As we head into fall and the Track & Field season comes to an end, we can start to turn our minds to other items on the horizon. Here is some information that might be of interest to you: Recruitment and Marketing: The NOC has a group who has been working for several months on recruitment and marketing ideas and projects. You can download some of their work in the Recruiting Toolkit.During the summer, we had a recruitment table at the USATF U20 Championships, and recruiting announcements were made by the announcers at U.S. Championship meets. We have also received an increase to our NOC budget to continue to develop recruiting resources. Read Mike's comments on seven other NOC developments View the Helpful Video USATF Championship Meet Applications Accepted Starting September 15 The application window for officials interested in working at the three major 2025 USA Track and Field Championship meets will open on September 15 and close on October 15. Those meets are: Senior Indoor Championships, Senior Outdoor Championships, and U20 Championships. Only USATF National or Master level officials are eligible to apply for these three major meets. Please note that no applications will be accepted after the deadline. All officials, regardless of their certification level or interest in being selected for the “big three” major meets, are encouraged to complete the application if they are interested in working any of these USATF events: Find out more about applying for these meets Congratulations Pat, Dan, and Fred Three New Hall of Fame Inductees By Karen Krsak, NOC Hall of Fame Committee Chair It is with great pleasure that I announce the 2024 officials who have been selected for induction into the National Officials Hall of Fame. Officials across the country truly appreciate all the hard work these individuals have done to make our sport great and to help their colleagues over the years. The Hall of Fame inductees are: Pat Lavelle, New England Association Dan Pierce, Colorado Association Fred Thomas, Ohio Association, Legacy Member The 2024 Induction Ceremony will take place on Friday evening, December 7, 2024, at the USATF Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. We invite you to join us in celebration at the National Officials Hall of Fame Banquet. Read more about the Hall of Fame The Only American Officials Armstrong, Katz Honored as Olympic Officials There were about 200 officials who worked track and field events at the Paris Olympics. Mike Armstrong and David Katz were the only two American track and field officials appointed as international delegates by World Athletics. Both men are USATF Certified Officials. Armstrong, NOC Chair, was selected to officiate the Olympics for the first time in his 35-year officiating career. He served as a Referee, primarily in field events. “Officiating at the Olympics was the one thing I hadn’t done,” Armstrong said. “You hope to be selected, but there are lots of quality people around the world to fill these spots, so you feel fortunate when your name appears on the list of those assigned to this meet.” Armstrong is a member of the USATF Arkansas Association. He is also a member of the Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame and the USATF National Officials Hall of Fame. Katz was selected as one of the Technical Delegates to the Olympic Games. This was the sixth time Katz was selected for the Olympics. His previous experience was in the 1984, 1996, 2012, 2016, and 2020 Games. “It was an amazing experience working in remarkable venues. Even after 40 plus years, I learned a great deal about event management, officiating, and event presentation,” Katz said. Katz is a member of the USATF National Officials Hall of Fame and served four terms on the IAAF (now World Athletics) Technical Committee from 2003-2019, and he is a member of the World Athletics Competition Commission. He is the former Millrose Games meet director and is a member of the USATF Records Committee and Rules Committee. He chairs the Road Running Technical Council. He is a member of the USATF New York Association. Five Grant Programs Available Apply For an NOC Officials Grant By Robert Kern, NOC Secretary The National Officials Committee (NOC) recognizes the financial commitment faced by younger officials to travel to USATF National Championship meets. The NOC also recognizes the need to develop a larger pool of trained and experienced Implement Inspectors, Technical Managers, and Referees. The NOC has five grant programs to assist these officials: Young Officials Grant New Officials Grant Implement Inspectors Grant Technical Managers Grant Apprentice Referee Grant (This grant was developed by the NOC and the Diversity & Leadership Development Committee) The deadline to submit applications for these grants is December 15, 2024. The grant recipients will be selected by the NOC Executive Committee from the pool of qualified applicants who meet the established criteria. Each grant recipient will be given $500. Click here for eligibility criteria, the process, and contact person for each type of NOC grant. New Rules Testing Requirement For NCAA Championship Meets By Mike Armstrong, NOC Chair For several months, the National Officials Committee and the NCAA have been working on ways to increase our collaboration in officiating NCAA Championship meets. Though there is still work to be done to get everything we would like accomplished, the first piece of the process will soon be in place. Beginning with this fall’s recertification period, there will be an NCAA rules examination required to officiate NCAA national championship meets. The plan is for the open-book, online exam to go live on or about November 1 when the USATF rules reviews become available. The exam was created by the NCAA but will be administered through the NOC’s Dashboard website and process. I want to thank Mark Kostek and Milan Donley for their work in writing the exam and Mark Heckel for his work on getting it prepared for use on the website page. Here is some more information ~~~~ Final Reminder to Apply For NCAA Championship Meets The registration and application process to officiate NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships for the 2024-2025 season will close on September 15, 2024. Go here to learn more and apply Officiating Photographs Needed By Brittany Wright, USATF Indiana Association I am Brittany Wright, a member of the NOC Recruitment and Retention Committee. I am working on a special project and would greatly appreciate your assistance. Could you please send me any photos from the past five years that show you and your crew in action, performing your duties, and interacting with each other? Please make sure you are comfortable with the photos being shared publicly. You can send your photos to: nwrightb@gmail.com. This special project will be featured at the USATF Annual Meeting during one of the officials' breakout sessions. Thank you for your ongoing support and dedication to our sport. Your contributions are truly valued! Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn Website Email Time to Review the Cross Country Rules For most, the track and field season has come to an end. The Olympics, Paralympics, and World Masters have concluded, marking the end to this Olympiad. If you are still looking for more track and field, you may need to look south, like Australia. I trust everyone had an extremely eventful season. Without the effort you contributed, our sport could not be contested. Because of you, the greatest athletes in the world were able to compete without worry of safety and fairness. They were able to concentrate on competing and giving their best effort, which they did. Now many of us turn our attention to cross country. There were not any new USATF cross country rules passed for this season. I would like to encourage you to review the rules prior to officiating your first cross country meet. In the USATF Rule Book, cross country can be found beginning with Rule 250 on page 145. NCAA cross country rules begin with Rule 17 on page 173 however the key competition rules are in Rule 21 on page 188. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) cross country begins with Rule 8 on page 65. Learn more about the XC rules 879 Evaluations Submitted! Realistic Evaluation Ratings Continue in 2024 By Carolyn Hill, NOC Evaluations Committee Chair The NOC Evaluations Committee has completed tracking the officials’ evaluations for the eight 2024 USATF national meets, including five outdoor meets in June and July. The committee assigned officials to evaluate crew members or head officials for each meet. Over 99% of the requested evaluations for the eight meets were returned this year. The Evaluations Committee extends thanks to all officials who took the time and effort to submit evaluations. The committee will continue to review the steps in the evaluation process and determine 2025 meets that will include evaluations. Read the details about the evaluations Answers to Some Recertification Questions An email I received this month from a long-time official asked several questions regarding the recertification process. My belief has always been that if one person asks a question, others are likely to wonder the same. What follows are the questions asked of me and my response. Why do you have to be recertified every four years? As stated in our National Officials’ Certification Regulation found here, Officials are required to recertify each Olympiad (four years). For our purposes, the Olympiad starts November 1 following the Summer Olympics. To continue as a USATF Certified Official for the following Olympiad, Officials must recertify by March 31 of the year following the Summer Olympics. A key part of recertification is the rules reviews. We know that rules do not stay the same, and successfully completing the review(s) ensures that our rule knowledge is current. Read the answers to two questions about fees Is the Officials page of your Association website visitor- friendly? If a potential new official visited your Officials page, would they quickly be able to locate the name and email address of a person to contact for more information about becoming an official without having to leave the page? Is the content on your Association Officials page up to date? Does your Officials page have local Association content? Or is the visitor taken directly to the Officials page on the USATF national website? ********* Your USATF purchase history can be found on your USATF Connect account. Just login to your account. Click the three lines in the upper left corner of the page. Scroll down to “Purchase History.” Your purchases for the past several years are shown. You can view the details of each purchase. Most of these purchases are your membership fees and background check fees. September: A Time to Revisit Our Training Methods September is back-to-school month, and there’s no better time for us to revisit our training goals and plans for the coming seasons. In this month’s article, we’ll explore some ways neuroscience research has found to enhance how we learn and improve what we retain. Who you know matters. But what you know—and what you do with it—matters even more. Learning faster and retaining more becomes a personal superpower. Here are six neuroscience-based strategies to help you learn more quickly and retain what you learn better: Read the six strategies NOC Affirmative Development Committee Updates By Raymond Pierre, NOC Affirmative Development Committee Chair With track season in the rearview mirror, what has the NOC Affirmative Development Committee been up to? In the May NOC newsletter, NOC Chair Mike Armstrong announced the creation of Project Task Forces to work on several high-level topics including Recruitment, Mentoring, Recertification, Selection Processes, and Code of Ethics. At the same time, the Affirmative Development Committee (ADC) created six project groups on its own - designed to partner with these task forces and ensure the concerns raised in the results of the 2023 Minority and Women Officials Focus Group surveys are being addressed and eliminated. Read about the six project groups Are you going to re-certify as a USATF Official for the 2025-2028 Olympiad? Yes No Note: Survey responses are anonymous. No personal information is collected. Enter your answer here News from the Northwest Region Associations: Alaska | Inland Northwest | Montana | Oregon | Pacific Northwest | Snake River | Utah | USATF Official Invents New Style Rake By Peter Cobin, USATF Northwest Region News Coordinator A patent-pending rake developed by Chris Patterson, a USATF Certified Official and coach based in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, is designed to make horizontal jumps pit grooming faster and easier. Called the Level Best Rake, it is currently being used at meets throughout the Inland Northwest Association as well as in the neighboring Pacific Northwest and Oregon Associations. At many meets, the horizontal jumps rely on volunteer rakers to keep the event going efficiently and on time. Often these volunteers are inexperienced, trying to use rakes or brooms they find cumbersome. The outcome can be frustrating for everyone. Read more about this new rake News from the Southeast Region Associations: Alabama | Florida | Georgia | North Carolina | South Carolina | Tennessee | Virginia Thurston Brings her “A Game” to Every Meet By Laurie Gunn, Southeast Region News Coordinator Janice Fair Thurston traveled more than 900 miles from her home in Miami, Florida, to lace up her spikes and wear the blue and white uniform as a member of the Jackson State University (JSU) track and field team. JSU is a Historical Black College and University (HBCU) in Jackson, MS, with notable alumni including the late Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton and former NBA point guard Lindsey Hunter. “As a freshman and student athlete at Jackson State, my experience was a mixture of excitement and fear,” said Thurston. “I had to learn to balance being away from home, schoolwork, practice, track and field competition, and traveling.” Find out more about Janice Remembering our colleagues who have passed this year. Your presence is missed and your contributions to the sport will not be forgotten. The NOC has been notified of four USATF Certified Official that have passed since our July NOC newsletter was published. Go here to read the names of the 31 colleagues we have lost so far in 2024. The list is in chronological order by date of death. To submit the name of a current or retired USATF Certified Official who has passed away in 2024, email officialsnewsletter@gmail.com and request a submission form. High School Participation in Track and Field Hits Record Highs Amid Nationwide Growth In the 2023-24 school year, high school sports participation reached an unprecedented milestone, with more than eight million students competing across various interscholastic programs. This marks the first time in history that total participation has surpassed the eight-million mark, according to figures released by the 51 NFHS member state associations, which include the District of Columbia. Learn about the growth in track & field Officiating the First Women’s Decathlon World Championships Alexander Schauss, USATF Certified Official, USATF Arizona Association Women athletes from 29 countries came to the Spire Academy in Geneva, Ohio, to compete at the first Women’s Decathlon World Championships held on August 3-4, 2024. The historic USATF and World Athletics sanctioned meet was held on the same two days the men’s decathlon occurred during the Paris Olympics. Running concurrently during the women’s decathlon championships was an icosathlon, an ultra-combined competition comprising 20 track and field events that must be completed over two days, also called a double decathlon. Learn more about officiating this meet Unequal Length Legs in Para Athletics Having legs of different lengths is not a violation of rules in Para Athletics. The question arose when a Para Official conducting a high jump competition noted that a jumper had a prosthetic leg that seemed to be longer than the athlete’s other leg without a prosthetic. The key rule is World Para Athletics (WPA) 6.12.1: Learn about "MASH" in Para meets Here are the August NOC Survey Results Do you officiate any other sports besides track and field and cross country? Choice Total Yes 36 (56.3%) No 28 (43.8%) Bell Lap News Are Track & Field heading for a Divorce? World Athletics tests new competition formats at a meet in Sweden. A $100 Million Dollar track for the LA Olympics. The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) is demanding action from Congress to protect collegiate Olympic sports. Important Dates and Deadlines Today: Renew your USATF membership for 2024 using your USATF Connect account. Membership renewal is available through your USATF Connect account. All members have the same renewal date: December 31. Also, check your Connect account to make sure everything is up-to-date. See the article in this newsletter. Today: Recruit a new official. Refer the prospect to your Association Certification Chair. January 1 - December 31: Renew your Background Screening. The renewal deadline varies by individual. Your Background Screening expires two years from the date of your last screening. Login toyour USATF Connect account to determine your Background Screening status. January 1 - December 31: Renew your SafeSport training. SafeSport training is now an annual requirement, meaning it should be completed once every 365 days. Login to your USATF Connect account to determine your SafeSport status. Or, you can search for your name on theSafeSport Compliant List. January 1 - December 31: Upgrade your USATF certification. January 1 - December 31: Update your meet officiating resume. Go here to view a virtual meeting about creating a resume. Passcode is 4MA?ff#j January 1 - December 31: Order Your Rule Books: USATF, NCAA, NFHS, and Rule Book Differences. September 15: The deadline to complete all necessary eligibility requirements for selection consideration for 2025 NCAA track and field championship meets. See the article in the August newsletter. September 15: The first day you can apply to officiate one or more of the major USATF meets in 2025. See the article in this newsletter. October 1:: Launch of the new online Rules Review for recertification. Note: This was scheduled for August but has been delayed. October 15: The last day you can apply to officiate one or more of the major USATF meets in 2025. See the article in this newsletter. November 1: Recertification process opens for all officials. Contact your local Association Certification Chair. November 1: The NCAA Endorsement testing available online. See the article in this newsletter. December 5-8: USATF Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida. December 15: The deadline to apply for any of the NOC grants. See the article in this newsletter. December 31: Each official's recertification should be completed. March 31, 2025: Absolute final deadline to complete your recertification. First day of every month: Deadline to submit an article and/or photographs for the next issue of the NOC newsletter. Send your material to: officialsnewsletter@gmail.com. This newsletter is published monthly by the USATF National Officials Committee. Editor: Phil Sutton, Associate Editors: Mike Cahn and Bettina Huber, Support: Mike Armstrong, Robert Kern, David Gercken, Jay Marshall, and the many frequent newsletter contributors. Contact the newsletter team at: officialsnewsletter@gmail.com. Go here to view an archive of previous issues. Copyright © 2023-2024 USATF National Officials Committee, All rights reserved