As the coach of #5 Melbourne, FL boys we are pre-season ranked #5 in our own classification. I would recheck the data for this list.
-Sincerely,
Coach Woodbury
Melbourne Bulldogs
"Rechecking the data" seems like a good idea. Girls' rankings somewhat more reasonable than the guys', which are ludicrous.
Coach, have a little faith in your team. MANY eyes have gone over this and it is the consensus, that although you are rated by others as #5 in the state, they are undercutting where you actually are. If you think less of your team, than certainly your wishes will be obliged when the next rankings come out, based upon your teams performance. These are Pre-Season based on many factors.
Ok..did some checking...
On Florida:
Melbourne placed 2nd at State in 2008. They return 6 of 7 from a pretty darn good team. I am not sure how they are ranked #5 in their state pre-season rankings. Defending Champion Miami Columbus returns 4 of 7, 3rd place Dr. Phillips returns 5 of 7, 4th place Ferguson returns 5 of 7. I am not sure how you think, given what returns, that you somehow are now worse then these teams. I mean, seriously, you return your top 4 runners, Miami Columbus only returns 3 of its top 5, Dr. Phillips 4 of its top 5, etc. Its nice to see your humility, but seriously, did you ever think that you were placed lower in your state rankings as a reality check? So that you will work harder? Heck, the Harrier ranked a Texas team that wasnt even the top team in its state (Cedar Park).
Great humility, but come on!
Looking back a bit further to 2007, Melbourne won the state meet, and only returned 3 from its top 7 for 2008, and yet finished second in 2008. With 6 of 7 coming back in 09, with the top 4 intact, I don't think I would be so shocked.
Heck you guys scored 38 points at regionals with your underclassmen leading the way (1(Jr),5(Jr),7(Jr),9(Jr),16(Sr)).
I did not even do the story, my only input was on Ferris High, who I believe is higher than that, but I am ok with the fact that everything is earned and nothing is given. Thank God Almighty that we have NXN to resolve all these issues.
Hawaiianfiveoh, last year's Florida state meet results have a few errors on them which show Melbourne returning a much stronger team than they actually are.
The most egregious error on the list, though, is the absense of the Saratoga Springs girls, which I would place at #3 or #4 in the country, and would probably be top 20 even if their top two or three runners moved to Canada.
I appericate your faith but I lost 3 of my top 5. 2 of which are on the travel team at their respective schools now (UNF and FGCU). They were my # 2 and #4. My # 5 took a full academic ride to UF. My #6 and #7 are back but neither have a PR sub 17.
Maybe I can take the milesplit years to the school board and get another year with them! That would be awesome!
I appericate the positive vibes but my humility is based more on the fact we will be lucky to be top 3 in 4A (largest classification in Florida). We have a strong 1-2 (Atkinson 15:07 and Fagan 16:01) but 3-7 will need to drop 1:00-1:30 of their pr's to even win our state race and that might not be the bext in the state overall. A tall order no matter who you are.
I will try to update the roster and fix the mistakes but I didn't even know they were mismarked.
Sincerely,
Coach Woodbury
Melbourne High
www.bulldogxc.com
it is not just mismarked in the State meet results then, but also in the Regional and District results as well. Like I said before, I had no part in this, but by and large everything will work itself out over the next month in my estimation. Pre-season is just that. I think everyone just throwns Saratoga a bone every year, I dont know much about them because New York does a horrible job of posting results...but, we have the same issue in Washington with some very good girls teams that went unlisted. Equally, we have Ferris who could be #1, but have to prove it. I am sure they will. I am not worried either way, it will work itself out. I promise that when our boys get beat listings will change.
[quote=bulldogxc]
We have a strong 1-2 (Atkinson 15:07 and Fagan 16:01) but 3-7 will need to drop 1:00-1:30 of their pr's to even win our state race and that might not be the best in the state overall.
[/quote]
There isnt a snowflakes chance in hell that 4A will be the toughest class, or have the best team...this year in Florida. I would take Leon and Belen Jesuit in 3A, Bishop Kenny in 2A, and maybe even Holy Trinity in 1A over ANY team in 4A right now.
Why do preseason rankers suck soooo bad?? These rankings were a complete and utter joke!! Marc Blooms "Harrier Rankings" were also a joke with Miami Columbus in the top 20.
Belen Jesuit gets no respect. They were the top team in Florida last year and they lost their #2 guy. And their #6 and #7 guys both ran under 16:30 at state.
I spoke with Aron, Florida and New York are right at the top of the priority list when the first season results come pouring in. Trust me, small schools get just as much importance. Look at the XC Legacy series and Caldwell, Ohio. Heck, we have a 2A girls team in Washington that will probably end up the top team in the state...however, that being said, I ranked them behind two decent 4A teams until the David slays the Goliath.
New York always has a chip on their shoulder, heck I honestly believe that they believe they have the top 10 teams in the nation. News Flash: Its a large nation.
The grades submitted for the district, regional and state meet were wrong. So these guys were just going by the results... can't really fault them for that folks.
But anyway... I'm going to take the blame for this one. When they sent out the draft of the national rankings to all of our state webmasters I didn't even read the boys rankings I guess or I would have caught this. Frankly, I didn't think we had any guys teams would warrant ranking nationally at this point... so I only really looked at the girls list. That's my fault. I should have paid more attention and would have caught it. :-(
You know why NY has a chip on its shoulder every year? Because every single year the girls dominate the meet, and then get consistently under ranked every single year. Saratoga returns every single girl from a team that had 3 8th graders in their top 8, and finished 4th last year, and they aren't in the top 20? And thats crap that you can't find results for NY, have you ever heard of armorytrack.com, tullyrunners.com, or section2harrier.com??
No wonder NY has such good xc programs. 8th graders on hs varsity? 5 years of hs eligibility? Nice!
Boys Darkhorse: FERRIS, WA; Much prognostication has come to the surface for the '06 US#3 Saxons. Word has come out of Spokane of a team who is shattering pre-season training workout records. Featuring several sub 9:20 two-miles and 800m specialist Justin Zimmerman, Ferris may perhaps be the team to beat. However, they will need to race their way to the top of the rankings. Watch as another Spokane Valley squad seeks to bring another title to the Inland Empire.
