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Coaching Advancement

March 21, 2014

Over the past nine months we have marched down the field in our effort to enhance the health and safety preparation of those who coach school sports. There have been two big plays during this offensive drive.

Last May, the Representative Council adopted the requirement beginning in 2014-15 that all assistant and subvarsity high school coaches must complete the same rules/risk management session as high school varsity head coaches, or, in the alternative, complete one of several free, online health and safety programs posted for this purpose on MHSAA.com.

Last December, the Council adopted the requirement beginning in 2015-16 that all high school varsity head coaches must have current certification in CPR. 

It’s my hope that we will not fumble now that we’re in the red zone, that we won’t drop the ball before crossing the goal line on this current health and safety drive focusing on enhanced preparation of coaches.

The next play the Representative Council is considering is to require that all persons hired for the first time at any MHSAA member high school as a varsity level head coach must have completed the Coaches Advancement Program Level 1 or 2. 

More than 10,000 people already have done so; and other people who want to be high school varsity head coaches have more than two years to complete this requirement.

Finishing this drive won’t put Michigan’s high school coaching standards at the head of the class; but it will keep us in the classroom of best practices for coaches education. The standard of care is advancing nationwide and on all levels of sports.

On Purpose

December 5, 2014

There is a difference between solving problems and creating a future.

Of course, we must solve problems. But it is imperative that we do so in terms of the future we want and are willing to work for.

Therefore, we need to address every day and every decision it presents by thinking how our actions today will make tomorrow different, and how tomorrow’s difference moves us toward the future we envision.

As individual persons, as husbands and wives, as fathers and mothers, as employers and employees, as administrators and coaches and student-athletes, what do we want our future to be like, and how does each decision and action enhance the possibilities for that outcome? 

Answering those questions, and acting on those answers ... well, that’s living a purposeful life.