Oregon High School Cross Country...

What is this supposed to accomplish? Save money for OSAA?

Better than a petition, this has their contact information. Please email them with your concern.

http://www.runnerspace.com/news.php?do=vote&news_id=8552&sec_id=-713233940&rating=5

That's the idea, but they are going to be taking more teams in other sports, so it makes zero since. I still can't believe they are even considering this, how stupid can people really be?

waxc-runner wrote:

That's the idea, but they are going to be taking more teams in other sports, so it makes zero 'since'. I still can't believe they are even considering this, how stupid can people really be?

sense

I was the person that set up the online petition and will present the signatures along with the comments at the next meeting on 2/1. So it will be put to good use.

Haha good call, that's what I get for only sleeping two hours.

come on osaa can you really not handle planning one meet a year?

I think its important to remember that the says that the committee is "investigating" reformatting the x-c format. Of course, we all know this is a bad idea. However, spamming the committee member's inbox's is also a bad idea. It should be sufficient to sign any online petition and show up at the meeting to voice any concern. The meeting is 9 am 2/1 in Wilsonville: 25200 Southwest Parkway Avenue. So show up if you can. Many bodies will clearly mean more than signing a petition or forming a facebook group.

Obviously this will take one of the greatest mass participation sports in the world and turn it into an elitist competition for a few top runners. More people should be encouraged to participate not less.

It's an obvious ploy to strong arm NIKE to spend money to "save" them.

thought some of you might enjoy reading this letter to the OSAA from Coach Michael T. Smith, North Salem HS...

******************************************************

As far as I'm concerned, OSAA need never pay my way into another athletic contest, buy me or my athletes another meal, much less put us up for the night.

What I do expect from OSAA, as a moral minimum, is to continue to provide a State Championship Meet worth aspiring to, qualifying for, competing in.

To qualify for the State Meet as an individual rather than as a team, believe me, is a consolation prize; it beats not going at all, but it's the athletic equivalent of going to the prom without a date.

One of the ironies of war, it has been revealed by interviewing WWII vets, is that many regard it as the best experience of their lives. This because of the intense bonding, the dear love of comrade born of shared struggle, risk, sacrifice and accountability stemming from absolute commitment to each other not to let one's buddies down, whenever one might otherwise have been be tempted to quit.

The phrase The Moral Equivalent of War was born of the quest to find another way to make available such a profoundly enriching, morally fulfilling experience without the concomitant slaughter. Can't we provide our young people with such a crucible to forge their mature characters short of sending them into combat?

Team athletics is our answer. To restrict it to the very most talented individuals would make it more equivalent to a gladiatorial spectacle. God knows we need no more of that.

Cross-Country is the purest expression in athletics, I would argue, of shared maximum mutual endeavor. The strength of the wolf, it is said, resides in the pack, and equally, the strength of the pack resides in each wolf. That is as simply as I can put what Cross-Country is all about.

To reduce that noble chase to a running of any number of lone wolves deprives it of its essential meaning. It is to cut our hamstrings and bid us run. After a few years of pointless hobbling, the sport would, for all intents and purposes, be finished.

Some may remember a time when the University of Oregon had decided it could not afford to send its qualifying team to the NCAA Championships, but only to send overall favorite for the individual title,indeed the defending champion, Steve Prefontaine. He refused to go without his teammates, the University relented, and the team brought back the NCAA title. A great champion, yes, but infinitely more importantly, a great and principled teammate, he who of all runners, could have prospered as a lone wolf.

It is to be hoped that out of this whole painful episode will come some woefully overdue understanding of, and respect for our sport. We have never asked for much, not cheerleaders,not lighted stadiums, not pep assemblies, not artificial turf.. Nor, sad to say, our rightful share of respect. Just let us run with our pack.

Our school, facing a major overhaul, will be completely off-limits to any and all personnel from the last day of school this spring probably until almost Labor Day. Consequently, our AD called a meeting with all coaches to find alternative practice venues and make arrangements for off-campus storage of necessary equipment. He went around to each coach in turn and made detailed notes of accommodations that would be required.

When he came to me, I told him our needs were zero. We needed no access whatsoever to our school's facilities until after the start of school, and truth be told, not even then. We don't ask for much.

Just let us run with our pack.

Great letter, Michael Smith!!! I hope that you will be able to go the February 1st meeting and if not, that someone reads your letter aloud. Thanks Dave, for posting this. It is beautifully written - eloquent, moving and above all, true!