God save me from my friends; from my enemies I can defend myself.

Take a hard look at the girl in the picture. Blayke Hall was 9th in AA-A cross back in 2007 as a freshman. She currently has no coach, no program and probably won't get to compete this year. (http://www.times-news.com/localsports/local_story_217233243.html) Now, the Moorefield Athletic Boosters passes the buck because they don't have the money. The Hardy County BOE passes the buck because they're 700 large in debt. The WVSSAC passes the buck because the rules are the rules and she can't run for another school, even though her lack of a program is in no way her fault. If you doubt the sincerity of the lack of funds, you should note that the principal at Moorefield even uses a quote from Spock to describe the situation, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few [or the one]." Now, normally I don't care, not my problem. Today, for whatever reason, I went wild and tilted at windmills on my way there.

I don't know who's in charge at the WVSSAC, but those people do more to hurt kids in this state than help them. How in the blazes of hell and damnation can there possibly be justification to bar this girl from running at Frankfort or some other program? Frankfort lost their 2, 3 and 4 runners from last year. THEY DID NOT HAVE FIVE GIRLS TO RUN IN 2007! Are you kidding me? You're going to deny a girl who has no track program and was 15th in her cross region last year from joining a program that did not have five girls finish their regional meet two years ago? What possible impact could occur that anyone would deem unfair? All this and the girl in question has done absolutely nothing! An exception could be crafted in the rules for "students of financially unviable districts" in about three and a half minutes. Instead the moles at WVSSAC burrow into the dirt and hide amongst their rules.

The main justification for the Moorefield Athletic Boosters is that they can't pay for a coach. This brings about the idea that maybe some non-teacher would volunteer their time to coach for free. Do you know how much it costs to volunteer coach with the WVSSAC? It costs you a full weekend in a classroom at the cost of $250, a trip to the police station for a fingerprint card at an unknown cost, a trip to the BOE office for approval and $49 to apply. And after all that, if you have a great time coaching and are successful, any yahoo with a teaching certificate has the right to apply for your position next year and they will get it, by statute. If the WVSSAC wanted to make sure that the coaching application process excluded any non-teacher with sense, they succeeded.

At any rate, bravo to all those involved for letting this kid down. Hopefully either the incompetent jackals at WVSSAC bail this girl out with some common sense, the Boosters get their books in order or some money appears from nowhere to save the day.

(photo courtesy tristaterunnur.com)