MHSAA Library
Summer (give 'em a) Break
(Spring 2005)
It’s been more than a couple decades, but I can remember the feeling each May as another year of school wound down. The fun and the freedom that awaited was so overwhelming teachers would lower the classroom blinds to keep us (and them, I suspect) from staring out the window.
Ah, summer vacation, the most carefree times of our youth. Just think of our students about to embark on weeks of . . .
• Camping (in the clinging humidity of stagnant dorm rooms on an array of college campuses where you can choose activities such as . . . well, you can’t choose. One sport only please).
• Swimming (four miles a day, timed and critiqued; after all, the Olympics are coming).
• Biking (stationary, of course, to meet offseason training requirements).
• Family vacations (to various AAU paradise resorts around the country. Think how much fun your siblings will have watching you play countless games that don’t mean anything with teammates you don’t know).
• No alarm clocks (for the first weekend, before “voluntary” two-a-day basketball camp kicks in on Monday).
• The beach (volleyball tournaments).
• Endless hours at the park (or courts, or fields, all under the watchful eyes of school coaches scrutinizing every move).
• Ice Cream (but only on 4th of July, per the hired dietician).
• Choosing up teams (actually, you are chosen, based on talent level or family financial status).
• Making up games (if inclement weather washes out the regularly scheduled contest of the day).
• Reading a couple books (one playbook for each sport).
• Hanging out with friends (or at least someone who looks familiar from one of the other summer activities).
Ah, to be a kid again each Spring and anticipate . . . going back to school in the Fall.
Years from now, will today’s students yearn to relive the summers of their youth, or re-do them?
- Rob Kaminski
MHSAA Web Site Coordinator
