4:45pm | As mentioned here, Long Beach Polytechnic High School has won the 2011 CIF Track and Field Championship on both the boys’ and girls’ sides.

For the girls, it’s a well-earned victory. But for the boys, through absolutely no fault of their own, the title is undeserved.

This is not to minimize the efforts of any of the Poly boys, either individually or collectively. Obviously they had a great season. Based on performance, they were the second-best team in the state.

But second-best should not a championship make. Long Beach Poly was handed the boys’ championship not because they earned it, but because the judges saw fit to disqualify Loyola High pole-vaulter Evan Barr when, after his final miss, he yelled out a single curse word. Not at anyone, but at himself, out of frustration. 

Rules are rules, they say, and it was within the judges’ prerogative to disqualify him. They weren’t required to do so, but despite Barr’s reportedly apologizing to anyone he could find as soon as it happened, the judges saw fit to strip him of his third-place finish.

Were that the end of the matter, perhaps this would be a non-story. He did it to himself, one might say. Problem is, Barr’s disqualification cost his Loyola team the points from his third-place finish, which dropped them three points behind Poly. Thus did Poly receive a championship it did not actually win.

Let’s lay aside the fact that disqualifying a competitor for cursing at oneself out of frustration — a lapse of decorum, to be sure, but let’s not pretend it’s anything more than that — is a puritanically moronic rule. Letting the occasional expletive slip in the heat of the moment is a natural reaction for most of us (even when we’re not engaged in the intensity of competitive sports). And even those of us who don’t curse have heard this type of talk throughout our lives and managed to make it through unscathed. 

If we were talking about Barr’s having unleashed a string of invective at a fellow competitor, surely that would have merited disqualification. Individuals should be free from all forms of abuse in the competitive arena. 

But that’s not what we’re talking about. Even if it were, there still might be room to argue that Barr’s teammates should not have to suffer. But as it is, that Barr’s fellows are stripped of the title they earned together because of a single, non-abusive linguistic act is a deplorable punctilio on behalf of the California Interscholastic Federation. 

The unfairness to Loyola as a team is self-evident. But the unfairness extends even to Barr, because however much one might argue that he deserves to have his third-place medal taken from around his neck, to hang in its place the lifetime of guilt he will feel at having denied his teammates their well-earned championship is a punishment that far outweighs his venial sin.

But there’s yet another party wronged by the unfairness in play: the Long Beach Poly boys’ track team. 

In awarding Poly the state title, CIF officials are sending them a subtly dangerous ethical message, something about believing that technicality trumps achievement, that it’s okay to receive recognition you don’t actually deserve, that decisions should be made on paper with no regard for the human cost.

Had Barr not been disqualified — or at least had Barr been personally disqualified but his points not deducted from his team’s total¹ — there would have been no harm on the Poly side: all of the boys would have retained their place finishes, and the team would have received the second-place finish it earned. 

As it is, the Poly boys are CIF champs. Alas, through no fault of their own, it’s not a title to be proud of.

Congratulations to the Loyola High School boys for being the state’s best track and field team this year. And congratulations to the Long Beach Poly boys for having a great season. All concerned should be proud of your effort. 

But if ever there is a time not to get caught up in winning and losing, this is it.

Footnote

¹ Perhaps this could have been effected by his not being officially disqualified if he would havevoluntarily forfeited his third-place finish — an arrangement that he no doubt would have accepted.