Having been on the wrong end of his "thievery" more than once in a 20+ year coaching career, it saddens me to see the same sort of transgressions taking place, distrust of the LHSAA office growing , and the remedy appearing to be what I witness here: griping and moaning on how "we" are being done wrong. Fellow lovers of the sport, I am here to tell you that there is an alternative to our complaining and a willing ear is paying attention to you as we speak. The suggestion being made at this time is for " we" the coaches of our beloved sport get together and present solutions to the perceived (or real as in the instance of what I will call the U-High incident) problems that are keeping our sport on the level of a sub-culture activity. Having "coached" Coach Carroll on the side when he was a HS'er, watching him grow into the young man he is and seeing his passion for the sport passed on to his kids, it hurt me deeply to witness the state meet screw-up. I know what he does for those kids on a daily basis is phenomenal and to watch the rug being pulled from under his feet brought back a bitter memory of something that happened to one of my groups a long time ago. The tragedy is that this sort of thing repeats itself but it can and will be dealt with in a proactive manner under the new leadership of the LHSAA when Kenny Henderson begins his term as the new commish. He will be open to what we the coaches want for our sport and is willing to do what we want for our sport. Therein lies a parallel problem: until "we" can decide what "we" want for our kids, and have a consensus of coaches express such, "we" will be stuck at the mercy of others who will legislate what "they" think "we" need to do. In January at the annual clinic there will be an oppurtunity to join with our fellow coaches in forming an ad-hoc committee of cross country coaches to discuss any and all matters pertaining to "our" sport. If you want to a part of the solution, you need to be there and help turn the corner on what I think will be a new era in our relationship with the LHSAA office. This will not be a finger pointing contest nor will we wave a magic wand and solve all woes in a day, but we will be given a chance to make a difference and Mr. Henderson has pledged his support of what "we" the coaches want for our sport. The first step is to agree on what "we" need to do. I invite you to be a part of the solution.Dave Anderson
Ruston High School
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I am asking all coaches who have expressed an interest to this post and all others who might be willing to be a part of the solution to e-mail me at runfast5k@hotmail.com ( the address above is the school account which has changed to a different server and is not retriveing old messages-sorry!)We will meet before the summer clinic, discuss possible solutions , then present them to the commissioner. By the summer clinic, we should be able to begin the refinement of the state meet and give those who will implement those improvements to organize those logistics.Thank you for your help. Please pass the word!
Dave Anderson
Ruston HS