Racewalking could be cut by principals

loading...

If three committee votes are upheld by votes of the Maine Principals’ Association membership at their fall meeting in November, the landscape of Maine high school track and field will look quite a bit different in the future.

The Outdoor Track Committee’s recommendations:

. To end high school racewalking as a sanctioned event in the state.

. To abolish regional championship meets.

. To scrap the current three-class, one-site state championship meet, which has been held in that format for the past two years. Instead, three separate state meets would be held at different sites around the state.

In order for MPA committee votes to be adopted as binding rules, they first must be approved by a vote of the MPA membership. Recommendations made by committees that oversee spring sports will be addressed at a meeting Nov. 21 in Portland.

The Outdoor Track Committee’s votes on regional and state competition were a reaction to debate and suggestions made by the state’s coaches. The racewalking decision marked just the most recent hurdle proponents of that event have had to clear in order to gain, then keep, official status.

“I’m flabbergasted,” said Tom Eastler of Farmington, who serves as the USA Track and Field racewalk chairman for Maine and was a driving force behind the racewalk gaining official recognition in the 1990s.

“And it’s not for me. I can go on and live with this being over with, but it’s the kids who are in it, in the pipeline right now,” Eastler said. “[They] have a world of possibilities in front of them, but because of petty politics or because some people think [the event] is being rammed down their throats, [the event may be cut].”

Three of the five voting committee members – Jeff Turnbull of Dirigo High School in Dixfield, Gordon Salls of Sanford High School and Andree “Muffy” Tostevin of St. Joseph’s School in Lewiston – were present for the votes.

They voted 2-1 (with Turnbull in the minority, according to Eastler), to recommend racewalk not be a part of spring track meets.

But even that vote doesn’t show the true feelings of the committee, Tostevin said.

Tostevin, a K-through-8 principal, is also a track and field official, and she played an important role in getting the racewalk originally recognized by the MPA.

She said her vote was intended to make the entire MPA membership deal with an event which regularly is criticized at committee meetings.

“My vote was not either a vote for or against racewalking,” Tostevin said. “I think the time had come for the principals to make a decision about it.

“Every single year it comes up, and I think in order to put it to sleep, one way or another, the people who have control over it – principals and athletic directors – need to make a decision,” she said.

George Mendros, the boys track coach at Thornton Academy in Saco and the rules interpreter for the MPA’s Outdoor Track Committee, said he thinks it’s time for Maine to stop sanctioning high school racewalking.

Mendros points at several factors for his mindset.

First, he said, the National Federation of State High School Federations doesn’t sponsor the event. Also, Maine is the lone state in the U.S., and may be the only state in the country to include it in their state meets.

Mendros – who coaches racewalkers at Thornton and also at summer camps at Bates College in Lewiston – said a problem the event has is that many coaches used the racewalk as a catch-all choice for athletes who may not be as talented as some others on the team.

Mendros said the top racewalkers in the state – and the top coaches – work as hard at their specialty as any other track athlete.

“I think the argument that some kids who aren’t very good [at other events] can do this detracts from the event,” he said.

Mendros also said that some athletes and coaches – though not a majority – take advantage of the fact that the event is hard to officiate by concentrating hard on keeping their technique legal while they’re in front of officials.

“I’ve seen coaches and kids who want to know where the officials are [positioned] before the event starts,” Mendros said.

Eastler, who will serve as the U.S. World Cup racewalk coach this summer, said he has heard plenty of criticism about the event from coaches over the years, but points at Maine’s record of producing top-notch racewalkers as proof that the system is working fine.

And he said coaches, who were originally lukewarm toward the event, have largely come to embrace it, even as some have made yearly motions to abolish the event.

“Last year it came up again [at the Maine Track and Cross Country Coaches’ Association meeting] and it was something like 45-15 [to keep the racewalk],” Eastler said.

“There were lots of wonderful comments from coaches who said, ‘Last year, I would have voted this out, but in the interim I’ve had kids come out who wouldn’t have, taken up the racewalk, and have some success in it.”

The movement away from regional meets and to three state meet sites were approved by 3-0 votes, according to Tostevin.

Mendros said the decision to stage separate state meets was made before addressing the question about eliminating regional competition.

“We thought it was just too long a day for the kids,” Mendros said.

According to MPA assistant director Larry Labrie, with six regional meets (Classes A, B and C in Eastern and Western Maine) taking place on the same day, regional sites and meet directors are hard to find.

“We’ve had a horrible time finding schools to host meets,” Labrie said.

Also, he said, many regional meets “duplicate” the field from conference championships that take place the week before.

This year, one site wasn’t lined up until 15 days before the meet, and the MPA wasn’t able to find a meet director for another until less than a week before the event.

The Maine Track and Cross Country Coaches’ Association had suggested that regional meets be eliminated, but that state-meet winners advance to a “Meet of Champions,” that would also serve as a qualifier for the New England championships.

Labrie said the Meet of Champions format wasn’t consistent with the MPA’s philosophy.

“The Maine philosophy has been to send kids [to New Englands] that will represent all sizes of schools,” Labrie said. The Meet of Champions format wouldn’t guarantee that would happen, he said.

Mendros, for one, won’t miss the regionals, if the MPA membership backs the committee finding.

“My comment has always been that only bad things happen in regional meets,” Mendros said, referring to varied pitfalls that can cost a top-notch athlete the chance to advance to the next week’s state championships.