"Damned incompetence..." That's the only line I know from the book Brave New World. I am reminded of it on occasion. In 16 years of coaching, I have attended a lot of track and cross country meets. Below are what I would consider a "Bill of Rights" for the athletes attending meets. I hope race directors will read them.

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Athletes deserve a course that is safe. Athletes and teams should be able to give their best efforts and not have months (or years) of training wiped out by a rolled ankle that could have been avoided by course clean-up. If your course is overly-rutted, has obstacles in the start area, narrows too quickly, or has other issues that are going to lead to injury, don't call your course "tough" or "challenging" if the correct word is "dangerous."

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Athletes deserve plenty of bathroom access. Runners are coached to be well-watered and well-fed. The end result is predictable. Meet hosts should plan to rent port-a-potties, and a lot of them. What's a reasonable amount of time to wait in line for the bathroom at a meet? It's something less than 5 minutes.

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Athletes, coaches, and parents deserve friendly meet workers. The volunteers and officials that great us at check-in, work the chute, help with scoring, direct parking, etc... should be your best salespeople. Those volunteers may be repeating the same directions a thousand times each day, but when they tell me an instruction, it's the first time I am hearing it. Say it with a smile. Talk to the Portage Invite about how to get it right. Their volunteers are the nicest people in the world. The volunteers at Bret Clements/Bath are awesome too. Do whatever they are doing.

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Officials should officiate. Make the difficult calls. It's your job. Shooting the gun is just one part of it. If all you do is fire off a gun, reconsider your role. Ask Kim Spalsbury about a job done well. That guy works the starting line hard and helps kids before, during, and after the races.

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If you're including an awards ceremony, make it important and efficient, but mostly, make it important. If the awards ceremony has started and parents and athletes continue talking over the announcer, why are we having an awards ceremony? The ceremony should not about medals and trophies. It is an opportunity to honor the work and progress of teams and individuals.

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Results should be correct and available immediately after the race. Post times and scores in a place everyone can easily access and have copies available for coaches. If you are not willing to print copies for each coach, then results should be posted online the same time they are posted physically.

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Results should be online before our team bus gets back to school.  Grandma wants to know how her grandson ran. I want to know how the team did in the field. Neither is possible without online results. Upload a datafile to Athletic.net before you leave the meet. If you don't know how to upload results quickly, talk to the best timer in Michigan, Mike Newton (mikester819@gmail.com). He often has results posted online before my athletes have started their cool down.

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Athletes deserve a fair start. If your starting line is so crowded that it does not allow for a fair start, you need to make changes. Make the starting line and course wider. If that is not possible, make the field smaller. If that is not possible, consider wave starts. If that is not possible, be OK with cheating athletes.

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Get the starting line right for the Reserve Race. How in the world is it right to crowd 800 athletes onto a starting line designed for 200? It is not. Again, either make changes or be OK cheating athletes.

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Athletes deserve to be able to get to the event without a cluster. Plan for our arrival. Have plenty of parking near where athletes need to be. If you don't, have us park somewhere else and get me where I need to be.

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- Carl Spina