Our team is designated as a club team. It's taken a bit to be accepted so that we can run in most meets. But, there are still rules that we have to be careful about to make sure we don't get on the wrong side of area high school coaches.
Two kids who are decent runners attend a nearby private school that also is allowed in most meets (but must've gotten a new coach) have a problem because the new coach says that practice has to happen after school every day at 4pm. Where we are, that is utterly ridiculous and dangerous. Anyone who runs at 4pm here is shuffling.
They sought an outside coach (not us, but a reputable guy) and they now run at appropriate times. The private school coach now says that the kids can't run or race on their team unless they train with the team. So, the 3rd party outside coach asked us if they could race with us. We would have the spots, and I'd really like to help them out. BUT, a little thing like this very well could be spread to other coaches (minus the ridiculous 4pm thing, of course) and then who knows what stupid blowback we could get. If I had to guess, probably 65-70% nothing bad happens, which imo is a high % something bad would come of it.
I hate it when young aspiring runners have terrible coaches, and get trapped by "the rules", but I don't want negative repercussions for our program. Thoughts?