There Ya Go
If you’re a sports fan and give any kind of a rip about TMB sports, you’ll notice there is no coverage of the Camden Conference Track & Field Meet from Tuesday.
That’s because there was no meet. The big event was postponed. Pandemic? Nope. Lightning? Nah-ah.
It was too windy. That’s right, the powers that be — officials for the meet — decided that the strong winds made it unsafe for track and field competition.
Huh? I get not sending the pole vaulters 12 feet into the air, now that’s unsafe. But what about runners and other competitors? You can’t tell me it was too dangerous to have them compete.
Well, you could tell me, but I’d laugh at you.
Can we please stop coddling our kids? Give it a rest. Let them play. I’m all for erring on the side of caution when it comes to safety for the student-athletes — newly-designed and better-built football helmets are a good idea — but this goes too far.
I’ll spare you the backin- my-day speech, but did we not care about kid safety 30, 40, 50 years ago?
TMB and all the other schools had already converged on Clara City for the meet. And so did certain members of the media trying to get their hometown kids some good press. That’s about two hours I lost — two hours I could’ve been working on this week’s paper. I had to squeeze in a couple stories and do a podcast before I left town. Like this job isn’t stressful enough.
That’s another kicker. I was told by a trusted source that schools weren’t even notified until about 3:30. The event was scheduled to start at 4 p.m.
Someone tell me why these people waited until early afternoon to make this call. It was windy all day. I covered the Camden golf meet in Marshall Tuesday morning, and let me tell you, it was quite breezy then, too. So it’s OK for golfers to have to fight the wind? Golfers despise wind. Wind is kryptonite for them and can make scratch golfers look like hacks. And then there’s the gas. Last time I checked, petro is pretty expensive these days. What a waste — for me and for the schools.
I’ve been doing this for a long, long time. I’ve covered high school sports in rain, snow/blizzards, freezing cold, blazing heat and stifling humidity (now that can really hurt a kid) and yes, wind. I’ve driven to and from high schools far away on skating rinks. Is that safe?
Not once has an event I was supposed to cover been canceled or postponed because of wind.
I don’t personally know who made the final call Tuesday, but someone owes me, and all those schools, some gas money.
At least the wind was at my back on my way home.
