Beyond the Iowa HS State Meet?

 

Beyond the Iowa HS State Meet?
 
With the NXN (Nike Cross Nationals) and Footlocker “national” meets concluding the 2010 U.S. HS XC season, some thoughts on the ultimate opportunities for Iowa high school XC (and T&F) athletes. 
 
It’s the dream of most Iowa HS XC athletes, coaches, teams, families, and fans to just qualify for and participate in the Iowa High School State Championships. The Regional/District qualifying meets are “big” because the State meet is “BIG”.  Participating athletes are heroes to their home schools & towns, get to compete in front of hundreds of spectators, get statewide media attention, and audition in front of a number of regional college coaches holding available intercollegiate scholarships.
 
A few dream even bigger and seek even bigger opportunities. Participants in the NXN and Footlocker regional meets, that follow the Iowa State meet, go for “REALLY BIG”, the chance at qualifying for the respective national championships. When at NXN in Portland, athletes visit the NIKE corporate headquarters & get loaded down with free NIKE apparel, or at Footlocker in San Diego they stay on the beach at the famous Hotel Del Coronado, and begin to learn what REALLY BIG is. Even before the day of the meets, they’re treated like kings and queens, hanging out with some of the top U.S. distance runners in history, former participants in these meets.   On race day, they line up with the very best HS runners in the U.S., surrounded by thousands of spectators, on national TV, and before hundreds of intercollegiate coaches who will offer virtually every finisher a full-ride scholarship at the university of their choosing. 
 
Many will say ‘that’s nice, but beyond my capabilities’.   Going beyond Iowa is not a dream or requiring a special talent. It’s an attitude; an attitude of wanting not only to be one of the best on a team, in the Conference, or even in the State, but in the nation and world; and doing whatever is necessary to get there. Part of what’s necessary is competing with the best, and going wherever is necessary to do that.
 
So most of the top individuals and teams must be from California, New York, …, eh?  At Footlocker Nationals 2010, considered the true national HS championships for individuals, athletes from the Midwest (CO, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI) dominated.   Eight of the top 14 finishers in the Girls Division were from the MW Regionals, eight of the top 13 boys. Yet few Iowa runners even participated in the MW Regionals trying to qualify for Nationals.
 
NXN and Footlocker aren’t the only avenues for post-State XC competitions, to further aid athletic development?  Go to https://ia.milesplit.com/meets/calendar/2010/cc to see several other open (USATF, AAU, etc.) meet opportunities in November-December 2010.
 
We hesitate to single out individual athletes/teams/coaches as examples in IOWATFXC.COM (other than just when providing quantitative results); but occasionally believe it necessary to bridge the gap between theory and reality. And we’d prefer to not open the issues of private schools, personal coaches, training methods, and open (vs. HS) competitions; but again occasionally must go there too. Dowling Catholic’s participation in high level HS and open competitions out-of-state over the past several years certainly aided the development Katie Flood and Ashlie Decker, now starring at the U of Washington and U of Minnesota respectively.   Sioux City East’s Shelby Houlihan and Burlington’s Marshall Moyer will benefit similarly from their NXN participation this past fall.
 
And looking ahead, Griswold’s eighth-grader Rebekah Topham didn’t get to where she is now, and will be in Iowa HS competition over the next four years and then beyond, by running only Iowa MS races. In the USATF JO National T&F Championships (Sacramento, CA) in July, she won the 13-14 1500m (4:41) and was 2nd in the 3000m (10:07). On 11/20, she won the XC Coaches National Youth Championships (Lexington, KY) 13-14 4k (14:33); and on 12/4 finished 2nd in the 13-14 4K (14:50) at the AAU XC Nationals, Orlando, FL (ed - I wonder who coaches the runner who finished 1st!!).   Sure she has some basic talent, but she’s gotten to where she is by having a quality training program under a dedicated personal coach, much support from her family, and meeting quality competition whenever and wherever needed. We only mention Dowling Catholic, Katie, Ashlie, Shelby, Marshall, and Rebekah as common examples of what current Iowa T&F/XC athletes, coaches, and teams can accomplish by broadening their competition scopes beyond Iowa.
 
IOWATFXC.COM will continue to post all Iowa high school T&F/XC meets and results of which we’re aware. And we will also continue to post, and encourage participation in, high level out-of-state and open meets, to further aid the development of Iowa athletes, coaches, and teams.
 
 
(Post public comments on this article under Discussion; or send personal comments to lknudson@milesplit.com .