2004 Nike Team
Nationals
Saturday, December 4 @ Portland Meadows
**Press Release of August
6, 2004**
By Rich Gonzalez
PORTLAND -- With excitement levels escalating
as the date of the inaugural Nike Team Nationals cross-country extravaganza
approaches, NIKE and the National Scholastic Sports Foundation have today
unveiled joint plans for how the first-year event will be contested to
work as efficiently and fairly as possible with existing state association
guidelines in place across the country.
The model for participation
in the 2004 Nike Team Nationals (slated for Saturday, December 4 at Portland
Meadows) will be predicated exclusively on club-team affiliation under
the auspices of USA Track & Field. . As a result, all participating
groups will have no standardized affiliation with their high school of
attendance.
Additionally, teams will be
directed to adhere to all guidelines contained within their respective
states' particular interscholastic rules. A primary goal of the first-year
Nike Team Nationals event is to maximize the number of eligible participants
from across the 50 states while fully complying within the scope of their
governing bodies. Several core details in the planning of the inaugural
event have been developed with this philosophy in mind.
"We've spent considerable
time and care in examining the situation, seeking to create the best possible
situation while making sure teams adhere to their own unique state guidelines,"
said Josh Rowe, director of Nike's Youth Running division. "So long
as groups enter this endeavor with the premise of adherence
to each of their own state rules, we believe there are ample opportunities
for most club teams to still participate."
To ensure cooperation
with the most common statewide guidelines in place, Nike will fund the
travel/lodging expenses of those club teams (seven
runners per team plus an alternate, each from the same high school)
in participation, as many states prohibit the "out-of-season"
funding of teams by its member schools. In accordance with many state
by-laws, school uniforms and other forms of assistance also will not be
permitted either from schools or their affiliated groups.
Additionally, those states
that prohibit "coaching contact/association" with
their athletes outside their "season of sport" will not be allowed
to serve as club-team coaches. This would also exclude participation by
assistant coaches, part-time coaches, and volunteer coaches from any official
involvement in the event. Instead, each club team from these states is
to determine a club team coach (also funded by the Nike Team Nationals)
who has no official tie-in with the coaching of the high school team.
Such a condition will protect many coaches from otherwise infracting upon
a state-specific guideline.
Additional limitations
also exist with regard to affiliation status, protection of amateur status
guideliens, etc., within the basic guidelines of certain states. However,
most of these restrictions can be followed within the rules so long as
club teams make the necessary concessions required to ensure compliance.
"There will be differing
sets of rules in place for club teams from different states, as this was
the only way to ensure as many groups would be eligible as possible,"
said Rowe. "This blueprint utilizes us taking the figurative broad
strokes of a paint brush to address as many of the common state guidelines
as possible, then asking club teams and their representatives to undertake
the finer strokes of that paint brush to make ensure the more localized
guidelines and by-laws also are adhered to."
Each state has its own
unique rules in place, and attempting to list and address all of them
and their conditions in any single press release would be an overly cumbersome
task. That said, Nike and the NSSF have researched these limitations
and then sculpted a prevailing set of general participation conditions
that take into consideration the total product of these circumstances.
Ultimately, however, the onus will be on the competing club teams to thoroughly
review and abide by all rules prescribed in their state high school association
by-laws.
"We've done our
homework on these rules, but coaches usually know their own state rules
better than anyone," added Rowe. "We are hoping they understand
the importance of respecting the integrity of all state association by-laws
in place. At the same time, we are hoping club-team participants strive
to have an identical understanding of the rules as well."
It is possible that a
few states might have certain rules in order which eliminate chances of
participation in any capacity, regardless of the format being undertaken
by the Nike Team Nationals organizers.
"We realize this
might not be a 100% success rate across the board in terms of participation
possibilities in Year 1," said Jim Spier of the NSSF. "At the
same time, we are striving to create the initial infrastructure for what
promises to be a very special and exciting event for teen runners -- both
now and in the years to come. Meeting these goals while staying true to
the parameters we have to work within is something we understand fully."
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