Come on Hunter wrote:
It was a dumb comment. It makes them seem sort of out of touch or disingenuous. People are always looking to take shots at someone who is on top and that is where the Hunters are so they may want to be extra careful of their comments if they care about their national reputation. Their school is probably in the upper 5% in the country in terms of enrollment. Its kind of like turning on the TV and hearing some CEO say that he doesn't make that much at $800k.
I don't think this was a "dumb" comment at all. I don't want stats to get in the way of your opinions, but here are a few to think about:
Out of the 317 schools in the state of Virginia, Loudoun Valley High School has the 141st largest enrollment, approximately 100 more students than the median school, and places them at roughly the 45th percentile in terms of total enrollment in VA.
Although they aren't in the bottom half of all schools in our state(I coach "against" them), when talking about competitive running programs on a national level, which is rightfully where they should make their comparisons, I'd be willing to wager that they are well below the median enrollment. I don't have the time (or motivation) to find enrollments of all of the NXN qualifying schools, but for a couple of examples- Great Oak has approximately 2.5 times Loudoun Valley's enrollment and Katelyn Tuohy's North Rockland HS has approximately double Loudoun Valley's enrollment. With that said, I don't think Marc Hunter is off-base by saying they have a small enrollment in comparison to the nation's top and most noteworthy cross country schools. I doubt he was comparing LV's enrollment to that of a 250-student rural school with no running program.