Hi, my name is Rick and I,m aproud parent of three kids that ran for Kell this year. My complaint is I have a third grade daughter and a 5th grade boy and a boy in 7th. My daughter has ran in the top 10 at the jv level and my 5th grader in the top 15. Our school is small and we can hardly field a full team for points. My daughter and 5th grader was left off of the registration that our AD.sent in but we were not told until after thursday's practice. I am just sick for these kids who have worked all season to go to state. When I called our school, the AD. told me there was nothing she can do now, and I understand there are time limits. She also said she talked to someone at the SIJHSAA and was told that 3rd and 4th graders can't run state anyway. Our AD. put two girls on our list for state that one is not on the team anymore and the other was injured and probably not going to run anyway. My 7th grader is one of two that is scheduled to run in the boys race, but he isn't going because of the way he thinks his siblings were treated.
.My complaint is not with the Sijhsaa. We do x-country as a family, we want our kids to work hard and to receive treatment for their hard work. Good luck to our runner who is representing our school, I'm thinking a top ten. We will be back next year, but probably on a different team. Thanks for letting me vent, Rick

Rick,

I am unaware of any restrictions on 3rd or 4th grade students participating at state in cross country. The school itself could restrict students, but unless something has changed recently that I do not know about there is no restriction on 3rd or 4th grade. As far as names on the registration below is the section of the by-laws covering this.

Good luck and always glad to see families supporting kids in cross country, the most demanding sport and it gets little recognition. I've always liked the saying I saw on a t-shirt...."My sport is your sport's punishment"...pretty much sums it up.

-Geff

ARTICLE XXVII: CROSS COUNTRY
Section 2. ELIGIBILITY:
a. Individual eligibility requirements shall be those previously covered in that section of this book.

b. Each team must have its current eligibility list available at all times. There may be a total of 10 names on the eligibility sheet for the state competition.

c. Once entry sheets are received by the meet manager, an individual runner may be replaced by another from his/her team's eligibility list. However, the number of participating runners shall not be increased.

Im sorry to here of your situation. In defense of your AD, she probably just sends in what the coach gives her. I am the AD where I teach and rely on my coaches to make those decisions. I am also our CC coach so that scenario doesn't happen with me but I can tell you that the younger kids can be productive members of a varsity team. Just watch the state meet tomorrow. My number 1 or 2 runner is a 5th grader and finished 5th at pre-state in the varsity boys race. I believe Selmaville has 2 third graders and 2 fourth graders that run with Burkett as their top 5 and they will probably be in the top 4 tomorrow as a team. Good Luck in the future