Viral video shows track athlete strike opponent with baton. Erie coaches weighed in
What should a track athlete do when an opponent impedes their path?
That question flooded social media following the above viral video from a high school track and field meet in Virginia. One relay runner is shown striking another with their baton after an opponent entered their lane.
The aggressor claims the indecent was unintentional. The victim, however, was left with a concussion and possible skull fracture.
What could have been done to avoid this? What written or unwritten rules regarding etiquette exist in the track and field community?
Local coaches weighed in.
Who’s to blame?
Kaelen Tucker did not break any rules when she drifted into Alaila Everett’s lane during a 4x200 relay race. At this distance, athletes typically migrate to the inner lane after completion of their staggered start to seize the track’s shortest path.
That didn’t stop Everett from striking Tucker, causing her to exit the track and fall.
“Not that it’s a good thing to happen, but to even have this discussion, it’s probably something coaches never even think about addressing,” Cathedral Prep track and field coach Therese Brown said. “It’s a pretty mild sport in terms of seeing aggression on the playing field.”
Everett now faces one count of assault and battery.
“What happened in that video is something I’ve truly never thought about,” McDowell coach Joe Yuhas said. “You have to remember that every decision you make impacts the team. For me to avoid that issue, our kids know that my team needs me.”
Erie High coach Milton Robinson suggested blame for incidents such as this falls on coaches.
“If you have kids who get that frustrated, where they would try to injure another athlete, that’s a coaching thing,” Robinson said. “That falls on us in terms of what we’re cultivating in our programs.”
Yuhas agreed.
“For me, it boils down to team management,” Yuhas said. “You make sure your team knows to never do that.”
Track etiquette
Track athletes are not permitted to impede one another. But gray areas do exist, especially in distance events where lane deviation is permitted.
“If you’re defensive coming off the line, you’re going to be pushed back by other people’s elbows and end up behind everyone off the line,” Brown said. “There’s that fine line of asserting yourself. But if you give the kid next to you an elbow to the gut, which I have seen done before, you’ve over-stepped the bounds of proper etiquette.”
All three coaches interviewed said they’d never seen a scenario where an athlete used a baton to purposely strike another.
“If you’re trying to get around someone, you need to move clearly off to the side so there is no chance of stepping on them, injuring them with your spikes or causing another athlete to fall or misstep,” Robinson said. “We have drills to give them that experience where they need to get around, accelerate, then return to their lane.”
More common locally, Brown said, are incidents of poor sportsmanship, or “showboating.” Most disqualifications within District 10 high school meets stem either from this or incidental contact.
Perhaps this conversation boils down to discipline.
“You need the discipline to do things even when you don’t want to, and sometimes, that’s the discipline to not do things you want to,” Yuhas said. “I think that’s what we saw in that race.”
Contact Jeff Uveino at juveino@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @realjuveino.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie track and field coaches weigh in on viral baton striking video
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