He’s the only man in the stadium with a gun. No, he’s not a police officer, he’s the starter. If you’ve watched track meets over the last few years, odds are you’ve seen him and several of his fellow officials at the starting line, with a revolver raised in the air.
Without these men, track meets would be impossible.
Tom Nirider, a 1977 Lander Valley High School graduate, began officiating soon after he graduated from Chadron State College with a Physical Education degree in 1983.
He married Janie Meeboer in 1990 and they have two sons, Andrew and Aaron, and one grandchild.
Tom started as a basketball and football official in his first year out of college.
“I officiated football until 1993,” Tom said. “Basketball until 2009.”
Officials have mentors, just as athletes and coaches do. Tom had a great pair of starters to learn with in the late Carl Andre and Mike Harris.
“My first track meet was at the Wilford Mower track,” Tom said. “Carl was starting and didn’t have anyone to recall start. He gave me a gun.”
After the meet was over, Carl had some advice for Tom.
“You’ve got a good chance to be a starter Carl told me,” Tom said. “I said yes, this was fun.”
Tom’s first varsity track meet he worked officially was in Rock Springs as a recall starter.
“I started working regularly with Carl a couple of years before he passed in 2011,” Tom said. “I traveled with him the last two or three years.”
Carl’s advice rings true today. “Be consistent, on your mark, count one thousand one, then bang,” Tom said. “Carl had great rapport with the kids.”
Rapport is a key ingredient in officiating. Tom has great rapport with the athletes he works with as did Mike Harris before he retired and his partners at the state track meet each season John Benning and Gary Glenn. Glenn is the former Riverton and Douglas High School head football coach and taught computer science at RHS.
“I worked my first state track meet in 2016 with Gary and Mike,” Tom said.
Tom’s favorite regular season meet to work is the Ted Schroeder Invite in Rock Springs.
“Ted Schroeder and Mike Lopiccolo make the difference, everything runs like clockwork,” Tom said.
There are some drawbacks to holding a track meet in Rock Springs, the first is the wind, which can be a problem, but the main problem is nearby Union Pacific railroad tracks.
“You can’t start a race when the trains come by, “Tom said. “Some of those trains are a mile long with 100 cars. You can’t run anything.”
Mike has been a good mentor for Tom.
“I ask questions, is my cadence ok? Am I too fast? Am I too slow,” Tom said.
New rules arrive each season in football. Basketball is even worse with constant rule changes and areas of emphasis. Track just goes on, with few changes season after season.
“One thing about track is that there are very few rule changes, there are areas of emphasis on existing rules, but not many changes,” Tom said.
One suggestion, not really a mandatory rule change, came down in the 2024 season with the recommendation that starters hold runners for two seconds in the blocks before starting a race. That didn’t sit well with Tom or with any of the other starters statewide. Since it was just a suggestion, they kept the sequence and cadence the same as in previous years.
Another change at some meets is the elimination of the starting pistol in favor of an electronic beep to start a race.
The electronic device sounds like the ones used at swim meets and just doesn’t have the same effect as a pistol being fired.
The electronic device is a result of the exponential increase in the price of .32 caliber blank cartridges. They now cost 80 cents to a dollar per shell.
In a big track meet, there can be 50 heats or more heats of the boys and girls 100-meter dash, with just as many in the 200. That’s $50 per race if no one false starts.
The solution came with .209 primers. These tiny shells are used in black powder and larger caliber rifle cartridges, but make a loud pop when fired, a flash and a whiff of black smoke. They cost about $80 for a box of 1,000. In the days before automatic timing, timers at the finish line started their watches when they saw smoke.
“Kids hate the electric start,” Tom said. “Plus, you have to keep a side-by-side on the track to move it to the starting line. In a high school meet, there are four starting lines. One by the timers for races over 400-meters, one on the near curve for the 300-meter hurdles, one at the 200-meter mark halfway around the track and the final one at the end of the straightaway for the 100-meter dash and hurdles.
The 2016 All-Class State Track Championships is held every year at Harry Geldien Stadium on the Kelly Walsh campus in Casper.
“I was a little bit nervous that first year,” Tom said. “But I love the state track meet, you get to meet people from all over the state. Working with Gary and Mike was great, they’re always willing to help you.”
Every sport has memorable events for officials; one for Tom came in Sweetwater County.
“I was starting a distance race in Rock Springs,” Tom said. “A kid from Farson lined up in a three-point stance like he was playing football. I stopped, told him no you can’t do that and had him stand on two feet and we started the race.”
Tom is known for halting the starting process when he sees a kid fidgeting in the blocks rather than disqualifying them with a false start. He’ll pause, tell everyone to stand up, then start the process again while telling the kid in question to relax, and get set.
Tom, Gary and John have become icons at the state meet.
Tom is the starter next Friday for the Class 4-A West meet in Evanston.
“I’m going to do this for as long as I can,” Tom said. “I love it. I can’t wait for track season to begin. I’ve got kids coming up to me almost every meet shaking my hand and saying thank you for starting.
That’s a different kind of bang for a track official.