PA & National Elite HS Hurdler Eric Futch barred from State Meet after possible conspiracy from meet officials

Futch got screwed but this has nothing to do with race.

brogan1 wrote:

Futch got screwed but this has nothing to do with race.

It was all about race. Pennsylvania is as bad as the Jim Crow South.

This (almost everything your wrote) is a load of bull crap. These officals were volunteering just so they could have their own power trip and influence the outcomes, not for the betterment of the sport or to help the kids. Their berating many kids, only selectively enforcing the rules and secret meeting to get a kid disqualified and hurt the kids school speaks volumes to who these officials/coaches are as people.

The other kids didn't argue because the rules were not being enforced on them, just this kid whom the officials clearly and opening disliked. The officials/coaches used their position of authority to goad this kid and provoke an incident so they could get him DQ'ed and hurt his school, they almost admitted as much in their "secret meeting".

To think (as you suggest) they are selfless individuals volunteering to help the sport is ridiciulous. They are the type of people and behaviors that drive good coaches and athletes such as myself from the sport.

That is your opinion that you can have if you want to to believe that.

The rules are enforced fairly that is why situations like this don't occur every two seconds because they are being fair. And you may not care for their attitude but when it comes down to it that is how you have to run a event. If they just let everyone walk all over the place and do whatever they want then you will have a chaotic event.

How do the official "goad and provoke" this athlete? By enforcing the rule? As I said they were instructed that they can't sit down under the tent. He tried to break a rule and was reprimanded. It was his choice to argue. That was his choice and it led to the consequences. Now say the official just lets him, what is to stop someone from doing the same thing and another and then 30 kids are trying to sit under a tent that they aren't supposed to sit under. But even after that incident he still would have been fine had he not went back to mouth off. Everyone knows you do not argue with a official it is a clear way to get disqualified.

That "secret agenda" has already been refuted by a well respected coach in another forum and is a ridiculous accusation.

This incident is getting blown out of proportion and being fueled by biased journalism and illogical comments. If you choose to have a negative view towards officials that is your business.

Never, ever forget, officials: it's all about you and your "rules." That's what I go to a track meet to see-- the enforcement of rules that you made up.

[quote]wow lets just take a second wrote:

If they just let everyone walk all over the place and do whatever they want then you will have a chaotic event.

How do the official "goad and provoke" this athlete? By enforcing the rule? As I said they were instructed that they can't sit down under the tent. He tried to break a rule and was reprimanded. It was his choice to argue. That was his choice and it led to the consequences. Now say the official just lets him, what is to stop someone from doing the same thing and another and then 30 kids are trying to sit under a tent that they aren't supposed to sit under. quote]

But that is just it, they didn't enforce the rule except for him. They let others sit there, even as they told him he couldn't. Then they also bad mouthed him and told him he was worthless as well as showed him they felt that way by their actions. That is goading him and it would provoke a reaction from most anyone, especially a high school kid competing in a pressure packed meet. Then they went into their meeting and bad mouthed him and colluded against him, yes 4 adults colluded against a teenage kid.

Also the DQ sayed nothing about arguing with the officials so they can't use that as a reason why he was DQ'ed. I don't know if it happened or not but it can't be the reason if the DQ didn't even mention it.

As and most everyone else knows, it is when you only selectively enforce rules (to the detriment of others) and disrespect the participants, that is when you have trouble and lose control fo the meet. Just like these officials/coaches did.

As I said, it is enough to drive people from the sport, while they pay their sick power trip agendas. You said "at least they volunteer and try and help the sport" but I suggest the sport would be much better off without them and that their intention had noting to do with the betterment fo the sport.

You are putting way too much stock in those articles which are coming from his opinion and view point alone. It never said that athletes were sitting under the tent, it said kids. I have been to that meet many times and know first hand that the student workers who are helping the officials sit under that tent. They have jobs that require them to do that. So that very well may have been the case. Even if it wasn't their is still no reason for him to have had to say anything. He should have gotten his coach and let him be the one to speak up. It is not a athletes place to argue with the official that is the coaches job if something is unfair or wrong.

The DQ may not be a result of the arguing but it is directly related to him arguing a second time that resulted in the involvement of the meet director and subsequent DQ that followed.

I already pointed out that this "collusion" has been refuted and is being taken from a biased viewpoint. From the sounds of thing I don't think the meet was out of control, this was just a single incident that was handled.

I'm also curious to hear your solution for making the sport better without officials?

Meets have to have officials, everyone knows that. Get professional officials and hold them accountable for thier actions as well. They should not be looking for ways to DQ kids from competition, they should be there to make the competition fair for the participants. Too many of the 'volunteers' are on power trips and like to exercise their power whenever possible.

Which of these officals/coaches are you or are you family/friends with?

Our sport wouldn't be better off without officials, but certainly would better off without these officials. It would also be very well served to have fair rules that were evenly applied. And to have officials who didn't be-little competitors and talk down to them as if they were beneth them.

These officials picked a fight with an athlete they disliked and then DQ'ed him when he argued back. Then made it worse by consulting as group to decide how to do it and then (disingenuiusly) act as if they didn't know who he was so as to not seem as though they singled him out and didn't talk to his coach (whom they also dislike) on purpose.

The sport would be better off without officials who have such biased opinions and are so willing to through their weight around to get rid of or hurt kids whom their biases are against.

This is a common occurance in middle school and high school meets in our sport. Adults with biases for or againts one team or person being in control and looking for reasons or ways to get someone disqualified to either help their team or hurt another team/person.

Like I said, this is the reason I left this level of the sport, and this is another classic case of it in PA.

wow lets just take a second wrote:

I'm also curious to hear your solution for making the sport better without officials?

These are some of the rules that are vital to track and field that require knowledgeable officials to monitor and enforce:

-Relay handoffs must be in the proper exchange zone, and runners waiting for the handoff need to begin their acceleration from inside the acceleration zone.

-Runners need to stay in their lanes in races one lap or shorter.

-Hurdles must carry their trail leg completely over all hurdles, including on the curve of a 300/400 meter hurdle race.

-Throwers must leave the throwing circle under full control and through the back half.

-Horizontal jumps must be measured from the point of contact with the sand that is closest to the board, regardlesss of the body part makes the contact.

-Runners not entered in a race cannot assist runners in a race in any way, including pacing from inside the track.

-Once called to the set position, runners in the blocks must stay still until the gun is fired.

-In a multi-lap race, runners must have 2-3 strides clearance before moving in front of a passed runner.

At high school meets, I hardly ever see knowledgeable officials monitoring and attending to this sort of business-- the sort of rules that actually effect the outcomes of events. When was the last time you saw a high school meet where someone was watching every flight of hurdles for trail leg violations?

Instead, here's what I see high school officials (especially the ones who actually know something about the sport, as opposed to the volunteers who graciously give their time to rake sandpits, etc.) spending their time doing:

-telling athletes to tuck in their singlets or remove jewelry.

-telling athletes where they should and shouldn't stand/warm up.

-handing out awards.

-yelling at athletes who have finished their events and are cheering for their teammates.

It's not about rules vs. no rules. It's about paying attention to the sorts of things that actually matter, and not spending your time worrying about who's standing in what tent, having awards ceremonies (?), and in general trying to control where every sits and stands in a track meet with a couple of hundred athletes and spectators.

None of the above.

The officials didn't pick a fight with the athlete. I don't know why people keep saying this. He went up to them and argued with them, twice. That is what happen plain and simple. He argued with them. He was doing something he wasn't supposed to do and the official was doing their duty in telling him that is what he wasn't supposed to do and he chose to argue.

I will comment one more time on this "group consulting" that a respected coach who was in the press box when this exchange supposedly took place and said that this didn't occur.

If this is really the way you feel towards officials I feel sorry for you and situations you might have run up against but I do not believe that it is a common situation.

Thanks to a committee meeting to discuss new evidence of Ron Lopresti's questionable involvement in various white power groups, Eric Futch has been reinstates in the PIAA state meet!

*reinstated

wow lets just take a second wrote:

I will comment one more time on this "group consulting" that a respected coach who was in the press box when this exchange supposedly took place and said that this didn't occur.

If this is really the way you feel towards officials I feel sorry for you and situations you might have run up against but I do not believe that it is a common situation.

So you are calling a respected journalist a liar and saying he would risk his career to make-up a story about a high school track meet. Maybe your firend simply didn't see the conversation or was not in the press box at the time, seem like a much more logical explanation than this journalist risking his career to make a story. The journalist didn't identify an exact time it happened, so unless your friend was in the press box the whole day he might have missed it. I'd consider that rather than call someone a liar in their choosen profession. But then again you are friends with these officials/coaches, so maybe not too objective.

If you don't think this situation is common then I suggest you haven't been to many middle school or high school conference meets lately. It is all too common.

I've seen coaches acting as officials purposely (and admittedly) not call fouls in meets during the season so the athlete (who is just learning the sport) gets comfortable with doing something in a certain way and then waiting to call it on them at a conference meet to get them DQ'ed and thus help his team to victory or at least hurt the other school.

And this is how we introduce these kids to the sport.

Sad.

Thats great. Link?

Found it.

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2012/05/24/sports/high_school/doc4fbdb6d5f3863149840440.txt?viewmode=fullstory

I'm not calling anyone a liar, I'm also not referring to anyone as a friend. This is a coach posting on another running websites forum. And considering he was the announcer for the meet I would say that he was in the press box the whole day.

Also you keep drawing this over towards complaining about officials. You have chosen to ignore my comments about this exact situation and are instead choosing to pursue what appears to be your own vendetta against track and field officials.

This situation is about a isolated incident and we are not drawing on things that may or may not have happen in the past or still be going on.

I am being objective in reading this story for what it is worth and really about rather then letting a biased viewpoint skew my standing on the rules and reality.

Word is that Futch has been reinstated after his 3rd appeal was heard today by PIAA, correct decision on many levels to allow him back into the competition.

Now i guess the focus will shift onto the fate of the officials who were behind the decision

Why do you consider the journalist's viewpoint to be biased? Is he related to the kid in someway?