CT HS Sophomore ineligible for XC for running charity 5k

What is the reasoning behind this rule?

This sounds like a miss interpretation of the rules. I beleive the rule is more meant for out of state competitions etc. Not weekend road races for charity that many kids do whether its a jog or competitive effort.

Most rules like this have their roots in Football or Basketball. This is to reduce the conflicts that athletes often face between their "select" teams like AAU etc. and their public school teams.

Most high school coaches like the rule. Athletes should be focusing on their xc season not running around doing additional road races etc. Just had our team volunteer to help with aid stations etc at a local charity race.

oldcrowbar wrote:

Most high school coaches like the rule.

I don't like the rule. My athletes focus on the season and our meets but if we wanted to hope in a charity race and tempo it to get a good workout while also helping a local organization out why not? That is good PR for our team and if it doesn't interfere with our race schedule what is the harm?

I wasn't fond of the rule when it was put into place almost 50 years ago. However, there have been compromises and the rule now only covers cross country. Athletes can still do road races during indoor and outdoor track. It was put into place to protect the integrity of the high school programs and protect the athletes. The intent of the rule is good. All coaches are reminded of the rule at the start of each cross country season.

The article itself is full of inaccuracies. This was a competitive event. Although the times weren't extremely fast, this was a road race not a charity walk. For the father to say the kid ran "because there were a few slots open" is just complete BS and confirms the fact that he has no idea what he's talking about

yurginjurgin wrote:

Sucks for him, but you have to know this rule. Don't run pointless charity 5ks in season. Someone is always watching...

Like it or not these are the rules you must abide by if you want to stay eligible for your school team

If by "protect the integrity of the high school programs and protect the athletes" you mean exercise a draconian control over the lives of kids then yes.

High School sports are like abusive, possessive boyfriends that insist on punishing you if you try to have any life outside the relationship. Most states allow the individual teams to make rules this oppressive but Connecticut has institutionalized it at the highest level. (BTW- indoor and outdoor running a road race is still banned if you have two regularly scheduled meets during the week - which is most teams most weeks.)

Ray wrote:

The article itself is full of inaccuracies. This was a competitive event. Although the times weren't extremely fast, this was a road race not a charity walk. For the father to say the kid ran "because there were a few slots open" is just complete BS and confirms the fact that he has no idea what he's talking about

Not necessarily. The race in question was a trail run, not a road race. I can't speak for this particular event, but I know it is not unusual to cap the number of race entries for trail runs.

Okay Scott Peterson wrote:

If by "protect the integrity of the high school programs and protect the athletes" you mean exercise a draconian control over the lives of kids then yes.

High School sports are like abusive, possessive boyfriends that insist on punishing you if you try to have any life outside the relationship. Most states allow the individual teams to make rules this oppressive but Connecticut has institutionalized it at the highest level. (BTW- indoor and outdoor running a road race is still banned if you have two regularly scheduled meets during the week - which is most teams most weeks.)

You must not live in an area where club and AAU sports (not to mention 3rd part coaches) run rampant. I do, and I think a HS coach -- not to mention a conference or state athletic association -- should be able to set in-season rules. If not schools would either lose their best athletes or the kids would be pulled in way too many directions.

I coach basketball at the middle school level, where those rules don't exist, and kids are always going from my practices and games to workouts or games for not only basketball, but other sports as well, like hockey or baseball workouts, even as late as 9 or 9:30 on a school night. It's draconian to make sure kids aren't burned out or overused or overextended?

So you just take for granted that schools - a middle school in your example - have first priority. Perhaps middle schools shouldn't be burning kids out with basketball leagues that, in general, are far inferior to the AAU leagues. That's just your example.Regarding what burns a kid out:It's draconian to make those decisions for kids and parents. I promise you high schools are far more responsible for burning kids out than weekend road races. As a high school coach you have control over your kids at practice and at meets. That's it. You do not have the right to decide what they do in their life aside from that. Neither does a state association. If you try to venture into that part of kids' lives, you're part of a huge problem. In case you haven't noticed, high schools have recently started losing the best runners in the country: Cain, Maton, Ephraimson, (Frazier I think) over being sociopathic in their jealous possessiveness. The schools that didn't lose the best runners (Cranny, Fisher) allowed them to have private coaches and other freedoms.

Ok, so I checked with some participants.

1) it's a race

2) yes, it does go on trails, but race organizers are disappointed they only had 200 entires after 260 the year before, so there were not "limited spots"

3) the kid was pre registered, so dad is full of crap

4) the kid knew the rule ahead of time and according to 2 different sources said something like how would they find out or who is going to know.

5) race results are listed on the Hitekracing.com site

6) many people involved in the race organization are quite pleased with the publicity

In summary, another entitled kid encouraged by his parents to do whatever he wants, knowingly break the rules, and then have friends start a lame ass petition to get out of it

One more point, isn't just about every race put on anywhere a "charity event"?

The winner was the Danbury high assistant coach.

random3 wrote:

Most rules like this have their roots in Football or Basketball. This is to reduce the conflicts that athletes often face between their "select" teams like AAU etc. and their public school teams.

The problem is that the rules don't take into account that even though a road race is organized, it's really more analogous to a pickup basketball game in the park than any kind of serious competition. Of course the rules wouldn't preclude a basketball player from playing with a few friends on an off weekend. Nor should they preclude a runner from jogging a charity event.

You tell 'em Bubba! That's what this country is all about. Make rules that bully and exploit kids and if they stand up against it, level 'em. I bet you would have stoned Rosa Parks.

Dumb rule.

Declaring him ineligible for the remainder of the season???

How about simply having that race count as one of the meets toward his seasonal limit (assuming CT has a rule limiting the number of meets an athlete can compete in...).

Yurginjurgin wrote:

The winner was the Danbury high assistant coach.

Guess it would be kind of hard for him to ignore, especially since the kid finished 4th, and probably won an award: "And 1st 15-19 AG is hometown high's own XC star Whiny McShortpants!!!"

I absolutely agree with this rule. If you're in season, you're commited to the team. If you don't want to commit, don't go out for the team. Those of you arguing against this are the same guys who blow up at the important races because you can't focus your training.