Tupelo High School freshman Andrew Brown is regarded as the fastest freshman in the country, running a mile in 4.18 minutes. Earlier this month, Brown competed in the New Balance Indoor Nationals in Boston. Tupelo’s athletic director then received an anonymous complaint regarding Brown’s participation in the event — sparking the ineligible ruling from the MHSAA.

A recent story from WTVA.com detailed the season-long suspension from the MHSAA. Below is an excerpt from the WTVA.com story.

The plane tickets, hotel, and entry fees were all paid for, so Jim said Andrew raced anyway.

“I don’t want to harm anyone by competing at this meet, or anything. I just want to enjoy what I do,” Andrew Brown said.

“There is no money exchanged whatsoever. It is just the top high school runners in the entire country competing at the highest level,” Jim Brown said.

Andrew’s dad said the MHSAA claimed Andrew broke the rule about competing with a team in an indoor competition once the outdoor season has started. The issue Jim has with that reasoning is Andrew raced in the Adidas competition last year and wasn’t penalized.

“To other runners, it’s not motivating at all. It really ruins some people’s dreams, goals, and future,” Andrew said.

Changing the rule would allow Mississippi to be represented at these top competitions according to Jim.

“It helps put Tupelo on the map when runners excel at what they are doing. And, we want to make sure Mississippi is not 50th in everything,” Jim explained. “We have incredible talent in this state, but if we have a state association holding young runners back, and discouraging them like this, we will remain 50th.”

Jim Brown said multiple high schools, fans, and colleges have reached out to the family in support. They want the rule to change.

To read the full story from WTVA.com, click here. 

The post Star MHSAA track & field athlete ruled ineligible for season appeared first on Coach and Athletic Director.

Last month, the NFHS revisited the rules for high school track & field/cross country. The two most notable changes were made to Rule 3-4-3, defining specific case book guidelines, and the introduction of Rule 9, which specifically addresses rules for indoor track and field.

Below is an excerpt from the NFHS track & field/cross country rule revisions.

“Assisting meet referees in the administration of track and field and cross country meets was a point of emphasis where applicable by the NFHS Track and Field and Cross Country Rules Committee when it met in June,” said Julie Cochran, NFHS director of sports and liaison to the Track and Field and Cross Country Rules Committee. “Although the rules are in good standing, the committee felt we had the opportunity to provide meet referees with rules that are more specific and better organized for event day administration.”

The rules committee’s changes to Rule 3-4-3 defined specific case book guidelines to offer consistency and guidance to meet referees when ruling on reruns. New to the rule are scenarios to assist referees in determining when a rerun is necessary and stipulations that must apply for a rerun to be considered.

The change to Rule 3-4-3 affects Rules 5-9-2 and 5-9-3, which address instances in which interference occurs. The most notable impact was to Rule 5-9-2, which now states that in the event of interference during a preliminary heat, and when a lane is not available for the offended competitor or relay team, the meet referee may add a heat in that round or in the next round of heats.

Due to recent changes to outdoor track and field rules, the NFHS Track and Field and Cross Country Rules Committee adopted Rule 9 to exclusively address indoor track and field. With the continued emergence of indoor track across the country, which includes sanctioning in 21 states, more than 150,000 participants, and 17 state championships, the committee determined a separate rule was in order.

“The NFHS Track and Field and Cross Country Rules Committee continues to emphasize student-athlete health and safety and risk minimization in our rules review,” said Cody Inglis, chair of the NFHS Track and Field and Cross Country Rules Committee and assistant director of the Michigan High School Athletic Association. “This emphasis can be seen in the committee’s work for the 2023 rules book. In addition, the committee has worked to make the book easier to use for officials, coaches and others over the last few years by separating rules into their own sections. This year, the indoor track and field rule has been put into its own section which allows the user to easier access the indoor track and field rules as states continue to add this version of the sport.”

The rising popularity of mixed relays resulted in the adoption of Rule 7-2-2g as a new item among special events. The committee noted that mixed relays are becoming more commonplace at high school meets. By adding mixed relays to the special events section of Rule 7-2-2, it allows the committee to offer guidance to member state associations on how to effectively conduct these events.

Among other rules changes was the increase in relay entries from six to eight individuals. Only those individuals who actually run will be considered official participants. Cochran noted that providing two additional names, it presents yet another opportunity for student-athletes to be involved in not only regular and postseason track meets, but also high school athletics and activities.

A complete listing of the track and field and cross country rules changes will be available on the NFHS website at www.nfhs.org. Click on “Activities & Sports” at the top of the home page and select “Track & Field/Cross Country.”

The post Track & Field/Cross Country Rule Changes for 2022-23 Season appeared first on Coach and Athletic Director.

The video of the incident has gone viral across the internet and social media while creating headlines nationwide — and can be seen below.

The victim in question was taking part in the 1600 meters when another track and field athlete, who was not taking part in the race, ran him down from behind and punched him in the head. The shot knocked the runner to the ground.

The attorney for the runner who was punched, identified as Nathan Carter by TMZ.com, told that site that his client suffered a concussion from the blow and is considering suing. Carter also told TMZ that the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office’s claim that his client was not interested in pressing charges was not true.

High school track race fight club pic.twitter.com/0nbDRz5Iur

— Baseball Fight Club (@mlbfights) March 29, 2022

According to reports, the athlete who threw the punch was not participating in the race but was on the track when the athlete who was running told him to get off the track. On the next lap around, per reports, the athlete who was not competing was still on the track, and the athlete who was competing shoved him out the way. Reports say that is when the athlete who was not competing chased down the distance runner and punched him from behind.

“The family of the victim did want to press charges for this vicious attack and assault caught on video and witnessed by hundreds of people,” Carter told TMZ. “The OCSD deputy told the family that if (my client) pressed charges then he would also be arrested for battery. Only because of that threat did the family choose not to press charges.”

Carter also blamed a lack of “proper officials” at the meet — noting they could have moved the athlete who was not competing from the track before the first incident, the second incident, or prevented the punch — but did not.

“They had many opportunities to prevent this and failed to do so,” he said.

The post Florida HS Track and Field Athlete May Sue Following Sucker Punch appeared first on Coach and Athletic Director.

When the opportunity to manage was presented to me, it was a chance to have more of a leadership role and one that offered me a great way to grow both personally and professionally with the responsibility of coaching more players, and in a bigger picture.    

Hindsight being 20/20, when it came to actually being prepared to do the job I had just been promoted to do, I didn’t have any idea what I was doing.  While I am sure there is a handbook on how to manage a baseball team, much of learning how to best navigate through a season comes from trial and error more than anything else. Like most, I did the job the only way I knew how at the time and did it to the best of my ability. At various points of the season, I mishandled everything from game strategy, discipline, communication, schedule logistics, and probably a lot in between.

But there was one thing I didn’t mess up: the details to teaching the game where EVERYTHING mattered. At one point during that summer, a player lamented to a coach on our staff his frustration. “Fenster is on us about every little thing,” he said. “Why can’t he just let us play?” Looking back, that may be one of the best compliments I have ever received as a coach.

For the last two and a half years, the following tweet has been pinned to my profile on Twitter: “Hate that coach who works you too hard, always on your ass? Wait until you play for a coach who doesn’t care. You’ll realize how lucky you were.”

Those 140 characters are at the core of who I am as a coach, thanks entirely to the influence that Fred Hill, the coach I played for and coached with at Rutgers, had on me; it was the foundation of who he was as a coach. I have always held my players to a higher standard than they hold themselves to because that’s exactly what Coach Hill did for me.

As a player, I learned the hard way how valuable this approach was for my own personal development. About ten games into my freshman season, we were getting crushed by UCF, in large part because of what seemed like 15 pull-side hits down the left-field line. While playing shortstop, Coach Hill put the responsibility on me to tell our third baseman when off-speed pitches were coming. I didn’t relay one all game. And got completely ripped for it after the game in front of half the team. I was literally in tears, ready to transfer.

When we got back to the hotel, he called me into his room. It was there where he said this: “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but the reason I am riding you so hard is that I think you have a chance to be a great player for us. You shouldn’t be upset when I get on you; you should get worried when I’m not.” From that day forward, I was completely transformed in my ability to handle criticism, no matter how loud that message was communicated.

Over the years, I’ve had many conversations with my own players similar to that one Coach Hill had with me back in the spring of 1997. 

Thanks to the many coaches that I’ve had the privilege of playing for or coaching with, I’ve come to realize that a team will always, in some way, shape, or form, take on the personality of its coaching staff. That goes not only for the positive elements but also just as much for the negative aspects as well. Our teams have always had a good sense of being aware of the countless details that take place over the course of a game because we make them a consistent part of what we teach. There is no doubt that many players don’t necessarily like a coaching staff that consistently gets on them about not doing some of these details right. The devil may very well be in the details, but that devil wins a ton of games.

The post The Devil is in the Details appeared first on Coach and Athletic Director.

He said, “If you stay in coaching very long, you will have teams that you don’t think are going to be very good, but they will shock you with how much they achieve. You will also have teams that you think are going to be great that will turn out to be mediocre.”

The former situation is always a nice surprise, a bonus for your hard work and perseverance. But what about those potentially great teams that disappoint you? What was the problem? I am reminded of Tolstoy’s famous line: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The same is true of successful and unsuccessful athletic teams. No doubt every coach has a unique story for what went wrong with each unsuccessful team. I know I do.

Nothing can prevent every problem that could sabotage a season, but there is a method that can help you prevent or overcome many of them. The ancient Stoic philosophers called it premeditatio malorum (“the premeditation of evils”). In the business world, it is called a premortem. It is essentially a meeting in which employees pretend that a new project has already been launched and has failed. At the meeting, the CEO announces, “Our project has failed miserably. Now, tell me what the problem was.” Remember, this is before the project has actually been launched. The CEO is presenting the worst-case scenario and encouraging employees to imagine what went wrong so they can address a potential problem before they ruin everything.

Gary Klein, in an article in the Harvard Business Review, says, “A premortem is the hypothetical opposite of a postmortem.” Postmortems, of course, help you analyze any problem or mistake after a season so you can prevent them in the future, but they obviously can’t change the outcome of a completed season. And postmortems are easy; everyone has 20-20 hindsight. I can tell you precisely what went wrong with every team whose season performance disappointed me. But I would rather have avoided the failure in the first place. That’s what CEOs are trying to accomplish with a premortem. You can do the same with your team.

I started using premortems a few years ago and have been pleased with the results. The first one was in 2017. My 2016 high school boys’ cross country team had been one of those pleasant surprises. They achieved more than I had a right to expect, winning our sectional — the first stage of our state tournament series — by a large margin. What’s more, nearly the whole team was underclassmen. We should win again easily in 2017, right? Experience told me not to take that for granted; things could go wrong. I could imagine some of those things — in fact, could remember many from my coaching experience — but I wanted my runners to think about the possibilities. So at our organizational meeting at the beginning of the summer, I held up a fake newspaper headline that said, “BRAVES UPSET IN SECTIONAL, FAIL TO DEFEND TITLE.” Then I said, “Guys, what happened?”

I used a fake headline to try to make the failure seem real. Usually, when we contemplate possible failure, we ask, “What could happen?” But in a premortem, we ask, “What did happen?” The change in perspective is powerful, and the headline helped produce that change.

I gave each runner a piece of paper and a pencil and told them to use their imaginations to look back from the future and explain why our talented team had failed to defend its sectional title. It is important to have them record their ideas; it allows you to observe their progress and perhaps encourage them to expand their thinking. For instance, some athletes were listing only problems that could happen on the day of the meet — a runner getting disqualified, someone spraining an ankle during the race, the team going out way too fast in the first quarter-mile, etc. I praised those thoughts but prodded them to think about factors leading up to race day, even months before. That generated responses about how complacency and overconfidence could cause a lack of dedicated training in the summer, and how inadequate rest and poor nutrition could lead to injuries and illness.

They’re teenagers, so, of course, there were some humorous examples: “Tommy eats a whole pizza for breakfast and throws up during the race!” But even that idea led to a discussion about why an athlete should not experiment with diet before an important competition. One athlete offered the idea that a key runner or two could decide not to come out for the team. I’ve seen that happen. It can be devastating. We discussed the possible reasons for such a decision and what we could do to promote a vibrant camaraderie that increases the chances that everyone would want to return. 

It was a productive conversation. My athletes generated many potential problems that had not occurred to me, and we brainstormed ways to prevent or solve each one. Sometimes the problems were beyond our control. For example, key athletes can suffer injuries even if they do everything right. Solution? Someone from the JV team must be physically and mentally ready to step up and produce at the varsity level. That won’t happen if JV athletes go into the season thinking they are “just reserves” and train with that mindset instead of taking a varsity approach to their preparation.

My 2017 team avoided most problems and overcame the ones that did occur. We did repeat as sectional champions. I’m not suggesting that our premortem was solely responsible for our success — it was a talented group, and they were dedicated even before we held a premortem — but the tactic helped us prepare for the season and not take anything for granted.

The post Preparing Your Team for Every Problem During the Season appeared first on Coach and Athletic Director.