Texas Distance Festival 2020

What a bloody idiot! You compete at the State Track Meet as an individual. Wanting competition should not be frowned upon.

I am from a 5A who was supposed to win CC but choked badly. We are driving for 6 hours to get there. Tell him flat out, I want the competition. I'll get there on my own for this but I need a real race and a real PR.

They should call it Friday Night Spikes.

Nah, thats the Friday Night Lights meet in the Woodlands.

So I'm a high school head XC coach but only an assistant in track (our head coach is a sprints guy). We don't always see eye to eye, but he's very flexible in allowing us to not only host a distance carnival but also allow us to travel on occasion where good competition is. It can't be all the time due to meet scheduling limitations, but a high class meet like the Texas Distance Festival should be one of those times.

Is your XC coach also your track coach? AKA - is the dude who screamed at you also the one who coached you to a top 10 finish at State XC?

Either way - as the athlete, you unfortunately don't really have a choice. You can protest all you want, but if your coach is that hard-nosed, then you risk further punishment and alienation. If you approach him with a sound argument about why it's good for you to attend, then perhaps he changes his tone?

You chose the wrong way and time to approach him with the question, that's why you got that response. You don't have to like it but know you were in the wrong here. Focus on running your best and you'll find plenty of competition when it's appropriate.

So let me rephrase this....your coach's reaction was to yell at you in front of the entire team, tell you to never bring this up again, and tells you that either do what he says or quit.

I would love to hear the coach's side of what happened.

Well this is not true. The favorites both won in 5A.

CedarParkRunner72 wrote:

I am from a 5A who was supposed to win CC but choked badly. We are driving for 6 hours to get there. Tell him flat out, I want the competition. I'll get there on my own for this but I need a real race and a real PR.

I would not exactly say you were supposed to win 5A State, Jack

A similar situation apparently exists at a couple of schools in Minnesota. Their coaches refuse to permit individuals who have run qualifying times to run in the Hamline Elite Meet. They say that allowing their individual team members to run at Hamline (minus the team as a whole) would be bad for team motivation/morale, or some such dreck.

No, we have a head track coach that is different from our cross country coach. Part of the problem is that our cross country coach is too scared to stand up to our head track coach so he always gets his way.

Yes, that is exactly what happened. We had asked him at the end of cross if we could add it into the track schedule and he said he would "look into it". When we brought it up again to see why we couldn't do it he just got pissed and everything fell apart.

Smoke weed, talk like Lane Kiffin wrote:

You chose the wrong way and time to approach him with the question, that's why you got that response. You don't have to like it but know you were in the wrong here. Focus on running your best and you'll find plenty of competition when it's appropriate.

I strongly disagree. We emailed him asking to talk about it and he just got mad the next day. We tried to have a normal conversation and instead were yelled at. We do run our best and win every small meet we go to. We just wanted a little more competition and the chance to go to a fun meet.

Just have your mom or dad complain to the School AD and District AD. More and more that's exactly how kids are getting playing time and meet choices these days. Also for a added touch reach out to the local news media, and maybe even post about it (the more vulgar the better) on SnapChat. Works everytime.

You can disagree all you want, it's obvious from the reaction that you took a disrespectful approach. Even if you didn't mean to. Keep winning and get straight As.

Depending on what grade ya'll are in, I would consider going up the chain of command and bring this matter to the Athletic Director.

If you're a senior, I would definitely go that route because the coach only has one season to be mad at you and then you won't have to deal with them ever again. If you're not a senior, you'll have to weigh how much running at that meet means to you, because you'll likely face the coach's wrath for your remaining time at the school.

Frankly, if the coach doesn't have a legitimate argument other than the "taking away from the team aspect" one, he is not being reasonable and is just being lazy. If just one or two people qualify for state, will the coach keep them at home because they are going as individuals?

The "team" is present wherever its athletes are competing, and your desire to represent your team at marquee meets is a positive for the program.

Be sure to study up on the team handbook or rule book so you know what is actually against the rules and what is just your coach not wanting to change.

Last year I went to a festival that took place after an athletics competition. It was a very cool and exciting competition, and after that there was a cool festival for everyone. I work for a company which is engaged in the arrangement of sound equipment, setting the stage and equipment for festivals. We are also responsible for the light and good atmosphere at the festival. We set prices at various competitions so I went to various festivals and met a lot of people. If there are any competitions next year and you want to organize a festival or concert after them, you can always contact me. I can recommend our website to you

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