Competing all season with Varsity TF, but no letter. Is that typical?

My school's policy regarding varsity letters in track and field are kind of similar; score in at least half of the dual meets or run at the divisional meet (1 level higher than the conference meet, 1 level lower than the state meet). I think this is relatively standard and your son's school appears to follow a similar guideline.

If he's on a relay that wins in a dual meet, you can technically add 1.25 points to his total points, but I'm assuming you've already done that.

For us, only 10-15 athletes letter in track and field, so it's pretty exclusive. He's only a sophomore and the fact that he is competing with varsity athletes is already pretty impressive. It looks like he will certainly letter his junior and senior years so I would just encourage him by saying varsity letters are tough to get and the fact that he is so close as a sophomore is great, and bigger things are coming in the future.

I don't think you personally should talk to the coach, but you could suggest to him to talk to the coach himself and ask how close he was to receiving a letter and what he would need to do to get one next season.

We had to earn 10 points when I was in high school. As long as the standard was given ahead of time, 12 points seems reasonable. Teach your son a valuable lesson--sometimes it's not enough just be there and sometimes even your best isn't good enough just yet.

If I understand correctly, the standard for a letter was 12 points and your son got 10.5. If that's correct they COULD give him a letter if they feel generous but you can't count on that.

Everyone on my team got a letter. If you were there the whole season, it counted. We had a very good team. I never heard of scoring points to get a letter. I can’t imagine my teammates not getting the required 12.5 points based on your system. Especially in dual meets. You might race 3 times in one dual meet. That’s 8-15 points right there. Racewalk. Pole vault. Relays. Steeple. Discus. There’s way to rack up points in events where there’s only a few participants

Our team requirements are to either be a senior in 4th year, score at conference, or score 30 points on the year. Pretty simple and no questions.

As long as the standards are clear, and laid out beforehand, I don't really see a problem. I do agree with the advice of having the student check with the coach to see how close he came (and maybe check the arithmetic in the process), and to ask what he can do to improve.

A letter is essentially a participation trophy at some schools. Others make it more special.

Coach of a athletes wrote:

Our team requirements are to either be a senior in 4th year, score at conference, or score 30 points on the year. Pretty simple and no questions.

This is basically how it was at my school as well for both track and football. Lettering as an underclassman was tough, but if you participated every year you got a letter as a senior.

For us, the caveat on the scoring was that the coach counted the full relay points toward all of the relay team members' totals. So if you were on a relay team that won a dual meet, all members would get 5 points. So just being on the A team for one of the relays would put you well above the threshold even if you never scored a point in an individual event.

That is silly. A guy on the winning 4x1 and 4x4 gets the same points as the guy who wins the 1600 and 3200 or the 100 and 200.

Coach of a athletes wrote:

That is silly. A guy on the winning 4x1 and 4x4 gets the same points as the guy who wins the 1600 and 3200 or the 100 and 200.

I don't disagree. But at the same time, some points will be easier to come by/less impressive than others regardless of the system of accounting. The kid who wins a podunk invitational with a 2:02 800m gets the same 10 points as the kid who wins states with a 1:51.

I can't quite recall my HS points system. I don't think you had to score in meets. Points were for finishing top 3 on the team at a meet or for being on a relay. Maybe 5 points for 1st on the team, 3 for 2nd, and 1 for 3rd, and maybe 1 each for being on the A relay team. I don't recall the total needed.

I managed to earn a letter sophomore year as a distance runner because throwers got suspended for a week for drinking, and without telling my coach I did shotput and discuss, finishing 3rd on the team giving me the 2 pts I needed to meet the standard.

Other times when an athlete was close, coach would put them on the relay (if we'd still win the event or the dual meet was in hand) to help them get the points.

In college as a freshman, we were told if we score points at conference we would get a letter. I scored points in the 10k taking 6th. I never got my letter. I was upset because the reason I did the 10k was to score team points. I had a big 5k a few days later the coach had set as my season goal, but I couldn't handle the turnaround. My calves were wrecked for 2 weeks after the 10k (my first on the track) and my 5k was poor, well slower than my training progression indicated and earlier PR. I was upset as I felt I traded my chance for another 5k PR for that letter, which never came.

There are several ways to letter at the school that I coach at including a point standard, performance standard, qualifying for a league final, and senior in good standing. Some of those standards were adjusted this year due to the unconventional covid season that we had. But simply competing a certain amount in the varsity division did not qualify someone for a varsity letter.

There are teams that have fair standards, teams that have no standards, and teams with ridiculous standards.

My personal belief is that if you are a kid that participates in most meets and scores even 1 point at a LEAGUE championship, you are a varsity athlete and should get a letter.

I also believe that if you are a SENIOR and you come to every practice and show effort at meets, you should get a letter.

I am one of two head coaches at a school that currently has a standard of "if you make it through the season, you get a letter." The other head is retiring after 31 years. He is a great guy and won over 20 league championships in those years. I will consider creating a standard with the other head coach who will replace him, but we will have to measure whether we think that will help or hurt the program.

Ozzie wrote:

There are several ways to letter at the school that I coach at including a point standard, performance standard, qualifying for a league final, and senior in good standing. Some of those standards were adjusted this year due to the unconventional covid season that we had. But simply competing a certain amount in the varsity division did not qualify someone for a varsity letter.

I like the way you guys do things.

The standard and point tracking was kinda hard to come by. There was a zoom meeting where the coach said usually it’s 12 pts for a letter and something about what gets you points, but they weren’t sure because they might lose meets due to covid. I didn’t really process it because he talked very fast and I thought we would receive an info packet. We only received the meet schedule and meet update and announcements on Remind, nothing about letter requirements. My son asked the coach he works with the most about letter requirements and that coach told him he didn’t know. My son never asked the head coach. I think he was too intimidated.

Also there was no information about how to track the points you’ve earned. There is a partial tally of points earned on Athletic.net, but dual meets at schools that hand time aren’t included in that tally or in the athletes online records. At least one sophomore that lettered has a lower online pts tally than my son...I’m assuming he got more “untracked” points.

At the banquet, my husband overheard that the letter requirements were on a web site....so I eventually found it under a “more” link on the school athletic/team pages - honestly it’s not dated and that page is never used for the team, so I’m not 100% sure that it’s current.

I guess that’s a lesson in being more assertive about pinning down letter requirements at the beginning of the season.

I don't think you personally should talk to the coach, but you could suggest to him to talk to the coach himself and ask how close he was to receiving a letter and what he would need to do to get one next season.

This seems like a good approach. I will encourage my son to do this. Either now or next season (they are out of school and I’m not sure there’s a good way to contact the coach as I don’t think he responds to email much.

Thanks for your perspective. It’s very helpful.

I coach HS too and I think some schools have ridiculous restrictions as to who gets letters and who doesn't. Our FB coach gives every single kid a letter at the end of the season, even if they got very little playing time. Also, using the "points" system enables more kids to get letters if they compete against weak competition. We sent a few of our younger athletes to a small-school invitational this year and they scored lots of points - should they now all get letters because they beat the local small school runners?

I like your idea of creating some standard but considering whether it will help or hurt the program. Does too many letters cause an issue? Unless you've got 50+ kids on your team, then you might want to start restricting the letters, but make it clear beforehand. I had less than 40 on each of the boys and girls squads this year, all but a handful are getting letters. If the original poster's kid was on my team he'd definitely get a letter.

Thanks everyone for your comments. It gives me some perspective and I feel like I have a better handle on how to talk to my son about the disappointment, give him some encouragement and plan for future seasons.

I will suggest he talk to the coach about how close he came to lettering and ask what he can do to accomplish that goal next year. We’ll also be more assertive in getting the letter requirements at the beginning of the season in the future.

I’ll certainly be reading any other comments, but since people were kind enough to answer so quickly, I want to send out a quick thanks too!

Mouse

Without reading any other posts responding to this i will say the following....

20 kids on a team at a large school says something about the program and the coach to begin with.

Secondly, points only for a varsity letter treats the sport as an individual endeavor and doesnt foster a "team" committment from the non-elite athletes.

There are several other criterion that I used over the years that I believe gave kids a lot of reasons to continue pursuing a varsity letter through their senior year but in reality, they didnt need that recognition because the experience was worth so much more. It was more like the tattoo you see college athletes sporting on their thigh or calf, communicatimg their pride in being involved and contributing to a program that had such a long and sustaining stretch of success at all levels.

If you think the coach is approachable about suggestions for improving the program, have a non threatening conversation over a coffee/beer etc.. If not, email your concerns and CC the AD so its out there. They will read it even though they might not respond. Im curious what the other similar sports on campus do? Wrestling, CC, Golf etc.... team sports based on individual efforts.

I scored varsity points, medaled, and ran varsity all year last winter and didn’t get the Official letter, but the distance coach said it was some bureaucratic bs with the sprint coach

It sucks but don’t let him get discouraged, tell him to get back out and try again and do even better, best on the team and actually competitive in his conference.. Good luck to him