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The Antidote

October 17, 2014

On average, according to the New York Times, the 32 National Football League teams have had 22 player arrests per team since 2000. And mounting.

This horrifying statistic doesn’t even include one team’s bounty-payment scheme to injure opposing players. It doesn’t include league-imposed suspensions for use of drugs.

So it doesn’t surprise me that the NFL’s corporate sponsors have begun to express concerns for their brand reputation. It’s only surprising that their concerns have been so slow in coming.

And it’s especially surprising that those who work at lower levels of sports don’t give up.

To the contrary, those who have devoted their lives to educational athletics demonstrate by their devotion to school-sponsored sports that they still believe – in spite of mounting evidence at major college and professional sports levels – that athletes can break records without having criminal records and that they can achieve championships without chemicals.

Coaches and administrators of school sports – my heroes – demonstrate daily by their continuing commitment of service to school sports that they still believe athletics can coexist with integrity and can nurture better character, not just crazy characters.

Under the radar, in communities across Michigan and the nation, school-based competitive athletic programs are doing good things for students, schools and society. This is the antidote for the cynicism creeping across the landscape of high-profile intercollegiate and professional sports.

December 1st is a Big Deal

November 10, 2017

One of the two or three most important Michigan High School Athletic Association Representative Council meetings of the past three decades will occur Dec. 1. Here’s why this is so.

The Council must decide where MHSAA Basketball Finals will be held for girls and boys, and make related decisions regarding both regular season and tournament schedules so schools can get on with confirming game schedules and officials assignments for at least 2018-19.  

The Council must decide whether the enrollment limit for the 2018 MHSAA 8-Player Football Tournament will be fixed or floating, and if fixed, at what number. Of greater consequence in the long run, the Council will launch a discussion into the MHSAA’s responsibility for determining varsity 8-player football opponents for schools during the regular season.

The Council must consider changes in the policies and procedures for administering the new pitch count in baseball, and if the new pitching limitations should continue to delay what were thought to be improvements in the MHSAA Baseball Tournament structure and schedule.

The Council will examine input regarding proposals to fundamentally change the MHSAA transfer rule and determine which components of the proposal should advance as action items for its meetings in March or May.

The Council will examine input on proposed changes at the junior high/middle school level for contest limitations for several sports, as well as liberalization of the limited team membership rule for all team sports except football. Of even greater consequence, the Council may determine how aggressively, if at all, to advance MHSAA-sponsored regional invitational events for the junior high/middle school level in selected individual and team sports, with action on such possibly occurring in March or May.

The Council will engage in a discussion of what may be fading and what may be emerging in youth and school sports over the next decade and what that may mean in terms of sports for which MHSAA services and support should be provided, including what MHSAA tournaments may be added and which dropped at the high school level.

The Council will examine input on seeding of MHSAA District Basketball Tournaments and determine what the scope of actions could be at its March or May meetings.

Typically, the December meeting of the Representative Council tees up a big topic or two for action in March or May. This year, the December meeting requires that some specific actions be taken and sets more than the usual number of big topics on a course for action before this school year ends.