Old Friends

220 Man

If you’ve read many of the essays in “Our America”, you already know that I was a high school track and field coach.  I started when I was twenty-one, just a couple of years older than my seniors, as the sprint and hurdle coach at Watkins Memorial High School in Pataskala, Ohio.  I loved track – it had been my “main” sport since I read my first book about Jesse Owens at ten years old.  It didn’t hurt that I was the “playground” fifty yard dash champion at Southdale Elementary School, either. 

And when I had the opportunity to actually meet and spend a few minutes with Mr. Owens, that cemented my sports focus.  Sure I played Little League baseball until I was twelve.  And I swam on a club swim team, and later in high school.  And I wrestled too, in middle school and in high school.  But in the end, it was all about track and field.  I was a “220” man, and like most sprinters I ran “my race” and the sprint relays, and under duress, the 4×440 relay as well.  (Modern track folks will need translation – “220” is now “200” and 4×440 is now the 4×400 – metrics prevailed).

Beauty Behind the School

So it was natural that when I was student teaching and they suggested I help with an extra-curricular activity, I gravitated towards the track.  I remember that early March day in 1978, when I first “checked out” the track at Watkins.  The snow had just melted, and I went out back of the old high school (now old middle school) to see.  The gates were all locked, I had to climb the fences to get in.  

It was brand new – put in the previous summer.  And it was an “all weather” track, made of rubberized asphalt and latex binding.  That was something – both my high school and college tracks had been cinders – compressed coal ash.  You wore ½ inch spikes in your shoes to get traction in the cinders, and tried not to fall.  But this was a track-man’s definition of beauty:  the bright white lines circling the deep black surface, the multiple colored starting and exchange zones scattered along the way, the “tic” marks for hurdle settings – all permanent.  

They threw away the “four-lane” white lime lane machine used on the old 300 yard cinder track around the practice field.  Watkins now had “the best” track in the County.  I climbed back over the fences, ready to coach kids in Black and Gold. 

That started a forty year journey.

Old Coaches Never Die

I’ve told a lot of stories about kids and track and coaching.  But today’s story is a little different.  It’s about the camaraderie of the folks I met along the way.

I retired from coaching after the 2017 season (check it out, it really is forty years), and pretty much stepped away from the track.  The next year I helped out at some meets, but it wasn’t until 2019 that I decided to go back on the track in a different role, this time as an official.  I had a license for most of my coaching career, but I didn’t actually officiate much.  It was always good to have though.  I was “up” on all of the rules, and in the pre-season discussions when officials were deciding how to “make the calls”.  

But two years ago I decided to get serious about officiating.  Like most other forms of self-employment, getting officiating jobs is often about who you know.  And I was lucky to have some official and coaching friends willing to suggest me for assignments.  

So in 2019 I got a few jobs, a total of ten track meets for the spring.  That was a little frustrating, but even though I was an “old hand”, for many, I was a “new” official.  Sure I’d officiated the Big Ten Collegiate Pole Vault – but it was in the 1980’s .  And I’d done dozens of Junior Olympic long jumps, triple jumps, and pole vaults, but that was in the 1990’s .  So I was patient, I knew 2020 would be better.

But there wasn’t a track season in 2020 – COVID shut us down.

Wearing Black and White

So this year I had big expectations.  And I’ve had a lot of work. I’ve officiated at twenty-one meets so far this year – with four more to go this Regional week, my last of the season.  While my “speciality” is officiating pole vault (no surprise), I’ve done almost every field event, and started and clerked as well. There’s been middle school and high school meets, and a couple of schools have had me back several times (thanks Licking Heights and Hilliard).  

What about Watkins – well they already have excellent officials on tap:  I made sure of that when I was coaching.  I’ve done a couple meets with them, but they’ve got the literal “big guns” working their meets – and those officials have earned the right to stay there.  I don’t want to mess that up.

Officiating is different than coaching.  The job is to be fair, efficient, and set the stage so the kids can have their best opportunity to succeed.  Running “a good” event, means keeping it organized, moving, and “by the book”.   Wearing the black and white officiating uniform, instead of the black and gold of coaching, keeps me a lot quieter.  Instead of focusing on the “technique” of the athlete, I focus on the rules of the event.

Catching Up

And it is fun.  Fun to see the kids succeed, and fun to see the old friends I made over forty years on the track.  Yesterday I officiated for the first time in Eastern Ohio, running the girls long jump at Meadowbrook High School’s District just south of Cambridge.  As a coach, for many years my teams ran at least one meet in Eastern Ohio during the season, at Cambridge or over on the river at Bellaire and Wheeling.  So I got to know many of the “veteran” (read old) hands of track and field in Eastern Ohio. 

I showed up in Byesville early yesterday morning.  Anyone who ran or coached with me won’t be surprised:  I was one of the first to arrive.  I wanted to be all set up before kids got on the runway.  So I was over at the long jump when I heard the first – “what are you doing in an official’s shirt – isn’t your team running today?”.  It was good to catch up with the Eastern coaches, to hear them talk about their teams and successes, and to chime in on stories from the “old days”.

One former rival from the County was there – the coach of Licking Heights in the 1970’s and 80’s.  His son is now the longtime coach at Meadowbrook, and at ninety years old he comes out to help out at the meets.  We had our challenges “in the day”.  He was an older hand, I was the “new guy” building a program at Watkins.  But it was great to see him now – talking workouts and memories of great performances.  And he’s still setting goals – now the goal is 100 years old.  I’d bet on him making it.

Cruisin’

And it was fun meeting new younger coaches as well.  I still have a “hand” in pole vault education, and even though I was at the long jump, a couple young coaches and I had some discussion about making pole vaulting safer and better in their area.  They don’t know me as a coach.  I’m just an “old guy”, one of those gray haired track figures like those that intimidated me when I was a young coach back in the 1980’s .  I hope I don’t intimidate them that way – it’s exciting to hear their plans and goals.  If I can encourage that – then maybe I’m still contributing a little bit, beyond just calling “fair and foul”.

So it was a fun day in the sun at Meadowbrook yesterday.  And a great day for a Jeep ride back home, the top down, music at turned all the way up, cruising west on I-70.  

It’s always good to be back on track.