For the Good of the Sport

When the PIAA went to a three class system, it was with the goal of giving more teams a chance to participate in the state meet. That happened. More teams are involved simply because there are 3 races instead of 2. More people are involved in the state championship meet and schools that used to be irrelevant suddenly have state titles, which hopefully has spread running in those schools. With more people involved in the state championship, the hope is that more programs are involved and, in turn, more runners may be inspired to join cross county teams and grow our sport.

I can not speak to how much the sport has grown as a result of the class difference, especially at these small schools. This is a noble goal and certainly, if it is working, then the change to a three class system has been worthwhile.

But here's the dirty little secret that probably isn't much of a secret. The way the class split was implemented, we sacrificed top tier teams appearance in the state meet for teams that may end up averaging 19 minutes out at Hershey. The split was made in AA and A, AAA was relatively unaffected. Well, the talent pool was anyway.

The next statements are facts.

At least One of the following teams will not make states: Conestoga, Henderson, DT West, Pennsbury, CR North, and CB West.

One of the following teams will not make states: Altoona and State College

One of the following teams will not make states: Freedom, Easton and Parkland

At least Two of the following teams won't make states: Cumberland Valley, Carlisle, Twin Valley, Red Land, JP McCaskey, and Lower Dauphin

(For the record CB East, Hempfield and Hersey probably deserve mentions here too.)

The switch to three classes slashed the race sizes down at the state meet (which has a lot of advantages) which meant that D7 was down to three teams, D3 down to 4, no chance of D1 moving back to 6, and D12 and D11 were both down to 1 (however, both jumped back to 2 fortunately for us).

Most likely, regardless of the smaller collection of AAA teams being sent to Hershey, the very best teams in the state will make it to states. If a team can't make it out of their district meet then they probably aren't a top 5 team anyway. So really we are just arguing for teams in the 8-12ish level at best.

I understand. I understand that this is the way it has to be to satisfy most of the small programs and coaches. I even understand that growing the sport may be worth sacrificing the best field possible.

But if things go poorly for somebody like CB West at Lehigh, I'd hate to be the one to tell Ian Davies that this is how his cross country career has to end.

I don't write this stuff about meet of champs and unfairness in the system because I like taking shots at authority. I don't do it because I'm some punk kid looking to cause trouble.

I do it because in a month, there's going to be a senior leader who left his heart on the course for 4 years who was one of those quality kids sacrificed for the good of the sport.

And he should know that he's not the only one that thinks that's a load of crap.

#PAMoC