Trawling through the Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) X-C roster, I see the mens roster is 65% foreign (13/20).
The womens roster is 41.66% foreign (5/12).
Overall there is a 56.25% foreign presence (18/32).
How say u?
Trawling through the Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) X-C roster, I see the mens roster is 65% foreign (13/20).
The womens roster is 41.66% foreign (5/12).
Overall there is a 56.25% foreign presence (18/32).
How say u?
Silly Old Fossil wrote:
Trawling through the Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) X-C roster, I see the mens roster is 65% foreign (13/20).
The womens roster is 41.66% foreign (5/12).
Overall there is a 56.25% foreign presence (18/32).
How say u?
I say your math checks out for the most part. Technically, the last 6 in the 41.66 is a repeating digit, and thus should either be rounded up to 47.67 or a notation made for the repeating number.
Otherwise, you have done well in 3rd grade math.
A-
So they found 18 kids who wanted to get an education in America and run fast. What's your point?
The foreigners work just has hard as the Americans, some have to work harder (language differences in classrooms can be a b$#@*)
Not true wrote:
So they found 18 kids who wanted to get an education in America and run fast. What's your point?
The foreigners work just has hard as the Americans, some have to work harder (language differences in classrooms can be a b$#@*)
Because it is not a two-way street. How many Americans are on athletic scholarship at Loughborough University...and they do offer athletic scholarships there (see Seb Coe).
The average Kentucky kid doesn't just have to compete against fellow Kentuckians, or even fellow Americans....but the entire world.
Why call it the NCAA; should be the ICAA.
How say u?
Silly Old Fossil wrote:
The average Kentucky kid doesn't just have to compete against fellow Kentuckians, or even fellow Americans....but the entire world.
Yeah, it's called life in the 21st century. Get used to competing with everyone, rather than just artificially created pools of local individuals.
Louisville is known to bring in a canadian or two......
My high school coach (in KY, but the point holds true even if we weren't in ky) used to say "You are the best in the town. So what? You are the best in the state. So what? You have to race the best to be the best."
I am all for racing the best, no matter where they are from.
Amazing. They have 20 runners on their XC squad?
EKU is a very poor academic university. Anyone can go there, so it is very easy to get foreign students accepted, who wouldn't qualify elsewhere.
Are you talking about 1972?
(See December cover)
http://trackandfieldnews.com/archive/past_issues/1972covers.html
While EKU is not a top school in the country by any means, it has very strong nursing, teaching, and criminal justice programs. (I think criminal justice is top 3 or 4 in the country).
as soon as equally fast high school kids from Kentucky, or ANYWHERE ELSE in the US want to go to EKU, they will get a scholarship. Until then, why give a scholarship to an inferior local talent?
shoot, I bet all the best Kentucky kids go to UK, how is there team on a national scale?
Guess the EKU coaches know how to produce the best result in their particular circumstance.
.............................. wrote:
as soon as equally fast high school kids from Kentucky, or ANYWHERE ELSE in the US want to go to EKU, they will get a scholarship. Until then, why give a scholarship to an inferior local talent?
shoot, I bet all the best Kentucky kids go to UK, how is there team on a national scale?
Guess the EKU coaches know how to produce the best result in their particular circumstance.
Where is the incentive for high school kids (even fairly good ones) to stay with the sport....particularly with no chance of a scholarship.
What is the attrition rate of high school-to-college X-C?
Is this fostering the sport....or killing it?
THe sport lives & dies with the grassroots runners; not with the Rupps.
Ever seen a UTEP team?
Ever see any of Mick Byrnes' old Iona teams?
Heard of the University of Alabama (in the past 6 years or so)?
Ever heard of University of South Alabama?
Those are just D1 teams off the top of my head that routinely load with foreign talent.
Harding U
Abilene Christian
Oklahoma Christian
Oklahoma Baptist
etc
etc
etc
etc
The Stache wrote:
Ever seen a UTEP team?
Ever see any of Mick Byrnes' old Iona teams?
Heard of the University of Alabama (in the past 6 years or so)?
Ever heard of University of South Alabama?
Those are just D1 teams off the top of my head that routinely load with foreign talent.
Harding U
Abilene Christian
Oklahoma Christian
Oklahoma Baptist
etc
etc
etc
etc
Oregon too.
Programs that UK is not interested in making great.
ran against them from 1997-2001 and they always had 6 kenyans and a token american. oddly their kenyans always had the same name. mohammed musse was actually mohammed khary, a couple david machungo's then they had the 28yr old josephat muchacka who actually led NCAA XC in 1999 or 2000 then. Despite these they didnt dominate OVC XC as they should have...and thats not a powerhouse conference.
average road racer wrote:
Silly Old Fossil wrote:The average Kentucky kid doesn't just have to compete against fellow Kentuckians, or even fellow Americans....but the entire world.
Yeah, it's called life in the 21st century. Get used to competing with everyone, rather than just artificially created pools of local individuals.
Who artificially creates these pools of local individuals? If these individuals are local is the pool artificial?
Interesting questions.
Where is the incentive? Hopefully love of the sport and a desire to keep on. If someone is only running because they're getting some sort of material reward they aren't going to last long or usually amount to all that much.
My oldest son loved the sport in high school and is now running at a low level DI program because he wants to, not because he's getting anything extrinsic.
But if you want to talk incentives, I'd think that needing to compete against faster foreigners for a scholarship could provide incentive for a US high school kid to run faster just as easily as it could push him out of the sport.
HRE wrote:
But if you want to talk incentives, I'd think that needing to compete against faster foreigners for a scholarship could provide incentive for a US high school kid to run faster just as easily as it could push him out of the sport.
You nailed it!
I was an American who earned a scholarship at a program that was built around a strong group of internationals. I was never our top runner, but I contributed every year and held my own. Whenever I would hear about the next group of kenyans coming in, that was just motivation for me to train harder to hold my scholarship and spot on the team.