Run Test Scandal

For years, Agnes Irwin coaches have used run tests at the start of a season to motivate their athletes to train. Spring sports, especially golf and lacrosse, have the most infamous run tests, which have been getting newfound backlash from parents. 

The lacrosse run test is what you would expect: many sprints with limited rest time. Athletes on the lacrosse team train together on treadmills and on snow-covered fields in advance of the season. 

Golf, on the other hand, has an unconventional run-test. To prepare for threatening lightning storms, the team starts at the far end of the course. The students then run back to the clubhouse (for cover) with their golf bags and equipment with them. Though it is not timed, the run does include treacherous landscape over a one-mile distance. Athletes from both teams agree that run tests add a lot of stress to the late-winter months. 

This year, Agnes Irwin Athletics has received backlash from parents and students and even a lawsuit claiming, “run-tests are child abuse” and that “the coaches should have to run the test before the student-athletes do.” This backlash came after many student-athletes limped and cried away from their run tests. 

On the lacrosse team, a student named Spri Inter lost track of where she was on the field and kept running. She got stuck in the soccer net, and coaches had to call the fire department to untangle her without cutting the net. With “minor rope burn,” she was rushed to the hospital. 

During the golf run test, while on a downward slope, a student in the back of the pack lost her footing and fell forward. This then created a domino effect. She fell on the runners in front of her and so on. The group of 13 students was left in a heap with tangled limbs, golf clubs, and golf bags. All of the students sustained injuries. One father wrote, “the run test is a threat to both my daughter and her costly golf equipment.” 

The Athletic Department has said they “wish the student-athletes a safe recovery,” and are “reconsidering the necessity and practices of the run tests.” Some students say they have seen coaches out on the field running sprints as punishment for not managing their athletes better. These events might mark the permanent end of run tests at Agnes Irwin.