Have you ever?

[psycho_dad]

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.

 

[JAVMAN83]

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.

 

[psycho_dad]

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.

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]

Probably had already accepted more teams of one gender than the other and are trying to even it out.

 

[psycho_dad]

Probably had already accepted more teams of one gender than the other and are trying to even it out.

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.

 

[psycho_dad]

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.

 

[psycho_dad]

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?

 

[JAVMAN83]

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?

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.

 

[lane4]

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 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).

 

[psycho_dad]

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).

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.

 

[madman]

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?

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.

 

[Mr. Slippery]

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.

 

[Altor]

my school's policy would prevent a kid who is academically ineligible from being allowed to practice.

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.

 

[Newton's Third]

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.

 

[psycho_dad]

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.

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.