Netters:
Once upon a time in New Jersey, before we were afflicted with the
ridcuois HS Federation rule book, there was an athletic director (and track
coach) who would tell officials working his meet: "Your main job is to see
that every boy (this was before girls were involved) gets a fair chance here
today." I think most of us would agree that's the main thing officiating in
our sport is about.
Once again, today, at the Shore Conference meet, it was not
officials, but another competitior---from a rival school--who made sure that
that dictum was followed.
Cross-country is far and away the most stressful sport on the high
school calendar. Not the most dangerous, thankfully, but the most stressful.
I sometimes think that no one should be allowed to officiate it who has not
competed at some time and knows what a 5K run can do to the human body,
particularly in weather conditions that are not optimum---too hot, or too
cold, rainy, muddy, etc.
Yet too many finish line individuals (or even teams) treat a runner
finishing such a race as if he or she had just completed a walk in the park
at moderate pace and in pefrect, 70-degree, no-humidity weather.
There are in our state fine finish line teams who know what their
job is and who realize that, to do it properly, they must at times handle
the runners. I have never seen or heard a runner complain about being
touched, held, whatever in these situations and I have seen, in my time,
hundreds of thousands of runners come over the line in various conditions.
But there officials who seem ready to pass the buck to anyone, including
other runners.
Once, at Holmdel, a boy fell crossing the line, well up front, in
the all-group race. He was one of three or four boys from different schools,
who had crossed the line together and he was the lead man of this pack.
While the officials simply gazed at the spectacle, the boy who now had the
"lead" spot, reached back with his left hand, grasped the arm of his fallen
foe and in one quick move, hauled him to his proper place in the line. (And
we disqualify kids like this if they happen to wear a ring, have the wrong
sort of under shirts of under pants or violate one of t other ridiculous
rules we labor under)
On another related note. It is against the rules to use video
equipment to sort out these close finishes. We all, I am sure either recall
or have heard of the time when two of the best-ever college CC teams, from
the legendary programs at Oregon and Villanova, saw a close team finish
reversed on an examination of a video of the finish.
There is a great irony related to this now playing out in NJ. One of
our schools---one, by the way, with a great history in our sport, including
a onetime world record-holder)--is in trouble over a case involving a boy
who played with their freshman football team while still in the 8th grade.
The case was adjudicated by the state education department earlier this year
in the boy;s favor, giving him back most the senior season the state
association had tried to take away from him/.
But the case has continued as the association is going after the
local board of education, claiming that it lied when it said the boy had
appeared in only one freshman game. And what is their evidence? A video
taken of a second such game by one of the rival schools. I guess it's a case
of whose ox is being gored.
Ed Grant
