Not Merely a Sea Change

"The biggest change of direction from the previous plan is in the area of national events. The subcommittee has suggested consideration of several events that would emphasize and accentuate the national presence of the organization and provide a platform to promote its mission. The subcommittee recognized that national events for high school athletes and activities participants are already fixtures in the modern world. Consequently, the subcommittee believed it is the responsibility of the NFHS and its member state associations to engage themselves in these events, thereby furthering the status of the NFHS and its members as the caretakers of high school sports." - From the Introduction of the National Presence Subcommittee to the 2002-2005 Strategic Plan of the National Federation of State High School Associations

How dare these people tell us that it is the "responsibility" of the membership of the Michigan High School Athletic Association to engage in national events at all, much less for the unflattering purpose of "furthering the status of the NFHS and its members."

Among the five reasons that the subcommittee agreed there is a strong need for a national presence for the NFHS are these:

• "There is great value in preserving a distinction in the public mind between high school sports, which emphasize participation, and major college and professional sports, which by their very nature are exclusionary."

However, if the National Federation intends to embark upon national competition, it will not "preserve a distinction in the public mind" but will duplicate major college and professional sports and their "exclusionary nature."

• "State associations benefit from having a publicly recognized source of support and authority for their sometimes unpopular educational duty to enforce fair rules, limits and consequences."

However, if the National Federation embarks upon national events, it will be unable to assist state associations in the support of their sometimes unpopular educational duty to enforce fair rules, limits and consequences, because the National Federation itself will have exceeded reasonable limits. The National Federation becomes like an obsessed coach or parent.

The National Presence Subcommittee includes among its recommended tactics for developing and marketing high school athletics/activities programs on a national scale, the following:

"7. Explore proposals for national championship events, such as cross country, golf, cheer, bowling and debate.
"9. Explore establishment of national invitational tournaments during the playing season in various sports."

These activities of the National Federation would be so much at odds with the philosophies historically espoused by the National Federation for educational athletics that the National Federation would become even more of a non-player in the promotion of healthy interscholastic athletic programs in America. Or worse, the National Federation would convert from ally to adversary, contradicting even its own Handbook statements, including these:

". . . the membership is pledged to keep school-sponsored contests in perspective as a part of the total educational program at the local, conference, district and state levels." (p. 19)
"THIS ACTION CONCERNING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (that they may not be sanctioned) was the result of sentiment on the part of high school administrators that the high schools are provided with enough competition by their own leagues and state associations. If more competition were desired, it would be an easy matter for such leagues or state association to prolong the season or to arrange postseason games or to increase the number of tournaments." (pp. 26 & 27)

Ignoring the fact that it was formed in the 1920s to combat national high school events and that every vote the membership has ever taken on national high school championships has opposed national events, the National Federation Board of Directors in June approved the National Federation’s endorsement of the Universal Cheerleading Association national competition in February.

The justification – besides $350,000 a year for eight years – is that cheerleading is not everywhere considered to be a sport and, besides, the National Federation will not be conducting the competition, but merely endorsing it. Pretty fine distinctions for an organization with 80 years of opposition to national events. Distinctions that certainly deserved discussion and vote by the member state organizations that the national body was created to listen to and serve.

Meanwhile, it is only for a lack of financial backing that the National Federation has put a hold on its involvement in regional showcase basketball camps for boys in April and girls in July to which would be invited 20 or so players from each state for a NIKE or Adidas type event, it is hoped.

This is a sea change, a fundamental change in flow for the organization. This is a shift in philosophy and activity for our National Federation: catering to the elite athlete, investing time and money into elite athletics. This is every bit as "exclusionary" as the major college and professional sports programs from which the National Presence
Subcommittee tried to distance the National Federation in its statement of needs.

All of this camp business was started as a result of problems within the NCAA and its concerns for unsavory elements affecting Division I men's college basketball. This initiative of the National Federation is intended to be a healthy alternative to existing camps, some of which are indeed unsavory.

However, by conducting elite camps we bring more, not less, credibility to the concept of elite camps and to all of the organizations, both healthy and unsavory, that are providing special attention to elite athletes. There is no dearth of special attention for elite athletes; this initiative adds to it, eliminates none of it, and is in fact superfluous.

Moreover, another unintended consequence is that what is being done for basketball inevitably will be requested for football, soccer, ice hockey, baseball and many other sports. And state high school associations will have no way of justifying inactivity toward the elite athletes in these sports while lavishing attention on basketball players.

Then ultimately, state high school associations will find themselves spending as much time on interstate camps and championships for the most elite athletes as we now spend on in-state championships for thousands and thousands of students.

All of these developments together reveal without question a National Federation that in spite of all of its lofty language about educational athletics is taking us from educational to elite, from school year to year-round, from local JV and varsity to national.

The negative effects may be impossible for a single state or even a few states to ward off. The erosion of policy will follow the abandonment of philosophy.

National competition means national rules, and the lowest common denominator will prevail. Because some state high school associations have no transfer rule, we will have none. Because some state high school associations have no amateur rule, we will have none. Because some state high school associations have no out-of-season coaching limitations, we will have none. And on an on.

"The biggest change of direction from the previous plan"? It's a complete abandonment of the fundamentals of interscholastic athletics. So it's not merely a sea change; it's a devastating storm sending the ship of interscholastic athletics adrift, perhaps forever.

In this summer's popular new novel, The Dive From Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer, Kilroy says to the book's central character and narrator: "You think 'Well, I'll go along just to get along' - and next thing you know, you're somewhere you never wanted to be without a ticket back."

I won't go along just to get along; and I doubt the MHSAA will either; but we must make efforts now to keep from being swept along in spite of ourselves later.

It's time again for Michigan to fight the National Federation that Michigan helped to form.