Controversy at CO State Meet

Dang, you have to be a milesplit subscriber to see that photo.

the mother lode wrote:

Dang, you have to be a milesplit subscriber to see that photo.

Describe it for us.

This was indeed a very unfortunate incident. The Salida team was favored to defend their state team championship from last year and the Alamosa girls were definitely not at the same level. If there was any real concern about these slight uniform variations, some caring Colorado coach or official (of which there are many) would have brought up that concern with the Salida coach earlier in the season. Of course, the Salida girls were thrown off and were reported to be running in tears for something like the first half mile of the race. This antic was simply cruel and uncaring of all the girls involved, notably Salida, but also Alamosa (especially now with the ongoing public controversy), and even the rest of the 3A field toeing the line that day. There are lots of tough and teachable moments for all involved.

Next time just let the kids run. It doesn't increase safety, does not impact competitive fairness. Just let the kids run.

old coach man wrote:

a coach should know that his uniforms are off. It is his fault. It is also his athletes faults for not coordinating the effort. My grandkids are at a school and they have 10 different uniforms. Girls wear this, guys wear that, relays this, relays that. But at big meets the coach says wear the school issued. If they don't, they don't run. The kids always listen.

The uniforms were all school issued, and they looked almost the same. The DQ was nitpicky and I don't fault the coach.

What if they only had a large sized uniform left, and the girl running was a small. The uniform would look 'Different' on the runner....DQ

Alamosa coach, pulled a BS call

pay attention wrote:

old coach man wrote:

a coach should know that his uniforms are off. It is his fault. It is also his athletes faults for not coordinating the effort. My grandkids are at a school and they have 10 different uniforms. Girls wear this, guys wear that, relays this, relays that. But at big meets the coach says wear the school issued. If they don't, they don't run. The kids always listen.

The uniforms were all school issued, and they looked almost the same. The DQ was nitpicky and I don't fault the coach.

Right I don't fault the coach but he should have said something the previous meet.

But the school/coach/program should get stuff that matches. 100%. Run in all black if your not sure. Or white.

Jerseys are dirt cheap. If your not sure then scrap every thing and be 100%

Jockey tagless, come in all colors. I'll buy a set for Alamosa

old coach man wrote:

pay attention wrote:

The uniforms were all school issued, and they looked almost the same. The DQ was nitpicky and I don't fault the [ Salida ] coach.

Right I don't fault the coach but he should have said something the previous meet.

But the school/coach/program should get stuff that matches. 100%. Run in all black if your not sure. Or white.

Jerseys are dirt cheap. If your not sure then scrap every thing and be 100%

I'm saying that I don't fault the Salida coach, because the uniforms looked almost the same.

When I ran in the 80s, Zaragoza was the coach of Centauri, in La Jara, Colorado, just down the road from Alamosa. Tough program, tough kids.

Is (perhaps was, at this point) definitely the dean of active high school coaches in Colorado. He's got to have been coaching for near 40 years. Grew up in Louisville/Lafayette, ran for Centaurus and then Adams State.

Holy cow, though, making 16 year old girls cry over a technicality on what is one of the most important days of their high school lives. Also, his team may be champs, but there's an asterisk. Are they champs, really-because they didn't beat the other team's best.

Zaragoza many know how to win, but he also has experience losing. How'd those Lake County whoopins taste back in the day, coach? And we didn't need to disqualify your team to do it.

pay attention wrote:

old coach man wrote:

Right I don't fault the coach but he should have said something the previous meet.

But the school/coach/program should get stuff that matches. 100%. Run in all black if your not sure. Or white.

Jerseys are dirt cheap. If your not sure then scrap every thing and be 100%

I'm saying that I don't fault the Salida coach, because the uniforms looked almost the same.

I am saying that I do fault the Salida coach because the uniforms looked almost the same. From mid August until now he had no idea? That is hard to believe.

But I also think that if someone had noticed at a prior meet they should have said something. Its very unsportsmanlike to raise this issue on a day that is all about the kids.

I like the idea of getting some jockey or hanes tank tops. You can always find some Brooks solid whites for $7-10.

old coach man wrote:

Describe it for us.

Four of Alamosa's seven girls were in technical violation of 4-3-1.

It doesn't do any good. The race is done and over. But it shows how dumb this gaming of uniform stuff really is.

It's hard enough for officials to consistently enforce the rules as it is. Coaches need to be removed from the uniform enforcement process.

If they would have pinned their numbers over the "S" would it have made a difference?

old coach man wrote:

I am saying that I do fault the Salida coach because the uniforms looked almost the same. From mid August until now he had no idea? That is hard to believe.

Yeah, he should have made them all different.

random3 wrote:

If they would have pinned their numbers over the "S" would it have made a difference?

The "S" was not the issue, I think. It seems to me that the difference was the size and shape of the white lines on the sides/back.

Salida has a very Spartan budget, and can't afford matching uniforms.