Another frustrated Parent with coach

Realty Dosage wrote:

Tldr; your annoying and helicoptering. Get over yourself. Your prince isn't the next Rupp or Mary Cain. Enjoy being a spectator and cheerleader for your son when he races.

Your job is to support your son TEACHING him to make the best of the situation. The kid has two more years to become the big fish of your tiny T&F pond.

Of course that will not sit well with the OP.

doesn't make sense wrote:

Realty Dosage wrote:

Coaches like winning and will put the best team out there. If it's close between a sophomore and senior, usually it goes to the dedicated senior.

I've never understood this. Why not give the experience to the runner who will be returning?

Only if the one returning has faster times than the one that isn't

JND wrote:

thejeff wrote:

Encourage YOUR SON to set up an appointment with the coach to discuss YOUR SON's concerns. IF and ONLY IF your son gets blown off, should you get involved. If that happens, request to meet directly with the coach (not the AD). If and only if you get blown off, should you request to meet with the AD.

That is the most helpful advice you will get.

No. The best advice is to set up an appointment with an English teacher.

POD. Give this man a medal.

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

Realty Dosage wrote:

Tldr; your annoying and helicoptering. Get over yourself. Your prince isn't the next Rupp or Mary Cain. Enjoy being a spectator and cheerleader for your son when he races.

Your job is to support your son TEACHING him to make the best of the situation. The kid has two more years to become the big fish of your tiny T&F pond.

Of course that will not sit well with the OP.

They are all tiny ponds, so nothing matters. Heck, why does he even run if he can't be Mary Rupp or Galen Cain?

Agree with thejeff. Good advice.

HSCoach wrote:

doesn't make sense wrote:

I've never understood this. Why not give the experience to the runner who will be returning?

Only if the one returning has faster times than the one that isn't

If we're talking about 2:06 guys, I don't really see the benefit of running the senior. Neither runner is going to be a factor, and you're basically forfeiting the 4X800 anyway if you put a 2:06 guy on the team. The only hope is that running the sophomore 2:06 guy will help him on his journey to become a sub 2 guy.

Sure, if you have a senior and soph who are both running 1:58-2:00 fighting for the last relay spot, maybe let the senior run the finals of the 4X800 and use the soph in the prelims. But if neither guy is going to contribute, use it as a chance to develop the guy who might contribute some day.

The only think more frustrating are the parents with the stop watches who time the kids about 2 seconds faster because they dont know what the middle of the zone is.

You should talk to the coach directly. He has, quite obviously, already blown off your son - either he is dispassionate and uninterested, or he has something against your boy. Either way, HS coaches, and especially ADs, will almost always back down to parents.

1) Have your son talk to the coach.

2) If the coach treats your son's questions with respect, you're done. The coach gets to make wrong judgements. This happens several times a game in ball sports. If he treats your son disrespectfully, have your son talk to the AD about *how* the coach talked to him, but not about the decision.

3) Move to Southern California. You won't have to worry about whether your boy will get picked to run at the State Meet.

You should talk to the coach directly. He has, quite obviously, already blown off your son - either he is dispassionate and uninterested, or he has something against your boy. Either way, HS coaches, and especially ADs, will almost always back down to parents.[/quote]

I like this guy's post. If your son is interested and passionate about distance then it is time to go now. This coach is a monkey, a tough guy who's decision making has his top guy running what, a 10:00 two mile. If you can I'd think about another school. I'd think about a private coach who only puts all importance on your sons progress. It is time to set a 12 or 13 week period of mileage goal and training. Work up to a 4 mile tempo. Repeats long intervals such as 5x1000, progress up to. Speed intensity. Such as the Bernie Montoya WOW repeat mile break downs. Easy and hard long run paced long runs. Negative split runs. Heck maybe your son could achieve a partial or full scholarship. If your boy wants to go for it, it should be all about him. Heck maybe he could come back two years from now and smash this coaches athletes by a few football fields. Then he can look at this monkey coach and say "I decide what and how I run."

Your kid is pretty slow - why should the coach bend over backwards for him.

Have him work real hard over the summer and come back next year as a 1:57 / 4:35 / 9:45 guy and maybe be treated a bit more seriously.

4:50 and 2:06 guys are a dime a dozen.

'Kid is a Sophomore....'

At school or college. Why not just put the age.

I'm on the side of the coach already

And you're a dope. College? Really? Nobody thought that except you. Everyone knows HS sophomores are 15 or 16 95% of the time.

Sounds very similar to my son's situation. His coach was a very strong, very difficult personality. He also really had no idea what he was doing regarding distance training.

I listened to my son's complaints and told him that he needed to run faster if he wanted to run during the championship season, that coaches sometimes give preference to seniors (especially guys who have been hard workers for four years and that was a good thing) and that he'd get plenty of opportunities to run as a junior and senior. I said nothing to the coach.

Fast forward to my son's senior year. He won MVP of the team and the coach literally cried at his banquet at the thought of my son graduating and not being on the team next year.

I think my son learned a lot of valuable lessons regarding hard work and dealing with difficult people. So, my advice would be to support your son, don't pile on the coach and keep your mouth shut. Let your son learn some life lessons. He'll be out of the house very soon and he's going to need to learn to be his own man. Might as well start now.

Get ready for clarity:

1) If neither a sophomore nor a senior have a chance of qualifying for the state meet, and the senior has been a dedicated team member, you give the nod to him even if he is slower.

2) No giving it to the sophomore for "experience". That is way overrated. The sophomore has time to get better and get the opportunities later.

3) Parents need to relax regarding their high school athlete kids, ESPECIALLY ones who are so pedestrian as a 10:09 sophomore. 10:09 isn't even in the top 1000 sophomores in the country.

4) Had this sophomore been running 9:30, there would be no question.

5) It is a bit odd that the other sophomore who is about exactly as good as this parent's sophomore gets three events while our topic sophomore gets nothing, but I'm sure there are reasons for it that we are not privy to. I'd go with the other sophomore's mother is a wh0re and she's giving the coach a backstage pass. Probably that's something to start spreading around the neighborhood.

Post of the week! Thanks for the chuckle. Backstage pass, indeed!!

Chill MonkeyMoo, it is not that hard to figure out.

OP's kid has run 10:09 2mile (2nd), 4:50 mile (3rd), 2:06 800 (5th).

another Soph (2:05, 10:12, 4:48) to triple 4x8, 800, mile.

The other Soph has run faster in both the 800 2:05 (top 4) vs 2:06(?relay?) and the mile 4:48 (at worst second on the team but maybe #1?) vs 4:50

It is a bad call but the real question is why one of the other 4 x 800 guys (most likely 2:04 guys and #2 and #3 in the school) don't get the second 800 spot?

I would guess #2 and #3 on the 4 x 800 are the 400 guys...

Yeah, I see that a guy with a single race should run faster than a guy tripling but neither one has a real chance to qualify.

You can control your own destiny in track. The stopwatch is an unyielding, but effective master.

I ran a 4:13 mile as a sophomore. I earned my right to compete, even on a team with other future Division 1 runners. And yes, I knew that 4:20 would not have cut it.

doesn't make sense wrote:

Realty Dosage wrote:

Coaches like winning and will put the best team out there. If it's close between a sophomore and senior, usually it goes to the dedicated senior.

I've never understood this. Why not give the experience to the runner who will be returning?

Easy... These times mean nothing and these kids aren't going to running for Nike. The Senior has his last chance to compete on a team he's run for for 4 years.

The other kid has 2 more years to have fun doing it before moving on with this life.