USATF Youth Athlete of the Year

[polevaultpower]

You have to be a USATF member to see this, but here are the nominees for 2009 USATF Youth Athlete of the Year:

https://www.usatf.org/groups/Youth/prog ... /index.asp?

Ashley Aldredge
Kendall Baisden
Trevor Barron
Alitta Boyd
Keenan Brock
Michelle Brown
Kori Carter
Lauren Chambers
Jennifer Clayton
Alex Collatz
Ryan Crouser
Wayne Davis
Ebony Eutsey
German Fernandez
Mason Finley
Carla Forbes
Chalonda Goodman
Prezel Hardy
Jordan Hasay
Bryce Love
Joshua Mance
Conor McCullough
Dale Morgan
Gunnar Nixon
Bridgett Owens
Ashton Purvis
Raevyn Rogers
Daesha Rogers
Chelsey Sveinsson

I guess Curtis Beach missed the age cutoff by 10 days.

[TrackCEO]

Seems to be Hasay vs. Fernandez.

Or do they give two awards?

K E N

[Andy4]

My vote goes to Chalonda Goodman. They should do a male and female vote instead of grouping it together. My male vote would go to youngster Bryce Love.

[Andy4]

Another name missing is Reggie Wyatt.

[gh]

Maybe it would have been shorter for them to have listed those people who are not nominated :-)

Two words for next year: screening commitee

[polevaultpower]

I know Fernandez is technically young enough to be included, but I think including a college athlete sort of violates the spirit of an award to YOUTH athletes.

[Andy4]

I know Fernandez is technically young enough to be included, but I think including a college athlete sort of violates the spirit of an award to YOUTH athletes.

I agree with you, I was surprised to see his name on their as well.

[26mi235]

I know Fernandez is technically young enough to be included, but I think including a college athlete sort of violates the spirit of an award to YOUTH athletes.

He is suddenly older because he competes with more seasoned athletes? I thought one of his key showings was at the WXC Jr race, then he mixed it up with the big boys. What more do you want in a Youth athlete?

[Halfmiler2]

Maybe it would have been shorter for them to have listed those people who are not nominated :-)

Two words for next year: screening commitee

My immediate thought as well. Narrow the number of nominees down to single digits and include a bio, so that the voting is more informed.

As to having separate boys and girls awards, that is not going to happen. This award is given out at the Jesse Owens Awards dinner at the USATF convention at which they also give out the Jesse Owens (elite athlete) Awards, the Top Masters Award, the Giegengack (service ) Award, A Humanitarian Award, and induct new members into the National Hall of Fame. It is a long program already. There are lesser multiple youth awards and those are given out at the separate Awards Breakfast at convention.

[polevaultpower]

My immediate thought as well. Narrow the number of nominees down to single digits and include a bio, so that the voting is more informed.

There are bios for each of them if you click the link I posted (and if you are a USATF member).

[unclezadok]

My immediate thought as well. Narrow the number of nominees down to single digits and include a bio, so that the voting is more informed.

There are bios for each of them if you click the link I posted (and if you are a USATF member).

Wow, Fernandez is a youth? Anyhow, surely there should be both a male and female award, and I think I would go with Finley for the male award and Goodman for the female.

[polevaultpower]

I know Fernandez is technically young enough to be included, but I think including a college athlete sort of violates the spirit of an award to YOUTH athletes.

He is suddenly older because he competes with more seasoned athletes? I thought one of his key showings was at the WXC Jr race, then he mixed it up with the big boys. What more do you want in a Youth athlete?

It is USATF's definition of Youth, not the IAAF's (which is younger). The definition is set up to generally include only high school athletes, and to exclude those who have an unfair advantage by being older. This age distinction (usually it is defined by can't be 19 before JO Nationals) is not one made anywhere else in the world (that I know of) because most other countries do not have this prep->intercollegiate system that we do.

So if we're using USATF's definition of youth that is designed for high school-aged athletes, my personal opinion is that the award should exclude age-eligible athletes who had a full year of college under their belt.

I think Fernandez had a greater advantage by being in a college environment (more time for training, better coaching, better food, better facilities, better trainers, better competition, etc) than Beach did by being 10 days too old for the cutoff.

That's the logic I used, I don't expect anyone else to agree.

[bad hammy]

. . . and I think I would go with Finley for the male award and Goodman for the female.

I might have gone with Beach and Anna Jelmini, but neither are on the list.

[Mr_anonymous]

***Im Looking For Robin Reynolds And She Is Also Not On This List***

[polevaultpower]

Jelmini is also a few weeks too old, and it looks like Reynolds didn't do enough USATF Championship events.