Contents Tom Casacky, P.O

April 2015 Track and Field Writers of President’s Remarks America Abramson Award Is Modernized

(Founded June 7, 1973) TAFWA has decided to rename its writing award for the late Jim PRESIDENT Jack Pfeifer, 6129 N. Dunaway, who passed away in Austin, Tex., last month at the age of Lovely St., Portland, OR 97203. Office/home: 917- 87. The award was initially named in honor of the renowned Jesse 579-5392. Email: [email protected] Abramson 35 years ago. The award will now be known as the James O. Dunaway Memorial Award and will be presented for the first VICE PRESIDENT Doug Binder. Email: [email protected]. Phone: 503-913-4191. TREASURER Contents Tom Casacky, P.O. Box 4288, Napa, CA 94558. Phone: 818-321-3234. P. 4 TAFWA Awards for 2015 Email: [email protected] P. 5 Remembering Jim Dunaway SECRETARY/ P. 13 Limbo for Non-Revenue-Generating Collegiate Sports? AWARDS CHAIR P. 17 Stan Saplin Award Winners Announced: TAFWA Members Derek Don Kopriva, 5327 New- port Drive, Lisle IL 60532. Alvez and George Kochman Home: 630-960-3049. P. 19 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Drops Men’s Track & Field Cell: 630-712-2710. Email: donkopriva777@ P. 22 Golden Track Reunion in San Diego aol.com P. 24 Flotrack becomes FloSports, Inc. NEWSLETTER EDITOR P. 25 UO Faculty Eye Athletics Budget Tax to Help Fund Academics Kim Spir, University of P. 27 Credential Applications Available Online for Select USATF Portland, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd., Championship Series Events and IAAF Events Portland, OR 97203. P. 28 USTFCCCA Announces Its National Athlete and Coaches of the Work: 503-943-7314. Email: kim.spir@gmail. Year Awards com P. 30 Boston as an Olympic Site in 2024? FAST P. 35 The Kent Plan by TAFWA Member Lane C. Dowell Dave Johnson. Email: P. 39 #WeAreUSATF - Well, Act Like It [email protected] Phone: 215-898-6145. P. 43 TrackTown USA Announces Hosts “One Year Out” Event for the 2016 IAAF World Championships in Portland, Oregon. USATF WEBMASTER Michael McLaughlin. Announces that Portland Will Host the 2016 UATF National Indoor Email: supamac@comcast. Championships net. Phone: 815-529- 8454. P. 46 Partial Fixtures List time under its new name this spring in Eugene.

Although I myself have been writing about track and field for some 50 years, I never met Abramson, who spent his entire 44-year newspaper career at the New York Herald- Tribune, until its closing in 1966. A graduate of Stuyves- ant High School in Manhat- tan, Abramson covered 11 Olympic Games, from 1928 to 1976, and helped found the New York Track Writers As- sociation. He died of cancer in 1979 at age 75.

Dunaway, a longtime member of both the New York Track Writers and TAFWA, reported on 14 Olympics himself, from 1956 to 2008, meaning that, fittingly, he and Abramson were colleagues for six of those.

I’m sure they shared many an IC4A, Millrose Games, Heps and Penn Relays as well during Jim’s long career on the East Coast. Thus, the baton is passed.

We share many more sentiments from members about Jim in this issue starting on page five.

Awards, Dues, Annual One month remains to nominate yourself or a colleague for this year’s remaining TAFWA Awards. Details follow on page four of this month’s newsletter.

We have decided to allow a one-month grace period for those of you who have not paid your 2015 dues of $30. They were due March 31, but we are extending that to May 1.

After that date, if you have not paid your dues, you will no longer be able to receive the

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 2 - April 2015 Newsletter. Dues are payable by check to TAFWA c/o our treasurer, Tom Casacky, or by Paypal.

You also need to get your membership current to receive a copy of this year’s FAST An- nual. Editor Casacky hopes to have it ready by the end of the month; stay tuned.

Meanwhile, the outdoor season is in full swing. We hope to catch up with many of you at the upcoming, 121st Penn Relays, only 35 of which we have attended.

Other Awards, Get-Togethers With four of our annual awards now in the books, nominations remain open for our remaining honors, including writing, blogging, photography and video. Deadline is early May. These will be presented on Friday morning, June 12, on the University of Oregon campus. Our annual Breakfast is no longer at the Eugene Hilton.

We will also have a Brunch Social on the Sunday morning of USATF Nationals at the home of Tom and Janet Heinonen in Eugene.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 3 - April 2015 2015 TAFWA Awards Information Please note deadlines

Recognizing excellence in track & field journalism, announcing, photography, film & video, blogging and books in 2015 as well as ongoing cooperation with the media.

General information: These awards will be presented in June 2015 for work in 2014 unless otherwise noted. Self-nominations are allowed. Please include nominee’s name, address, e-mail address and phone.

James O. Dunaway Memorial Award - For excellence in track and field journalism Award Chair: Jack Pfeifer ([email protected]). Nomination Deadline: Friday, May 8, 2015.

Sam Skinner Memorial Award - For ongoing cooperation with the press Award Chair: Don Kopriva ([email protected]), Nomination Deadline: Friday, May 8, 2015. Note: Submit name of nominee and a brief narrative.

Announcing Awards - For excellence in track and field announcing:

Scott Davis Memorial Award - presented to a current announcer Pinkie Sober Award: presented to a retired announcer or posthumously Award Chair: Dave Johnson ([email protected]). Nomination Deadline: Friday, May 8, 2015.

Rich Clarkson Photography Award - For excellence in track and field/cross country/road racing still photography Award Chair: Jack Pfeifer ([email protected]). Nomination Deadline: Friday, May 8, 2015. Note: Submit an electronic portfolio.

Adam Jacobs Blogging Award - For excellence in online personal writing on track and field, cross country or road racing in 2014. Award Chair: Parker Morse ([email protected]). Nomination Deadline: Friday, May 8, 2015.

TAFWA Videography Award - For excellence in online video journalism. Award Chair: Saudia Mitchell ([email protected]) Nomination Deadline: Friday, May 8, 2015.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 4 - April 2015 “At Texas Relays, Jim Dunaway Is Not Forgotten.”

Cedric Golden. | Austin American-Statesman, March 29, 2015.

The concocter was Jim Du- naway, a kid who wanted to go places. The 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, for starters. One idea hatched in Chicago nearly 60 years ago turned into a lifelong odyssey that transformed an idea man into one of the most well- respected track and field writers in the sport’s history.>>

The National Track and Field Hall of Famer was remembered by friends and family, including his beloved son David, who gathered for a memorial service at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center on Saturday to swap stories about his two-year stint in the Navy, his days as a student at Penn State, his career at General Electronics and in advertising, and mostly his travels to every track of note on the planet.

“He has every edition of Track and Field News dating back to the 1950s,” said his niece Laura Gooch. “I went through about 100 boxes at his house. There were papers, magazines and lots of thank-you notes from writers he had mentored through the years.”

Hometown Features was born out of his dream to cover the 1960 Rome Olympics, but the smoldering Cold War sped up the process, making Melbourne the first stop in ’56. Since international air travel hadn’t come along yet, he would make the trip on Texaco oil tankers from the West Coast through Sumatra then to Australia. The ride was secured though his dad, Enoch, a longtime executive with the company who played baseball for Billy Disch at Texas.

After a childhood spent reading track stories in newspapers and magazines in New York, 29-year-old Jim Dunaway believed he could make money by writing stories about U.S. athletes competing in the Olympics and selling them to their hometown papers, hence the Hometown Features moniker. The plan was to send 35 letters to those publications to gauge their interest. His cousin Carolyn Bingham worked at the University of Chicago Press at the time and had a co-worker who was an excellent typist. The friend took on the project for 50 cents a page. “I didn’t realize then that I was taking part in a con job,” said Carolyn, 83. “Jim didn’t have any sports writing experience, but he was my big cousin and my only source of worldly wisdom, so I went along with it.”

The cover letter concluded with “James Dunaway, the greatest writer of all times.” Dunaway erupted in anger

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 5 - April 2015 after reading the letter. “It should have read, ‘the greatest writer of all time!’ ” he yelled.

Carolyn convinced him it wasn’t worth 35 retypes to get rid of a single “s.”

Five papers responded, and while he came nowhere near turning a profit, he had a foot in the door.

By the time he crossed the final tape of life’s race, Dunaway had covered track events in 33 countries. One of his favorites was the Texas Relays, where you could spot him each spring, nearly drowning underneath that floppy hat with his trademark oversized spectacles that could scramble eggs on an Austin sidewalk in the summer.

Relays organizers honored him this weekend by placing his credential at the first spot inside the press box, com- plete with a short bio. He was also recognized on the scoreboard in opening ceremonies Saturday. “I’ve already kicked three people out of his seat today,” Associated Press writer Jim Vertuno said.

Last October, Sylvia, the wife of former Texas track coach Stan Huntsman, who also coached the 1988 U.S. team, noticed that Dunaway wasn’t processing information with his usual sharp grasp. While driving to visit Hunts- man, who was in an Austin rehab hospital at the time, he had gotten lost. It happened again days later.

“Here was a guy who had driven to every corner of the country to cover track meets, and he wasn’t able to find the biggest building on North Lamar, just 15 minutes from his house?” she said. It turns out Dunaway was suffering from a brain tumor. It was removed in late January, but he was unable to regain his full health.

The Huntsmans were there at the end to say farewell to their old friend. With many of his relatives living up north, they had become his local family over the decades. When his health began to fade, they were there to help him with the transition from the backstretch to the curve to the final 100-yard dash to the tape.

“We talked on his last day,” Stan Huntsman said. “I don’t remember much about the conversation except that he was being cantankerous about something. That was Jim.”

We’ll miss the little guy in the floppy hat. A true original.

Never forgotten.>

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 6 - April 2015 Sad news indeed but Jim gave so much to the sport. A legend with passion and respect for the sport and history (while he wrote it’s history over the many years)-----we are all grateful. Let’s each do our part to carry on the tradition. His influence was far reaching and I am sure he first met my friend -El liott Denman back in 1956 on the way to Melbourne!

He influenced generations providing track and field news, features, etc. for athletes young and old. I often think of like writers / legends like Ed Grant (aka Grant Edwards) who is Mr. NJ Track and how he covered all our high school meets in NJ and then college and beyond. 1974-77...... We always spoke and joked with with Mr. Grant at meets!

We all shared the same love of track and field and it’s rich history.

I am trying to convey that to the kids today; it’s a tough road, like that 20th ---440 (!) repeat on the track.

Joe [email protected]

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 7 - April 2015 Esteemed track and field journalist Dunaway dies at 87

Austinite covered 14 straight Summer Olym- pics.

Photo credit: Rodolfo Gonzalez

Posted: 2:17 p.m. Friday, March 20, 2015 | By Staff and Wire Reports - American-Statesman Staff

Track and field journalist James Dunaway, who covered 14 straight Summer Olympics stretch- ing from Melbourne in 1956 through Beijing in 2008, died Sunday at his home in Austin, according to USA Track and Field.

Dunaway, who was 87, became one of the pre- eminent track and field writers in the nation, if not the world. While working at an advertising agency in Chicago in 1956, he decided to take a year’s leave of absence to attend the Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, before also traveling through Asia, Africa and Europe.+

Track and field journalist James Dunaway, shown in 2008, was voted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2010, two years after he covered his 14th consecutive Summer Olympics.>

That trip marked the start of his journeys to 33 countries, mostly to cover track meets, he told the American- Statesman in 2008. Along the way, he celebrated his 81st birthday while covering the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

“After a while, you become a captive of your streaks,” he told the Statesman in 2008, shortly before he departed for China.

Dunaway’s stories about track and field appeared in Sports Illustrated, Esquire, The New York Times and many other newspapers, including the American-Statesman. Born in Houston, he lived most of his life in New York before moving to Austin in 1995.

Twice elected president of the Track and Field Writers of America, Dunaway was voted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2010.

Dunaway is survived by a son, David, of Austin.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 8 - April 2015 My Thoughts on James O Dunaway......

James O Dunaway began to support and challenge me as a person as well as a photographer in the late 1960’s. At that time my photographs were being published in Track & Field News, which made me happy. Jim saw more in me. At a high school track meet on the back straightaway of the flat splintery wood track at The 168th Street Armory in Manhattan Jim suggested that I try to get my photographs published in one of the many small local New York newspapers.

So, I sought out The New York Times where I met Frank Litsky and my history with one of the many small local New York newspapers began. Later, after photographing one of the best track meets ever, that being the 1972 US Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene, Jim suggested that I go to the Summer Olympic Games in Munich. I told him that I did not have an Olympic credential. He said, “So what”.

I met Jim at the airport for our trip to Munich together. For whatever reason, lost in my memory, I decided while at the airport not to go. I was 23 years old and what did I know. Jim departed and I went home. Jim did not give up on me. He soon introduced me to Jesse Abramson and Bob Paul. The next Summer Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976 was the beginning of my long Olympic Games field trip.

And so it began. Thanx Jim!!!

Attached is the Dunaway 2013 Christmas Card which pictures Jim and David on the front with a series of photographs that I took in 1973 at a track meet at West Point. The Dunaway spirited commentary inside the card shows Jim’s love for David.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 9 - April 2015 Jim and I have kept in touch in recent years mainly talking about David and my two sons. Jim seemed more proud of Taylor and Chase than I was, which is hard to do. That is Jim being Jim.

I am happy that I knew the man. James O Dunaway will always be with me.

Steven Sutton

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 10 - April 2015 I just received my TAFWA Newsletter, which was my first knowledge of the passing of Jim Dunaway.

I congratulate you on the decision to honor Jim and in the gathering of the quotes and stories that you put together in such a brief time. While I have been privileged to cover 3 Olympic Trials, several Mill- rose Games and more than 20 Penn Relays, as you probably know, my basic track coverage for more than 40 years has been covering high school track and field and cross-country for the Record in Bergen County, N.J. where Jim lived for many years.

I knew Jim’s name from my love of track and field and I don’t remember when I first met him but I believe it was at the Bergen County Girls Meet of Champions that I helped establish in 1979 which was held for many years at the Tenafly H.S. track near Jim’s home.

He would come every year until he relocated to Austin and we would get to chat about the high school level and I would listen to wonderful stories that he would tell me about his experiences.

I think it was probably because of his initial Olympic experience in 1956 that I concocted a similar (though less wide-ranging) “scheme” to cover the 1988 Trials in Indianapolis. I convinced my editor that the 20 or so athletes with connections to North Jersey that were entered that year would make for a fine series of stories and justify the expense of sending me to Indianapolis (and later New Orleans and Atlanta) to write about these athletes, most of whom did not make the team.

And because of that I got to meet and know a lot of the great writers and athletes that were Jim’s colleagues and friends (and became mine). Jim was always there of course and we spent a lot of time together -- and he always had good advice for me.

I hadn’t seen him in probably a decade -- but I would hear from him once in a while because he still read my stuff online and kept up a little with his longtime hometown.

I always hoped I’d see him again and the news I got this morning upset me more than I thought it would -- I guess that’s a sign of age and impending mortality that we all have (even though I’m a quarter of a century younger than him).

I guess my point, Kim, was to point out that it wasn’t just the Olympics or World Championships or NCAA championships that Jim loved. It was even a meet like the Bergen County high school championships. And it wasn’t just big stars or champions that he cared about, it was everyone in the sport.

I’ll miss him a lot but he’ll never be forgotten by anyone who he touched -- and that number is incalcu- lable.

Paul Schwartz

Hi All: Jim Dunaway’s epic travels to the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and the 1980 Moscow Games are already well chronicled...

But ranking right up there with any of Jim’s expeditions was his 2010 auto journey, covering much of North America, visiting with his legion of track friends all over the continent, and wending as far as

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 11 - April 2015 Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada for the World Juniors. When Jim finally got back to Austin, he got the very good news that he’d been elected to the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.

The other Class of 2010 inductees were: Jearl Miles Clark, Dyrol Burleson, and the late Roy Cochran and Ralph Craig. A few hours before those 2010 Hall of Fame Ceremonies, in Virginia Beach, Va., I told Jim that the other four were now in very fine company. That elicited the mildest of smiles from the man who’d spent a lifetime chronicling the feats of our sport’s fastest and finest.

Earlier, Jim had been gracious enough to share details of that 2010 journey with me, and so I got to be the great chronicler’s own chronicler. I got it all together, sent it off to Mr. Larry Eder, and it soon appeared on Larry’s runblogrun.com. I never did get words of approval from Jim - or the opposite. So presumably, I got all those names, dates and locales right, no easy feat. No doubt about it, Jim Dun- away would have been sure to set me straight on any errant factoid.

Subject to ratification, I knew I’d done well for the man who’d done so well for his sport and its citi- zenry.

Elliott Denman West Long Branch, NJ. 3-20-15. [email protected].

JimDunaway and Ruth Laney at the 1987 World Championships in Rome.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 12- April 2015 http://diverseeducation.com/article/68896/

Limbo Name of Game for Non-revenue-generating Collegiate Sports January 18, 2015 | by Lois Elfman

Michael Aresco, commissioner of the American Athletic Conference, said one step taken to maintain level of play of non-revenue sports was to “schedule in a common sense way.”

In the wake of conference realignments and game-changing court decisions, the stakeholders in non-revenue- generating intercollegiate sports wonder what the future holds.

Michael Aresco, commissioner of the American Athletic Conference (AAC), says Olympic, non-revenue-generating sports are extremely important to the conference. He’s also honest in saying those sports cannot get the same attention as football and basketball because if those two marquee sports aren’t operating opti- mally than other sports cannot exist. “We have to focus a lot of our attention on football and basketball because they generate the revenue that allows us to function and allows us to give our student-athletes the highest possible level of competition,” says Aresco.

Conference realignment The AAC formed in 2013 following the decimation of the former Big East due to conference realignments. “Conference realignment has changed the paradigm of the regional, eight-team conference,” says Aresco.

“¬There’s been consolidation. It’s having an impact on Olympic sports without question; the demands of travel, time and other kinds of things.

“In terms of Olympic sports, we’ve tried hard to manage our travel and develop schedules that take into account that certain schools are clustered in certain areas,” he adds. “¬Therefore, we’ve tried to schedule in a common sense way that limits travel and any missed class time.”

Val Ackerman, commissioner of the reconfigured Big East Conference, says geographic proximity helps increase the prospects for a sports program’s survival, but without question the future of Olympic sports is a “hot topic.” “¬The Knight Commission, which I’m on, is one group thinking about whether there might be a better model,” says Ackerman. “Every conference is going to have to figure this out.

“Because of litigation outcomes in particular, more money has to be directed into football and men’s basketball,” she continues.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 13 - April 2015 “By definition, that could well lead to less to go to other things. It may well force schools to make hard decisions about which programs they can support and at what level. It’s an unknown.”

At the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum (IAF) presented by SportsBusiness Daily/Global/Journal held in New York in December, NCAA President Mark Emmert said frankly, “Changes are coming to Olympic sports,” but did not speculate precisely what they’d be.

The five wealthiest conferences — the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC — have sought increased autonomy. In August, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved a revision in the division’s governance structure. As well, the ruling in the O’Bannon case will have an as yet unknown impact on sports beyond football and men’s basketball. ¬This ruling stipulates that college athletes are entitled to share in the revenue generated by their likenesses.

In an editorial in SportsBusiness Journal, consultant Dan Beebe, former commissioner of the Big 12, suggested a model that would radically revise college sports into two groupings, spectator sports and participation sports, which would have different competition structures.

He argues that the Olympic sports would be enhanced by these changes, even though he suggests eliminating athletic scholarships for those sports in favor of academic- or need-based aid and making coaches part time. Support and funding

Beebe moderated a panel at the IAF titled Promoting the Growth and Development of Olympic and Women’s Sports. None of the panelists said they agreed with or supported Beebe’s suggestions.

In an interview with Diverse, Patrick Lyons, athletic director for Seton Hall, which plays in the Big East conference, says he isn’t for or against Beebe’s proposal, but time will tell how viable or even essential it might be. “These autonomy rules are going to go into place. My hope is that we don’t see the rapid cutting of Olympic sports. There’s going to have to be some sort of dialogue about what does happen to the Olympic sports,” Lyons says. “We don’t have an enormous athletic budget. We only have 14 programs (the minimum required to be in Division I). We’re very confident that we’re going to be able to provide the resources for all our sports. If I were sitting on 25 programs right now, I think I’d be answering a little differently.”

One university that wasn’t able to sustain an extensive sports program was Temple University, which in July 2014 cut seven Olympic sports: baseball, softball, men’s and women’s rowing, men’s gymnastics, and men’s indoor and outdoor track and field. Athletic director Kevin Clark says it wasn’t due to conference realignment or then-pending court decisions. Given economic realities, Temple’s athletic department could not support all the sports programs at the optimal level it wanted to provide for all student-athletes.

“When I eliminated the sports, it wasn’t driven by football. It was driven by making sure our student-athletes have a very high-quality experience, and we weren’t doing that,” Clark says. “We didn’t have the locker room space. We weren’t fully funded in all our women’s sports in terms of scholarships. Our facilities were not where they needed to be.

“My goal was to right-size the department and to give all our programs the opportunity to compete at the highest level.”

Conference realignment figures into the equation. Now that Temple is part of the new AAC, it’s aligned with eight other schools in the top 50 media markets.

This means all sports have to succeed at the highest level to be relevant. Since cutting the seven sports, Temple Athletics renovated the locker rooms for the remaining Olympic sports and provided fully funded scholarships for all women’s programs. The academic center was also renovated.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 14 - April 2015 Non-revenue generating sports are called Olympic sports for a reason — even though not all are contested in the Olympics. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. Olympians at the 2012 Olympics in London have participated in college sports. Ackerman says there has been dialogue between the NCAA and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) about how to keep these sports viable and serve as a feeder for Olympic talent.

On an IAF panel of athletic directors, Dr. Kevin White of Duke University said he worries about track and field and the U.S. ability to compete on the world stage if universities start dropping or even reducing funding to programs. On the panel that Beebe moderated, Rick Adams, chief of national governing body organizational development for the United States Olympic Committee, echoed White’s sentiment.

“The collegiate system, frankly, is nearly everything to us,” said Adams. “It isn’t just the athletes — it’s the coaching, the facilities, the infrastructure.

“It would be extremely difficult if there were to be a cascading impact on the Olympic sports on the collegiate level,” he added. “If there’s a meaningful shift in swimming and [track and field] … they will simply not get us to the point where we can win [Olympic] medals as expected by our country.”

Finding a solution The panelists said they’re open to creative solutions as are people in leadership positions in intercollegiate sports.

“Maybe there are some alternate models, where, for example, a national championship in an Olympic sport could be conducted under the joint auspices of the federation and the NCAA,” Ackerman posits. “Their sort of combined forces could do what they’re each doing separately now. Maybe there’s an aggregation that would be helpful to those sports.

“To my knowledge, no one has really delved into this in a serious way,” she adds. “There is a wait-and-see ap- proach going on right now.”

Unquestionably, that has been the recurring message. The only decisive prediction is there will be change for non-revenue-generating sports, but what that is remains to be seen.

Perhaps Division II can provide some innovative trickle up solutions.

Stephen Joyner, athletic director and men’s basketball coach at Johnson C. Smith University, an HBCU institu- tion, says the goal of the university is not to create professional athletes. Rather, the emphasis is put on the educational experience of the student-athletes.

At Johnson C. Smith, the university utilizes the community and alumni interest in football and basketball to drive attention to the Olympic sports, according to Joyner.

“So their interest and involvement goes beyond … the sport they came in and associated with,” Joyner says. “Olympic sports are going to survive because of community engagement. It’s important for all programs at every level to get the community involved so that they want to support every program on the campus.”

Joyner also notes that there is a strategic plan in place for funding all sports and sometimes Olympic sports programs hold their own fundraisers and initiatives.

Jacqie McWilliams, commissioner of the CIAA, the conference in which Johnson C. Smith competes, says sepa- rating the Olympic sports from football and basketball could cause irreparable harm to college sports.

“If those sports went away and we put them in a different governance structure, what is that saying to the com-

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 15 - April 2015 munity of sports of intercollegiate athletics?” McWilliams says. “To me, it all starts with the leadership. They have to see that Olympic sports are valuable and viable on their campuses.”

“We try to stay creative, ensuring how we can support our member schools,” she adds. “Our member schools have to understand that if Olympic sports are important they’re going to have to put the resources in to provide opportunities for those student-athletes.”

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 16 - April 2015 http://www.armorytrack.com/gprofile. php?mgroup_id=45586&do=news&news_ id=322377

Stan Saplin Award Winners Annoucned at The Armory’s New Balance Track & Field Center

By Justin Gaymon // Photo by John Nepolitan

New York, March 4, 2015 – During the 81st Eastern States Indoor Championships at the Armory’s New Balance Track and Field Center, Derek Alvez and George Kochman received the ninth Annual Stan Saplin Media Award.

After spending nearly 30 years covering track and field for the Staten Island Advance newspaper, including 100s of meets at The Armory, Alvez and Kochman were at the top of the list to receive this year’s award

“I’m humbled and honored to be the co-recipient of the San Saplin Award,” said Alvez, who started pulling double duty as a sports photographer in 2005. “The names on the board of the Saplin winners are the best in the world of journalism.”

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 17 - April 2015 “It was never a real job for me to come up to this facility, or sacred grounds as I call it,” added Kochman. “It’s a lot of fun and the people at The Armory — the coaches and athletes — have always been great.”

The award, which is named after the late athletics journalists and statistician, Stan Saplin, is presented annually to a journalist, public relations professional, executive, filmmaker or broadcaster who has made a significant contribution to the promotion of track and field.

Alvez and Kochman’s names are now listed among former award winners including Frank Litsky (The New York Times), William J. Miller (The New York Times), Bill Moore (Amsterdam News), Ed Grant (New Jersey Track), Walt Murphy (Eastern Track), Elliot Denman (Asbury Park Press), Marc Bloom (The Runner Magazine and The New York Times) and Peter Gambaccini (Runner’s World).

“To be honored by your peers and join that list of outstanding journalist and legends is tremendous,” said Alvez. “I have to pinch myself.”

So what’s next for this year’s award winners?

“I’m just getting started,” said Alvez, who has no plans in the near future to stop writing or capturing action shots of the sport he loves.

Alvez also has no near future plans of giving up his position as a board member of Cross World Africa, Inc, rank of Sargent after 23 year’s of service within the New York Police Department or 30-year membership of the Staten Island Advance cross country and track and field advisory board.

“I still want to run fast,” said Kochman after being asked what’s on his list of things to do.

Kochman, now 74, competes for the Shore Athletic Club and has for the last two years won the long, high and triple jump in the New Jersey State Meet of Champions masters division and also placed third at last year’s New Jersey Grand Prix cross country race.

Kochman began his track and field career at Augustinian Academy on Staten Island. He then competed for Georgetown University before becoming a teacher and coach at St. Joseph’s and Monsignor High Schools, and ultimately a journalist for the Advance. Kochman is also a member of both the CHSAA and Staten Island Hall of Fame.

Alvez started out as a middle distance runner at Curtis, where he would ghost write articles for newspapers that covered his track and field team. Alvez went on to lead a successful collegiate running career at Essex County College and the City College of New York City.

“There are no two reporters of our sport more worthy than Derek Alvez and George Kochman, to receive our Stan Saplin Award,” said Armory Foundation President, Dr. Norbert Sander. “Dedicated, loyal, consistent and professional, both have brought a great passion and love for track and field to their coverage over the many, many years.”

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 18 - April 2015 http://www.timesfreepress.com/ news/sports/college/story/2015/ jan/29/tripped-up-runners-stunned- loss-utc-mens-track/285264/ Tripped Up: Runners stunned by loss of UTC men’s track

January 29th, 2015by David Uchiyamain Sports

Track Talk: Comments on UTC eliminating men’s track and field

Dwight Thomas 2000-2001 “It was not the decision that makes the least amount of impact. I think the AD, over the last 24 hours, is finding that out. It has an impact on those of us spread across the world doing things that we couldn’t have learned without wearing blue and gold.”

Ian Mayne 2001-2006 “You don’t want your records to stand. You want people to make the program better and see your records bro- ken. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen.”

Chris Berry 2007-2012 “It’s a shame that future guys won’t get to experience what I and many others did. There is no future for the program.”

Patrick O’Brien Class of 2015 “It’s a sucker-punch. We’ve all been hurt. Growing up in this rich running community makes it harder. I feel bad for people who are going to miss out.”

Bill Gautier UTC coach “These guys live, eat and breathe running. We wake up and run together, go to class together, go home together. A lot of runners made Chattanooga very proud.”

David Blackburn UTC athletics director “You don’t ever want to go through this. Ultimately, you’d like to grow revenues and add a female sport. You want to grow instead of diminish. But to keep in line with the federal law, it’s something that had to happen.”

Chas Webb Former president of Chattanooga Track Club “I’ve talked with most of the officers, and the consensus is that this is pretty sad. The Chattanooga Track Club has supported UTC running for many years, and we give usually around $1,500 to the team. They’re an important part of the community.”

Photo by Doug Strickland/Times Free Press

Paul Stuart followed in the track cleats of his older sisters who ran for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga track and field team.

Emmie Stuart started the family trend of competing for the Mocs. Kathryn Stuart followed and finished her

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 19 - April 2015 career with coach Bill Gautier. Paul, a junior long-distance runner at UTC, has a life-changing decision to make in the coming weeks that his sisters never faced.

Either he can hang up his spikes and continue toward a degree in accounting from UTC with his 3.9 GPA. Or he can lose some credits by transferring to another college and continue his collegiate running career. “I think I can speak for all of us on the team when I say everything has been going 100 miles per hour,” Stuart said. “Since Tuesday morning, everything has changed.”

The UTC administration, specifically athletics director David Blackburn, announced on Tuesday that the men’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams will be eliminated at the end of the school year. Blackburn, with confirmation from chancellor Steve Angle and other administrators, made the decision in order to help UTC improve its enforcement of Title IX federal law.

“You don’t ever want to go through this,” Blackburn said. “Ultimately, you’d like to grow revenues and add a female sport. You want to grow instead of diminish. But to keep in line with the federal law, it’s something that had to happen.

“We wanted to be as humane as possible while following the law.”

The men’s indoor and outdoor track and field program has been sentenced for execution at the end of the season. It’s persecution by administration of the law.

“Making these kinds of decisions aren’t what you want to do,” Blackburn said. “You want to grow and prosper and be fruitful. But given the federal law, and where we are in our recovery process, we didn’t have one other option than this.”

Former runners -- UTC graduates who have grown into surgeons, salesmen, and civil engineers -- are hurt, disappointed, and a little angry.

Current student-athletes, like Stuart, have cried and are conflicted about their next move.

Future runners -- a recruit whose first-name is Wesley that Stuart hosted for a visit -- will never have an opportunity to join the legacy Gautier started 23 years ago.

“He could have been my teammate,” Stuart said. “He could have been a great friend.”

Gautier, who turned down an opportunity to become the head coach at Florida State earlier in his career, has been shaken by the decision. He hasn’t slept much since Sunday. He hasn’t been able to put his phone down because text-messages and phone calls from friends and supporters of the team have been flooding him. Most of the messages have been from former athletes, but some have come from runners in the Chattanooga community.

“This has been a family,” Gautier said. “We wake up and run together. The kids go to class together. Then run again together. Then they go home together.

“I’m pretty emotional about it.”

Stuart is one of the 16 track and field athletes impacted by the termination of the program. His future is in doubt.

“Where do I go from here?” Stuart said. “What options do I have? What is the best one to act upon?

“You’re disappointed, you’re angry and you have to understand that we still have to finish out the season.” TAFWA Newsletter - Page 20 - April 2015 That’s not easy.

After all, the school that all 16 male track and field athletes committed to, is abolishing the teams that they represent in events from Florida to California.

“It really is hard because you want to use your time in college to do something that you love -- running track and cross country,” Stuart said. “But you know that your degree is going to matter more after college than running. “It’s a feeling of total loss.”

He’s not the only one feeling pain.

Senior Patrick O’Brien, who grew up in the Chattanooga area, attended Signal Mountain High School and first met Gautier when he ran in middle-school, is crushed, devastated and emotional about the subject of UTC los- ing teams that competed in the classroom with few peers and on the track with many peers.

He knew the 2015 season would be his last because he is a senior. He didn’t know that it would be the last team in UTC history.

“It’s a sucker-punch,” he said. “Everything has changed. All my teammates, all my friends have new scenarios to decide. “We feel that we exceed everything a student-athlete should do.

“We feel that we embody the student-athlete quest for excellence.”

Blackburn, who made the ultimate decision, has been flooded with e-mails, voice-mails and text-messages regarding his decision.

Chris Berry, who still holds the school record in the 10,000-meter outdoor race, said Blackburn responded to his message within 30 minutes on Tuesday.

Berry’s message, he said, chastised Blackburn for his decision because it ends a long run of Gautier turning boys into men.

“I wanted to tell him how much that program mean to me and other people,” said Berry, who is finishing a Ph.D. in marketing at the University of Arkansas. “My little bit of legacy that I left is coming to an end.

“But that’s just a small piece of the puzzle.”

Contact David Uchiyama at [email protected] or at 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ UchiyamaCTFP.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 21 - April 2015 http://timesofsandiego.com/sports/2015/02/09/billy-mills- just-one-of-the-famous-guys-at-track-reunion/ Golden Age of Track and Field Luncheon Billy Mills Just One of the (Famous) Guys at Track Reunion POSTED BY KEN STONE ON FEBRUARY 9, 2015 IN SPORTS

In recent years, this Olympic legend has been honored by President Obama, revered by Native American groups and cheered amid his moving speeches.

But Saturday, his only identification was a white name tag reading “Billy Mills Kansas 1962.”

From left: former UCLA coach Jim Bush, Kansas sprinter Bob Covey, Pat Mills (wife of Billy), Kansas miler Bill Dotson and Billy Mills.

The Camp Pendleton Marine who made history with his stunning upset victory in the 10,000-meter run at the 1964 Tokyo Games sat quietly in a packed restaurant, unmolested by fans.

And no wonder. He was just one of scores of track and field greats, including a dozen Olympians and several Hall of Fame coaches.

Mills, 76, and his wife, Pat, enjoyed a moment out of the limelight at a luncheon celebrating the “Golden Age of Track and Field.”

“I’ve never seen so many damn old men in my life,” said 88-year-old Jim Bush, the famed former track coach at UCLA and USC.

Said another, reflecting the sport’s less than sparkling current status: “There’s more people here today than come out to a track meet.” (The final count was 114.)

A third attendee at Spaghettini in Seal Beach simply said: “I’m just in awe of everyone in this room.” TAFWA Newsletter - Page 22 - April 2015 Olympic medalists abounded, including Bob Seagren (pole vault gold 1968 and silver 1972) andRon Morris (pole vault silver 1960). Also taking part in track chatter were four-time Olympic long jumper Martha Watson and 1956 Hungarian Olympic defector László Tábori (1500-meter world record setter).

Bob Larsen was there, bringing the house down during his turn at a pass-around microphone. He introduced himself not as the coach of Boston Marathon winner Meb Keflezighi and many other Olympians but for his roots as a Minnesota farm boy.

(Larsen ran for Hoover High, graduated from San Diego State graduate and coached at Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley and Grossmont College in El Cajon before succeeding Bush at UCLA in a Hall of Fame career.) Doug Smith, a former Occidental College star, helped organize the luncheon — reviving an annual reunion that used to meet in Newport Beach and attract the likes of USC Olympian Louis Zamperini, whose story is told in the movie “Unbroken.”

Smith said J.W. Mashburn, a 1956 Olympic gold medalist in the 4×400 relay, journeyed from Oklahoma City, and Richard Barton (formerly of Cal State Los Angeles) traveled from Tennessee.

Smith, who competed in the 1960 Olympic Trials as a sprinter, wasn’t even the only Doug Smith at the luncheon. (The other was a 1965 graduate of Long Beach State.)

So many former junior college track coaches were present that more than a dozen posed for pictures. The biggest turnouts by school were USC, Long Beach State and Occidental. The oldest attendee may have been Pitch John- son, a quarter-miler for Stanford who graduated in 1950.

One section of Spaghettini was dubbed the Vaulters Corner. Reminiscing there, besides Seagren and Morris, were former world indoor record-holder Steve Smith, ex-high school record-holder Casey Carrigan and Austra- lian Olympian Don Baird, among others. (Smith later performed a Tarzan yell, a la Don Bragg, a gold-medal vaulter who played the movie role.)

Seated at one round table were early 1960s Kansas University long jumper (and NCAA champion) Ernie Shelby, sub-4 miler Bill Dotson and sprinter Bob Covey, a teammate of Mills.

Shelby, the first African-American to captain a Jayhawks track team (and helped them win their first NCAA title), had recently visited KU for a Martin Luther King Day event. He told his lunch partners how, in the days of Jim Crow, his white teammates voted to return to Lawrence rather than allow a Kansas City hotel to deny lodg- ing to him and another black teammate.

Covey recalled how Al Oerter, the four-time Olympic champion in the discus, confided that his improvement to all-time bests in the early 1980s were due to steroids (saying they were in common use). Coach Bush confided that, after many years coaching at UCLA, he had a different view of USC after he got there.

“I found out they weren’t the nasty Trojans,” he said. “They were the damn good Trojans.” But Bush wore a UCLA color at the buffet luncheon — a blue warmup suit. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 23 - April 2015 Ron Allice, a successor to Bush as USC track coach, arranged for the restaurant to reserve two-thirds of its space for the luncheon. (It helped that the future owner of Spaghettini was one of Allice’s athletes when he coached at Long Beach City College.)

Among the first people Allice embraced was Olympic high jumper Doug Nordquist, who spent time telling stories about his cousin Dwight Stones (the former world record-holder and Olympian). Sid Wing, who helped contact fellow USC alumni, dated himself as “1955-56-57” and brought laughter by labeling himself a “middle- distance runner — which means I was a sprinter who failed.” The luncheon was such a success, however, that Smith said he expected 130 to attend next year.

Billy Mills, who looked “happy to be a wallflower” in the words of one observer, might be among them. “My impression was he enjoyed the event immensely — partly because he wasn’t the center of attention and didn’t have to perform,” the observer said.

Every attendee had a brief turn at the mic. When it was handed to Mills, he noted his alma mater and little else. But he said: “Still a Marine.”

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ blog/techflash/2015/03/flocasts- startuptakes-on-new-name-and- more-sports.html

Flocasts startup takes on new name and more sports coverage

Mar 6, 2015, 9:43am CST | Christopher Calnan | Staff Writer-Austin Business Journal

FloSports Inc. Chief Marketing Officer Mark Floreani said the Austin company has adopted a new name. It was previously known as Flocasts Inc.

Flocasts Inc., a sports media startup, is changing its name and expanding the number of sports it covers. The Austin-based company is now called FloSports Inc. and is considering adding more sports to its coverage, such as softball, lacrosse and swimming. The name change comes five months after the startup completed an $8 million round of financing, Chief Marketing Officer Mark Floreani said Thursday.

“We feel it’s a better representation of our company,” he told Austin Business Journal. “As we grow in the sports vertical, it makes more sense.”

FloSports, founded in 2006, covers niche sports and produces documentaries. It generates revenue from advertising and subscriptions of $20 per month or $50 per year. The company employs 80 workers but Floreani expects that number to reach 100 in the coming months.

In September 2014, FloSports reported raising the $8 million funding from two investors, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The startup subsequently announced Boston-based Cause- way Media Partners LP as one of the investors.

Floreani, who co-founded the company with his brother Martin, the CEO, and Madhu Venkatesan, said Flocasts covered 100 events in 2014. Wrestling and track have been the most-watched events, he added. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 24 - April 2015 http://registerguard. com/rg/news/local/32844378-75/ faculty-wants-uo-to- UNIVERSITY OF OREGON charge-athletic-department-an-education-tax. Faculty eyeing athletics budget html.csp Trustees don’t act on a UO Senate resolution to tax the department to help fund academics

BY DIANE DIETZ|The Register-Guard|MARCH 7, 2015

University of Oregon faculty are redoubling efforts to persuade the athletic ¬department to share a little of its largess with the university at large.

The University Senate — amid the three-day Board of Trustees meeting — voted unanimously to require the university to eventually collect 3 percent of the athletic department’s roughly $100 million annual budget, or roughly $3 million, for general education purposes. The education tax would be phased in ¬gradually over five years.

“Salaries for coaches? No problem jumping to that level,” said sociology associate professor Michael Dreiling on Wednesday, minutes before the University Senate voted in favor of the athletics tax. “The athletic department doesn’t seem to have a problem with its budget, and this isn’t a big ask.”

The department recently announced it would pay football coach Mark Helfrich $17.5 million over the next five years.

The UO Board of Trustees steered clear of the University Senate resolution Friday when athletic director Rob Mullens presented his department, its budget and its win-loss record. But individual trustees questioned Mul- lens about ¬revenues and expenses. Mullens told trustees that the athletic department gets a tiny amount of revenue from the university compared with other Pac-12 schools and with nationally ranked universities.

Pac-12 athletic departments get an average 11 percent subsidy from their universities, and BCS, or Bowl Cham- pionship Series, athletic departments get 7 percent, Mullens told the board, while the UO ¬athletic department gets 2 percent.

This doesn’t inlude the $2.2 million it costs the university to run the Jaqua Center for student-athletes, however, where athletes can drop in for a free lunch and tutoring so they can maintain their eligibility for play. “We have the same type of program that everybody else across the country has, so it’s not unique to Oregon,” Mul- lens said.

The UO athletic department is a major cash center on the university landscape. The department spent $60 million for operations and capital improvements through the second quarter of fiscal year 2015, according to university figures. The only university units that came close were the College of Arts and Sciences at $74 million and Research & Innovation at $43 million, the figures showed.

The athletic department’s budget is the 16th-biggest in the nation, Mullens told trustees. But the athletic department has its own financial challenges, said Eric Roedl, executive senior associate athletic director for finance and administration said after the meeting.

The department has 235 full-time employees and a $33 million annual pay roll. The department pays out-of- state tuition for 84 percent of its 485 student-athletes. It receives the bulk of its funding — about 80 percent —

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 25 - April 2015 from donations, ticket sales and Pac 12/NCAA revenues.

The department upped its football ticket prices through 2012, when it ran into “some price elasticity, so we’ve leveled off the last three years,” Mullens said.

In addition, recent changes to NCAA governance allow larger universities to offer their student-athletes additional perks, such as more meals and travel allowances for their families — and that’s going to add stress to the budget, Mullens said.

Paying an additional tax to the university’s general fund would not be easy given the pressure to continue to be competitive at a national level, Roedl said.

But the athletic department’s budget is an ongoing tender spot for many faculty members, who see their programs as suffering by comparison. One example they point to is the Jaqua Center.

The university spends $4,000 per student-athlete for tutoring services there, according to economics professor Bill Harbaugh, who sponsored the University Senate legislation. But the university has only $225 per student to spend for tutoring services for the general run of students.

The university’s spending on athlete tutoring amounts to $2.2 million a year now, Harbaugh said. “It’s paid from the regular (university) budget, so regular student tuition goes to fund it. They’re not allowed to use the building. They’re not even allowed to see the second floor. That doesn’t sound right to me.”

Susan Lesyk, director of the Teaching and Learning Center, which provides tutoring services for regular students in the basement of an old brick building across campus, said at first she was glad when the Jaqua Center went up in 2010. “I don’t resent what they have. Every student should have that,” she told the trustees.

She said she was sure it meant improvement was coming for her tutoring services. She showed trustees how the services significantly upped graduation rates for disadvantaged students.

“We need a Jaqua Center for all of us,” Lisa Freinkel, vice provost for undergraduate studies, told the trustees. Mullens said he had no idea about the cost differential between the athlete and nonathlete tutoring services. “I can’t speak to those figures. I only live in the athletics figures,” he said.

UO ATHLETICS BUDGET Here’s where the $98.4 million annual budget comes from: 29 percent donations 27 percent ticket sales 23 percent NCAA/Pac-12 revenues 16 percent miscellaneous 5 percent food and beverage Here’s where it goes: 34 percent salaries and benefits 20 percent debt service (Matthew Knight Arena) 19 percent support operations 12 percent sport operations 11 percent scholarships 3 percent overhead assessment 1 percent reserves

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 26 - April 2015 ------Forwarded message ------From: USA Track & Field Date: Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 2:24 PM Subject: Credential applications available online for select USATF Championship Series and IAAF Championship events

Media wishing to cover the IAAF World Relays, Hoka One One Middle Distance Classic, USATF Outdoor Cham- pionships and the IAAF World Championships may go online and apply for USATF credentials and/or USATF approval for IAAF accreditation codes.

March 18, 2015 Amanda Brooks USA Track & Field Marketing & Communications Manager 317¬-713¬-4690 [email protected]

Credential applications available online for select USATF Championship Series and IAAF Championship events ______Good afternoon,

Upcoming events (in order of credential deadline): IAAF World Championships - Beijing, China: August 22-30 USATF Accreditation Application (Deadline: Monday, April 6 @ 5 p.m. ET) IAAF World Relays - Nassau, Bahamas: May 2-3 USATF Accreditation Application (Deadline: Friday, April 10 @ 5 p.m. ET) Hoka One One Middle Distance Classic - Los Angeles, California: May 14 USATF Accreditation Application (Deadline: Friday, May 1 @ 5 p.m. ET) 2015 USATF Outdoor Championships - Eugene, Oregon: June 25-28 USATF Accreditation Application (Deadline: Friday, June 12 @ 5 p.m. ET)

If you have any questions about accreditation for any of these events, please email [email protected].

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 27 - April 2015 ------Forwarded message ------From: Kyle Terwillegar Date: Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 9:47 AM Subject: USTFCCCA ::: Indoor T&F National Athletes and Coaches of the Year

USTFCCCA National Athletes and Coaches of the Year for 2015

As voted on by the NCAA Divisions I, II and III coaches, the USTFCCCA announced Thursday the National Ath- letes and National Coaches of the Year for the 2015 indoor track & field season for all three NCAA Divisions.

Please go to http://www.ustfccca.org/2015/03/featured/2015-ncaa-indoor-tf-national-athletes-and-coaches- of-the-year and click on the links for the full results.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 28 - April 2015 Contact: Kyle Terwillegar Director of Communications [email protected] (504) 599-8905 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association 1000 Poydras Street, Suite 1750 New Orleans, LA 70163

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 29 - April 2015 http:// www.3wiresports. com/2015/01/12/ wink-nod-op-ed-many- questions/

A wink, a nod, an op-ed, insurance, so many questions Published on January 12, 2015 | by Alan Abrahamson Boston 2024

Give the U.S. Olympic Committee credit. For years, as the dismal results from the New York 2012 and Chicago 2016 votes proved, it simply was not effectively in the Olympic bid game.

What it needed was a wink and a nod, a high sign if you will, from the International Olympic Committee, that the IOC not only wanted a city to bid from the USOC, but which city. The USOC got that last week when IOC president Thomas Bach wrote an op-ed in the Boston Globe two days before the USOC picked its city for the 2024 Summer Games. It picked Boston.

The fascinating question now is whether it’s genuinely in the IOC’s interest, in signaling that choice, for Boston to win.

Or whether in seemingly directing the USOC to pick Boston, the IOC is only playing the USOC — manipulating it so that the IOC gets as strong a field as possible for a 2024 race designed to attract maximum worldwide attention after the debacle that is the 2022 Winter Games race, which has devolved into a two-city derby, Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan.

USOC board chairman Larry Probst at Friday’s news conference in Boston // Getty Images

The IOC won’t make its 2024 choice until the summer of 2017, two-plus years from now. A lot can, and surely, will happen. Bids are possible from Rome; Paris; Germany; and elsewhere.

If the South Africans finally prove serious about getting in for 2024, they will run Durban. Because of the IOC’s stubborn refusal to allow bid visits — a plank that didn’t make it into the so-called “Agenda 2020” reforms, Bach’s 40-point plan approved last month in Monaco — the members will not be allowed to visit Boston. But most of the members will have been to seaside Durban, because that was where the IOC held its assembly in 2011.

To be perfectly blunt: IOC campaigns are not for the faint of heart or the politically naive. So many variables. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 30 - April 2015 What if, as is now the talk in some circles, FIFA, the international soccer federation, awards its 2026 World Cup in 2017 — in, say, May 2017? That is, just before the IOC vote.

Wouldn’t US Soccer love to get back on the opportunity it missed out on for 2018 and 2022, won by Russia and Qatar, respectively? Wouldn’t FIFA love to capitalize on the purportedly growing U.S. interest in soccer? Don’t think for a second, by the way, that there is much love lost between FIFA and the IOC.

What then for an American Olympic bid?

While Bach and FIFA’s Sepp Blatter — assuming Blatter is re-elected — sort things out, both for 2022 and 2026, this much is elemental: the way Bach runs the IOC is in many ways evocative of Juan Antonio Samaranch, the IOC president from 1980-2001.

Samaranch knew what he wanted. Bach seems to be following the same path.

As an example: in Monaco, Bach allocated two days for passage of Agenda 2020. Just like Samaranch would have done, however, he clearly had worked things out beforehand via personal meetings or on the phone (or, now, via email). All 40 measures got passed in just one day.

That is why the Bach op-ed piece in Tuesday’s Globe is so telling.

By itself, it was anodyne, a recitation of the passage in Monaco of the 40 Agenda 2020 bullet points. The issue here is context.

The other three cities competing against Boston for USOC consideration: San Francisco, Washington, Los Ange- les. Did Bach’s op-ed run in the San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times? No. Did it run in the New York Times, the de facto paper of record in the United States? No. USA Today? No. Let’s not be obtuse. When unusual things present themselves, reasonable people are given to ask, what’s going on? In this instance: why did the IOC take the unusual step of interjecting itself into the USOC’s domestic bid process?

Theory 1: Last May, NBC paid $7.65 billion dollars (plus an extra $100 million “signing bonus” to be used for “the promotion of Olympism”) for the right to televise the Games in the United States from 2021 through 2032. The first Summer Games: 2024.

NBC has never — and would never — exercise its influence to lobby for a particular city. The network does not do that. That’s the gospel truth.

However, this much is not rocket science: an East Coast time zone amounts to a home Games for NBC Olympics, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut.

Washington was never going to get 2024. Never. So that leaves Boston.

If this theory is plausible, then the Globe op-ed signals that what you see is what you get — Bach has given the USOC the wink and the nod and the rest of the next two-plus years is pretty much for show. Hey, Paris, Rome, Durban, whoever: thanks for playing and see you in Boston in 2024.

So is it really that simple? Or are things more layered?

Theory 2: Everyone connected to the process knew Los Angeles had the best bid. Even the oddsmakers, who made it an even-money choice.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 31 - April 2015 Indeed, the LA bid contained surprises that may never become public, including a big bang that unequivocally wowed everyone at the USOC and would have gone far to enhance the IOC’s furtherance of sustainability and legacy.

Further, the choice of Boston is layered with contradictions.

“Bostonians are well known for their enthusiasm for sport and the city has a great heritage in sport, science and education,” Bach told Associated Press after the selection.

Like Los Angeles doesn’t?

Los Angeles has three top-25 universities: Cal Tech, USC and UCLA. Boston has two: Harvard and MIT. You want championships: Lakers? Kings? USC in college football? UCLA in college basketball? The very thing that supposedly worked against Los Angeles in recent bid efforts — that the dorms at USC and UCLA served as housing in 1984 — is now a big plus for Boston’s 2024 bid? College dorms in Boston are a plus but a minus in LA? Say what?

There are dozens of universities in and around Boston. That’s the key demographic the IOC is seeking, and supposedly a big Boston plus. What about all the Cal State schools (LA, Northridge, Dominguez Hills, on and on), the Claremont colleges, the dozens and dozens of community colleges in and around Los Angeles?

The IOC, in Agenda 2020, talks big about sustainability. Yet Boston 2024 has to build an Olympic stadium while Los Angeles is home to the iconic Coliseum.

How much will that Olympic stadium cost? Let’s see. LA has been without an NFL team for 20 years. Last Monday, the owner of the St. Louis Rams — the Rams used to play in Southern California — announced plans to build a stadium in Inglewood, California, the LA Times noting that new stadiums tend to run to $1 billion or more. How is a new Olympic stadium in Boston going to prove in line — in any way — with the Agenda 2020 call for enhanced frugality?

And this: “I knew that Boston was destined to win this,” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said after the USOC decision. As the Boston Globe reported, Boston 2024 paid about $1 million for an insurance policy of up to $25 million to protect City Hall “from any liabilities associated with the bid,” signing off on the policies Wednesday — that is, the day before the USOC decision.

So interesting. The standard USOC bid city agreement between calls for a city to pay $25 million in “liquidated damages” to the USOC if for some reason something freaky happens and the city drops out. For those not famil- iar with the term, “liquidated damages” is fancy lawyer talk for “cash money.” Essentially, if indeed that is what the policy went for, what Boston 2024 did was shift it so that $25 million is now some insurance company’s worry. But why?

And why Wednesday, the day before the USOC meeting?

The Globe report also said that Boston officials were the only group from among the four bid cities that insisted on buying this kind of insurance. Why? Also, you know, this kind of insurance takes a little bit of time to line up. It’s not like you go down to your neighborhood insurance agent and say, hey, I’d like to lay down $1 million for $25 million, assuming again this is what it was for. Did Boston get a wink and a nod from the USOC in advance, and if so, when?

So many questions.

Good thing Boston officials have pledged transparency. For the sake of Journalism 101, let’s hope it’s retroac- tive, not just going forward. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 32 - April 2015 Boston Mayor Marty Walsh at the Friday news conference // Getty Images

More questions: what was at the basis of all that vigorous debate the USOC said it went through?

The USOC has suggested it will explain why Boston — perhaps as soon as early this week.

In the meantime, to stick to the core of Theory 2, is it that the IOC could prefer Boston because Los Angeles — especially with the support of key Olympic insiders — might well have been a sure winner?

Did Bach, in any event, want Boston to assert primacy over those others, who were known to prefer LA? There is this, though, which is easy: it’s in the interest of the IOC president to secure as many cities as possible for whatever race is being run.

No question Bach wants a U.S. bid.

Even so, does he also have a counter-interest for 2024, to make Europe look good, particularly after six Euro- pean cities dropped out for 2022?

The first European Games, in Baku, Azerbaijan, are due to be held this summer, and will almost surely be a success, giving renewed momentum to that continent’s bids. Always, always, always remember, too: the IOC is Eurocentric.

At most, Bach got three U.S. votes in 2013 for the presidency (there were then three U.S. IOC members, now four, with the addition of USOC board chairman Larry Probst). There are 40-something IOC members from Europe.

Do not be fooled, not even for a second, by the statement from the White House, which said President Obama and the First Lady “strongly support” the Boston bid. Even if the president does, and let’s assume for argument he really does, for the sake of securing 55 or so IOC votes, the president’s words are — sorry to say — dust in the wind.

Note: Bach has visited more than 90 heads of state since being elected IOC president in September 2013. Presi- dent Obama is not among them.

Note, too: the statement was issued by the White House press secretary. When the president wants to empha- size something, as he did when California Sen. Barbara Boxer last Wednesday announced her impending retire- ment, that comes out as a different kind of statement — that’s from Obama himself.

These things matter a lot in politics, and they matter for a White House that, as the IOC will readily recall, sent a delegation to Sochi only last February that absolutely was designed to signal a protest about the Russian anti- gay law.

It’s instructive to observe that Bach deliberately made public the official letter of support and sympathy he wrote to French president François Hollande after last week’s terror attacks in Paris. One can argue whether

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 33 - April 2015 such a letter is eminently decent as well as a show of humanity or treads dangerously close to the kind of thing you might see from a head of state, which Bach assuredly is not. At any rate, several world leaders attended Sunday’s massive rally in Paris, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. The United States? Represented by its ambassador to France, Jane D. Hartley.

In the Olympic world, where protocol is hugely significant, appearances matter, too. And can be long remembered.

The White House statement about Boston 2024 also said, “The city has taught all of us what it means to be Bos- ton Strong,” a reference to the 2013 marathon bombings.

Bach, in his comments to AP, said, “The Boston bid will be a strong one.”

With profound and enduring respect for the victims of the marathon attacks, this gentle note: the New York 2012 bid was launched after the Twin Towers went down. The IOC was not sufficiently moved, nearly four years later, when the 2012 vote was taken, to award the Games to New York; they went to London. By the time the 2024 vote is taken, the events that shook Boston near the finish line of the 2013 marathon will similarly have been four years prior.

Bach also told AP about Boston, “The bid also has the great potential to build on the strength of the athletes from the U.S. Olympic team,” adding, “U.S athletes have a worldwide reputation and will be a huge asset for the bid.”

This, to be diplomatic, is phraseology that Bach has borrowed from his predecessor, Jacques Rogge, when Rogge was asked by reporters to asses Chicago 2016 and New York 2012. Recall how those worked out.

To be clear: the USOC has, since 2009, made great strides in building relationships internationally. There seems to be zero question Bach has taken an interest in Boston.

There are also so many questions yet to be answered about why.

And about whether the time is right for the USOC, and Boston, and whether together they can craft a winning narrative to an IOC membership that is no longer widely hostile to American interests, as was the case during the Rogge years, but perhaps still wary and likely knows not very much about Boston.

The USOC is in the 2024 game with one objective only — to win. That has been made abundantly clear, time and again.

In that spirit, this: the Agenda 2020 rules now allow for five exceptions to the rule that IOC members must retire at age 70. In Monaco, one of the five exceptions was immediately granted to Gian Franco Kasper, who is Swiss and the head of the international ski federation.

This is what Kasper told AP about a U.S. 2024 bid, and this is what the USOC is still very much up against:

“Times have changed a little bit, but it depends how they will present their candidature. If they,” meaning the Americans,” come back with the old arrogance they had before, then of course it will not be helpful. But I think they have learned the lesson, too.”

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 34 - April 2015 The KENT PLAN is Snowballing by Lane C. Dowell

The above mentioned plan was born in the Kent Schools District by progressive District Athletic Direc- tor Dave Lutes and Kent School’s elementary administrative assistant and USATF certified official, who was voted the Washington State Track and Field Coaches Association Officials of the Year 2014, Chris Kunzelman. To read more about this plan and its development, please consult past issues of this magazine.

This plan gave birth to the novel concept of moving NFHS Track and Field officiating from the concept of pull-’em-out –of-the-stands to the idea of training, certifying and paying selected officials for our Evergreen State’s secondary schools.

The Kent High Schools (Kent-Meridian, Kentridge, Kentwood and Kentlake) are all entering their third season of home meets being governed by this plan.

The plan in Kent and other districts that are in the early stages of implementation is a work-in-prog- ress. As seasons pass various pieces of the puzzle that is the Kent Plan are added, for example, different officiating positions, which require a USATF certified official, may be added, etc.

The Kent Plan also has room for those, who are not USATF certified to serve in a volunteer capacity, as well as, student workers who labor in more menial positions, such as hurdles crews, pit rakers, bar replacement, implement retrievers, caring for athletes gear at the finish line, etc.

Currently the Kent Plan is in its infancy in the Renton Schools and those high schools in Sumner, while Bremerton and Central Kitsap will be entering their first seasons under this system.

Forward thinking Central Kitsap High T & F Coach Mark Ward, also a member of the WSTFCA Execu- tive Board chatted with another progressive AD after this year’s WSTFCA (Washington State Track and FIELD Coaches Association) mid-January convention where Kunzelman delivered the forward- thinking plan. When Ward returned to his home ground, he immediately had a face-to-face with Rich Arena, a very memorable three sport athlete at Bremerton’s East High and then the University of Puget Sound. Arena, the CKSD Athletic Director athletic decision-maker for three high schools, was so taken with the plan that he was heard to say, ”I want it all (the Kent Plan’s three phases), and I want it RIGHT NOW.”

Encouraged by West Central District Director Shelly Thiel, Kent AD Dave Lutes approached the leaders of the WSSAAA to see if they were interested in representatives from WSTFCA Executive Board and those promoting the Kent Plan trekking to Spokane this coming April to extol the benefits of the plan for Evergreen State prep track and field.

The answer was a resounding, “YES!”

The Washington Coach spent some time with Coach Lutes, a past president of WSSAAA, concerning the impending spring conference.

WA COACH: What is the WSSAAA?

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 35 - February 2015 LUTES: WSSAAA is the acronym for Washington Secondary School Athletic Administrators Associa- tion. It’s membership is constituted by middle school, senior high school, and retired athletic directors from the state of Washington.

WA COACH: What decisions-making power do they have over WA St. Athletics/Activities?

LUTES: WSSAAA members are athletic administrators from across the state that are actively serving in positions of authority which directly impact the direction and framework of interscholastic athletics in the state of Washington. Examples include positions on the WIAA Executive Board, WIAA Representa- tive Assembly (members) that vote annually on WIAA rule and amendment proposals, WIAA District Directors and Executive Board members.

WA COACH: How did representatives of the Kent School a District and the WSTFCA get invited to speak at the Spring WSSAAA Conference?

LUTES: As a former past president of WSSAAA, I was able to contact Ken VanSickle, AD from Univer- sity High/Spokane, this year’s conference chairperson, to request an opportunity for WSTFCA to present their newly developed track management model at the state conference in late April.

WA COACH: Why was WSSAAA leadership eager to have the team attend?

LUTES: The conference chairperson is responsible for developing a variety of breakout sessions that address current issues and concerns facing interscholastic athletic administrators. Most every AD deals in some manner during the spring with track meet management. It was a timely fit. WA COACH: As you see it, what is the goal of the Kent-WSTFCA team?

LUTES: The goal is to bring awareness and momentum on the effort of the WSTFCA to educate and provide a model of professional management and certified officiating to the thousands of Track & Field athletes competing every year in the state of Washington.

Always eager to extol the virtues of the plan she created, Chris Kunzelman spoke to the Washington Coach with excitement and passion concerning the potential of spreading the idea of trained, certified professional officials for Track and Field across the Evergreen State.

WA Coach: Who will attend the WSSAAA conference this coming April in Spokane?

CK: Dave Lutes, Tuck Gionet and Chris Kunzelman.

WA COACH: What idea/plan is it you will be delivering to the delegates/the AD’s?

CK: We are looking to present a panel discussion where we outline the future plan or as you’ve called it “The Evergreen State Plan.”

Tuck (Gionet), who is a founder of the WSTFCA and Head Track and Field Coach at Snohomish High, will hit the AD’s with a variety of statistics regarding the large scale liability school districts are taking on when meet workers are not fully trained and certified.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 36 - February 2015 Dave (Lutes) will be able to speak to the roll of the ADs in helping to move this plan forward and specifically address questions from the audience regarding liability, district and school board approval and funding questions.

WA Coach: What do you hope to accomplish...your goals?

CK: Of course my personal goals remain the same...quality consistent competition in a safe setting for every high school track and field athlete.

As a panel, our goal is simply to provide those in attendance with a new way of looking at track and field meets. Often times the ADs are not closely involved in the day to day management of the track and field meets, therefore, they are unaware of the safety concerns and/or quality of competition issues our coaches and athletes face.

WA Coach: Why did the WSTFCA buy into the Kent Plan?

CK: I think there were several reasons, but the main one was simply that it makes sense. As the quality of our athletes have improved, often in part due to our students participation in year round sports (both school and club programs), our coaches are seeing the need to spend more time working with and focusing on the training and improvement of training. Many of these same coaches are taking time away from coaching to ensure that they have meet workers, entries, etc. put together.

In addition, the WSTFCA has been working for several years to come up with a new WA State qualifying standard for the state meet, however, there have been concerns raised as to the lack of standard- ized officiating across the state. How could a mark or time be validated that the competition was held to the same standard as a league or district championship? This plan would address this issue.

One other concern of the coaches, especially of the smaller school programs, is the lack of trained, qualified and certified officials at the small school state meet in Cheney, WA. By certifying meet- offi cials within the local communities to work high school meets throughout the season, we will be working to build a base of officials to support these post season meets as well.

WA Coach: Did the coach’s membership overwhelmingly/eagerly accept this decision?

CK: I feel very positive about the outcome following our presentation at the WSTFCA Convention in January. The coaches were each presented a written copy of the plan along with job descriptions, pay scale, funding suggestions, and an implementation schedule.

We were lucky to be joined by a handful of long time USATF Officials on hand to provide added cred- ibility to the plan. The focus of our message was three-fold.

1) It’s not about paying officials it’s about TRAINING and CERTIFYING them.

2) We’re not asking you to fire your current workers and reinvent the wheel....we’re asking you to commit to the workers you have and get them trained and certified.

3) We’re challenging the coaches to take the plan back and begin the conversation with their ADs. This will allow our presentation at the ADs Conference to be a follow up conversation and not a new idea.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 37 - April 2015 Since the presentation at the WSTFCA Convention, Central Kitsap School District has come on board with the plan, and I have been contacted by coaches from 4 additional districts asking questions and requesting additional information for their ADs. These are districts that are opening up the dialog to begin making steps in the planning process. I would call this a move toward eager acceptance.

We could fill a book with the contributions of lead representative from the WSTFCA, Tuck Gionet. He is proponent of anything that will make the sport better for our state’s athletes. Improving the quality of NFHS T&F officiating has been a goal of the gregarious WESCO Conference mentor dating back to the year 2000. Now he is off to help carry the message to our state’s athletic directors.

WA Coach: What do you hope to accomplish at the WSSAAA Conference in Spokane?

TG: The goal of the WSTFCA is to get schools that do not already have a plan in place for trained officials to start implementing the plan from the Kent School District. Many schools already pay their officials but they do not necessarily get them trained.

WA Coach: Why did the WSTFCA buy into the Kent Plan?

TG: It was a plan that works and takes into account the many pieces that we have been advocating for years – trained officials to reduce liability and to give all athletes quality officiating at every meet. The state meet should not be the first time the athletes see quality officiating.

WA Coach: Did the coach’s membership overwhelmingly/eagerly accept this decision?

TG: It was received very well by the coaches. They were very receptive to the idea of quality officiating. It was also a very popular plan in that the coaches are getting tired of having to administer meets.

Stay tuned. We hope to do a follow up article in the next issue of the Washington Coach concerning the presentation and acceptance at Spokane’s April WSSAAA Conference.

Lane C. Dowell is a retired teacher/FIELD and track coach at West High in Bremerton, who is a member of the Washington State FIELD and track coaches HOF. A USATF Official’s HOF nominee, he became a USATF Master Level Official and was selected to officiate, primarily the throws, at fifteen national open championships. He was selected as a head judge from 2000-2008. This included three USA Olympic Team Trials.

In 2005 he was selected by USATF as the National Field Event Official of the year…the Horace Crowe Award.

Lane has been selected on numerous occasions to be the Field Event Referee for prep state championships and qualifying competitions and has appeared at coaching education and officials certification clinics throughout the PNW.

Dowell still competes in Master’s/Senior Games FIELD and track and qualified for the 2013 and 2015 Na- tional Senior Games in the Shot Put and Discus. He is currently #2 ranked in Washington for his age group.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 38 - April 2015 http://www.letsrun. com/news/2015/03/ weareusatf-now-its-time- for-the-usatf-board-to-act- like-it/

#WeAreUSATF. Now It’s Time For The USATF Board To Act Like It by: Weldon Johnson | March 13, 2015

If you care about this issue, please take the time to do something about it. Tweet using @usatf #WeAreUSATF. Email people on the Board. Show them this matters.

The USATF Board has a big decision this weekend. Will it serve the interests of the organization and honor the overwhelming choice of its delegates and nominate current IAAF Vice President Bob Hersh for the IAAF Council or will it serve its own interests and nominate its Chairwoman Stephanie Hightower to the IAAF Council?

The choice really is a simple one. In December at the annual USATF convention in Anaheim, the USATF delegates voted 392-70 (84.8%) for Hersh for the IAAF Council. Hightower got 15.2% of the vote. Such a landslide vote should not be overlooked outside of corruption or new evidence. Yet the Board voted 11-1 to nominate Stephanie Hightower. They can reverse that decision this weekend.

From its official statements, conversations I had with two Board members1, and the writings of those in support of the Board 2, the (majority of the) Board gives the impression that the USATF delegates were misinformed when they voted 85% for Hersh and 15% for Hightower. I find that to be extremely condescending as the issues are not that complex.

If any side has shown itself to be misinformed, it is the Board. They have issued false statements in publicly de- fending their selection of Hightower. A simple way to pick between two differing sides is to pick the side telling the truth. There is no evidence the Board’s false statements were intentional, but in my mind it does show they are misinformed and entered this entire process with a desired result they are trying to justify after the fact. The Board’s false statements:

• “Bob Hersh was selected by Lamine Diack as Senior Vice President.” This is false, Hersh received the most votes of all the Vice Presidents, more than Seb Coe and Sergey Bubka who are both running for IAAF Presi- dent currently, and the Council selected him as Senior Vice President. This may sound like a minor issue, but it shows how popular Bob is within the IAAF. The Board makes a big point that the delegates don’t know what is going on at the IAAF, yet it is the Board who does not know how the vote process works.

• “Bob has served actively since 1999, but since that time there has not been a specific action at the IAAF that has actively advanced the interests of American athletes or teams.” This statement is almost preposterous without even having to think about it. It is so out of touch I think whoever wrote it did it with malicious intent and the rest of the Board agreed to it without realizing how misinformed it was. A few quick examples of Hersh advancing American interests.

TrackTown USA President Vin Lananna issued a statement to LetsRun.com saying, “Bob Hersh, in his role as senior Vice President of the IAAF Council, was a trusted advisor as we navigated our way through the bid process for both meets (World Indoors and World Juniors),” Becca Gillespy Peter wrote Bob was instrumental in stand- ing up for U.S. athletes in the logo size dispute versus the USATF national office, and USATF Youth Chair Lionel Leach told me Bob was his go-to guy in getting a change in the entry date for U.S. submissions for the World Youth Championships. This change in date let the U.S. start having a World Youth Trials for the first time which is one of the reasons that Leach said youth participation has gone from 53,000 to 86,000 for USATF. Hersh him- TAFWA Newsletter - Page 39 - April 2015 self cites more examples here). Hersh is only one of 27 council members, but has clearly advanced USA interests.

The Board’s memo in its defense of its decision goes on to subtly try and throw out the idea Hersh may be linked to corruption at the IAAF as he is connected to the current, “old” regime. This is another place where I think the author had malicious intent. Citing Hersh as part of the “old guard” and acting like a completely “new era” is coming in is misleading and shows once again the Board may be the ones misinformed. Seb Coe has been on the IAAF Council for 12 years. Sergey Bubka has been on the IAAF Council for 14 years. Bob Hersh has been on it for 16 years. Hersh’s tenure on the IAAF Council is nearly the same as Coe and Bubka, the two candidates for President.

Does The Board Care At All What The Delegates Think?

Perhaps one reason the Board tries to contend that the delegates were misinformed (or not representative of people overall)

3 while citing false information is because it would be political suicide to come out and say what they probably really were thinking, “We don’t care what the membership thinks (on this issue) even if they voted 100% to 0%.”

4 Is that what the Board really thinks? On this case, unless they reverse course I would have to say yes. Don’t get me wrong, I am not questioning the intentions of the Board.5 A more generous reading is some of them think that way and the rest are following Stephanie Hightower in a terrible case of groupthink. Actions that support this view:

• There was a special outside parliamentarian at the Law & Legislative (L&L) Committee meeting, presumably paid for by USATF or the USATF Board, that among other things, was doing his best to try and make sure the amendment to let the USATF delegates select6 the IAAF nominee did not pass. What is so threatening about letting the constituents you represent vote on the USATF nominee? Nothing unless you have a desired nominee already in mind without being open-minded.

• Lionel Leach confirms before the final L&L meeting he had a private meeting with four other individuals he would not name that revolved around his support of the amendment to let the USATF delegates vote on the IAAF nominee. David Greifinger, the L&L member who led the push to let the USATF delegates vote on the IAAF nominee with the stated intention of keeping Hersh in his spot, and Curt Clausen, the one Board member to vote for Bob Hersh, both say Lionel told them after the final L&L meeting, that at this private meeting his committee (USATF youth) was offered things of value if he would drop his support of the amendment. Neither David nor Curt has filed any sort of ethics complaint, and maybe this political horse trading is common, but it begs the very question: what is so threatening about letting the USATF delegates vote on the USATF nominee unless you have no intention of honoring their vote no matter the outcome?

• Stephanie Hightower, in a letter to Tim Baker, refers to the Law and Legislative Committee as “my committee.” It is not her committee. The L&L Committee, just like the Board, is supposed to serve all of USATF. The mindset that something is yours implies you don’t care what others think.

Hightower’s highly inappropriate letter to Baker brings us to a much simpler explanation as to why the delegates may have voted 84.8% for Hersh and 14.2% for Hightower: They know Hightower very well and no longer want her representing them. Why might the membership that twice elected Hightower as president be fed up with her presidency? There have been major incidents that have left athletes and members feeling they have no voice and USATF does not listen to them or follow its own rules. Just since the start of 2014:

• There was the indoor DQ controversies at USATF indoors that got national attention with athletes taking the unprecedented step of walking off the track on national TV.More importantly, besides the controversy of the DQs themselves, the issue took 10 months to resolve and USATF rules were not followed. USATF got its desired outcome regardless of the rules. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 40 - April 2015 • Convicted dopers Dennis Mitchell and Damu Cherry were appointed by the Board to coach the USA World Relays teams in 2014. Once again USATF rules were not followedas they call for the Executive Committee to select the coaches with Board approval, but in this case the head coaches “were hired by the national office” and presumably approved by the Board.

• The Long Distance Committee voted unanimously for the Olympic Marathon Trials to be in Houston because the prize money was more than in LA. This was ignored by the National Office and the Trials awarded to LA (although eventually the prize money was made equal).

The Olympic Trials decision is the only one with a possible business motive. The other two fall squarely in the realm of USATF putting on fair competitions that reflect the ideals of its members and those things rest right on the volunteer side of things, which is headed by Stephanie Hightower. Throw in her intimidating letter to Tim Baker as evidence of her style and the members may know her too well.

There is no arguing the business side of USATF is doing better. On the volunteer side of things, capricious decisions have left many feeling they have no voice. Rules have been overlooked, unfair competitions have been held, and now the president of USATF is referring to a committee as “my committee.”

The Board’s decision is a perfect example of group think. They had a desired outcome in mind and now are coming up with rationalizations to justify it. Steve Miller asked if I had polled people on the issue. What more of a poll do you need than 85% to 15% of the delegates? Rather than assuming 392 people did not know what they were voting about or weren’t representative of the USATF population at large, we at LetsRun.com assume the simpler explanation — they knew exactly what they were voting about. Since the Board vote five local USATF associations have gone to the trouble to write letters to the Board asking them to reverse their decision, and a sixth has written a thoughtful letter objecting to the decision and trying to prevent it in the future, and the Athletes Advisory Committee has come out saying they want Bob Hersh to be the nominee.

Board member Steve Miller told me, “It’s a very complicated issue.” Actually it is pretty simple. USATF’s marketing slogan is #WeAreUSATF. It’s time to act like it. The Board needs to appoint Bob Hersh as the USATF nominee to the IAAF Council.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Footnotes: As I said in the article, I don’t question the motives of the Board members. All of them I spoke to said with new information they would reconsider their votes.

1 Board member Steve Miller told me on the phone, “I suggested it was done with limited information … I am saying the two groups (the Board and the delegates) voted on this issue. Each group may or may not have had part or all of the information. … [a difference in] information may have created this chasm.” He also said, “You are making the assumption that because people care about something… anything (he cited political examples like immigration) … that they are informed.” Both Hightower and Hersh were given three minutes before the Board to present their cases, but did not make presentations to the general delegates. That seems to be the difference in information between the Board and the delegates. Board member Fred Finke, who described himself as “an individual who has not been a fan [of Stephanie]” said of the presentations, “I can tell you when the presentations were made there was never a question [as who to vote for].” Curt Clausen, the lone Board member who voted for Bob, viewed things differently, “You have a very informed membership and two very well known members (Stephanie and Bob) who have served the sport for a very long time. … and 85% of the membership went one way … and I didn’t see a compelling reason to go against the membership.”

2 Alan Abrahamson wrote, “The memo marks the next step in what has been a controversial, and misunder- stood, process stemming from the 2014 USATF annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif.”

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 41 - April 2015 3 Steve Miller was asking me if I had polled people to see what they thought on the issue. I was getting a bit defensive as I had not and then I realized “What more of a poll do we need than 85% of the delegates voting for people?” He then threw out the argument that the vote was late at the convention and not everyone was there so it may not have been representative. I don’t think this holds up. If for some bizarre reason, 100 more people walked through the door and they all voted for Hightower, she still would have lost 392-170.

4 Ultimately, the Board does answer to the membership as the membership, if it gets behind something, can change the bylaws of USATF or the people in power. As Board member Steve Miller acknowledged to me, “If people are not satisfied … the body has the right to change those things.” This whole fiasco could have been avoided if the membership had just made the rule saying a 2/3 vote of the membership cannot be overturned by the Board, essentially acting like U.S. Congress.

5 I’ve interacted with Board Member Fred Finke on multiple occasions. I’ve heard good things about Steve Miller and he told me, “I do this for the Board simply because I love the sport… I coached high school, grade school, college.” Board Member Bill Shelton said he’d gladly meet with me in LA and told me he “abstained from the first IAAF vote because as a new board member was not fully versed on the candidates. Since that initial vote, I’ve had conversations with Stephanie, Bob, and with my constituency and will vote at this board meeting.” These people clearly care about our beloved sport.

6 The Board keeps saying the delegates only recommended someone to the Board to be on the IAAF Council. However, I don’t think that is accurate as because unless 2/3 of the Board objected the delegates’ nominee was going to be the USATF nominee to the IAAF. So I think it more accurate to say the Board could veto the delegates’ selection with a 2/3 vote and select their own person.

One more note: My friend and mentor Alan Abrahamson wrote, “The USATF board voted to put forward federation chairperson Stephanie Hightower for the IAAF council slot at elections next year despite a floor vote for Bob Hersh. This produced raw emotion. Why? Sexism? Racism? Petty personality politics? Some combination of all three? Or something altogether else? ” No, the answer is simple. 85% of people had their vote ignored. I can’t think of a representative system that does that.

If you care about this issue, please take the time to do something about it. Tweet using @usatf #WeAreUSATF. Email people on the Board. Show them this matters.

Weldon Johnson is the co-founder of LetsRun.com and was 4th at 10,000m at the 2001 and 2003 USATF Outdoor Championships.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 42 - April 2015 TrackTown USA hosted a “One Year Out” media event for the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Track and Field Championships on Monday, March 16 at the Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. Attendees included Portland Mayor Charlie Hales, Metro Council President Tom Hughes, TrackTown USA President Vin Lananna, USATF Chief Public Affairs Officer Jill Geer, 2012 Olympic silver medalist Jason Rich- ardson, U.S. 400m indoor record-holder Phyllis Francis, former UO three-sport standout Jordan Kent (moderator).

From the press release, “The 16th edition of the biennial meet will be held at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland on March 18-20, 2016.

In celebration of the “One Year Out” milestone, there will be a special media event on Monday, March 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the OCC. Guest speakers include Portland Mayor Charlie Hales, TrackTown USA President Vin Lananna and USA Track & Field Chief of Public Affairs Jill Geer. In addition, we’ll hear from two U.S. track and field standouts in hurdler Jason Richardson and quarter-miler Phyllis Francis.

All of the speakers will be available to field questions from the media at the conclusion of the event.

Those in attendance will be the first to see official renderings of the 200-meter track, infield and 7,000- seat stadium to be built inside the OCC. We will also show highlight reels from TTUSA’s bid presentation to the IAAF Council in Monaco; the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot, Poland; and a similar indoor stadium build-up.

We will provide preliminary ticket and volunteer information. You can also hear specifics on the proposed men’s and women’s pole vault-only competition that will serve as a thrilling kick-off to the rest of the meet, free of charge, on March 17 inside the Moda Center. Those two venues – the OCC and Moda Center – will be connected to Pioneer Square, where plans are under way for an ambitious Fan Festival that will be open to the public.”

In addition, Geer announced that the City of Portland will host the 2016 USATF Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Oregon Convention Center March 11-12, 2016. The USATF press relase noted, “The Team USA roster for the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships will be chosen on the same track on which they will compete for gold, silver and bronze medals, one week later.

“The indoor track stadium at the OCC will feature a new, 200-meter IAAF-certified track and will be configured to accommodate more than 7,000 spectators for the event.”

Following pages include renderings of the proposed facility set-up and track configuration.

For more information contact Curtis Anderson | TrackTown USA Director of Communications, w 541-343-6129, c 541-600-0145, [email protected].

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 43 - April 2015 TAFWA Newsletter - Page 44 - April 2015 TAFWA Newsletter - Page 45 - April 2015 Partial Fixtures List

2015

Apr. 16-18 Mt. SAC, Walnut, Calif. Apr. 22-26 Drake Relays, Des Moines Apr. 23-25 Penn Relays, Philadelphia May 2-3 World Relay Championships, Nassau, Bahamas May 21-23 NCAA Div II Championships, Allendale, Mich. NCAA Div III Championships, Canton NY NAIA Championships, Gulf Shores, Ala. May 28-30 NCAA Div I Regionals East – Jacksonville, West – Austin May 29-30 Prefontaine Classic, Eugene June 10-13 NCAA Championships, Eugene June 12 TAFWA Spring Banquet, Eugene June 13 adidas Grand Prix, NYC June 19-21 New Balance Outdoor Nationals (HS), Greensboro NC June 25-28 USATF Championships, Eugene June 28 TAFWA Breakfast Social, Eugene, Ore. June 30-July 1 World Youth Trials, Lisle, Ill. July 15-19 World Youth Championships, Cali, Colombia July 20-26 Pan Am Games, Toronto July 23-26 U.S. Masters Championships, Jacksonville, Fl. July 31-Aug. 2 PanAm Juniors, Edmonton Aug. 4-16 World Masters Championships, Lyon, France Aug. 22-30 World Championships, Beijing Nov. 21 NCAA XC Championships, Louisville, Ky.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 46 - April 2015