Anonymous
09/27/2023 20:17
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t give this the time of day. If your daughter continues to improve, the stopwatch will tell the story.
I was a fast middle school runner, a state and national champion in high school, and a top level D1 guy. I often tell parents not to push middle school running and just get in a few races while playing other sports. Running is not swimming - many successful runners come to the sport relatively late. People hear of Jacob Ingebritsen of Norway starting at age 7 with a pushy father and think that is the way to go. He is a rare, rare athlete, with speed to burn and a capacity to use it up to 5k in competition. The American in Ingebritsen’s recent 3000m race, Grant Fisher played soccer until his 11th grade year. He just ran the equivalent of an 8 minute two mile! I can’t emphasize enough not taking a sport like running too seriously in middle school. It doesn’t bring about good outcomes and the first contact with the sport should be fun, especially in cross country which for most is much more challenging than track. Again, in an era where young people specialize way early in sports, this is not the way forward in running. My NCAA career would have been better had I not committed so early.
Love this!
And I agree with the PP who suggested maybe the coach is a parent or volunteer.
Anonymous
09/27/2023 10:21
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
I wouldn’t give this the time of day. If your daughter continues to improve, the stopwatch will tell the story.
I was a fast middle school runner, a state and national champion in high school, and a top level D1 guy. I often tell parents not to push middle school running and just get in a few races while playing other sports. Running is not swimming - many successful runners come to the sport relatively late. People hear of Jacob Ingebritsen of Norway starting at age 7 with a pushy father and think that is the way to go. He is a rare, rare athlete, with speed to burn and a capacity to use it up to 5k in competition. The American in Ingebritsen’s recent 3000m race, Grant Fisher played soccer until his 11th grade year. He just ran the equivalent of an 8 minute two mile! I can’t emphasize enough not taking a sport like running too seriously in middle school. It doesn’t bring about good outcomes and the first contact with the sport should be fun, especially in cross country which for most is much more challenging than track. Again, in an era where young people specialize way early in sports, this is not the way forward in running. My NCAA career would have been better had I not committed so early.
I was a fast middle school runner, a state and national champion in high school, and a top level D1 guy. I often tell parents not to push middle school running and just get in a few races while playing other sports. Running is not swimming - many successful runners come to the sport relatively late. People hear of Jacob Ingebritsen of Norway starting at age 7 with a pushy father and think that is the way to go. He is a rare, rare athlete, with speed to burn and a capacity to use it up to 5k in competition. The American in Ingebritsen’s recent 3000m race, Grant Fisher played soccer until his 11th grade year. He just ran the equivalent of an 8 minute two mile! I can’t emphasize enough not taking a sport like running too seriously in middle school. It doesn’t bring about good outcomes and the first contact with the sport should be fun, especially in cross country which for most is much more challenging than track. Again, in an era where young people specialize way early in sports, this is not the way forward in running. My NCAA career would have been better had I not committed so early.
Anonymous
09/27/2023 09:54
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
Even elementary XC runners are chipped in DC.
Agree the coach should not have texted you,
It was poor form, especially since the chip time doesn’t lie.
I might give her a pass if she’s a parent/
volunteer coach; they are just trying to do the best they can.
Agree the coach should not have texted you,
It was poor form, especially since the chip time doesn’t lie.
I might give her a pass if she’s a parent/
volunteer coach; they are just trying to do the best they can.
Anonymous
09/27/2023 09:50
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What does chipped mean?
(And yes, I googled it.)
A lot of races use computer chips in race bibs to track runners. For high school races, this would usually just be in big invitationals. Our dual meets aren't chipped.
Again, not sure why anyone is chipping 6th graders. In my town, you literally get an index card with your place and you're trusted to look at the clock for your time.
Anonymous
09/27/2023 09:45
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
Anonymous wrote:What does chipped mean?
(And yes, I googled it.)
A lot of races use computer chips in race bibs to track runners. For high school races, this would usually just be in big invitationals. Our dual meets aren't chipped.
Anonymous
09/27/2023 09:44
Subject: Re:Text from coach - what would you think
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I would just text back - "Yes, DD crossed a few seconds before her. It's been so great to see her improvement this year - all her hard work is paying off!" And then don't think any more about it.
OP here - That is pretty much what I wrote though my takeaway was that there was an implication that my kid cheated. We are friendly with the other kid's parents so I guess I didn't think they would make a big deal out of it but who knows. I will be giving them the side eye from here on out
Thanks for the feedback!
NO. That is what you must not do. You don't know why this parent asked. You only got a message from the coach. Don't be nasty.
OP here - point taken, though it is somewhat upsetting to know that someone begrudges my kid her one moment of victory. Though she had a faster race the next race, but got smoked by the girl she beat in the latest race.
You're clearly new to the sport. Have you thought about why this bothers you so much? Was it a few seconds difference? I'm guessing it was closer than that because otherwise it wouldn't have been a question. DD has sometimes beaten kids by fractions of a second and in this situation if the times were so close I would not be confused or taken aback if someone who hadn't seen the race asked me the question.
Well, you're an a$$hat. They're chipped. Don't be a poor sport, which you obv are.
Uh what? PP just said they wouldn’t be confused or taken aback by the question, which makes THEM the AH? No. OP is wildly overreacting based on the thinnest evidence.
Anonymous
09/27/2023 09:43
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
OP you are making a mountain out of a molehill. Nothing in this text suggests anyone else is bitter or begrudging. It was a simple confirmation that you visually confirmed the result given that it was an outlier result.
Anonymous
09/27/2023 09:42
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
What does chipped mean?
(And yes, I googled it.)
(And yes, I googled it.)
Anonymous
09/27/2023 09:35
Subject: Re:Text from coach - what would you think
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I would just text back - "Yes, DD crossed a few seconds before her. It's been so great to see her improvement this year - all her hard work is paying off!" And then don't think any more about it.
OP here - That is pretty much what I wrote though my takeaway was that there was an implication that my kid cheated. We are friendly with the other kid's parents so I guess I didn't think they would make a big deal out of it but who knows. I will be giving them the side eye from here on out
Thanks for the feedback!
NO. That is what you must not do. You don't know why this parent asked. You only got a message from the coach. Don't be nasty.
OP here - point taken, though it is somewhat upsetting to know that someone begrudges my kid her one moment of victory. Though she had a faster race the next race, but got smoked by the girl she beat in the latest race.
You're clearly new to the sport. Have you thought about why this bothers you so much? Was it a few seconds difference? I'm guessing it was closer than that because otherwise it wouldn't have been a question. DD has sometimes beaten kids by fractions of a second and in this situation if the times were so close I would not be confused or taken aback if someone who hadn't seen the race asked me the question.
Well, you're an a$$hat. They're chipped. Don't be a poor sport, which you obv are.
Anonymous
09/27/2023 09:33
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
Anonymous wrote:This has got to be a troll. A coach worried about a 6th grader running an 11 minute 1.5 race and texting a parent to confirm whether or not she came in 30th place?
No serious XC coach would waste his/her time with this.
You must not be familiar with youth sports these days. Parents.Are.Crazy.
I absolutely believe this story.
Anonymous
09/27/2023 09:33
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
Anonymous wrote:My middle school DD is on her second year on the cross country team. The school has a strong reputation for the sport and last year the girl's varsity won state, and they may repeat this year. There are runners of various abilities and last year my DD was in the top third overall, but placed behind 4-5 girls on her team. Her coach called her a "middle of the pack" runner. I am happy she has found a sport she likes and am fine with her not being some superstar runner.
This year she has placed higher, consistently beating girls who last year were ahead of her. She recently had a great race where she beat a girl who she had not previously passed in a race. The kids are chipped for times, and when I saw them about 15 feet before the finish line, my DD was slightly ahead of the other girl and the time came at the finish showed my DD beating this girl by two seconds. We congratulated her and her classmate on a great race, and went on with our lives.
Then I get a text from the coach asking if I had seen the actual finish because a parent had texted wondering if my DD actually beat the other kid. What would you think if you got a text like that?
"I was at the finish line and it certainly looked like my daughter was slightly ahead."
Anonymous
09/27/2023 07:39
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
Anonymous wrote:This has got to be a troll. A coach worried about a 6th grader running an 11 minute 1.5 race and texting a parent to confirm whether or not she came in 30th place?
No serious XC coach would waste his/her time with this.
Not a troll. This is why I posted - I agree with everything you said. I could not figure out the motivation for this (actually I think DCUM has some good theories). For the team or the sport or whatever, these times/places are inconsequential. For my kid, this race and her result was a huge deal. So I was confused why I got this text, literally the only time a coach has texted about anything after two years of being on this team. I don't know if there were mean intentions behind it but it left a sour taste in my mouth for sure. I wish I had ignored it (I responded nicely and thanked her for coaching).
Coaches are parents, everyone likes to talk about how they are Boston qualifiers in their little bios. The coach who sent the text has a sixth grader who is the #2 varsity runner so it's not like my kid is even close to that.
Anyone, thank you everyone!
Anonymous
09/26/2023 22:39
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
This has got to be a troll. A coach worried about a 6th grader running an 11 minute 1.5 race and texting a parent to confirm whether or not she came in 30th place?
No serious XC coach would waste his/her time with this.
No serious XC coach would waste his/her time with this.
Anonymous
09/26/2023 22:36
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
6th grade?!
Anonymous
09/26/2023 18:08
Subject: Text from coach - what would you think
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What was the exact text from the coach? Your post sounds fishy.
Text: "Were (My Kid)'s results right at (meet name)? I wasn't near the finish but it had (my child) beating (other child). One other mom thought that wasn't correct so wanted to see what (my child) remembered. She had a great race yesterday."
i would take it that he wants to get the other family off his back the way this was worded. Particularly, the she had a great race yesterday (I think that the coach is on your side and some other parent is crazy)