04-14-2014, 05:15 PM
I can see a lot of HS parents pushing their kids into track over baseball, football or hockey. Unlike those other sports there is not really a big risk for brain injuries, and your kids can get those coveted Varsity letters for college applications while staying in shape.Â
However college T&F has become big event oriented. If you are not capable of NCAA qualifying marks you've really got only one event a year that counts. Props to all of those students that are never going to run in the NCAA meets and stil train relentlessly for 12 months for that one dual meet against UCB. I think most former HS Track athletes at Stanford know that training for months for one dual meet is just not a good use of their time.
Stanford likely will continue to have a handful of world elite level stars that will grab Stanford points in the NCAA meet, but winning dual meets takes a lot of worker bees. And many of those worker bees suspect they should skip track and focus exclusively on academics. And even if they want to dabble in sports then they should opt for a club sport where they can use their running skills in competitions more often than once a year.
It is not shocking to me that Stanford struggles to field competitive dual meet teams, and it is actually shocking that Stanford is able to win regularly against UCB since math dictates that UCB must have more worker bees on their campus.
FWIW - That was basically my equation 25 years ago. I was far more likely to join the ultimate club team than run endless miles as a worker bee running on the 4X400 B Team for 3 or 4 years. Every once and a while I regret not participating in team sports at college, but even with that regret I know I would have been happier playing ultimate than running through the foothills every morning.
However college T&F has become big event oriented. If you are not capable of NCAA qualifying marks you've really got only one event a year that counts. Props to all of those students that are never going to run in the NCAA meets and stil train relentlessly for 12 months for that one dual meet against UCB. I think most former HS Track athletes at Stanford know that training for months for one dual meet is just not a good use of their time.
Stanford likely will continue to have a handful of world elite level stars that will grab Stanford points in the NCAA meet, but winning dual meets takes a lot of worker bees. And many of those worker bees suspect they should skip track and focus exclusively on academics. And even if they want to dabble in sports then they should opt for a club sport where they can use their running skills in competitions more often than once a year.
It is not shocking to me that Stanford struggles to field competitive dual meet teams, and it is actually shocking that Stanford is able to win regularly against UCB since math dictates that UCB must have more worker bees on their campus.
FWIW - That was basically my equation 25 years ago. I was far more likely to join the ultimate club team than run endless miles as a worker bee running on the 4X400 B Team for 3 or 4 years. Every once and a while I regret not participating in team sports at college, but even with that regret I know I would have been happier playing ultimate than running through the foothills every morning.