High School T&F does the kids a big disservice when they continue to measure field events in Customary, while college T&F has gone to metric (with Customary conversion to the audience and media). It installs an attitude like this where the kids only know their performance in Customary, and consider metric scores to be completely incomprehensible. You would think part of the curriculum would be enough about the metric system that it ISN'T incomprehensible, and the coaches would expect the kids to at least understand metric scores to prepare them for college competition. (The kids in this article are mostly high school seniors) (She in fact would have to throw 42.32 m to beat her previous record)
http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2010/04/23/sports/srv0000008101410.txt snippets: "I was just looking to break 140 and have a good time doing it," said Morton. She came through on both goals. Morton, who threw consistently well on all six of her attempts, unleashed her throw of 141-3 on her first attempt, breaking the Mercury-area record of 138-10 she set two weeks ago. "They use the metric system down there," said Morton. "I had no idea how far it was. I knew I had to break 40 meters to get another school record. So when they said 43, I had an idea it was a good one. But I didn't want anyone to tell me how far it was."
