Triathlon sport descending into High Schools

oooh, Santa brings Bikes??? Give him my address..

NOo HS tri clubs as far as I can tell here in Madison, although with the IM hoop-la and general bike-mania that exists here, it could happen any day...

Last year we had a couple of people organizing HS Tri teams and wanted to have school competitions. I know we had at least 8 schools. They would ask my tri team for used and inexpensive gear and they would volunteer and race in all the local races. This year I haven't heard anything from the group.

I teach high school and have attempted to get kids into the sport. I have had mixed results thus far. On the good side I have had one student (now graduated) compete in a few tri's, I loaned him my second bike for his first event in which he came in 7th overall only about 3 minutes behind the winners time. He/his parents then purchased him a bike (Trek road bike with areo bars) and he has since finished top 10 overall in his next two events, one an olympic distance event. He was a former Cross Country/track runner and swimmer who still has very, very little biking experence. I am confident that if he continues he will be a force to deal with even on the national level. The bad side is that due to legal concerns my school district has decided that not only can Triathlons not be a school sponsored sport but I have even been advised not to train with these kids for my and the districts protection. When asked for an explaination I was told the bicycle training was the major concern.

Edited by Special K 2005-09-22 4:10 AM

can you make it a club? with liability waivers? when i approached the school district about a varsity rugby team i was told no... i made it a club with waivers and now there are four more HS rugby clubs in the district

I was told yes to the club. Problem then is the personal liability that I would face even with waivers according to my attorney. Not what I would like in a perfect world but I am not putting myself at any risk if I can prevent it. Truth is though, that this is not a sport for most people, training for a lot (myself included) is individual when we can squeeze it in time wise. I have also had coaches for other sports advise their athletes not to do a Tri, they of course are worried about injuries to "their" athletes.