SACRAMENTO, CA — The 2026 CIF California State Track Championships will not take place. Not because of weather, not because of funding issues, not because of a pandemic. Because the governing body refused to file Form T-889, Section 12, Subdivision C.
This bureaucratic nightmare has left the state’s high school athletes stranded at the starting line, unable to complete even a single lap of the 100-meter sprint without first clearing the administrative gauntlet. The official stance? “Until Form T-889 is filed, signed, and notarized, no track events may occur.”
“It’s not about the race,” says Jennifer Martinez, Regional Athletic Compliance Officer, wearing a name tag that reads “Compliance Officer (Not a Track Official).” “It’s about the paperwork. Athletes can’t run, they can’t jump, they can’t even stretch until their coach submits Form T-889, which requires three witnesses who have never competed in a track meet and one notarized affidavit from the school principal stating that the athletes understand the fine print.”
The absurdity peaked when 17-year sprinter Marcus Thompson, who had already qualified for the nationals, discovered he couldn’t start his first race because his “Pre-Competition Consent Form” was signed with a blue pen. “I have a coach,” Thompson said, holding a blue marker. “But the blue ink isn’t registered with the state. We’re stuck.”
Meanwhile, the controversy over trans athletes has been completely sidestepped by the bureaucracy. The solution? A new policy requiring all athletes to file Form I-432, “Identity Verification and Gender Alignment Certification,” which takes an average of 7 business days to process. During this waiting period, athletes are advised to “sit, wait, and file additional forms.”
“In a perfect world,” says Compliance Officer Martinez, “athletes would file 47 different forms before the warm-up session. In the current world, we’ve decided that the warm-up session itself is a taxable event requiring Form W-119.”
The situation has left thousands of high school students unable to participate in their most important competition. Parents are filing appeals to the Commissioner of Athletics, which takes an additional 3-5 business days. Meanwhile, the track meets continue to exist in paperwork purgatory.
“We’re not cancelling the meet,” says the California School Board spokesperson. “We’re… administratively pausing it while we wait for Form T-889 to be filed, signed, and notarized by someone who has never run a 400-meter race but has filed a change request to the form’s title.”
The only bright spot? The state has announced it will now allow athletes to compete in a new category called “Bureaucratically Cleared Track.” This new division requires athletes to submit Form B-22, “Proof of Form Completion,” which itself requires Form T-889 to be filed, creating an infinite loop of paperwork that will never be resolved.
As athletes wait in the stands, their shoes tied but not laced, the only sound is the rhythmic thump of feet waiting for paperwork to clear. The track meets will never officially begin. But the forms keep coming.