Have you ever?

P

psycho_dad

Well-known member
Have you ever been turned away from an invitational? We had a situation where one gender of our team was accepted and the other was turned away. That is a new one for us. I can see if it's an 8 lane track and they only want 8 teams and are limiting entries so there are only two sections of an event or not more than 16 or 24 in the field events etc.... , but this is a huge meet. Some events have over 60 entries. Adding our 2 kids to anything is insignificant. I've gone back through years of results and there seems no legit reason why one gender would make a difference either way.

Also thought we could use this for general questions.
 
Last edited:
 
Do you think it might have to do with the quality of the competition that they wish? I know nothing about the meet in question, but that is one reason I can think of for such a decision on their part.
 
JAVMAN83 said:
Do you think it might have to do with the quality of the competition that they wish? I know nothing about the meet in question, but that is one reason I can think of for such a decision on their part.
Click to expand...
Our boys and girls are equally competitive. Not sure how they would determine that anyway. We were more than two months away from the first competition. We would hold our own, and would not crush the competition either. We would be a good fit for the meet.
 
yj_runfan said:
Probably had already accepted more teams of one gender than the other and are trying to even it out.
Click to expand...
Yes, that could be, if like I said before they are trying to match entries to number of lanes to minimize heats, but looking at past results, they have not done that and have not had 50/50 gender split on teams. For the most part, they run two heats of each race, but there are relays that have 3. If you calculate teams from Max filled events, they would be able to add 5 more teams and not impact number of heats. They seem to be letting a lot of partial teams and individuals in selected events.i understand the logic, but they gave not used logic in the past. I suppose that they decided this year was the year.
 
Another issue.... MS "State" meet. Our conference has moved the league championship meet so that the times and marks will count towards getting kids invited to what is an invitational. Essentially cutting the season short for 95% of the kids by two or more weeks. Any other leagues doing this? MS season is now basically 4 weeks unless there are coaches and teams willing to stay past the conference meet to have other meets.

The MS "State" meet should not be something that takes away from all the other kids. It's MS. These kids should be getting more meets not less.
 
Grades came out and some kids did not hit the schools minimum standard. What is your policy? How do you feel about getting rid of kids that are not disciplinary problems or attitude problems?

I'm not good with having to let kids go that are not detrimental to the team and that I feel need Track and Field more than it needs them. We don't let kids hang around if they cannot participate in meets, but I'm always torn because there are kids that I feel might need to be at practice to be around the type of kids that could help them maybe be better students or at least be in an environment that is positive. Am I just a softie?
 
psycho_dad said:
Grades came out and some kids did not hit the schools minimum standard. What is your policy? How do you feel about getting rid of kids that are not disciplinary problems or attitude problems?

I'm not good with having to let kids go that are not detrimental to the team and that I feel need Track and Field more than it needs them. We don't let kids hang around if they cannot participate in meets, but I'm always torn because there are kids that I feel might need to be at practice to be around the type of kids that could help them maybe be better students or at least be in an environment that is positive. Am I just a softie?
Click to expand...
No, I agree. Not a softie here, but believe that it is better to have the kids around, as long as their good kids, in an environment that will be good for them and to motivate them to rejoin activities by being more proactive with their grades.
 
psycho_dad said:
Grades came out and some kids did not hit the schools minimum standard. What is your policy? How do you feel about getting rid of kids that are not disciplinary problems or attitude problems?
Click to expand...

I run into that issue in regards to numbers more so than grades, and unfortunately there's only so many kids you can get into meets even with a full JV schedule. My policy is those unlikely to get into meets can continue to train with the team if they so choose, while encouraging summer track(especially the the underclassmen).
 
lane4 said:
I run into that issue in regards to numbers more so than grades, and unfortunately there's only so many kids you can get into meets even with a full JV schedule. My policy is those unlikely to get into meets can continue to train with the team if they so choose, while encouraging summer track(especially the the underclassmen).
Click to expand...
One of the reasons that I like Dual meets. We not only get every kid on our team involved, but every kid in our conference. We run Double Duals during most weeks. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Not ideal for training, but it does not seem to have hurt our program as we do well come District - Regional and State. Probably larger than most rosters for D2. This year we will have 60 girls and 60 boys. Last year we were probably at 45-50 for each gender. We run a lot of "B" and "C" relays.

We are big on breaking the season into regular season / League-Duals - league meet, and then OHSAA Tournament. We concentrate on our Conference first. How do we beat Streetsboro, Field, Cloverleaf etc.. Get as many kids involved as possible. Then, switch focus to the Conference championship meet to District through State. We sit down as a coaching staff and really plan out our schedule for even invitationals to get as many kids involved as possible.
 
psycho_dad said:
Grades came out and some kids did not hit the schools minimum standard. What is your policy? How do you feel about getting rid of kids that are not disciplinary problems or attitude problems?

I'm not good with having to let kids go that are not detrimental to the team and that I feel need Track and Field more than it needs them. We don't let kids hang around if they cannot participate in meets, but I'm always torn because there are kids that I feel might need to be at practice to be around the type of kids that could help them maybe be better students or at least be in an environment that is positive. Am I just a softie?
Click to expand...

Not letting them practice is a local school or team decision. I would work on changing that.

You can't help a kid who is not there.
 
I never encountered this issue, but I'm fairly certain my school's policy would prevent a kid who is academically ineligible from being allowed to practice. If it was a situation related to the transfer by-laws, then the kid would be allowed to practice even though they are ineligible for competition.
 
Mr. Slippery said:
my school's policy would prevent a kid who is academically ineligible from being allowed to practice.
Click to expand...
Once upon a time, the incentive to get your grades up so you could participate in the next quarter was enough. The kid was not allowed at practice because they should be home studying.

Today, there's nobody at home to encourage the child to do better in school so they can be eligible. At best, they just go home and fire up the Xbox. Instant gratification wins the day. At worst, they are out terrorizing the neighborhood.
 
Keep in mind that there are many, many exceptions but kids with grades below an 'eligible' standard many times brings lack of discipline, attention, effort, etc. to practice. If you choose to keep those with positive attributes around for practice, you will also need to keep potential disrupting kids as well.

I am for all kids being involved to any extent possible. I am pointing out that a decision to allow those 'ineligible' to practice must be available for all.
 
Newton's Third said:
Keep in mind that there are many, many exceptions but kids with grades below an 'eligible' standard many times brings lack of discipline, attention, effort, etc. to practice. If you choose to keep those with positive attributes around for practice, you will also need to keep potential disrupting kids as well.

I am for all kids being involved to any extent possible. I am pointing out that a decision to allow those 'ineligible' to practice must be available for all.
Click to expand...
While I agree, I have just as many disruptive kids that are stand outs on the team that we put up with. Most of the kids that come out for track and field give an effort. The ones that are not cut out for it have usually weeded themselves out by week two or three.

I don't like the fact that we can't do things anymore on a case by case basis. Some kids just don't have the same resources as others and could use some help. Same as I raised and disciplined my children all different. It all has to be written down and by the book now.
 
I am all for high standards, but a one-size-fits-all approach isn't effective or fair. It discourages athletes from taking challenging academic courses. In my experience, very few kids end up ineligible because of a lack of time to do homework/prepare for exams because they are involved in sports.

This decision should be left in the hands of each parent. I don't have the hard statistics to back this up, but I believe the kids who most need to be surrounded by good peer role models and another adult role model are the same kids who are most likely to struggle academically. There are bright students who are over-involved in sports to the point that it has a strong negative impact on their grades but not to the point that they become ineligible - parents need to redirect their attentions. Other kids are aren't so bright fly closer to the flame and it has nothing to do with over-involvement. If they choose to take AP/honors classes to challenge themselves, they put their athletic participation in jepoardy regardless of their effort - that isn't right.

Once a kid become academically ineligible and quits a team, they rarely return to that sport in the future. In fact they generally disengage from athletics altogether and engage in activities that are far less productive.

Getting kids to excel on the field of competition is only part of our role as scholastic coaches funded by schools. My goal is to be a positive influence in the growth/development of my athletes. I can't do that if they aren't present because of academic eligibility issues.
 
Different sport, but my school's boys basketball team this year had a senior who was academically ineligible for the second half of the season. There were some family issues going that didn't help, but he took only college classes and his grades in those classes were really low. The kicker was that he was eligible according to OHSAA standards, but did not meet the minimum GPA according to our school policy. Nice enough kid that doesn't get into trouble, but he just didn't take care of business in the classroom. I think he did better in the 3rd grading period that just ended because he's back to running track this spring.
 
Last edited:
AAU Basketball / other conflicts / parents

What do most of you do about conflicts with AAU basketball? I'm laughing to myself as I type it. Do we punish kids when it's the parents that are the problem? Parents that don't seem to have an issue being deceitful. (Don't seem to understand that posting on social media is ratting yourself out.)
 
psycho_dad said:
AAU Basketball / other conflicts / parents

What do most of you do about conflicts with AAU basketball? I'm laughing to myself as I type it. Do we punish kids when it's the parents that are the problem? Parents that don't seem to have an issue being deceitful. (Don't seem to understand that posting on social media is ratting yourself out.)
Click to expand...
Some years ago, my school's girls basketball team had a girl who missed two GAMES to do something with club volleyball instead. The following year, that same girl missed a practice to attend an Ohio State men's hoops EXHIBITION game. Thankfully, she chose not to play her senior year.

I have always been of the belief that a school sport that is in season should take priority. But I am probably in the minority.
 
Stirred not Shaken said:
Long time ago a local school had a kid who ran track and played baseball. Baseball team was and still is a state power, kid did just the long jump (I believe) was very good, he also was a good baseball player. At my local school had a football player who missed several varsity games because he played for a "club" hockey team. One of the games he missed was against one of the top teams in the league (sat the next game). Moral of the story if you are a stud, coaches may make exceptions to the rules.
Click to expand...
- Had a kid on the baseball team HJ for the track team one year while I was in HS. It helped that his dad was the throwing coach. Otherwise, the head track coach was an "all or nothing" kind of guy. He once kicked guys off the team who missed a practice after donating blood at the school's annual spring blood drive.

- Had a girl who was a softball pitcher LJ a few years ago. She LJed in more meets than she attended track practices (3 to 1).

- The creme de la creme was a sprinter who was also CF on the baseball team. Made state in track his frosh year in the 100. He did not run the track postseason his soph. year since district prelims conflicted with the baseball team's district tournament. He also missed a lot of practices and other meets due to baseball games which created resentment among some of his track teammates that spilled over into the following season and affected choices some of his teammates made that season. Junior year, he ran the 100 at state in track, then played a baseball state semifinal later that day. Ran the finals in track the next day and finished 2nd then played in the baseball state championship game that night and won. His senior year, he avoided a major conflict when the baseball team lost in the regional semifinals. Had they won, he'd have been choosing between either playing the baseball regional final the next day or running in the track regional finals. He won the 100 and anchored both the 4x200 and 4x100 to wins at the regional. IIRC, he attended maybe 1 track practice the last month of his senior year. In addition to baseball, he was nursing a quad injury which he reaggravated at state in the 100m final. He was a great kid (athletic and an eventual Princeton grad) but overextended himself, IMHO. It also didn't help that some of the adults involved in the situation had misconceptions about how sharing the kid's services would look, i.e. it was nowhere near a 50/50 split, and nor should it be, IMHO. It was entertaining attending meets his last years and being inundated with questions from other coaches asking if the kid was racing today and if he would be racing in the postseason.

- A rival school had some guys compete in the track postseason after early exits from their baseball and tennis postseasons. Those guys scored points in the jumps to help the team win yet another district title. I assume the coach included their names on the eligibility certificate, so it was all good.

To the bolded part: If you are deemed irreplaceable, you get a much longer leash in life from those who hold you in that regard.
 
Our school requires that the kids choose a primary sport so any conflict is avoided. Choose CC as your primary and play soccer too, CC practice and meets win all conflicts. Same with Track and BB or SB. Not sure we have had a Spring sport double, but have had soccer and CC.

My daughter did both CC and Soccer and the parents of the Soccer team made it awkward for her. The Soccer girls were not her cup of tea and she eventually just gave it up. (Too much crying she said.) Played indoor in the winter and in summer leagues, but only one season for the school. We drove an hour and a half after a cc meet to get to a soccer game where she still out hustled everyone on the field. Scored the winning goal and the coach got grief for playing her over others. Kids didn't have an issue, but as most things usually get ruined, it was the parents. Really became awkward at the awards banquet when she was the leader in most stats for a Freshman, but got little to know recognition. That sealed it. She loved soccer. She did the little things at home to get better that a lot of her teammates did not.

I was more upset that she ended up giving up Basketball too. She did not go to open gym in the summer. Visited her mom out of state for most of the summer. Coach took that as a lack of commitment to the program. First scrimmage her soph year, she gets an inbounds pass and dribbles left handed the full length of the court. Worked on her LH all summer. She was a defensive machine. Best free throw shooter on the team and for her size, she boxed out well and grabbed a lot of rebounds. Her lack of open gym time seemed to doom her to little playing time. Gave that sport up as a senior. Not the only CC girl slighted on the BB team. Type of worker that got her drivers license a year late because she would not miss practice for in car.
 
psycho_dad said:
Have seen a few invites that are limiting their entries by performance standards. I don't think that is a good direction to go.
Click to expand...
Agree, my local school has a fairly large roster and the coach signs up for quite a few invites, giving the frosh and sophomores more chances to participate instead of the same athletes every meet.
 
At a meet where timing system messed up. Ran the 100 again. Even though the places were obvious. 1st and second place swapped. Meet management was more concerned about times not places. Team championship was decided because of the change.
 
psycho_dad said:
At a meet where timing system messed up. Ran the 100 again. Even though the places were obvious. 1st and second place swapped. Meet management was more concerned about times not places. Team championship was decided because of the change.
Click to expand...
If it was a one heat final, that should have never happened.

Many meets are dropping prelims/semi-finals and going to heats of finals. In the big picture, that's probably a good thing, but it means every heat must have reliable times and running a heat again if there was a timing issue. It's not enough to know the positions of the runners in that situation.
 
madman said:
If it was a one heat final, that should have never happened.

Many meets are dropping prelims/semi-finals and going to heats of finals. In the big picture, that's probably a good thing, but it means every heat must have reliable times and running a heat again if there was a timing issue. It's not enough to know the positions of the runners in that situation.
Click to expand...
It was in this case. They had times for 3-7. There was only 7 runners. Only question was 1 and 2 times from what they told me. The second running was much slower for everyone in that section which also allowed a couple from other sections to jump past kids in the hot section. If #3 is faster than anyone else in any other section, then 1 and 2 were as well. No need to rerun anything. Have never seen that in my life when places were easily and 100% accurately able to be figured. It wasn't a close race at 1-2, so the camera was not needed.
 
They probably didn't know how to score the event without times. Somebody missed our thread from a couple years ago.
yappi.com

Hytek experts

At a dual meet last night, the timer missed the start of the 4x100 (hand-timed with Daktronics Omnisport 2000). I was entering the results in Hy-tek Meet Manager and couldn't get the event to score without entering a time. I finally put in slow made up times to get the event to score, but am...
yappi.com yappi.com
 
psycho_dad said:
It was in this case. They had times for 3-7. There was only 7 runners. Only question was 1 and 2 times from what they told me. The second running was much slower for everyone in that section which also allowed a couple from other sections to jump past kids in the hot section. If #3 is faster than anyone else in any other section, then 1 and 2 were as well. No need to rerun anything. Have never seen that in my life when places were easily and 100% accurately able to be figured. It wasn't a close race at 1-2, so the camera was not needed.
Click to expand...
I don't disagree with your assessment. The hytek operator should have used JD and placed/scored the athletes without running them again.
 
New issue... In milesplit, all of a sudden we have middle school kids mixed in with out High School rosters. Both boys and girls. Has this happened to anyone else. I thought it might be where 8th graders were automatically flipped over to HS, but it has 7th graders as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top