If you\u2019ve read many of the essays in \u201cOur America\u201d, 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 \u2013 it had been my \u201cmain\u201d sport since I read my first book about Jesse Owens at ten years old. It didn\u2019t hurt that I was the \u201cplayground\u201d fifty yard dash champion at Southdale Elementary School, either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201c220\u201d man, and like most sprinters I ran \u201cmy race\u201d and the sprint relays, and under duress, the 4×440 relay as well. (Modern track folks will need translation \u2013 \u201c220\u201d is now \u201c200\u201d and 4×440 is now the 4×400 \u2013 metrics prevailed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cchecked out\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was brand new \u2013 put in the previous summer.\u00a0\u00a0And it was an \u201call weather\u201d track, made of rubberized asphalt and latex binding.\u00a0\u00a0That was something \u2013 both my high school and college tracks had been cinders \u2013 compressed coal ash.\u00a0\u00a0You wore \u00bd inch spikes in your shoes to get traction in the cinders, and tried not to fall.\u00a0\u00a0But this was a track-man\u2019s definition of beauty:\u00a0\u00a0the bright white lines circling the deep black surface, the multiple colored starting and exchange zones scattered along the way, the \u201ctic\u201d marks for hurdle settings \u2013 all permanent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They threw away the \u201cfour-lane\u201d white lime lane machine used on the old 300 yard cinder track around the practice field. Watkins now had \u201cthe best\u201d track in the County. I climbed back over the fences, ready to coach kids in Black and Gold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That started a forty year journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve told a lot of stories about kids and track and coaching. But today\u2019s story is a little different. It\u2019s about the camaraderie of the folks I met along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I retired from coaching after the 2017 season (check it out, it really is forty years), and pretty much stepped away from the track.\u00a0\u00a0The next year I helped out at some meets, but it wasn\u2019t until 2019 that I decided to go back on the track in a different role, this time as an official.\u00a0\u00a0I had a license for most of my coaching career, but I didn\u2019t actually officiate much.\u00a0\u00a0It was always good to have though.\u00a0\u00a0I was \u201cup\u201d on all of the rules, and in the pre-season discussions when officials were deciding how to \u201cmake the calls\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cold hand\u201d, for many, I was a \u201cnew\u201d official. Sure I\u2019d officiated the Big Ten Collegiate Pole Vault \u2013 but it was in the 1980\u2019s . And I\u2019d done dozens of Junior Olympic long jumps, triple jumps, and pole vaults, but that was in the 1990\u2019s . So I was patient, I knew 2020 would be better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there wasn\u2019t a track season in 2020 \u2013 COVID shut us down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So this year I had big expectations. And I\u2019ve had a lot of work. I\u2019ve officiated at twenty-one meets so far this year \u2013 with four more to go this Regional week, my last of the season. While my \u201cspeciality\u201d is officiating pole vault (no surprise), I\u2019ve done almost every field event, and started and clerked as well. There\u2019s been middle school and high school meets, and a couple of schools have had me back several times (thanks Licking Heights and Hilliard). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What about Watkins \u2013 well they already have excellent officials on tap: I made sure of that when I was coaching. I\u2019ve done a couple meets with them, but they\u2019ve got the literal \u201cbig guns\u201d working their meets \u2013 and those officials have earned the right to stay there. I don\u2019t want to mess that up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201ca good\u201d event, means keeping it organized, moving, and \u201cby the book\u201d. 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 \u201ctechnique\u201d of the athlete, I focus on the rules of the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it is fun.\u00a0\u00a0Fun to see the kids succeed, and fun to see the old friends I made over forty years on the track.\u00a0\u00a0Yesterday I officiated for the first time in Eastern Ohio, running the girls long jump at Meadowbrook High School\u2019s District just south of Cambridge.\u00a0\u00a0As 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.\u00a0\u00a0So I got to know many of the \u201cveteran\u201d (read old) hands of track and field in Eastern Ohio.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I showed up in Byesville early yesterday morning. Anyone who ran or coached with me won\u2019t 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 \u2013 \u201cwhat are you doing in an official\u2019s shirt \u2013 isn\u2019t your team running today?\u201d. 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 \u201cold days\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One former rival from the County was there \u2013 the coach of Licking Heights in the 1970\u2019s and 80\u2019s. 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 \u201cin the day\u201d. He was an older hand, I was the \u201cnew guy\u201d building a program at Watkins. But it was great to see him now \u2013 talking workouts and memories of great performances. And he\u2019s still setting goals \u2013 now the goal is 100 years old. I\u2019d bet on him making it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it was fun meeting new younger coaches as well. I still have a \u201chand\u201d 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\u2019t know me as a coach. I\u2019m just an \u201cold guy\u201d, one of those gray haired track figures like those that intimidated me when I was a young coach back in the 1980\u2019s . I hope I don\u2019t intimidate them that way \u2013 it\u2019s exciting to hear their plans and goals. If I can encourage that \u2013 then maybe I\u2019m still contributing a little bit, beyond just calling \u201cfair and foul\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So it was a fun day in the sun at Meadowbrook yesterday.\u00a0\u00a0And a great day for a Jeep ride back home, the top down, music at turned all the way up, cruising west on I-70.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s always good to be back on track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"