- Target:
- District III Track and Field Chairman, PIAA Track and Field Committee
- Region:
- United States of America
- Website:
- blogs.lancasteronline.com
This is a proposal for PIAA (District III) to modify NFHS rule Rule 4-2-4c.
For track and field meet management, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) states that (Rule 4-2-4c) "In meets which involve four or more schools, not more than three contestants from a given school shall be allowed to enter an individual event."
In other words, even if an athlete meets a qualifying district or state standard, they will be omitted from that championship if three other athletes from their school also qualified. Some believe this gives all schools a chance to compete in championship meets; however, when qualifying standards are ignored, athletes who have not met the standard get priority over athletes who have qualified.
This is a proposal/petition to modify rule 4-2-4c and allow the BEST QUALIFIERS to compete even if they come from similar schools. The district would still set up a maximum number of total athletes that can compete in each event, but not be concerned with obtaining a "representative sample" of the district/state. This would create a championship track meet that is more authentic: the best performers in a given district/state would compete.
One instance where an athlete qualified to District III Championship, made it in the top 12/18 of performance list, but was forced to be scratched from the meet.
See the following links for story-
http://blogs.lancasteronline.com/jeffreyreinhart/2010/05/19/rule-will-cost-comets-a-thrower-in-districts/
http://www.rodfrisco.com/2010/05/daily-rant-may-19-too-good-for-their-own-good/#comments
We, the undersigned, call on the District III committee to endorse a change of rule 4-2-4c. We implore the committee to modify the entry-format at PIAA District III Track and Field Championship meets. If an athlete has met a standard, they should not be eliminated from a championship competition just because three of their teammates also qualified.
The best athletes should be permitted to compete in a championship.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Let qualifying athletes compete in championships: THREE-LIMIT RULE UNFAIR petition to District III Track and Field Chairman, PIAA Track and Field Committee was written by Maria Vita and is in the category Sports at GoPetition.