Dan Moy article (official in IL)

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http://www.sj-r.com/sections/sports/stories/89678.asp

Keeping track
Moy makes sure rules are followed at meets

By BUFORD GREEN
STAFF WRITER
Published Thursday, June 29, 2006


JACKSONVILLE - Dan Moy, a man who knows the rules and is a stickler about following them, admits it wasn't always like that.


"Rosie (long-time Jacksonville High School track coach Al Rosenberger) encouraged me to learn the rules while I was helping him," Moy said. "He said knowing the rules would help me coach the sport and it would get me eligible to officiate.

"I was too brash to realize that I had to study, and I failed the test the first time I took it. I studied and took it again and got a perfect score.''

Moy does indeed know the track and field rulebook from front to back and has for a long time. In a career that has covered more than three decades, Moy is an in-demand official for high school, national and international track events.

"Dan Moy, without a doubt, takes it seriously and he is always very meticulous, especially as an official,'' said longtime Chatham Glenwood coach Mike Johnson, who has spent 30 years in the sport. "Officials are hard to come by, and the good ones are very hard to come by. There is a group of officials who take it very seriously, and Dan is one of those.

"His approach to a track meet is to look at every element of the meet. He is a stickler for the rules. There are no qualms about it. He flat-out goes by the rule book.''

Lanphier boys track coach Mike Garcia, who has spent 16 years at the school and 25 years overall in track, agrees.

"Good officials are tough to find, especially quality ones like Dan Moy,'' Garcia said. "He takes it very seriously, which is good for the kids and good for track. He will follow the rules and he knows the rules. He is as fair an official and person as you will find.''

Jim Ruppert, sports editor of The State Journal-Register, has seen Moy in action because track and field was on his list of beats when he joined the newspaper.

"He is big on all that stuff,'' Ruppert said. "Guys like him are one of the few paid officials (at a meet), but they have to work with about 20 volunteers and they may have to pull someone out of the stands to help.

"To me, the greatest Dan Moy story was at the Central State Eight Conference girls meet last year (2005). He looked at the results (with Southeast and Glenwood tied atop the final team standings), and he asked why there was a tie in the high jump. He said they had to go to a tiebreaker.

"If they (coaches) wanted it done right and for that to be a big meet, it couldn't be settled by a gentlemen's agreement. They pulled a girl off the bus and another one had to take off her sweats to have a jump-off. I thought that spoke volumes about how professionally he handled the situation.''

Moy, 66, wasn't always in what he admits is the "track nut'' category.

He was a football player and track athlete at Jacksonville High School, Class of 1957. He was a standout tackle on some strong football squads and was what he calls a "so-so'' track runner. He moved on to Western Illinois University to play football but discovered right away that "I wasn't going to play much football there as a 175-pound tackle.''

"I began to realize, after Little League baseball, that my baseball career was not going to be as good as my track career,'' he said. "I made a token trip to state (in track) in high school, then walked on at Western. Coach Dr. Dick Abbott kind of took me under his wing and showed me how to run the hurdles properly. I went to the national (NAIA) meet and placed in the two hurdles and had a couple of school records.''

Moy coached and taught at Bushnell High School for one year before returning to Jacksonville with his future occupation in the uncertain category.

"I began to realize that education was very tough work,'' he said. "(JHS principal) Farrell Patterson asked me if I wanted a job in District 117, and I assumed it would be painting or something, because I thought education was too hard.

"He said that if it wasn't hard, I wouldn't be interested. I realized 34 years later that education is still tough, but it is also rewarding.''

Moy helped Rosenberger in boys track for 17 years, then took over the girls program for another 17 years. He also coached cross country before retiring from coaching in 1994. Then, and now, Moy has been involved in track and field and cross country officiating.

"The IHSA (Illinois High School Association) credits me with 34 years officiating,'' he said. "I have been in the state meets for over 30 years, usually handling the triple jump, for both boys and girls, and I have probably done 15 or so sectionals.

About a decade ago, Moy got involved in officiating at the collegiate level with the United States Track and Field Federation, which handles intercollegiate meets, and he has been in demand since.

He recently returned from his eighth NCAA meet, where he worked as a pole vault official and technical equipment manager for the Division I finals in Sacramento, Calif. He went to the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000 as a spectator and official on standby status.

Moy, who is also busy during the summer as a judge for harness racing in Illinois and Iowa, is obviously not in the officiating side of track for the money.

"You get paid at some events, but you also have expenses,'' he said. "When I make my taxes out, I try to balance the income and the expenses and in only two of the last eight years can I say I actually made a profit. At Sacramento, I paid for my transportation and my meals and lodging were covered.

"Only the top three officials in (IHSA) sectionals are paid, and only the top five or six people get reimbursed at the state meets. The sectionals pay about what regular meets during the season pay, about $75 to $80, for five or six hours work.''

Moy, whose wife, Patsy, also has helped in some events in recent years, said the state of track and field in Illinois varies a great deal.

"In pockets, in Illinois and the country, there are some pretty strong programs," he said. "Strong, dominant coaches can keep the sport going. They keep the teams together because there are a lot of demands on the kids. This is an age of specialization, which I think can be bad in some ways.

"In this area, people such as Dick Hamann at Carrollton, Dick Tucker at Greenfield and Rushville, Rosie at Jacksonville, Mike Johnson at Glenwood, Tom McBride at Southeast, Mike Garcia at Lanphier and Breck VanBebber at Jacksonville come to mind as having had consistently strong programs, and I would like to think I did that for a lot of years.''

Moy, who said he officiated track or cross country 50 days last year, said he stays involved for a number of reasons.

"You have to love what you are doing, and I love track and field and cross country," he said. "You see the true athletes, and most of them receive little notoriety and most of them are done with their careers after high school.

"I think we have an interest in watching our sport grow, and I am a track nut. At Sacramento, I saw Nathan Browning (Lutheran High graduate) run for Kentucky, and I learned that UCLA is really looking forward to having Hillary Werth (Glenwood) compete next year. I have always been interested in watching the progress of athletes from our area.

"Watching a good finish in track is just as exciting as the Super Bowl or any other event.''