Qualifying for Regionals

I should get in the habit of posting this every year before our last Jamboree so everyone understands our team expectations and a few of the key reasons we need to have them set.

My philosophy (without writing a book) for determining the roster for Regionals can be summed up as.

• High Stakes Experiences
  • Athletics provide student-athletes with opportunities to practice one-chance qualifying experiences in a context where a not so good outcome is not the end of the world. Students face this same dilemma when taking a final exam, the ATC, a job interview, etc.
  • We want the runners to be put under pressure because the Regional and State Meets are extremely high pressure meets.
• End of Season Fitness
  • We want to give all the runners a fair chance of making the Regional roster. The more we have competing for a top 7 spot the better our team will be.
  • The Regional roster needs to contain the runners who are performing at their maximum at the end of the season. We want our runners to be in their best form at the end of the season when it counts the most.

Through many personal high stakes (one-chance) experiences and my desire to coach winning teams, I know it is essential to set my expatiations extremely high for all team members. I know this will make our team great and more importantly it will make each student-athlete better prepared to perform under pressure in the "real world" once they graduate from high school.