Benita Fitzgerald Mosley: Oly champ

Masters track may not benefit directly from USATF’s selection of Benita Fitzgerald Mosley as its new chief of sport performance, “responsible for overseeing all of USATF’s High Performance and Sport Science programs.” But if USATF gets more money and marketing, some resources might trickle down to masters. Benita is a University of Tennessee alumna, and it brought to mind a fellow Vol:  Alisa Harvey. I wrote Alisa for her reaction to Benita’s selection, and she replied: “It just so happens that I called to congratulate Benita yesterday morning after reading about her new position in the Washington Post.  Benita lives in the adjoining town from me.  I had spoken to her in person at my daughter’s District Track T&F Championships last Wednesday. I am thrilled to hear of her new position with USATF. Benita and I did attend the University of Tennessee. I just missed being her actual teammate since she graduated just as I entered, but she did train for the ’84 Olympic team in Knoxville during my freshman year.”

Alisa continued:

I have much respect for Benita.  She comes from a fine local family of educators.  Occasionally, I get the chance to drive down the street in Woodbridge named in her honor. 

Benita has class, is articulate, and is an excellent role model.  She will be a good addition to an organization (USATF) that I believe has become compromised by too many, “I scratch your back you scratch mine” former elite athletes.  

 It is due time to bring in some open-minded intelligence with a Gold Medal into the decision making process.

Here’s what I posted on the T&FN message board yesterday: 

I just listened to the 30-minute teleconference with Benita.
http://www.usatf.org/news/multimedia/audio/benitaaudio.asp 

My summary:
Doug Logan is enamored of Benita’s professional credits and “serenity.” He said he had carried around an index card with 21 candidate names for the job. 

Jill Geer is enamored of Benita’s industrial engineering degree.

Benita wouldn’t be pinned down on anything, saying she would commence a “listening tour” a la Hillary Clinton’s Senate run. She’s obviously smart and well-spoken, but cutting through the USATF maze will be her biggest challenge. 

Eddie Pells of AP, Ron Bellamy of the Eugene R-G, Dick Patrick of USA Today, Amy Shipley of The Washington Post and Sieg Lindstrom of T&FN were the questioners. Can’t recall any others. (I didn’t phone in. Came during my sleep cycle.) 

Ron asked what the Trials would be like in 2012. Benita wouldn’t answer, except to say the original idea of trying to replicate the Olympic schedule wasn’t the way to go (and wasn’t really a replication anyway). 

She said picking the best team was the goal. But of course.
Amy asked about Benita’s staff — who would be helping her, etc. Benita punted the question to Doug. I fell asleep during his answer. 

Benita said the reason for relay drops at Beijing (and the handwritten-number embarrassment in the first round) was because athletes didn’t know what was going on, which legs they would run, etc.
Apparently, it was a case of too many cooks and nobody with overall authority. 

So what are head men’s and women’s coaches there for? What are team managers supposed to do? All chopped liver? 

Unasked by anyone: Will you be the boss of all the USATF committee chairs, such as High Performance?
And if your job, as you said, is to make sure athletes have all the resources they need, where are you going to get those resources?

 Except for Ron’s specific question about the 2012 Trials, it was a snore of a teleconference.

They rolled out a new elite performance czar.
So what.