John E. "Jack" Roberts' Remarks to Certiorari Denial by US Supreme Court -
(4/2/07)

This morning I had the opportunity to speak about leadership to nearly 400 Macomb Area Conference student-athletes who are, or who hope to be, captains of teams at their respective high schools. This afternoon, I want to speak to you, and through you to the MHSAA constituents across the state, about a new challenge of leadership that has been given to Michigan's schools.

In the sports seasons litigation, the US Supreme Court has denied the petition to review the Opinion and Order of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The effect of the Supreme Court's refusal to give further review to this case is that the MHSAA will be conducting several tournaments according to a different schedule in 2007-08 than has been in place by the decisions of local boards of education for many decades.

• The Girls Volleyball Tournament will move from March to November;
• The Girls Basketball Tournament will move from December to March;
• The Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis and Lower Peninsula Girls Golf Tournaments will move from spring to fall;
• The Lower Peninsula Girls Tennis and Lower Peninsula Boys Golf Tournaments will move from fall to spring;
• A separate Upper Peninsula Soccer Tournament will be offered for girls in the fall and boys in the spring.

These changes are outlined in the Contingency Plan that has been on the MHSAA Web site for more than two years. Spared from MHSAA tournament schedule changes are boys and girls swimming & diving, Lower Peninsula boys and girls soccer, Upper Peninsula boys and girls tennis and Upper Peninsula boys and girls golf.
Those involved in the directly affected sports have provided many examples of the negative effects of these changes, but none of this persuaded the District Court whose unusual findings of fact could not be seriously challenged under our system of jurisprudence.

• The court-ordered change means thousands – many thousands – of boys and girls who had been planning on playing a certain combination of sports in high school will find that combination impossible. My heart aches most for those ninth, tenth and eleventh graders who are caught in the transition and harmed most by the change.
• It means that no longer will college volleyball coaches and players be available to coach and officiate schools' girls volleyball teams. What great role models they were for our young women.
• It means many coaches who have chosen to coach both boys and girls basketball will have to choose one or the other. My gratitude goes out to these truly dedicated people who have given so much for so long to help so many student-athletes.
• It means our schools will battle colleges for volleyball officials in the fall.
• It means girls high school basketball will join boys high school basketball in the fight with men's and women's college basketball for game officials in the winter.

• It means facilities won't be used as wisely and media attention to high school basketball will be spread more thinly.

It means that school districts must immediately get to the tasks of voiding contracts for some coaches and recruiting new coaches from a shallow pool of candidates; voiding contracts for officials and seeking replacements from an already inadequate supply; rescheduling contests and practices, and then reschedule the use by other school and community groups around the new realities. It is unfortunate at any time, much less at a time of severe financial stress for our state and its schools, that Michigan's most efficient, fair and proactive model for utilizing community resources must be changed.

Many people have observed that the MHSAA has maintained the strong support of the schools throughout this case; and it's true that at every step, there has been almost unanimous support. In fact, briefs have been filed multiple times in these proceedings by the state school boards and athletic directors associations.
However, it is more accurate to observe that the MHSAA has been supporting the schools than to say the schools have been supporting the MHSAA. Schools made the sports seasons decisions, not the MHSAA. Schools set the seasons for their local regular season play; and when enough schools sponsored the sport, then the MHSAA sponsored a tournament in that sport; and placed the tournament logically at the conclusion of the season that had already been used for regular season competition sponsored by local schools.

In this case, the MHSAA has been defending schools' decisions, not MHSAA mandates. Every portion of our constituency has favored the current seasons: athletes, their parents, coaches, administrators, school boards, officials and the sports media.

Many times I have met with athletes, especially female athletes, and I have said to them: “If you tell me you believe the seasons should be switched, then to the limits of my authority, I will advocate for that change.” The students did not ask; and therefore, I did not advocate what they did not want.

If ever our constituents had said we should not defend the current seasons because they are not beneficial to boys and girls, then the MHSAA would not have defended those seasons. Because our constituents believe their seasons structure is much better than what the District Court has ordered, the MHSAA gave its best effort to defend those seasons; and we did so without any expenditure of time or money by schools, and without any distraction from MHSAA services to those schools.

Ultimately, our efforts to preserve schools' seasons have been unsuccessful. We have to apologize to schools, not for making the efforts, but for not making successful efforts. We are disappointed with the results; but we could not have lived with ourselves if we were also disappointed with the effort.

It is extremely important now that our schools remember who we are in Michigan. We are the schools which decided to maximize high school sports participation; and we are the schools which, more than in any other state, have accomplished that mission. We are eighth in the nation in high school age population but fourth in the nation in girls high school athletic participation, including third in the nation in girls high school volleyball and tennis participation. In every sport at issue in this case, our national rank in girls sports participation is sixth or better, not eighth or worse.

In a nearly bankrupt state, with many nearly bankrupt school districts, and declining enrollment in rural towns and urban centers, in spite of this, Michigan schools have amazed everybody and continued to maximize participation.

So the challenge now – and it's a huge one – is to do in Michigan what no other state has done: to avoid decreasing participation in the wake of seasons changes. Some states saw double-digit percentage drops in girls and boys basketball participation and girls volleyball participation following the change of seasons. We must do better.
Michigan schools must continue to avoid easy choices, including plans convenient for adults. We must continue to seek out and implement creative plans that will maximize participation for students.

The goal that has guided this association of schools like no other in America has been maximizing participation. It must be our continuing passion.
The job just got harder. But blaming and whining will not help. Imagination and energy are what we need, now more than ever, to turn this disappointing day into a brighter tomorrow than we believe is possible right now for our kids and coaches.

Michigan schools, and especially their young women, may have lost their special seasons. That's bad. But it will be worse if schools lose sight of their special mission that gave rise to those seasons decisions: maximizing participation.

We will keep working, and we believe our colleagues in Michigan schools will do the same, to continue to realize that goal.

There are two lessons of high school sports that are relevant here: guts and grace. In school sports you must have the guts – the courage and persistence – to play the full contest. When the going gets tough, coaches ask their athletes to make a “gut check.” A good high school athlete doesn't quit before the contest is completed. And we did not quit either.

A second lesson of high school sports is that you must accept the final outcome with grace. Sometimes you win when you deserve to lose, and sometimes you lose when you deserve to win. But in either case, accepting the result gracefully is what we expect of our athletes; and it is what we expect of ourselves now.

I know you have questions now, and the answers require candor, and that will not always sound positive. But it is my desire that we approach our future with optimism, with the hope and even the expectation that Michigan will continue to represent the best of what school sports has to offer in America: pure, wholesome, local, amateur, educational athletics, the family brand of sports in a world where sports is too often out of perspective and out of control. No state has been in hotter pursuit of the highest ideals of school sports than this great and wonderful state in which I serve, and that will continue.

My personal passion for this is not diminished; and if you had been with me as I addressed the team captains today or had the opportunity I did for private conversation a week ago with this year's MHSAA scholar-athletes, I think you would share my optimistic view of our future. These kids, who give their very best, deserve our very best attitudes and efforts, now more than ever.