Frequently Asked Questions


1. How does XCStats work?

It's very simple. After a parent sponsor or school subscribes to XCStats and the coach enters their previous and current season schedules, the XCStats team gathers, computes and loads your teams data, so that is available and searchable, similar to current subscribers via the Subscribing Schools page. For your first subscription, your team gets two years of data loaded, so your runners can immediately see their progress over last year.

2. How much work is required by a coach?

Very little! This is the beauty of XCStats. Coaches don’t need to enter results data, rosters or personal records. That is done by the XCStats team. Coaches or their designate only need to:
• Enter your team race schedule for the years that you’ve purchased.
• Provide us with the results from the meet or instruct us where to get them.
• Fix any misspelled or inconsistent names, through a simple to use interface.
That’s it! Most coaches will spend an hour or two for the entire season on these tasks.

3. Can the coach delegate the responsibilities described above?

Yes, if desired, the coach can share the login information with a trusted volunteer to perform these tasks.

4. Are there any promotions for 2008?

Yes, as an introductory offer, California schools that sign up for the 2008 season will get their 2007 season loaded for FREE! Also, for coaches who want to have all four years of data for their seniors, the Senior Class Bonus Plan provides 4 years for less that the price of 2! See the Sign Up page for more information.

5. I’m a coach. XCStats looks great, but the school doesn’t have funds for this. Suggestions?

XCStats provides benefits for coaches, runners, families and alumni, making each of these groups a potential sponsor. We suggest that you inform your runners and families about XCStats, let them know of your interest in the service and see if sponsors emerge. (You can download a sample parent letter and an XCStats Brochure to help describe the service.) The sign up process can be completed entirely by the sponsor. The only challenge you’ll have is finding sponsors for the first year, since once a team has XCStats, they can’t imagine being without it! To provide further incentive and to get immediate benefit from the service, your first subscription of XCStats provides two years for the price of one.

6. I’m a parent. I like what I read and I’d like our team to sign up. What should I do?

Send a message to your coach to have him/her to check out this site. While the amount of time it requires from the coach is very small (see question above), it does require some time, thus you’ll need to get their concurrence. As a parent, if you’d like to sponsor the XCStats service for this season, I’m sure the coach and other families would appreciate it. Once the coaches agree, just go to the sign up page to subscribe.

7. As a coach, I've kept a history of our results from seasons past. Can I get my data loaded into XCStats?

Yes! For current subscribers, we can load past results if the data is properly formatted. The fee is $100 per season with a maximum of $300 for any number of seasons. Contact us for more information.

8. What if I see some incorrect data or misspelled names?

Inform your coach. When race results are reported, it is very common to have misspelled runners’ names or to have one runner use the bib of another. The coach has a handy tool to fix these situations.

9. When will our data get loaded after a race?

A vast majority of the time, your stats will be available within a day or two from when we receive the race results. Please note that because of the calculations we do, we can't load any data until all the races at a given event have been provided to us.

10. You are only offering the service to California schools in 2008. When will you open it up to more schools?

Our goal is to open up the service to more schools in 2009 based on a successful season in 2008. We will prioritize our expansion based on interest, so if you’re interested in subscribing for 2009 please let us know.

11. What is meant by the expression "ROCK Your Record!"?

It reflects the individual nature of cross country achievement, and it's motivational. It's also a take off from the phrase "You ROCK!", which is used on our reports to recognize when a runner has set a new personal record.

12. As a coach, I am concerned that other teams will have easy access to my teams' performance, and therefore be able to scout us. Can I put my XCStats site behind a password?

The short answer is yes, we do have a way to protect your data, but we don't recommend it for the following reasons. First, all your data is public anyway - Dyestat took care of that. A competitor can find your results from all the big meets within 10 minutes on Dyestat, so while it might be faster on XCStats, anyone serious about scouting you would not be deterred by a few extra clicks. Second, XCStats is designed to help every runner, not just the fastest or even the most committed. We focus on measuring and celebrating improvement and on creating situations where everyone's performance matters. Once a password is put on a site, even with the best intentions of communicating it to everyone, the failure rate is high. It's almost impossible to insure that every runner and parent is kept up on the password, not to mention relatives and alumni and other students who might also be interested. XCStats is all about celebrating success and the more people in your community that can be influenced by it, the better. A passworded site works against this objective.