Can an Unattached High Schooler race against other High School Athletes in Tennessee?

In most states, an athlete must represent a member school in that state's Association, to compete in sanctioned high school competition. Home schooled athletes represent a member school through a arrangement with the State Association

Reach out to college meet directors. Most D2,D2 and NAIA meets allow unattached athletes. He would run against college kids but its a great recruiting tool and way to get his name out as a homeschool kid.

I will also add that if he has any desire to run in college you will be on your own with the NCAA eligibility and NAIA.

No, he cannot run in meets unattached in TN. He'll have to be on some kind of team.

There are some good homeschool track/xc programs in TN, so just ask around and find one close to where you live. They can't compete in the state postseason meets (region and state), but they can still go to good meets all season and then do regional and national level postseason meets.

Thank you for your reply! I appreciate the help. However, after doing some more research, I found this from the TSSAA handbook.

Q. What schools may a member school of TSSAA scrimmage during pre-season or play during regular season?
A. TSSAA member schools may play or scrimmage the following:
1. Any secondary school team with grades 9 and above.
2. An individual homeschooled student who might be invited to participate in a track meet, wrestling competition, golf competition, etc. This would primarily apply to individual sports.
3. A homeschool team in a team sport, such as basketball, baseball, softball, etc., where homeschooled students go together to form a cooperative team.

Do you know where it states that homeschoolers can't compete against other high schoolers?

It's on page 59 of this link if you want to see it for yourself:

That's interesting. I wonder if that's a relatively new rule. I've been coaching in TN a long time at public and private schools and it's always seemed to be understood that kids can't compete at meets unattached.

Who will be coaching him if he runs unattached? I would try to get him on a team (either a homeschool team or the local public school he's zoned for).

that's really an FAQ for an eligibility rule for official HS teams. it says they won't get in trouble for playing "you." now, fair enough, it kind of implies the reverse, that homeschool teams and invited homeschoolers can participate but is not actually saying "you" can compete.

you can run for your local school -- despite being homeschool -- if you meet the "homeschool rule." you can compete for a private if you pay tuition. you can compete for a homeschool team. you can compete as an "invited homeschool" during the preseason and regular season. on the last one you're ignoring the vampire part.

if you're trying to avoid the local HS entirely then the smart choice is homeschool team where there is no weasel word for do you get to compete, they can do normal meets, and they culminate in state (or at least half-state) homeschool championships of their own. then you can get fullblown season meet times plus a state meet to say how you did. individual it sounds like you go around begging for meets that someone else doesn't do the logistics and entry stuff for you, and there is no state progression.

and you can knock progressing to state on some sort of political thing, but aside from times another way to try and snow people is to say you went to state or progressed towards it or competed at some big national meet. kid who was recruited to my D3 was useless so far but he was supposed to be golden boy progressing towards state in some private school division. it was like no one else noticed the actual times.

my select team won state and i was all-conference HS. everyone returned those initial recruiting contacts even if they later decided nah not so much. you want some resume items and not just disembodied times.

Thanks again for replying. I talked with Gene Menees of the TSSAA office staff this morning, and he said that unattached athletes could indeed compete in meets in Tennessee with other high schoolers. They just cannot compete in the TSSAA state meet and state meet qualifiers.

Is there a reason you don't want to get him on a team? Most high school kids would benefit from being on a team. He'd make some friends and have some training partners.

re homeschool teams, it's not just socializing/socialization, it's transport/carpools, coaching/entries/logistics, relays, and then as they told you, a state progression. if you have an actual schedule, you don't want to always drive. or at least to be able to follow someone to the site. you might want where someone else handles the entry forms. you might want some expert help on workouts and technique. you might want it's not just you against the world but some relays and folks of similar beliefs.

The parents obviously want to homeschool their kid for a reason. I know I have had homeschool kids that compete in club or unattached college meets and have had no issues with competing in college or getting recruited.

The parents likely homeschool for a reason. The things you listed require very little effort. Entering meets is an easy task and finding someone to assist with workouts is easy as well. Not very many high schools have quality coaches anyway. Most are either a football coach or a teacher with little coaching experience.

There are meets all over TN and surrounding states that accept unattached athletes. Just go to TN milesplit or Athletic.net and take a look at the meets. You can probably find multiple meets each weekend. Of course public schools aren't going to let you run in their dual meets or state qualifers. Also check out USATF youth and AAU meets in the Summer.

Look up The Tennessee Heat. It's a track club for homeschooled kids.

It looks like you kid can join the local school's team.

tssaa.org

Home School Rule & Participation

@tssaa

TSSAA is a nonprofit, self-supported organization, conceived by school people to promote good sportsmanship and cooperative spirit among member schools.

Link:tssaa.org/tssaa-home-school-rule