Isn't it time they burned the hs rulebook and started over?

David,

I appreciated your earlier post and thought it was rational and practical. I am not taking issue with rules based on safety.

I don't want to dilute my point by taking a position that would create chaos and reduce spectator enjoyment (i.e. no consistency among relay team members). However, my extreme response is based on the fact that if young highschool age kids are being discouraged from our sport by the simple fact that "adults" want them all to look the same (read - non-threatening, whitebred) that is crazy.

There are people on this thread that argue that a kid can't run because his eyebrow is pierced or is wearing shorts that are too long or too short. Does that make any sense?

Love to see Marc Davis chime in on this.

old and grouchy wrote:

However, my extreme response is based on the fact that if young highschool age kids are being discouraged from our sport by the simple fact that "adults" want them all to look the same (read - non-threatening, whitebred) that is crazy.

I think you are exaggerting. What potential athlete, in any sport, will refuse to go out for the team becasue he/she will have to wear the same uniform as everyone else on the team?

old and grouchy wrote:There are people on this thread that argue that a kid can't run because his eyebrow is pierced or is wearing shorts that are too long or too short. Does that make any sense?

I don't recall seeing anything here about the length of shorts. Did I miss that?

It would be hard to find any other sport where there is as much opportunity for "cheating" as there is in T and F. Enforcing what appear to be senseless rules when most of the time rival coaches are officiating the meets can only lead to trouble. Add overzealous paid officials and timers like the Mr. Black scenarios listed above add more drama. I've seen officlas at footlocker DQ an athlete for "coaching" while others doing the same thing were ignored. Up here in MA, we have a nice officials organization but it is hard to weed out the tyrants that are on their individual power trips.

Not sure what changes to the rulebook would do to solve the problem.

On another note, I was invited to the steeple, hammer, decathlon, in CT last year by an old time coaching friend. It is interestng to note that the one controversial item that came up while I was there (other than the obvious dangerous hammer situation), was a coach from Mr. Jacobs HS up above, was involved with coaching while on the track during the steeple. I don't know Mr. Jacobs so I can't say as to whether it was him or not, but I find it amusing and ironical, considering the flow of this thread. The situation stands out in my mind because that is exactly the conversation that a group of coaches was having at the time of the infraction. ie why some caoches were allowed to bend the rules and others weren't.