High school cross-country is getting out of control.
Currently a high school runners championship season looks like this....
district/sectional/state qualifier meet
State Championship
NTN qualifier/footlocker qualifier
NTN
Footlocker
in some states(like NY) throw in the Federation championship as well
thats 5-6 races! That's an entire season in itself. To make matters worse, if NTN adds individuals as they plan to, it's going to create some big competition with Footlocker. Already some individuals have some decisions to make having to choose between running the NTN qualifier(if there team is good enough) or running footlocker qualifier. Not to mention the fact that because every state runs on a different schedules for the championship season everyone is coming to NTN or footlocker at a different point in their season. Some teams have weeks in between states and regionals while others run back to back. It's chaos. Also school and individuals don't even run for their actual school at the national level meets, they run as clubs or for a region.
Does anyone else think this is unfair for the high school athlete? Who else thinks that with the increased interest in national level high school competion there should be a governing body over high-school athletics? Kick out the companies! Combine the team and individual race as well as regionals. Allow kids to represent their schools at the national level.
Having a governing body over all states and regions would really improve the sport of Cross-Country as well as track and field for high schoolers.
