At 10:59 AM 7/19/01 -0500, Wayne T. Armbrust wrote:
>I have never been involved in Youth Athletics, so please excuse what may be a
>dumb question, but has anyone ever proposed aligning our age groups with the
>international age groups, i.e., making Young Men and Young Women unable to
>turn
>18 during the year?
>
>Wayne, the problem with that situation in the U.S. is that internationally
>they run an age group program of 19-under as well as 23 -under. They have
>no collegiate programs. That's why Canada follows our format instead of
>Europe, because they also run collegiate programs.
>
>
>Patrice, maybe coaches where you live are smarter than in other places, but it
>has been my experience that most high school coaches are oblivious to anything
>that occurs outside the high school framework or even outside their own
>conference. I wonder if half of them even know there is such an
>organization as
>USATF, let alone know that USATF is responsible for selecting
>international youth
>teams. In addition, most seem to have no knowledge of or interest in the
>sport
>at the national or international level
Coaches here are no smarter. We aggressively work within the high school
framework to educate them. Many here are still unaware, but we continue to
plug. One thing that has helped is the aggressive nature of parents today
who want their kids to get scholarships. In a cold weather state like ours
where we have an early state meet and a very short outdoor season summer
track helps advertise kids. The parents are learning this and putting
pressure on coaches to do summer track.
Patrice Wilson
Hinsdale Central High School
Youth Chair
USATF-IL
