Lack of respect for Track and Field

[Peepers PV]

at my high school, track and cross country are the most respected sports, because they have won consistently for years. cross country has won 23 state titles in 43 years and track has been a powerhouse as well.

My high school is like that- 16 state titles for xc and track since '97. But, track still doesn't get any respect. kids talk about how awesome our bball team is this year (they haven't won districts since 1975... and everyone was surprised when they lost again...?), so I slide in some recognition for track- like that track will have a good chance at another state title this year. Then they bash track saying that "well track is easier" AHH

We had our City-wide track meet on tues, and our local paper STILL hasn't published the results. In my area, we have 3 teams who won state in their classifications last year, and one that was runner-up. But, apparently bball teams from the 1970s and offseason football articles are more newsworthy. IT'S NOT EVEN FOOTBALL SEASON!? . The paper consistently ignores anything that's not bball, baseball, softball, soccer, or football. Not to play the pity-me card, but I won a fairly large meet down at UF, and I broke the meet record and county records. One of my best friends who got second got a whole page spread about the meet, and i'm happy that she got that too, she deserves it. Actually her paper (a good 3 hours away) does a better job about reporting stuff about my pv'ing than my local paper... that's just shameful lol.

Ok, I'll stop whining now, sorry for the long post.

[mcminkz05]

well i guess im pretty fortunate then.. the newspaper around here, which has a HUGE circulation, coveres track about as much as baseball and softball and stuff. the meet results and artiles about meets are always in there, and when my schools best vaulter when i was a frosh, jumped 15' and won states, he had a huge article on the front page of the sports section about him.. same with the other really good track people.

[blazerunner121]

Track at our school...hasn't been looked at in years!! This is the first time that our girls track team has even won a meet in over 4 years! Our girls track team didn't even score over 50 points in over 10 years! Now, we're getting looked at because we have good coaches this year! Finally!

same thing at my high school. the guyz and girlz teams last year had winning seasons in over a decade. and i'm happy for the girlz this who have a perfect season right now.

[rainbowgirl28]

This guy became a believer in track and field. Too bad he is the exception and not the rule.

http://www.dailyemerald.com/vnews/displ ... ec0291f8cd

[Bama Vaulter]

I had the exact opposite in high school. I was our football teams running back and no one cared. In the newspaper they always wrote about the golf team (this is alabama... we have 54 hole courses down here). When a mobile newspaper wrote about me going to Auburn to play, the principle of the school said, "You play football?"

[MillerTime]

i agree. our football team is absoloutally horrible, 1 game we lost 76 to 12. our kicker made like 2 PATs all year, he punts the ball behind him. our QB throws way more interceptions than touchdowns. and our track team won our first 3 meets, pole vaulters swept 1-2-3-4 in all 3 meets. football team somehow gets more respect.

[blazerunner121]

i agree. our football team is absoloutally horrible, 1 game we lost 76 to 12. our kicker made like 2 PATs all year, he punts the ball behind him. our QB throws way more interceptions than touchdowns. and our track team won our first 3 meets, pole vaulters swept 1-2-3-4 in all 3 meets. football team somehow gets more respect.

its just football is mainstream in America and track and field isn't, which is very unfortunate. i bet u most of the footballers can't pv for there life or run long distance. urghh .. to them.

[ACvault]

At my school track is the only sport that consistently wins championships and is consistently ranked in the top 3 in the state. Not a single one of our other sports is consistenly ranked. We only JUST got track suits this year and our pole vault pits and hurdles were paid for by one of our coaches (a medical surgeon) who ran at my high school. Even then track is disrespected when the every one of our other sports hasn't want a varsity championship since the 90's.

[CrossBarHOpper]

my track team majorly bites i am the only kid on the team to make it to state and i am a freshmen

[SlickVT]

I love track, but lets be honest.

Until we get rid of everything longer than the mile, we are never going to get respect or TV time, or press, or anything else.

I'm a big fan of running events, and I know strategy and timing are involved, but am still bored outta my mind watching long-haired skinny kids run around a track for 10-15 minutes.

[Skyin' Brian]

I love track, but lets be honest.

Until we get rid of everything longer than the mile, we are never going to get respect or TV time, or press, or anything else.

I'm a big fan of running events, and I know strategy and timing are involved, but am still bored outta my mind watching long-haired skinny kids run around a track for 10-15 minutes.

i don't really think this is correct. NASCAR is hugely popular(at least in some circles) and all they do is go around and around, much like those skinny dudes in our sport. but, they go around and around an even greater number of times, and cover a farther distance, and over a much longer period of time.

a 10,000 Meter race takes around 30 minutes to run(at least at the college level for men). care to guess how long a PV competition takes?(i'll clue you in...often longer than a world class MARATHON of all things)

so, it isnt the going around in circles that makes it unpopular, and it certainly isnt the ammount of time it takes to complete the contest.

so, back to track as a whole, is it the fact that we dont use some kind of ball...wait, the shot is spherical.

Justin Gatlin set a WORLD RECORD today it will be interesting to see how much buzz that creates.

It would be nice if track was more popular, it seems that it is sometimes, but only once every 4 years, and even that is only on the very highest level and quickly fades away.

maybe it needs to be more of a team sport, but golf is pretty popular as well. i give up.

[rainbowgirl28]

i don't really think this is correct. NASCAR is hugely popular(at least in some circles) and all they do is go around and around, much like those skinny dudes in our sport. but, they go around and around an even greater number of times, and cover a farther distance, and over a much longer period of time.

Maybe if we made the 10k full contact, it would be more popular