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[ Phil Lawton is Christa Avena's coach at Bishop
Gorman HS in Las Vegas NV and he publishes the Nevada high school
track web site, Nevada Track
Stats. This is his account of the events surrounding the disqualification
and reinstatement by court order of Christa Avena for the Nevada
State Meet. ]
Winners and Losers
by Phil Lawton
Sometimes it’s about more than just winning or losing. For
Christa Avena of
Bishop Gorman just getting to the
state track meet in Reno, Nevada, this year
was an ordeal. Not that her credentials weren’t solid. The
diminutive
sophomore from Bishop Gorman H.S. in Las Vegas won the 4A state
cross country
title in November 2001 and was ranked as one of the top distance
runners in
southern Nevada this spring in both the 1600 meter run and the 3200
meter
run.
What follows is every coach’s worst nightmare. There are two
qualifying meets
for southern Nevada 4A schools that precede the state meet: the
League
Championships and the Regional Championships. Initially entered
in the
distance triple: the 800, the 1600, and the 3200, Avena was scratched
out of
the 800 at the seeding meeting held May 29th, two days before the
start of
the league meet. This has always been standard procedure in southern
Nevada
and is allowed by NFHS track and field rules. Scratches are not
charged
against an athlete once the meet is reseeded. But wait. This year
the meet
instructions included a note that stated that: “Any scratches
in an
individual event will count toward one of that individual’s
four allowable
events.” Yet in the next paragraph it also contained a note
that
“substitutions would be permitted” at the seeding meeting
to be held two
days prior to the first day of the meet. The instructions were clearly
ambiguous.
When the heat sheets for the League Championships were published
prior to the
prelims on Wednesday, May 1st, they showed that Christa Avena was
entered in
two events, the 1600 and the 3200 meter runs. At the meet finals
held on
Friday, May 3rd, she won both of those events and also anchored
her team to a
first-place finish in the 3200 meter relay and a fourth place—the
final
qualifying spot for the Regionals—in the 1600 meter relay.
At the conclusion
of the meet, it was brought to the attention of the Meet Referee
that Christa
Avena had been entered in five events. The decision was made—and
upheld by a
Jury of Appeals— to disqualify Avena under NFHS Rule 4.2, the
so-called death
penalty, which meant that she and her teammates on both relay teams
were
disqualified from all four events. It also meant that Avena and
both relay
teams could not advance to the Regional Championships in those four
events.
Without going into all the sordid details, suffice it to say that
the story
didn’t end there. As it turns out, the Nevada Interscholastic
Activities
Association (NIAA) publishes a Track & Field Manual which states
that “any
exceptions to these rules [National Federation Track & Field
Rules Book] are
discussed in this manual. The 2002 edition of that manual clearly
allows for
deletions and substitutions at a seeding meeting. (“Once entries
are
submitted, they may be deleted or substituted but not added. For
two-day
meets, no changes will be allowed on the second day. ”)
Despite appeals to meet officials at the League Championships and
the NIAA,
the disqualification was not overturned and a request for the reconvening
of
the Jury of Appeals was denied. It took a temporary restraining
order (TRO)
issued by a district court judge in Las Vegas to allow Christa Avena
and the
Bishop Gorman relay teams to advance to the Regional
Championships. At that meet, the Meet Referee (the same meet referee
that had
disqualified her the previous Friday) made a ruling that since the
disqualification was “under appeal” the two races in question
would have to
be run in sections: the four slowest qualifiers in section one and
the five
fastest qualifiers in section two. Since Christa was listed as NT
(no time),
she was forced to run in the slow section and run first. To add
insult in
injury, the Meet Referee insisted that an announcement be made over
the
public address system from the Press Box before or during each race
run
covered by the TRO that the race was “being run under protest.”
The result was that Christa Avena managed to win her section in
both events
and qualified third overall for both the 1600 meter run and the
3200 meter
run. She also anchored the Bishop Gorman 3200 meter relay team to
a
third-place finish. Since the top five qualifiers in each event
qualified for
the state meet, it meant that they had, indeed, qualified for the
State Meet,
pending a court ruling. The following Monday in Clark County District
Court
the same judge who had granted the TRO heard three hours of testimony
from
attorneys representing both the Avenas and the NIAA and granted
an injunction
allowing Christa Avena and the Bishop Gorman athletes who had initially
been
disqualified to compete at the state meet.
The Nevada State Track Meet in 2002 was a three-day meet. On Thursday
Avena
competed in the girls 4A 3200 meter run and finished third overall,
first
among runners from southern Nevada. Then on Saturday she competed
in the
girls 4A 1600 meter run and finished first. In both races she ran
personal
bests. The Bishop Gorman girls 3200 meter relay team—running
without Christa
Avena— also competed on Saturday and finished last in a field
of 15. But at
least they were allowed to compete without fanfare.
As for Christa Avena and her ability to rise above all the distractions
and
stress leading up to her two events at the State Meet, what can
be said
except she proved her mettle beyond a shadow of a doubt. She is
a worthy
State Champion. The rest of us are losers for forgetting what track
and field
and sports in general is all about.
(Phil Lawton, Bishop Gorman distance coach)
Reflections from Phil Lawton
What I've written doesn't go into all the ugly details of the
entire incident, but it says what I want to say. I'm not looking
to get
revenge on any of the people involved with this and I'm being careful
not to
attack our own NIAA. But the NIAA is making "noise" that
somehow a judge
"threw out the Manual" and it may have national repercussions
as to States
being allowed to supplement NFHS track and field rules. That is
just not true
(according to our attorneys)! The judge merely said that the NIAA
Manual as
written was ambigous; the meet information and the form used for
entries was
likewise confusing and unclear; and nowhere did it support their
"restriction" on deletions at a scratch meeting still
counting as one of an
athletes four events.
It got ugly. We tried everything we could to avoid going to court.
But with
no compromise in sight, the girls parents—with the tacit approval
of the
school (a private school)—did what they felt was the "right"
thing to do. A
judge agreed with them.
I've been coaching track and cross country for over 20 years. This
was the
first time I've ever encounted a situation where I couldn't scratch
a kid at
a seeding meeting and "start over" once the heat sheets
were published the
next day. I could go into details on how this all came about--it's
a
"north-south" thing--but I doubt you're interested.
I'm still not sure why this thing wasn't resolved short of a court
fight but
it seems that someone had an "agenda" and refused to compromise.
The whole
thing "smelled" from the beginning but I was never able
to pin down the
source. Maybe it's just as well. Certain 4A northern coaches have
been
feuding for years with us down south here in Nevada and they rammed
this
"restriction" on all entries counting as a charged event
without warning.
(It's not a state-wide thing, only 4A. That's why the NIAA Manual
didn't
cover it.) I was caught unawares and it became a big "gotcha!"
The NIAA head
may have tried to intervene but he was afraid of a protest up north
at the
state meet that would make him look weak (that did happen last year).
We knew
we were right on the "law" but it took the good fortune
of having a parent
who was an attorney (one of the girls on the relay team) and the
parents of
the girl who was getting "screwed" who were willing to
stand up and fight and
put their money on the line. Once the judge looked at the evidence
it was a
"no brainer." The worry was that the judge would reject
it out of hand;
fortunately, he didn't. There is also the public/private school
issue somehow
involved. The head of the NIAA has had an ongoing feud with parents
whose
kids attend private schools re. the NIAA transfer policy here in
Nevada.
(It's a one-way thing. You can transfer from private to public without
restrictions but not vice versa.)
I'm sure I'll have a target on my back for a while over this, but
I'm getting
too old to worry about it. Maybe I should have stayed retired after
all...
It was a very tense week. But it sure was sweet when Avena won
that 1600. And
it wasn't cheap. Her 5:11.32 was her best this year, as was her
11:24.05 (20
sec. PR) in the 3200.
DyeStat Nevada
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