I have a question about regional qulifying for outdoor track....
Is it only me or does the whole thing kind of stink ? What is the real
purpose behind it ? The supporters of it (and there do not seem to be
that many) claim that it will add participation numbers to the meet.
Why don't we just add numbers and keep the same formula ?
Right now, I don't think that anyone can honestly say that the best
people are being left at home from the meet. I don't think that there
is one person who is a ligitimate All-American that is not making it to
the meet under the current guidelines. The fastest people are at the
meet as it is.
Another problem with the proposal is that they are going to try and
require the decathlon and pentathlon and 10,000-meter runners to race
both weekends (regionals and nationals) and, if you add those persons'
conference meet, that could be three weeks in a row.
One problem with the way we make decisions as a coaching organization is
that we are only requiring a simple majority (50.1 to 49.9) when making
decisions. On top of that, it is only a few of the coaches in the
country that are even doing the voting. I think that we need to modify
the bylaws of the coaches to require a 60% margin on matters that will
affect the organization as a whole. If your proposal can't get a 60%
majority, you need to compromise and modify until a true majority of the
coaches agree.
I think that we should also do like Congress does and publish the votes
of all the coaches on these matters. I am not so sure that all the
votes are true and this would hold the people counting the votes
accountable. Regional qualifying passed 51-49 %. The only problem with
that is that I NEVER received a ballot. Maybe my one vote would have
tied it ? The same goes for adding the women's steeple and dropping the
3k. The same goes for changing women's cross country from 5000 to
6000. These are all major changes in our sports and I think it is wrong
to take a 49-51 split as a "majority" decision.
Any other coaches care to add to this discussion ???
Kevin Hadsell
Head Coach
University of Toledo
