Posted by Overload on April 01, 2002 at 05:19:29:
In Reply to: Excuse me!!! posted by THeisey on March 26, 2002 at 21:02:24:
whoa, calm down buddy. Not everyone is at war here.
I do appologise a for sounding harse and stupid. I don't mean to target all officials, truly, but you must realize that those few who are not in it for the sport are the ones that are more often viewed.
I am curreltny a volunteer coach, and I have been VOLUENTEERing my services for a long time in many sports for either officiating, coaching, even just running the stands and cleaning. To add to that, I'm no once a week coach. I spend a good 3 hours a day 5 days a week, jumping with the kids( there's 13 of them ), plus that entire meet day, just like any other dedicated coach, voluenteer or not. So before flinging stereotypes, mabye realize that I'm not just a dip shit with a head set, and mabye I'm one of you.
Anyway, many of the 'officials' I have delt with over years, in ALL sports, were not real officials, had no training, no experience, and no idea about the sport(s). Most of them had never read the rule books through, and needed the coaches to describe things for them. These are the ones I speak of, and I appologise for anything I say that goes across the wrong way. I should be more careful.
The officials that are there for the athletes, however, are great people. They deserve at least a medal, or some other kind of recognition.
As for the whining about "having to sit while the kids who shouldn't be there jump" you should be ashamed. You gonna throw all students out of school that have less then an A average. If coaches don't want to have their vaulters sit for hours, send them to an elite meet. Thats what there. It would do everyone a good service to remember that we all start out low, even for a day.
Try coming up to Ohio for a season. There is no sitting and waiting in the hot sun. Theres no god damn sun at all. We may get 1 or 2 out-door meets a year without freezing rain and or heavy winds, and I'll be damned if one vaulter is going to sit out because a coach wanted to make sure his or her athlete didn't sit too long. Most the time we're lucky to get 4 or 5 good weeks of pratice in a season.
And one final note, in my state no one whines about the weather, except the officials. Not all, but those who do make a hell of a lot of noise. Mabye we should try to spark more peoples intrest's in the sport, insteading of recruting them for $10 bucks an hour. I'm currently working with a coach that was simply an events official. He cared less about the sport and more about the rule book and the clock. Now he's a coach, and he's completely fascinated by the sport of Track and Field, especially polevault.
While writing, I remember that very few officials whined about things, but they are just so loud in memory, that the others, the real officials, just don't seem to be there. So again, I appologise anyone I offended, and change my statement to "We shouldn't change the rules cause some jack ass doesn't want to sit in the cold, or wants their kid to have less compitition or less down time, which is essentially part of the sport, if some of you have forgot."