In December, the Southern California Association of USATF was honored as Association of the Year at USATF’s annual meeting in Jacksonville, Florida. Last week, that same association gave some of its leaders the boot, including Masters VP Mark Cleary and SCA President Mo Haneef, the father of a U.S. volleyball Olympian. An election of SCA members Jan. 11 resulted in a major shake-up in officers. Don’t know all the whys and wherefores, but I have the results (and some eyewitness reports) from two sources.

From one masters athlete:
“President: Dave Snyder (54-47 over Mo Haneef)
Executive VP: Richard Robert (chaos–in second ballot it was like 56-38) VPs (are) Skip Stolley (78), Rich Benoy (57), David Bullock (53), Mo Haneef (50). Notice no Masters people (among) the winners (and more chaos); losers Mark Cleary (47), Denise Smotherman (45) and Brenda Mathews (42). Treasurer (is) Tom Confer (more chaos, begrudging acclaimation over Albert Li). Secretary Darleen Holland (52-45).”
The source continued:
“An interesting turn of events: Bottom line is Mark (Cleary) is out but effectively our efforts to oust him did not prove effective, more just a quirk in the chaotic, contentious, factionalized politics of (this) organization.
“Part of the scandal was that Skip Stolley came in with his slate of people, most of whom were elected. Mark was one of the few from the list that was not. As people came in the door, they were handed this slate, in the form of short bios, very much like the League of Women Voters prints. There was even a USATF logo on top of the sheet and Skip even had stapled his Open VP’s report to it…. Skip brought in as many people of a coalition of groups, a few Open coaches, Officials and Racewalkers primarily (mostly white people) to successfully outnumber the youth people (mostly black).
“Dave is the Chief Commissioner of Officials and the Racewalk Chair–get it. I will say the majority of the people I saw with visible ballots had them already filled out before we had nominations. Obviously it was a contentious meeting.
“Personally I could go either way on president. Mo is very Youth oriented but in his 4 years has been relatively fair and pays attention to all divisions and group issues. Dave is also a decent guy who has done a much better job of articulating what official is assigned and who works various track meets…. He is an ex- military bean counter so I guess he is Skip’s guy to figure out our financial situation–something nobody can explain.
“Skip is obviously the guy on the power trip. He actually has decent ideas that he manages to implement. With our multiple VP system last year (that he suggested and procured) HE did a good job of coordinating the different disciplines and printed a regular report/press release to make sure their work got publicized…. Skip and, to a lesser degree, Mark came up with the idea of hosting the Masters (National Outdoor) Championships at (Azusa Pacific University) without even mentioning it to the rest of us.”
And so it goes in USA Track and Field’s leading association.
More details to come, if anyone chooses to share.