IL hs coach screws over team

Virgin is right and yeah it is about the top runners. It is about finding out who the best individuals and teams are in the state not about letting in more athletes. I hate to see similar times win different divisions. Those athletes should be racing each other. NXN and Footlocker don't have different divisions based on school size and neither should a state meet.

I graduated just before the switch to 1A, 2A, 3A. It was a point of pride for me that IL only had 2 classes, which meant it was really special to make it to state. It also meant there very rarely was a question of if a smaller school would have made the podium in the other race. Finally the top individual race are better with fewer classes.

Watered down wrote:

Virgin is right and yeah it is about the top runners. It is about finding out who the best individuals and teams are in the state not about letting in more athletes. I hate to see similar times win different divisions. Those athletes should be racing each other. NXN and Footlocker don't have different divisions based on school size and neither should a state meet.

You're comparing apples to oranges. Footlocker and NXN have a stated purpose, find the best runners/teams from across the country. IHSA has several purposes one of which is to hold a competition that determines the best team(s) in the state in a particular sport. They also stress geographical representation, hence the regional/sectional structure of the qualifying rounds. They also have a goal of growing sports. Cross country had fewer than 400 schools participating when I first started coaching 20 years ago. That number was relatively stagnant until the split into three classes. This year there will be nearly 600 schools participating. More schools encouraging running, more kids participating in the sport. From their point of view, this has been a success.

Illinois does not stress geographical representation now in 3A. There are too few 3A schools outside of the Chicago area. They took the regional closest to Gary Indiana, the Quad Cities schools and other schools south of 80 go to Normal for regionals and then combine them with the East St Louis area to form a Sectional. Not very geographic when you consider 90% of the state is covered by one sectional geographically. It maybe better for the smaller schools.

I ran at a school that was one of the smallest in AA back when there were two divisions. Granted we never made the podium but we really didn't care we ran against the best.

What are you talking about? The number of teams participating in cross country has grown from 400 to 600 ? What 200 schools didn't have cross country teams 20 years ago that do now?

Girls teams, including at private high schools that went co-ed in past 20 yeawrs, perhaps? e.g. Marist

Ron Tabb wrote:

Jones College Prep XC coach rests top 3 runners in regional, fails to qualify team.

http://www.ihsa.org/data/ccb/188390.pdf

The idiom "too clever by half" comes to mind here.

Or three-fifths.

I don't think there are 600. But there are more than in the past--close to 500. In Chicago they have opened many smaller charter high schools, and cross country is a main stay sport, especially for the Noble network of 25 or so schools.

These schools have checked in as 1A schools, but there are so many now that they bump other city schools up a class into 2A.

The three class system has mainly given the lower level 1 A and 2 A schools more opportunity for success. Pretty much the same large 3A schools from Chicago suburbs continue to dominate that class.

Chicago XC wrote:

I don't think there are 600. But there are more than in the past--close to 500. In Chicago they have opened many smaller charter high schools, and cross country is a main stay sport, especially for the Noble network of 25 or so schools.

These schools have checked in as 1A schools, but there are so many now that they bump other city schools up a class into 2A.

The three class system has mainly given the lower level 1 A and 2 A schools more opportunity for success. Pretty much the same large 3A schools from Chicago suburbs continue to dominate that class.

According to this link from the IHSA, it's 586, although 43 total schools are represented by individuals and don't field full teams. The growth in 1A is pretty significant since the moved to three classes. In 1988 the total number of schools participating was 390.

No one but jones was told they qualified. All 5 of the advancing individuals announced were from Von Steuben.

How many more H.S are there now compared to 1988? I know there was 2 in Naperville back in 1988, there are 4 now and those are not the only new ones that I have seen.

Joliet and Plainfield have 4 now. Oswego and St Charles 2, there is 10 extra there.

1972: Single class

1st place: Craig Virgin 13.50

25th place: 14.51

1976: Split into two classes A & AA

1st place: 14.08

25th place: 14.41

2015: Currently 3 classes A, AA & AAA

1st place:14.20

25th place:14.46

Since the 3 class split it consistently takes around 14.50 to make all state (top 25) in the top class. To say it's a watered down race is not a fair statement imo.

Who the fck is the coach?

?????????? wrote:

How many more H.S are there now compared to 1988? I know there was 2 in Naperville back in 1988, there are 4 now and those are not the only new ones that I have seen.

Interesting as I'm not sure about that. There has been growth for sure, not only in terms of public schools but there are a lot of private Christian schools that have opened around my area as well. Although on the flip side there are also schools that have closed, and in the case of Downstate schools, communities that have consolidated.

I don't believe the growth in the number of schools participating in cross country can be completely explained by simply new schools being created. For every Naperville type community, there is a Peoria (6 schools in 1988, 4 schools now). The three class system gave lots of schools a legitimate reason to create or revitalize programs because there was now a viable route to success.

1. State meet is 3 weeks after City Championship, he did it to rest the top guys to peak them at state, so they could get their best at the two top "bragging rights" meets, City and State.

2. This is the first I heard about Tourette's ... kid threw the Fbomb at another kid at the finish line when he got beat, referee warned him and he threw the Fbomb at the ref ... then got DQ'd.

3. Ref DQ'd the wrong name/number by accident, thus the scoring was wrong. When they found the error after announcing the results/points they noticed that the wrong guy was DQ'd, the tie was eliminated and Jones was out.

4. Teams at sectional change from year to year, this year a couple of the new teams for this sectional were good, it was unexpectedly tight ... Jones coach had no idea that competition would be this stiff.

5. Jones used to be 2A, moved to 3A a couple of years ago when school opened a second building, again surprise factor.

Coach mistake, sad for seniors, especially Adams, but coach has surely beaten himself up more than any of us can guess. Jones has no football team, XC is a big program.