HS athletes club vs. team

The school favors a revenue sport?

That sounds crazy! Now I'm not a parent, nor an administator, but I'd think that as long as the girls grades and test scores remained at a level worthy of college acceptance they should go with the club team.

Why should they represent the school at conference when that school won't allow them to run against better competition after states.

What state has allowed this to happen? Lunacy!

If the girls run well, colleges will notice. University coaches have a funny way of deciding for themselves who is scholarship worthy and who is not. Tell them to study hard and run fast. The rest will take care of itself.

Not that it will do any good, but you should explain to them that if the only point of the team was to make money, it wouldn't be connected to the school. I mean the reason that athletic teams are school sponsored is that participation supposedly aids in the growth and development of students, right? Otherwise there is really no excuse to have any sports in school.

The team could always just break from the school completely. There are plenty of open meets and races in track and xc that the athletes could run in. I've seen this work fairly well before.

A HS athlete's decision to run for school or club will have no policy impacts on recruiting, scholarships, etc. for college. Collegiate programs may have varying reactions to the the athletes' decisions, but that is a subjective issue.

A state or school can not bar any individual from participating in FL. It is a meet in which runners participate on an individual basis, and there is absolutely no bearing on school affiliation. These girls can not legally be prohibited from going to FL. NTN, since it involves a HS team masquerading as a club, is probably a harder one to get around.

I find it hard to believe that open athletes can qualify and participate in the state meet. You should get an official ruling on that before you go down that road.