Love of sport the lure for most meet officials

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http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleade ... 764386.htm

Love of sport the lure for most meet officials

By Mark Maloney
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
Bet you didn't know how much track and field officials earn at most meets.

A crew of 77 will work this weekend's Southeastern Conference Championships at Nutter Field House. Kentuckians will fill 66 slots, with officials from nine other states here to help.

Nearly all of the Kentucky officials were instructed and certified by either Charlie Ruter of Fern Creek or his successor as officials chair, Gordon Bocock of Somerset. Ruter will be working the protest table this weekend. Bocock will umpire.

"You couldn't do a meet ... without these people," UK Coach Don Weber said. "Having them be eager and willing to give up as much time as you require them to do a big meet like this, plus all your regular-season meets, we're very, very grateful to those people."

As for pay, believe it or not, that's not part of the deal at most meets.

"We're going to feed them and we're going to give them a shirt for each day of the competition," Weber said. "They do it for the love of the sport and, I think, the excitement of being involved in the action."