Reno report: Skeptical masters heard out Hightower
A day before she was elected USATF president, former world-class hurdler Stephanie Hightower spoke to USATF Masters Track & Field delegates. She was introduced Thursday to about 70 of us a little before noon by former national masters chair George Mathews, who “encouraged everyone to support Stephanie” and said “good things will happen for masters when (USATF changes) come into play.” Hightower said: “You all feel that you’re one of the invisible groups” but that it shouldn’t be that way. “When you look at the life cycle of the sport, masters is a big part.”
She said that as USATF president, working with “our new CEO Doug Logan, (we) can make you less invisible.”
Then she ripped the scab off an old wound.
“What’s sparking the rumor that we don’t want masters in our (open) championships?” she said. She denied that impression, saying masters events at open nationals help at the gate. “You put butts in our chairs. . . . That rumor is false. I’d like to figure out how to do more (masters events).”
Mark Cleary, the USATF masters invitational program chair, challenged Stephanie, saying masters exhibitions at open nationals were “not a given thing” and have never been “automatically in.”
He recounted tough negotiations with Men’s Track & Field Committee chair John Chaplin to squeeze masters events into the Trials and similar championships. “I dealt with John Chaplin and that was not pretty.”
Stephanie said, “Me and John were on the opposite side of the fence on many things,” but insisted that she supported masters exhibition events at nationals and suggested Mark could have come to her as chair of the Women’s Track & Field Committee. “Our committee has always been there (for you).”
Mark admitted that he went to Chaplin for event approval “out of ignorance.”
Stephanie was asked about increasing the masters track budget, and she responded that the old “constituency-based board” made it hard for masters to get money.
“What I think needs to happen is to have a strategic plan inclusive of all constituencies,” she said, so when the “revenue stream” for the whole organization rises, all groups can share the larger pot of money.
“The masters should come to us (on the board) and say, ‘Here are the three or four things we want to accomplish this year,” she said.
When I asked her whether she had read the USATF Masters Strategic Plan, she at first said, “I have looked at it,” but then said she hadn’t studied it. She mentioned no details or main points of the 3-year-old plan launched under George Mathews.
Masters chair Gary Snyder at that point suddenly brought her appearance to an end. She exited quietly, accompanied by no applause.
As I sat down, I overheard one delegate mutter: “She’s no friend of the masters.”
“But she’s a good speaker,” said another.
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More photos from Reno have been added to my Gallery:
http://www.masterstrack.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=38402
One other thing I forgot to mention in my original post:
Stephanie explained why she hasn’t competed in masters track (she just turned 50).
She said: “I’m lazy.”
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