good time.

Agreed with what you said here totally. You would think with sports like football allowed to compete and indoor sports coming soon they would allow invitationals as well. But unfortunately the lack of knowledge about our sport is evident in how these rules were written.

I would like to see some big invitationals go the club sports route for this season. All accepted entries are placed into two teams North vs. South or something. For example OC Championships could be North County vs. South County and they could choose the top athletes in the county to compete. With Arcadia or Mt. Sac Relays it could be Northern Cal vs. Southern Cal or something like that.

Its frustrating for me as a coach of a junior who is on the verge of earning a college scholarship to only get to run league meets against inferior competition. Its basically like a series of time trials.

You're on the right track with club meets but keep it even simpler... Just open meets, only accept high school athletes to compete unattached or represent a club if they wish... only problem would be finding facilities willing to allow it.

Hopefully CIF will just think with their heads and realize that outdoor track and field invitationals are exponentially less risky than even an indoor head to head basketball game