Racewalking survives in MPA vote

PORTLAND – There are only about 25 Maine high schools which have students who compete in the racewalk, an event contested during the spring outdoor track and field season. There is surely a lack of qualified judges for the racewalk, and it does add time to already lengthy track and field meets.

But for a majority of the Maine Principals’ Association those reasons weren’t good enough to eliminate the racewalk from the track and field program, as about 80 percent of the MPA members at a Thursday meeting voted down a outdoor track and field committee recommendation to remove the event from competition.

There were no official vote numbers tallied – MPA Executive Director Dick Durost said there was a clear overwhelming majority – but no one spoke out against the actual racewalk event during a discussion period preceding the vote. There were some nods of support to the committee recommendation, but most principals spoke in favor of the event.

Mt. Blue High of Farmington principal Greg Potter, one of the first to speak, used some prepared remarks to talk about his school’s success in the racewalk and told the membership it has been a “great thing” for the Cougars’ athletic program.

“I think this will be very popular with my school,” Potter said after the vote. “I think it’s been a good thing for Maine. We’ve had a lot of successes and it’s brought a lot of recognition and esteem to the state. There are issues and we recognize that but we feel some more work needs to be done to address those issues.”

There were 71 member schools represented at the morning interscholastic division business meeting, part of the association’s fall gathering at the Holiday Inn By The Bay. The MPA needs 40 schools in order to conduct business with a simple majority needed for voting to accept or reject committee reports.

During the discussion period, some principals said they had come to the meeting with an open mind, and even though their school did not have racewalkers, they had not heard good reasons to eliminate the event.

Muffy Tostevin, the chair of the track and field committee and principal of St. Joseph’s School in Lewiston, presented the committee report. She told the membership the main reasons for eliminating the racewalk were the lack of qualified judges and the length of time – about 40 minutes, she estimated – that the event can add to meets.

For some principals, those reasons seemed obstacles that could be overcome with some work, and that the benefits of the racewalk outweigh the length of time it adds to a meet.

Lincoln Academy of Newcastle headmaster Howard Ryder, a past MPA president, said he wanted to support the committee but still hoped the racewalk could be saved in some form. One principal argued for the lifetime benefits of walking as opposed to a sport like football, while others couldn’t imagine eliminating an opportunity for kids to excel. Another member said he was impressed by the number of letters he had received in favor of the racewalk.

“To me, this [vote] reaffirms the process that we use,” Durost said as the meeting broke up. “At the committee level issues are raised … and then they’re brought to the group, there’s discussion, and then they take the vote. To me it just shows that the process works.”

During the discussion, Tostevin told the membership that the committee recommendation to eliminate the racewalk was merely a way to get the MPA to make a final decision on the issue. It’s something that has been passionately debated on both sides, she said, and the committee felt it was time for the association to take a stand.

“The membership needed to vote on it because it has been so controversial,” Tostevin said later. “We needed to take it to the membership. … I’m very happy. I was there when we voted for it as a demonstration, which some people forget. I was there when we voted for it as a scoring event. This time I just said, we have to take it to the membership.”

The racewalk was introduced to Maine high school meets in 1995 and elevated to a scoring event in 1999.

The pro and con sentiments generally fell along regional lines, she added, with larger schools in southern Maine tending not to support racewalking.