Please respond to the following questions...
1. Was your high school Cross Country team coed or gender-segregated?
2. Would you have preferred the opposite arrangement?
3. Rate the quality of your team on a scale of 1 thru 10 (1 = Bottom of your league, 6 = Worst State Qualifier, 10 = State Champions)
Thanks!
1. Gender Segregated, different coaches for each gender. Girls coach was the head track coach and boys's coach was a chem teacher who had no involvement with the track team
2. Not particularly
3. My team (girls) 9, boys team 7
1. Coed
2. No
3. Boys 7/Girls 6 (in Texas)
1.) Co-ed
2.) Yes and no. The girls team is much better than the boys, and it may be because guys need and can handle more miles.
3.) 3 or 4 girls got first at district, boys 2nd, so made regionals but did not place high. not a single person made state although one was about 4 spots away.
When I was in high school:
1. Co Ed
2 no
3 boys 6, girls 3
Before I arrived at high school, there was a really good coach (who left the year before I enrolled):
1 co Ed
2 idk (no I guess)
3 boys 6, girls 10
1. Separate
2. Our boys team would probably benefit from being around the girls since our program is more serious but it wouldn’t make a difference for most of the girls. Maybe the top 1 or 2 girls would benefit from training with the guys instead of always workout out solo?
3. Girls 9, boys 3
1. coed
2. definitely not
3. 10
coed
fantastic
2017: guys 5th, girls 6th
2016: guys 3rd
When I was in highschool we had the same coaches and would warmup and do drills together and generally do speed workouts on the same days, but other than the top 2 girls (who were literally state champion quality in California) I and the other top guys ran with the girls maybe once a month (or less) on a particularly easy day. The best girl would do almost all of her easy runs with some segment of the varsity guys by time she was a senior, she was an aerobic monster. I think some of the varsity girls would run with the JV and FS guys because they were similar speeds.
1. Coed
2. No
3. Boys 8, Girls 10 our best years.
My personal thought is that coed is better as long as the training isn't being compromised.
Coed
1. There was a separate coach for the girls and boys team but we practiced together.
2. No. More people around to chat with was fun. I couldn't hang with the top guys (I went to Rockford High School and was going through when Dathan Ritzenhein and Jason Hartmann were on the team) so having more people to run with during practice was nice.
3. 10. The team never lost the state meet while I was in high school. I think the boy's team got 2nd in 2017 which is the first time they haven't been first in 20 some years. The girls won in 2017.
Larry David wrote:
Please respond to the following questions...
1. Was your high school Cross Country team coed or gender-segregated?
2. Would you have preferred the opposite arrangement?
3. Rate the quality of your team on a scale of 1 thru 10 (1 = Bottom of your league, 6 = Worst State Qualifier, 10 = State Champions)
Thanks!
1. Coed- the girls coach was just some teacher, the boys coach was a long time successful coach. He made the workouts, did EVERYTHING, the girls coach just helped tote water, do some minimal supervision.
2. Both teams were a solid 7. Not state champions but always in the mix at the regional meets.
Personally I would have preferred an all guys team. Ladies were nice to look at but man did they bring the drama.. there was always some soap opera with that group. Guys almost always got along very well.
Thanks for the good data, all--please keep it coming!
1. School was all-male, so team was all-male
2. See 1. Opposite arrangement does not exist at that school
3. 8.5-9. No SC, but a good number of Invitational, league, and State Regional championships, back in my era
The most important thing is the jacuzzi tub after practice
1 co-ed
2 net positive
3 11 (NXN)
Were the girls and guys considered part the same TEAM or two separate teams merely joined because the school could only afford one coach?
1. Separate
2. No. Girls team was much less serious than us (even though they still had success), and would've only provided distractions and dragged us down.
3. 11 (NXN qualifiers
1. Separate
2. No- HSers don’t need that distraction
3. Boys 8-10, Girls 6-8
Yes.
No, although I am sure some guys may not like getting beaten by girls. Being co-ed for sure helped push the girls to a new level.
Boys State Champs. Girls State Runner-Up
1) My high school team was gender-segregated, rode the same bus and went to the same meet, but had two different coaches who ran two separate workout schedules for each team. Occasionally when one coach didn't show up we'd go together.
2) I would've much preferred to be coed, as I like to do what I call "Morale boosting workouts." Nothing feels better than dropping the entire girls team by minutes (especially when your PR is 5 minutes faster in the 5k). On track days I'd imagine the mental boost from being able to lap them. That sounded kind of like a mean thing to say, but oh well.
3) Guys were worst state qualifier so a 6 (I would've been #1 individual if we hadn't gone as a team though, we range from a sub 16 to a 19:20, with a high concentration in the mid 18s). Girls didn't qualify for state, probably a 3.
