how do middle-class (or poor) HS kids compete?

They wear cheap shoes and stay on jv

Compared to all other sports running is cheap

nah, high schools provide pads, helmets, basketballs, goals, etc. you can buy one pair of soccer cleats for $140, keep them for two years and be good

You're on to something. The good college coaches understand that.

Long ago......in an America far far away.....there used to be a thing called.....a SUMMER JOB.

And, if you are in fact a bernie bro/aoc hoe, just steal them and call it wealth redistribution.

I saw in the news that the administration added 10 gazillion jobs yesterday

Outside of running, to make good hs teams, you have to have played on expensive club teams for years in the U.S. You might pay $1500 per year just for low level competitive soccer for six to eight years prior to high school. If your child is very good, then the travel teams can be upwards of $10k/year all told. Fees in sports like tennis and golf are far more. In Europe, it's all subsidized, so families can afford the club teams, which cost just over $200 per year in Germany.

Sports are expensive in Australia and as there isn't high school sport like in the states athletes can join training groups at no cost or minimal cost.

In saying this most of the athletes that come to me are coming from private schools where they can get to training venue and have the means to travel to races interstate.

Thankfully in the early 80's you could buy training shoes ( Nike Pegasus)for $29.99 and spikes for maybe a little more. Still remember my Nike Zooms for 34.99. The kids here show up with Asics racing flats that are $320.....yea its expensive.

Athletics (particularly distance running) doesn't include those who struggle.

Club teams offer scholarships for those in need. Often it is 100%. MLS academies subsidize play and travel for players. They even paid for parent travel to nationals for us.

Poor kids are just as good as white kids.

Clearance running shoes are $75. It is cheaper than football.

$35 in 1980s US dollars is $135 in 2025 US dollars. Shoes are only a lot more expensive if you are talking super shoes.

Individual variation is far bigger than the advantage offered by supershoes. At the state meet, it might make the difference between 1st and 6th place, but spikes aren't turning a 4:40 kid into a 4:20 kid.

The real socioeconomic class difference is barriers to getting in quality training. Upper-middle class kids' parents can drive them to practice any time. Working is a way for them to earn some spending money. Kids of lower socioeconomic class tend to have less reliable transportation, and they often need to work to help the family. That also affects coaching in multiple ways, with better coaches choosing to work at schools where kids will consistently be at practice, and coaches expecting less of poorer kids, creating a vicious cycle. Parents at wealthier schools are also less likely to tolerate bad/lazy coaching. Obviously it's possible for a kid to succeed despite all of this, but it just makes it a lot less likely.

I see poor kids walking around in expensive basketball shoes all the time. I think they can figure it out.

The last year of my coaching career, I had runner whose father refused to buy her training shoes. Fortunately, I had a great relationship with a local running store. The owner provided a discount and donated shoes to my team on a regular basis. The reluctant father came around when his daughter earned All-County honors.

Nothing wrong with a middle-school or freshman kid who wants to run starting out in the "cheap" shoes; they're still a lot better than what we had when I was in school. If they show potential early on, there's always a way to get better shoes: part-time job, parents, etc. It's nowhere near the investment as in any other sport.

if you send any amount of time searching you can find last year's trainers for half off, and a pair of super shoes for the normal price of trainers

I go to a title one school and we have had some pretty good success in distance running. most of us just work a job on the weekend for some extra spending cash for spikes and stuff. but if you look hard you can find shoe and spikes for pretty cheap. I would say the one thing is the fancy training stuff but none of us are fast enough for that to matter.

also there like 5 of us xc average was 16:28 and 1600m ranges from 4:45 to 4:20