LIFE AS A VOLUNTEER !
You all know how it feels ! In the last few weeks my laundry "basket" has told the story of this increased activity ! This is because, as "Equipment Manager", it has become my job to provide facilities with suitable markings and equipment when a school is staging its domestic Athletics competition.
That means pestering the staff of the school involved to provide a programme BEFORE the day, plus a list of required equipment (since some schools have e.g. stop-watches, clip-boards, tapes of their own.) Then, as a full-time teacher and Form Teacher, on the day, unlocking my classroom before going to the track. Usually schools try to start their competition at 0800 (but rarely do !) So I must be there around 0700, to set up the inside line of the track with marker cones - otherwise runners tend to follow the edge of the grass, which is not quite a 400m. circuit ! After that, it depends on their programme. If they have decided (as most do) to do High Jump, I insist that it is always supervised, as much to preserve our expensive gear as for the safety of the little kids who leap all over it ! (One must always remember to warn the "Watchman" - the man with the key ! - so that he has not gone off to breakfast when you want to access the mats !)
We have sector tapes (a Godsend !) for Shot and Discus, plus a stop-board which is a little the worse for wear because un-thinking people insist on ROLLING the Shot back to the circle - UNTIL THEY ARE TOLD NOT TO ! But it would not be the first time if the pins holding the tapes had been left buried in the grass !
Today we had a new school with experienced Athletics teachers, and they decided to use blocks for their sprint Finals. Each block has three pins. THEY ALL CAME BACK ! (But on previous occasions the pins have fallen through the rust-hole in the bottom of the Watchman's wheelbarrow as they were carried from 100m. start to 200m. start ! So I had to buy some spares !) I also had to service two of the block sections where the adjusting bar had moved off-centre. You know about volunteers - we do not have a "Maintenance Man" !
HIGH JUMP PROBLEM.
You know about education - how it can be a slow process ! I have been trying for many years to convince people here that High Jump should be a CONTINUOUS competition, not interrupted. Some people understand, but many do not. Thus again, yesterday (on Day 1 of the "new" school's competition) the HJ was NOT treated as a separate special event and so (a) some of the boys had to go away to run after their competition started; and (b) the girls took ages to report because they too had been running first.
To get round this problem at this year's Senior Inter-School, we (the organising Committee) have agreed to hold all the High Jump on the afternoon BEFORE DAY 1 !! So we are asking the teams to bring only their High Jumpers to the Stadium during that afternoon. We estimate there will be about 30 boys and 30 girls. Using two separate mat areas, we should complete Junior, Intermediate, and Open competitions in two-and-a-half hours. By starting at 3.30 pm, we should finish by 6.00 pm, which is when our Opening Ceremony (march across the field and someone says "Welcome !") starts ! Thus we should (rain permitting) avoid any clashes between HJ and Track, and the Opening has also been done. Which means that we can get on with the rest of the Athletics on Day 1 and Day 2.
Back to my laundry "basket" ! Spending up to TWELVE (no joke, it was 12) hours in the sun, occasionally working (e.g. putting away used equipment), tends to produce a lot of sweat. Last week and this week that has happened on three consecutive days. Thus the extra washing !
Now back to how all this fits in to being a full-time teacher. I have to leave by about 0800 to get back to my school to do the roll-call of my Form. Then of course there is teaching to be fitted in around visits to the stadium ! So my car becomes a shuttle bus ! And then you arrive on occasion at the Stadium to find HJ in a chaotic state because the staff do not know how to record it or decide winners ! So a little more time is spent showing them how important it is to use nylon "catch-loops" to catch the bar when it falls off. It tends to make the point a little faster when you assure them that they will be charged at least $100 if they break the bar !
On such days, part of the time between 0700 and 0800 is spent inserting jumping boards (for LJ/TJ). This is because if you left the boards in place in the grass, they would be removed either by footballers (the runway is on the Soccer field) or by young family members seeking firewood ! One triple-jumper yesterday assured me that he would "break his leg" by using my boards, because they are now in a bit of a dip in the ground ! He did jump and he did not break his leg. (He did not win either !) Mind you, gravel (aggregate) and sand are often removed from our "horizontal jumps facility", so he could easily have broken his leg by landing "down the hole" !
FAIR PLAY !
You will be pleased to know that we are becoming more and more opposed to celebratory gestures as successful athletes pass the grandstand on their way to the finish. To teach one winner a lesson, he was disqualified for removing coloured headbands from opponents as he passed them in the straight ! A bit like "scalping" !
CLASSES SUFFER !
Although I have tried to avoid it, some of my lessons have suffered because I spent too much time helping out elsewhere. I will try to make it up to them.
The last of these Inter-Team efforts happens while I am at the OAA Congress in two weeks time. I hope the KAA Vice-President, who has done the RDC IAAF Equipment Management course, will cover me. He is not a teacher !
Last Modified on 24/04/2009 22:13