Message to Rojo: high school girl phenoms turn out just fine

This site is too obsessed with high schoolers, period. It’s flat out creepy.

Be cool with young amateurs period.

It's the small girls with the huge aerobic engines that crush everyone in XC that don't tend to do well in the future. Not going to name names but there are many, many examples throughout the past few years.

While I completely agree with you on the individual level, in general some of us coach high school athletes and it is really helpful to share information.

Agreed. It's the reality in every sport that not every young phenom pans out. There are certainly 5 star football recruits who end up never playing a down in college. But by any measure of "success," a high school phenom is more likely to achieve success than someone who wasn't a high school phenom.

I also wish people would stop acting like failing to pan out at the pro level after a promising HS career is some kind of fate worse than death. Being great at your sport through your teens and early 20s before moving on to pursue other passions and interests seems like a potential setup for a great life. Why push the idea on young people that they should feel like they failed at life because they never became an Olympian when instead we could support the much healthier notion that sports are just one chapter in the person's life and they can move on to pursue greatness in other areas once that chapter has concluded?

I don't think interest in high schoolers is necessarily creepy. It can be but that depends on an individual poster with negative intentions. If Sadie Engelhardt runs 4:11 and change as a h.s. freshman that's exciting news. Same for all the other kids doing great things. I notice that in every sport some fans love looking at "prospects" and their future potential. Why should track be any different?

It’s overt focus on amateur minors. There’s a wide margin between noting or mentioning them and what goes on with tacit consent on here.

Agreed.....It is curious the approach/stance some users take specifically towards young girls, but moreover young athletes in general. As a coach, information is always useful and we are always trying to grow your knowledge. But the posts that flame a hard-working athlete in their late teens/early 20's who is struggling is interesting. I would love to grab some popcorn and see those interactions play out in person though. Some random older guy running up to a disappointed 19 year old girl after her race, screaming in her face that she got destroyed and is going home devastated.

If you guys think it’s inappropriate to comment on high school phenoms please do not enter the realm of soccer. Kids are offered professional contracts as pre-teens and are speculated about from an early age. Same with swimming. Same with any serious sport.

You left out A LOT of athletes who didn't pan out.

It is not about commenting, critiquing, or having them fall into certain ranking systems. Those can take place without demeaning young athletes. Athletes do have to develop a competitive edge and be okay with failure and criticism. I have had my share of broken/dysfunctional athletes that came from the soccer, swimming, gymnastics pool. Those are the same kids (star athletes not reserve players) that do not even want to be on the pitch/court/mat/pool anymore. You can balance a highly successful program, foster competitive spirits, and have a healthy environment at the same time

It was a Top 11 list. OK maybe he could have stopped at 10, but otherwise that's not cherry picking.

cool, now do XC phenoms

what this should make clear is that speed is a major determinant of success beyond high school.

The greatest success from HS milers come the minute they move u in distance

Up in distance

Hadn’t planned on it but thanks for pointing out the obvious.

Of course. Pretty much anyone is who has a chance to be a pro runner is going to be fast enough to be a miler in HS. Sure they might be a better 2mile/5k guy but if you aren't running a 4:45 type mile, what chance do you have of running a 5k at that pace in 4 years?

Track is brutal at the top. The top HS kids pretty much all need to make big improvements to be a factor at the next level. And it is hard to know who is going to take those steps versus stagnate/regress.

Runners World used to print out a smaller edition called like Runners World High School or some crap every so often and mail a few copies to our XC team back in the day. (Early 2000s). I quite enjoyed it.

Guess that was creepy too huh 🙄

about 30% of football five stars "pan out". That number varies depending on definition. The minimum seems to be regular contributor (not future HOF).

So yes we need to define "success" here.