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Youth Empowerment Center News

Officials who donate their time have been glue holding meets together - with reward often just a 'thank you'

By Steve Brand
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 3, 2005 - A young athlete walked up to Floyd Richardson and said he was ready to compete. The track and field official, who has been measuring jumps, looking for fouls and efficiently moving along events for a quarter century, just shook his head.

For longtime track and field official Floyd Richardson, who has been volunteering for a quarter century, meets are "kind of therapeutic."

"He was the best athlete in the field," said Richardson, 67, "but he'd never checked in. The event was over. I had to tell him he couldn't compete and he was destroyed. But his parents and coach understood.

"That's what track is all about. You have to follow the rules, which I explain before every competition. If they remember the guidelines, they're ahead of the game."

No matter what.

Richardson simply shakes his head when recalling athletes who have made monstrous improvements in the long jump or triple jump and gotten so excited they raced back toward the takeoff board to read the measurement.

If they don't walk out the back or side of the pit first, a red flag goes up – literally – and the mark doesn't count.

"I've never seen anyone do that twice," Richardson said of the harsh lesson.

Firm but fair. It describes most members of what everyone agrees is a shrinking pool of volunteers who run the field events at high school, youth and college track meets.

Volunteers in the purist sense. No pay, unless you count an occasional T-shirt, hot dog or "thank you" from meet management. And in return officials are asked to work anywhere from four to 11 hours.

"We are paid in many ways, not just with money," said Richardson, a supervisor for the county's Child Protective Services. "For me it's kind of therapeutic. As a social worker, people are always trying to shine me on. It's different as an official. People listen."

Richardson tells stories of troubled families who find a way to bond when the children join youth track programs. Things seem different in the warm, sunny, nonthreatening circuslike atmosphere of a track meet, where parents and kids are working toward a common goal.

The pool of individuals willing to give up their weekends and spend long hours to make sure young athletes receive that opportunity is shrinking.

Track meet officials
Those interested in learning to officiate track meets in the county can contact:

STARTERS

Who: Ken Holly
Phone: (619) 445-3037 or (619) 698-3006
e-mail: kenholly@cox.net

OFFICIALS OTHER THAN STARTERS

Who: Jim Skelly
Phone: (619) 258-0713.
e-mail: jskell@cox.net

"When I started officiating in the late '80s, there were 50 to 60 full-time, certified officials," said Jim Skelly, head of the San Diego Track and Field Officials Association. "Now there are 70."

Sounds like a gain, except in the late '80s there were fewer high schools and the youth programs were limited to a couple of teams. Now, almost half of those certified officials work the club age-group meets.

"It used to be that the clubs would go up to Los Angeles for their meets," Skelly said. "Now there is at least one youth meet locally every weekend."

Track officials have their favorite levels. Officials who have young children obviously prefer youth meets. Those like Richardson feel most comfortable at high school meets. And in the past there were those who would line up to officiate the defunct San Diego Indoor Games.

Skelly said only a handful of officials who work the youth meets graduate to the high school level, even when their children enter the ninth grade.

Most high schools require teachers to do some sort of extra-curricular activity – take tickets at football games, chaperone dances, or help at athletic events – and it's part of their job.

Coaches count on those half-dozen or so teachers to handle key field events and fill in the others with assistant coaches and occasional volunteers. Former athletes who come back to visit or watch a meet find themselves quickly "volunteering" to help out.

And it's still not enough.

"One meet I ran the long jump and triple jump," said Morse head girls coach Gary MacDonald. "There are people who might be interested in helping, but whatever their life is doesn't allow them to have Thursday afternoon off.

"There are even fewer teachers now. Those who come have a good time and it's good for their relationship with the kids in their classes. We'll never go to ground zero, but we could use help."

The only people paid directly are those who fire the starting guns, and even they're feeling the pinch.

"It's getting tougher and tougher to get officials, no matter what the sport is," said Ken Holly, head of the San Diego County Track Starters Association. "Due to a lack of officials, they've had to move events to different days."

Holly said that while there are 28 to 30 fully qualified starters in the association, not all are available every Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday when the meets are held.

This year, for example, the Metro Conference has its dual track meets on Wednesday. The Grossmont Conference moves to Wednesday next year.

This despite the fact starters earn $59 for working a 20-race dual meet and, if there are more, $1.30 per extra race. Those assigned to invitationals receive $91 and the championship meets are worth $84 each.

Newcomers, who pay more than $300 in equipment, clothes and dues, must attend six meetings, work two meets as an apprentice in a non-paid capacity with an experienced starter and then work meets in a probationary capacity for two years.

"We add and lose one or two a year, so the number has stayed constant," Holly said. "But many of our most experienced starters are at the age where they're going to retire. It's interesting and rewarding if you're into track."

Richardson said numerous efforts to attract a new wave of officials haven't been as successful as the way he and most of the others were recruited.

"When I was in the sixth grade, the coach at the recreation center across the street from my house was Henry Manley," Richardson said. "Years later, when I started as a social worker, I heard a voice say, 'Aren't you Floyd?' It was Henry, and he suggested I help with Mickey's Missiles youth team.

"Pretty soon I got hit by the officiating bug, and I've loved it ever since. It's the people you meet, those whom I competed against and then met again as their kids were coming through.

"People tell me, 'I see you there and I have confidence you'll watch after my kids.' That makes me feel good."

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Steve Brand: (619) 293-1854; steve.brand@uniontrib.com

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Youth Empowerment
Lorraine Bowman, President
4249 Manzanita Drive
San Diego, California 92105
info@empowering-youth.org