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Roger L. Tracy

Bangor

Teams should be OK for New England Meet

This coming Saturday, Maine high school cross country runners will be chasing individual and team titles at the state class meets. On Nov. 13, the New England Interscholastic Championship meet will be held in Hartford, Conn. The other states involved will send their best individuals and teams, while Maine will send only individuals. Hopefully that policy will change for next year.

It wasn’t always this way. Up until 1977, Maine sent individuals and teams to New England competition. In fact, the 1976 meet was held in Maine, and Waterville, South Portland, and Ellsworth swept the top three places in the boys competition. But in 1978, the membership of the State Principals’ Association voted to end all participation in New England competition, citing transportation costs in the middle of an energy crisis. Then in 1997, after a 20-year absence, the Maine Principals’ Association voted to allow individuals, but not teams, to again compete regionally.

Currently Maine athletes compete in six sports sponsored by the New England Council: cross country, wrestling, indoor and outdoor track, tennis, and golf. Cross country is the only sport in which teams can qualify. Team scores are tabulated in wrestling, but there is no team qualification. Individuals from the same school simply accumulate points based upon their individual performances. Team scores are not tabulated in any sports other than cross country and wrestling. Five of the six New England states participate in cross country (Massachusetts does not due to a conflict with its state meet). New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Connecticut each send their top six teams and 25 individuals. Maine only sends its top 25 individuals.

Why are the principals against sending teams? When they voted in 1997 to just send individuals, and again in 2002 when a proposal to send teams was defeated, several issues surfaced. One issue was the financial cost of sending a team of seven runners and a coach. Apparently the principals feel that they need to legislate what communities can and cannot spend money on, rather than allowing these decisions to be made locally. Other issues cited were extending the sports season, having a loss at the New England meet diminish the thrill of winning a state title, and setting a precedent for other sports. In my opinion, these concerns reflect both a lack of knowledge of the facts and a severe disregard for the spirit of our youth.

It is interesting that those individuals who are armed with the facts are actually in favor of sending teams, and many of them are principals. The three principals on the MPA cross country committee have been studying this issue for the last several years and are unanimously in favor of sending teams, and have stood before the membership to tell them so. It is unfortunate that their opinions have been swept away by their colleagues.

The whole absurdity of the issue was highlighted when Maine hosted the New England meet in 2002 in Portland. Even though the meet was held within our borders, we were not allowed to send teams while the other states did. A strong team from Deering High School actually qualified five runners for the meet based upon state meet performances and were allowed to score as a team, finishing ninth out of 25 teams. I would dare say that these young men view this experience as a highlight of their high school athletic careers and would have been thrilled to be joined not only by two more of their own teammates but also by other Maine teams.

There will be an opportunity to change this policy when the principals meet for their annual fall conference in November. Several principals are planning on making a motion to ask the members present to allow cross country teams to participate in New England competition. It is my hope that principals will vote based upon accurate information, and that they will also talk to their coaches, athletes, and parents to get their opinions. After all, they are voting on behalf of their whole school communities.

If anyone would like more information on this issue, they can visit the Maine High School Cross Country Web site at www.sub5.com/pvcxc/home.htm. I look forward to the day when our communities and state will enthusiastically support and celebrate our young athletes as they aspire to the highest levels of team competition.

Glendon F. Rand II

Brewer High School cross country coach

Liaison to MPA cross country committee

Competition at its best

Time and place is not important. Important is what I observed last week when I attended a middle school cross country meet in which, I believe, 10 schools took part.

One first needs to understand the nature of the sport, where, unlike all competitive sports that that I am aware of, cross country allows all the competitors to start and to finish. Not to be misunderstood is that I am a strong advocate of team sports, and understand why all team members are not given the opportunity to compete in a given game. What I am about to relate is not totally feasible in team sports, but, perhaps, there is something to be understood and learned.

The first race of the day was the boys competition. Long after the first boy crossed the finish line, and literally long after the next-to-last boy had finished the race, the last competitor crossed the finish line (as befitting for him as any boy before him). I am not by nature an emotional person, but I became so, for as this last competitor approached the finish line a loud spontaneous applause and cheers came from the spectators as an acknowledgment that his performance was a winning performance as well.

My observation could have ended there, but I’m pleased it didn’t, because crossing the finish line was not the end to the emotion I was experiencing. Observed were not only teammates and opponents with high-fives for the boy but, saving the best for last, was the pride and warmth extended by the boy’s parent. To me, what I observed at this cross country meet reinforced my understanding of what athletic competition should be and too many times isn’t. As stated in the first paragraph, perhaps there is something to be understood by what I have related, but better yet, something to be learned.

Merrill Wilson

Holden

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