2020 nationals bidders, Hall of Fame nominees listed in USATF docs

Ray Feick was denied a rightful shot put bronze at Daegu worlds, but got the M85 medal anyway.

Thanks to national chair Rex Harvey and secretary Amanda Scotti, the USATF Masters Track and Field Committee is by far the most transparent when it comes to reports and meeting minutes posted in the Documents Library for the Ohio annual meeting. I perused many of the 40-plus docs. The revelations are fascinating. For example, at 2017 Daegu indoor worlds, team manager Phil Greenwald reports: “There was a significant issue in the M85 shot put; several attempts were apparently incorrectly recorded and it appears that Ray Feick earned third place in his group, not fourth. While the medal was given to Ray by the athlete who received it in error, the protest was denied and the official results were never corrected.” Also, the 12 nominees for the Masters Hall of Fame are posted. (Six will be chosen and then announced at the annual meeting November 29-December 3.) And interested bidders for 2020 masters outdoor nationals are Greensboro (North Carolina), Brockport State (near Rochester, New York) and Carthage College (Kenosha, Wisconsin). The lone 2020 indoor bidder: Baton Rouge. But with 2020 worlds set for July 20 to August 1 in Toronto, USATF masters nationals may have to follow worlds. (Typically, nationals comes before worlds.)

USATF masters records (approved and rejected) are listed here.

Here are the Masters Hall of Fame nominees, most of them first-timers, including one administrator (slam dunk rankings maven John Seto).

  • Gloria Krug: age 85
  • Marianne Martino: age 67
  • Ruth Welding: age 61
  • Bob Cedrone: age 63
  • Dr. William Clark: age 82
  • Ralph Giovanni Fruguglietti: age 62
  • Dr. Harry Nolan: age 70
  • Anthony Palacios: age 51
  • Gary Patton: age 72
  • John Seto
  • Thaddeus (Thad) Wilson Sr.: age 65
  • And Charles Wimberley: age 83

From webmaster Jeff Brower, reporting on usatfmasters.org and usatfmasters.com:

The website averaged 1063 visits EVERY DAY in June of 2017, the highest level of activity since its inception. There has been steady growth over the years, but the last 12 months have shown exceptional growth, as even the lowest of month of 2017 exceeded the highest month of 2016.

The website contains over 300 pages of information with links to hundreds of results and MTF content covering every facet of Masters T&F, and requires approximately 6 hours of labor each month for maintenance.

From Rex Harvey:

The biggest change that has been written into the proposed [operating procedures] is the creation of a new Subcommittee named “Communications.” In short it will contain existing Media (including Social Media) and the Organizational Advancement and Promotion Subcommittee, along with our website (usatfmasters.org).

The main intent is to put a uniform look and feel to all of our MTF communications from top to bottom. This is to be as efficient as possible with our meager financial resources and our volunteer efforts in the field. There is a Task Force headed by Sandy Triolo working right now on forming that overall branding plan and that will be presented at this year’s Annual Meeting.

From Anti-Doping Committee Chairman Stephen Cohen:

As Chair of this Sub-Committee and, hopefully, with financial assistance from the USATF National organization, I believe consideration should be given to the following topics:

A. Test at more National Track and Field, Multi-event, and Region Championships and during each day of these events;

B. Consider more EPO testing, if cost can be controlled;

C. Perform out of competition testing of athletes for all National or World record breaking performances at Sanctioned Meets, where testing has not been conducted and within 48 hours after the record breaking performance;

D. Require testing at National Senior Games, if being conducted according to USATF rules and regulations;

E. Require that USADA representatives and USATF volunteers to the USADA representatives be completely visible at all Meets where testing is being conducted and permit our Committee members full visibility at sanctioned competitions;

F. Include in bid instructions drug testing requirements for local organizing committees; and

G. Require the USATF to permit our Committee Chair to review all contracts for Masters Competitions entered into by the USATF, including the requirement that only our Committee designated person discuss directly with the USADA representative assigned to our competitions:

1) Different age groups to be tested;

2) The number of Men and Women to be tested;

3) Our testing is, in part, to satisfy WMA requirements, so we must require that WMA be advised of our testing and any sanctioned athletes;

4) Since aging is a Masters issue, aging should be a consideration in USADA testing criteria.

H. We welcome written suggestions from our Masters Track and Field Membership with respect to any aspect of Drug Testing and Substance Abuse affecting our athlete population.

From October executive committee minutes prepared by Amanda:

Rex Harvey informed the committee that the current budget has been gone over in great detail by himself and Jerry with Bill Shelton, Max Siegel (USATF CEO) and Renee Washington (USTAF COO). He said MTF “asked high”… over $600,000, and was told, “not this year.”

The funds expected from Nike are not yet on the books in cash, Nike is frontloading their assistance with “in kind” contributions. Cash will follow in future years.

The current budget submission is around $300,000. Last year MTF received $118,835 plus generated $45,000 in surcharges and also had approximately $45,000 in ‘holdover’ accounts. As of now (October 24, 2017) MTF has spent over $180,000.

MTF Treasurer Carroll DeWeese stated that per MTF’s “normal” pattern, this would work but didn’t have ledgers yet for 2017 to give definitive answers. Rex stated that he fully expects to receive $120,000 plus the promised $50,000 and likely an additional $50,000 for an approximate total of $220,000 to $230,000.

Carroll added that if this is real money and not “in kind” money, for instance, not counting uniform costs as money given to MTF, that the budget would be fine.

Other Business

Per Robert Thomas; Current Bids – Outdoor: Greensboro NC (But dates may not work), Brockport State (near Rochester, NY), Carthage College (Kenosha, WI).
Indoor: Baton Rouge

Rex Harvey explained that holding the MTF 2020 Outdoor Championships prior to the WMA meet in Toronto is posing a problem. Toronto’s dates are July 20-August 2. Doing that would impact regional and other meets. It might be better to hold the MTF Outdoor Championships after the WMA meet and hold it somewhere on the east coast to encourage foreign athletes to stay and compete.

It was noted by Robert Thomas that August is a big vacation month for Europeans and there are conflicts in 2020 with both the Olympic Trials and youth Nationals, both of which compete with MTF for officials before
Toronto.

Re the athletes, most would likely prefer to compete in a national meet after a world meet rather than the other way around so as to not risk injury at a nationals and end their world meet aspirations.

There was concern expressed by Jerry Bookin-Weiner that a later national meet might be hard to schedule as schools may need to use their own facilities by then. Bill Murray suggested we speak with the bidders and see who can accommodate the later date. Rex said that was a good plan, that would be investigated and then a vote for the meet dates would be conducted via Survey Monkey.

From August executive committee meeting:

Bob Weiner stated that the committee had previously decided to include marketing/promotions under the media chair and he proposed they stay with that. Jerry Bookin-Weiner explained that the communication committee will oversee media, marketing, etc. Bob Weiner then made a motion that the committee vote to stay with the status quo, the motion was seconded by Lester Mount. A verbal vote was taken and the motion was defeated 7 to 3, with 3 abstaining.

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November 23, 2017

2 Responses

  1. Peter L. Taylor - November 26, 2017

    There are several notable topics here, and I will be the first to comment on interested bidders for 2020. Perhaps others will follow.

    Outdoors:

    Speaking with my own interests in mind, I like Brockport State the most, followed by Kenosha and then Greensboro. I can drive from
    Fairfax, Virginia, to Brockport in under 8 hours, and that area of the country usually has acceptable weather in the summer.

    As for the athletes, it looks like Rochester International has quite a few flights from airports around the country, and I hope they are reasonable.

    Carthage College in Kenosha has a reputation for well-run masters events, and I am assuming that air travel will not be a big issue.

    Greensboro, NC, is sometimes a little challenging in the summer, but the good thing for me is that I can drive there from Fairfax. I’ll never forget the punishing weather we had in Charlotte, NC, some years back; one hopes that such “punishment” will not beset us in Greensboro.

    As for the indoors, there were some athletes who did not like the flat surface in Baton Rouge. It is understood, of course, that we can’t just go out and get an arena with a beautiful banked track; there must be local interest.

    In reality, it is unlikely that I will announce either nationals in 2020. It has gotten much, much harder for any announcer to announce a masters nationals; when you combine that with my advanced age it seems best to avoid these meets. I will, however, be one of three announcers at 2018 indoors in Landover.

  2. Thomas Sputo - November 26, 2017

    My 2 cents are positive. I’m happy to have 3 bidders for outdoors and the fact that LSU did a fine job of reacting to the weather and such this past summer hopefully bodes well for a well run indoors. I’ll be aging up to M60 in May 2020, so I’m looking forward to the outdoors meet.

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