The Last Attempt

I am a track official, but I was a track coach too.  As an official I take each attempt in a field event as it comes.  There aren’t any “mitigating” factors:  first attempt or last, to win, place or go out, just one more ½ inch in the jump; none of it matters.  Either the jump or throw is good, by rule, or it’s not.  I measure to the board.  

But I’d be less than honest if I said I don’t know or care.  I do: that’s exactly the kind of information I kept in my head as a coach.  I knew who was on the last attempt, who needed ½ an inch to go into the lead, who was the pre-event “favorite”, now struggling to clear the bar.  But as an official, that can’t matter.

I just read a complaint about officiating at a District track meet.  That’s the beginning series of the state qualifying meets here in Ohio.  The top four in the competition move onto the Regional meet, the fifth place finisher is done.  Score fourth and the season continues, place fifth, and summer begins.  No pressure there (hah!), on the athlete or the coach.

Ohio High School athletics is committed to head to head competition.  It doesn’t matter that in the pole vault in one district the fourth place height is 13’6”, and in another the height is 11’6”.  From District to Regional, it’s four.  At the Regional level to the State final competition, there is a “margin of error”. The top four qualify.  And then, the next two best competitors statewide who finished fifth or sixth in the Regional meet qualify to the state.  But that’s only at the Regional level.  At District, it’s top four, period. If there’s a tie for Fourth – we break it.

Coaches and athletes know the rules going in.  And they also are aware of the competition in their event.  In my coaching days, some years 12’0” might qualify to Regional, in other years my 13’6” vaulter didn’t have a chance.   I knew what it would take, and made sure my vaulter did too.

So here was the District complaint:  a kid cleared 13’6” in the District and finished fifth.  Another District, going to the same Regional, qualified a kid at 11’6”.  That’s not fair.  The coach states that it’s not fair, and the system should be changed.

 It could be possible that the weather was different at the two districts.  I had a year officiating a District meet, that all four qualifiers made it to Regional at 11’0”, an absurdly low height for a Division II boys meet.  But it started to rain at 11’0”, with four left over the bar.  A fifth who chose not to vault that height, tried to jump 11’4”, but was unable to clear.  When the four knew they all qualified, they withdrew from the competition.  We had the qualifiers, we were done.

You can’t depend on conditions to be the same. (At the Regional you can’t either, though they all jump at the same time on the same day.  It’s a big State, and hot sun to the North might be high winds and storms to the South).  So the Ohio High School Athletic Association puts the emphasis on competitive place, rather than subjective time or distance.

But the complaint went on:  my kid took attempts at 13’9”, and cleared the bar once.  But his pole knocked the bar down, and the official called the vault a miss.  There was a big tail wind which blew the pole into the bar. It’s the state’s fault my kid didn’t qualify, because the system is “stupid”.  It’s the official’s fault my kid didn’t qualify, because she/he made a “bad” call.  That official “cost” my kid.

The kid had three attempts at 13’9” and cleared even higher during the season.  So the fact that he missed all three – well maybe it was more than just “bad officiating”.  But as an official, that whole equation can’t be part of the call you make.  

It’s simple, the vaulter goes up, and clears the bar.  If the pole comes back and hits the bar, then the official has to determine:  did the vaulter “attempt” to throw the pole back, or did he/she not?  If the kid clearly makes an attempt and the wind reverses the pole’s direction, then it should be a good vault.  But the wind isn’t the issue, it’s the action of the kid.  And that’s the judgment call of the official – did I see an attempt to throw the pole, or not.  

As an official I try to make that call as clearly as possible.  I am ready for the coach to question it (I always did as a coach) and I have a clear answer.  Either I saw an effort, or I didn’t.  If there was no effort then it doesn’t really matter about the wind – it’s a miss.  If I saw an effort, then the vault is good. 

It’s up to the kid to make the effort.  It’s up to him or her, to clear the height that places them in the top four.  As an official, I hope that athletes do what they are supposed to do, so I’m not required to “make a judgment call”.  But I’m not afraid to make it.  What I tell coaches and athletes is that it’s better for their efforts to determine who makes and misses; better than my judgment. But if they leave it to me, then I will make the call.

And it doesn’t matter if it’s the first attempt of last, the winning height or the opener, the best conditions or marginal.  Because those aren’t factors in the “rules” of pole vault (or any other track or field event).  Each attempt has the same rules, the same determinations, and the same opportunity to clear or miss.

I know the coach is disappointed.  I’ve been there as a coach.  I know the official wished they hadn’t had to make the call.  Officials really do want all the kids to do well.  But the “black and white” uniform requires us to make that call fairly, dispassionately, every time.  

Don’t like that?  Then don’t leave it up to us.