Fair or Foul

Officiating the Pole Vault in the Covid Year!

It’s been a while, but here’s a “Sunday Story”. No politics here – just a story about folks who try to make sure the competition is fair.

Addiction

I coached track and field for forty years.  My last year as a coach was 2017, six “seasons” ago; so long ago that the high school athletes I coached are long graduated.  While some coaches remember me, even they are growing grayer.  Six years is a long time in the “life” of a high school sports team.

And for a while, I avoided the track.  I used to say that I had polyurethane and fiberglass in my blood (track surface and pole vault poles).  The only way to “break the addiction” was to stay away.  But after a year of near total abstinence, I recognized that I wanted to be around without the “all-in” that coaching required.  So I regained my license, and went out on the track in the black and white uniform as an official.

There were all sorts of jokes from both sides.  The officials that I joined saw me as “that coach” they crossed horns with for forty years. And the coaches looked at me as if I crossed over to the “dark side”.  But track, and in fact, all sports officiating, has a problem.  Fewer and fewer people sign up to do it, and the remaining officials are growing old.  While at sixty-six, I may not lower the average age of a track officials meeting anymore, I don’t think I’m raising it either.  There’s a need, I have the expertise – so why not.

Parsing the Rule

Besides, officiating track is natural to me.  I’ve coached every event in high school track and field, and some events that aren’t.  No event “intimidates” me, and especially my area of expertise, pole vault.  Many officials shy away from that one, leaving a natural opening for me to fill.

My track officiating has expanded in the past couple of years.  This year I even officiated eight indoor meets, and I am close to having a “full” outdoor schedule with twenty-five meets already on the calendar.  It’s fun, (of course, it’s track); and a way to get some extra cash.   And I’m “giving back” to the sport and the athletes I love.

Part of being an official is attending “rules interpretation” meetings. It’s kind of like studying the Torah (or Bible): a bunch of “students” sit around a room and discuss “passages” from the rule book.  They bring varied experiences of their own to the conversation, telling stories that highlight the particular rule we are parsing.  It can be “dry”, I guess; especially after a long day.  But even the driest topic in the rules, the management structure of a track meet (Rule 3), has something to offer.  That’s what last Thursday’s meeting was like.

Show Me in the Book

The rule was being “presented” by a “senior official”, Doug, who has officiated as long as I’ve coached.  We are good friends; even when I wasn’t with him on the “dark side”, and more so now. We share a common goal: make sure kids get the best experience possible from their track competitions.  I respect him immensely.  Not only is he sharp on the rules, but he’s clear in his heart.

When it comes to “the rules”, I tend to fall back on my one semester at the University of Cincinnati Law School.  The concept is “Black Letter Law”: when a law is codified clearly in “black letters” that leave little to interpretation.  As a coach, one of my favorite arguments was to say, “Just show me in the book where it says that”, when arguing a particular issue.  I knew (and still know) that book forwards and backwards – the “black letters” clear and to the point.

Track in Ohio

Track and Field is a spring sport in Ohio.  That means that when we begin at the end of March, it might be in the snow.  I started an early-season track invitational called the “Icebreaker”. There were several years when we literally broke the ice off the apparatus to have the meet.  At the end of the season in June, we are often worried about heat illness and dehydration.  We compete in snow and rain as well as sunshine.  Really; only inches of snow, floods of rain or lightning will stop a track meet.

At the end of the season there’s a series of meets designed to qualify to the state final championship.  At the beginning hundreds compete in events in different parts of the state, narrowing to sixty-four, then to the final eighteen per event at the State Meet.  Getting to state is huge for any athlete, winning it even bigger.  

Throw in the Rain

It was on that first level of the qualifiers, the District meet, that our “Torah” study focused Thursday evening.  The competition began in a steady drizzle, not hard, but rain.  As always, the meet began with the field events, including discus.  Throwing a discus requires the athlete to handle the implement, a two pound or more disc of rubber, wood, or plastic; and spin around to throw it out into a portion of field.  The competition is for distance, and, not surprisingly, holding onto a wet disc is difficult.  The first two sections of the discus participants struggled to throw, but the competition went on.  

Then the rain really turned into a downpour.  No one could hold onto the disc. The official couldn’t write the distances down anyway as the results paper began to dissolve.  They agreed to suspend the competition, and when the heavy rain continued on into the evening, to hold it another day.

Black Letter Law

Rule 3, Section 2, Parts 5 and 6 clearly states that, “…a meet may be suspended by the referee, due to an emergency such as weather conditions.  Competition shall be continued from the point of interruption…All trials and marks made up to the point of interruption shall stand.”

That’s the “black letter law”.  Those throwers in the rain would have to live with their throws, according to the “book”.  Those lucky enough to be among the “suspended”, could throw in the bright sunshine the next day.  Not surprisingly, the athletes and coaches protested – knowing that their best water-soaked marks wouldn’t stand up to the changed conditions.

The “black letter law” is clear – “all trials and marks…shall stand”.  But it’s not fair.  Even some state qualifiers from the previous year would fall victim, not to injury or failure to perform, but to the random sorting of the competitors which left them in the rain rather than the sunshine.

The easy answer as an official would be the one  that starts – “show me in the book”.  And it’s in the book, Rule 3-2-6, throws in the rain must stand. But it’s not fair, and my friend made a different decision.  He threw out all of rain soaked results, and re-did the whole competition from the beginning in the sunshine.  It was a qualifying meet, he wanted everyone to have a fair shot.

The Right Call

My fallback position:  as an official  we wear black and white, we are hired for black and white decisions, black letter law is what I can “show them in the book”.  So I entered our “study” with the thought that Doug was wrong.  But it’s hard to beat his sense of fairness.  Are we really hired just for black and white interpretation, or are we hired to use our best judgment, forged in decisions over decades, to be fair?  

His decision might “hurt” someone.  An athlete that would have qualified to the next level due to the rain, would now be beaten by someone else.  In short, someone who got lucky, and got to throw in the sun, would beat someone who, through no fault of their own, was throwing soaking wet.  In Doug’s more even competition, the better thrower would win out to qualify, instead of the luckiest.

It might not have been “the right call” by the book.  But it was fair.  

Our “dry”  discussion at Thursday evening’s study of Rule 3, section 2, parts 5 and 6; still keeps me thinking, days later.  It’s made me consider a different aspect of our black and white uniformed jobs.  And it gives me an even deeper appreciation and respect for my friend and fellow official, Doug.

The Sunday Story Series

Author: Marty Dahlman

I'm Marty Dahlman. After forty years of teaching and coaching track and cross country, I've finally retired!!! I've also spent a lot of time in politics, working campaigns from local school elections to Presidential campaigns.