to Malmo, Gary and all others who care to express your opinions

trololol wrote:

lllll wrote:

Who the hell is Gary? This has been bothering me for days.

ment Gerry, screwed up on the name....that was definitely my bad. wasn't thinking, but thats not the point of this thread

In that case, who the hell is Gerry?

gerry lindgren thought he might have something to say about this.

Why does cross country always have to be the "short bus" of high school sports?

Football, baseball, basketball routinely cut players for the simple reason of being not good enough....and they are told that.

I didn't go through all the pages of responses so someone may have addressed this already. I have heard of several schools with big teams that have gone to this because of liability issues. The district will only hire two or three coaches and they are so spread out that liability has become an issue. You may or may not agree with this but the liability factor would/could be huge.

I have not gone through the whole thread. However, what he wants to see the first day is flawed in that it gives no chance to start the season and work. What is a high school freshman to do if they cannot run (just a little slower than) 3-hour marathon pace on a day that is likely to be pretty warm, if not down right hot, where 23 minutes might be more like 21 later in the fall. I probably would not have made the team my freshman year, in which case I would not have become a runner. While not a great runner, I diid manage a 2:35 marathon or two.

Because the 27 minute 5ker does NOT (assuming enough resources/coaching exist) in any way detract from the ability of the 16 minute 5ker to compete. You can't say the same for the klutz who can't hit a baseball even off a tee or the one who can only dribble a basketball with two hands. Their poor ability would be so detrimental to the team that they would never be able to contribute and trying to get them to contribute WOULD negatively affect the results of the rest of the team.

Silly old elitist wrote:

Because the 27 minute 5ker does NOT (assuming enough resources/coaching exist) in any way detract from the ability of the 16 minute 5ker to compete. You can't say the same for the klutz who can't hit a baseball even off a tee or the one who can only dribble a basketball with two hands. Their poor ability would be so detrimental to the team that they would never be able to contribute and trying to get them to contribute WOULD negatively affect the results of the rest of the team.

Elitist, there is no difference. With patient coaching the klutz could hit the baseball. The baseball coach just doesn't have the time or patience.

That's not fair of your coach. You never know when some slow kid will start to improve. My 6:02 mile PR in december wouldn't have made varsity on my team but i got to stay and dropped over a minute in 5 months to go sub 5 and varsity in may. If anything he should give the kids a few races to go under 23 instead of on day 1

any kid who cant run 23 mins obviously did not work at all during the summer. i completely agree with your coach, if you dont care do you deserve to be on the team? these kids only drag others down with them (hey man lets just take it easy today, lets just walk around in the woods).

that stated, i dont think this is fair for freshman at all, they need more time to develop/prove their dedication.

Why do they need to prove their dedication? Let them go out and if they enjoy it maybe they'll start taking their training in the off season seriously. Forcing them to be dedicated is going to turn people away. Most kids want to do things other than train for their sports in the off season, mainly being a kid.

I may have ran 50 miles a summer during high school, it just wasn't high on my priority list. I still ran pretty well in season but I wasn't dedicated to xc outside of the fall. I participated in another sport which I was exponentially better at and I enjoyed more -- easy to see why xc got the backseat.

However, priorities started to switch my senior year and now I hardly participate in the other sport. But I train seriously year round for xc, indoors, and outdoors.

He also expects us to log every run we do in this program he set up that puts it onto a spread sheet, it takes a good 5 minutes to enter it every day....why do coaches care if your training over the summer, he should know that his dedicated runners are training hard!

I joined my high school team as a sophomore and did my first race in something like 26:10. I was the #1 runner on the team by junior year. I don't even consider myself all that talented. It's ridiculous that a coach won't allow 23+ guys on the team. Unless you have a ridiculously good club team at your high school, then this coach is completely off his rocker.

...unless he's lying and plans to let you on, but is just trying to motivate you. In that case he's just a liar.

Someone pointed out that it weeds out the unprepared, but how many incoming freshman really know they want to run cross country on July 1? Many of them don't even decide until their friend talks them into it on the third day of school after they run a mile in PE. So some are unprepared because the thought of running XC never crossed their minds.

I once had a kid run 42 minutes in his first race, and ended up at 23 six weeks later and 20 in another year. He knew he wasn't going to make varsity, but it was still the best thing he did in high school (his words). I'm glad I didn't cut him.

I say the time trial shouldn't matter by itself, but then if you must cut people, cut those who don't make a commitment in the few weeks between the time trial and the first meet.

Correct. I absolutely despise the morons who run xc to put on their college applications. And then there are the kids who straight up say "screw this. I don't want to run today." Really? Cmon you don't wanna run but you do xc?

who the hell sucks so bad they have to run 50mpw as a male high schooler to break 23? They definately need a new sport.

being a total d-bag here, but the most improved award is a load of crap. All it means is you once sucked and now you don't suck as much. I hate the self entitlement people have these days. Guess what? I try too. And I get screwed over too. But I don't expect handouts. Ill get my awards when the hardwork makes me the best, not mediocre.

sandybeaver wrote:

At one of my first practices as a high school freshman, new to the sport, my coach gave a speech. He told us how the last guy on the team is just as important as the first guy on the team because they both contribute to the team, but in different ways. We all kinda laughed at him because how could a 25 minute guy be as important as a sub 16 guy? Now, 7 years later, I'm starting get it. Your coach definitely doesn't get it.

Wrong. The sub 16 guy always has more potential for importance. Both can be cheerleaders or whatever, but the sub 16 guy will get more followers and be a better role model.

Correct answer wrote:

It's dumb. Give kids and opportunity to do athletics and a social outlet.

I'd argue that cross country has the greatest impact upon youth out of all sports. Consider the kids who have done cross country on your team who wouldn't have made the cut in any other sport. Think of how beneficial giving those kids a team and an outlet has been to their lives.

Being on a team is huge, it's a family and it's about being a part of something bigger than yourself. Having a purpose. I promise you that most every kid brings something to the team other than a number or time. And short of delinquents I see no reason to cut them. Kids are sedentary these days, we should be encouraging exercise and fitness. Who knows, you may find some hidden talent.

It turns the sport into Hang-out With The Athletically Challenged Club. This isn't a freaking daycare or hang-out spot.

SomeCoach wrote:

The school district I coach for can only supply one bus/gender for away meets, so we can't travel with more than 44 athletes. We don't cut kids, but we use a sliding scale (based on years of experience) in terms of a "minimum" to make the traveling squad. All athletes still compete at all home meets. The standards are roughly (I don't have the list in front of me) ...

1st year: 24:00

2nd year: 22:00

3rd year: 20:30

4th year: 19:00

We only apply the standards in years that we have an abundance of kids; I think we have used this policy twice in the past 15 years.

Cutting in XC is just plain dumb; if we started a thread asking for stories about kids who didn't break 8:00 pace as frosh and then made some sort of an All-State team the thread would be silly long.

Cool story. Our school is so ghetto our entire guys and girls track team has to fit into 1 bus. We end up with over 3 kids to a seat. I sure as hell despise sitting next to the smelly fat thrower who can't throw over 50' in the jav.