Logo

Corporate Care

March 10, 2015

One of the MHSAA’s newest corporate sponsors is arguably one of its most important ever because it will assist the MHSAA’s aspirations to go further beyond the ordinary in promoting student-athlete health and safety.

That new sponsor is Sparrow Health System, and you can read about our new relationship by clicking here.

During the many discussions with Sparrow’s leadership leading up to our partnership, we learned of its membership in the prestigious Mayo Clinic Care Network; and during our review of some of Mayo’s work we reviewed an April 2012 Mayo Clinic article about the risks of concussion in high school football.

The article presented the results of a carefully controlled study of individuals who played high school football in Rochester, Minnesota, during the decade 1946 to 1956.

The conclusion was that those participants did not have an increased risk of later developing dementia, Parkinson’s disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) compared to non-football-playing high school males. The study notes that this was the case even though, compared to today, “there was poorer equipment and less regard for concussions and no rules prohibiting head-first tackling (spearing).”

There is no small supply of data that sheds better light on the head trauma hysteria in sports in general and football in particular. We cite such data as a counter-balance, not as a reason to slow the search for safer ways to conduct school sports. Our new sponsorship is evidence that we are increasing our capacity to do much more.

Projects That Matter

December 1, 2015

The white board that confronts me every day in my office lists a lot of things I’d like the MHSAA to get done. Our challenge is to choose to do those projects that are large enough to matter, yet small enough to accomplish.

Step by step, we have attempted, for example, new goals for coaches education and new initiatives for concussion care, as well as new means of communicating the message of educational athletics which I have discussed less as I’ve addressed the other projects more in recent months.

Managing the message of school-sponsored, student-centered sports in the midst of a constant blizzard of communications from youth, college and professional sports, is as important as anything we do.

We are particularly pleased with “This Week in High School Sports” which John Johnson prepares and Second Half by MHSAA which Geoff Kimmerly manages. Positive news reflecting the purpose and values of educational athletics in Michigan. These projects matter.