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Our Tools

March 11, 2014

MHSAA staff does very many things, including these two tasks: (1) we use the tools we have; and (2) we strive to develop more effective tools.

The tools we have are limited. We don’t have a huge staff to conduct investigations. We don’t have subpoena power to coerce disclosure of testimony and documents. We don’t have rules to cover every situation.

Thus, it feels like some people get away with things; and sometimes they do. We don’t have the tools to catch them or convict them. That is the inescapable condition of every voluntary statewide athletic association in the US.

But the other thing we do is keep working on better tools. Rules with broader reach and/or fewer holes. Penalties that are a greater deterrent to some people, and more punitive to others when deterrence doesn’t work.

Developing new rules is a tough process. Sometimes it takes months or years to get membership buy-in. Sometimes the “no-brainers,” so-called “easy solutions,” get shot down by lawyers who demand the most narrow remedy to each and every excruciatingly detailed problem.

We work today with the tools we’ve been given through the democratic processes of our voluntary association. And we keep working on ways to sharpen and strengthen those tools in ways that are reasonable in breadth and depth, rationally related to the basic tenets of a voluntary association, one of which is local control. Obviously, these are two of the more difficult things we do.
Second Half by MHSAA

Pivot Work

September 21, 2011

Consider the pivot move in basketball.  The player receives the ball, plants his or her foot and spins 90 to 180 degrees.  Without moving the pivot foot, the player turns from facing one direction to facing a different direction.  And with that new perspective, the player either passes the ball to a cutting teammate or dribble drives toward the goal.

If these are pivotal times in school sports – and I believe they are – we must, if we are to make the most of these times, remember the skills that many of us worked on when we played basketball and still often admire as effective when we watch basketball.  The pivot.

  • One foot firmly planted.  A foot that can’t be moved.  Our base.  Our fixed orientation.
  • Then the spin that changes our field of vision from one direction to another.
  • Then a sharp pass to a teammate, one who’s gotten a step on an opponent.
  • Or, if no teammate is open to receive our assist, a determined drive of our own toward the goal.

If these are pivotal times, and if we are to be the “pivotal generation,” this is the drill:  Fixed to our core beliefs, look around for new ideas and cutting edge partners to assist, and take it to the goal ourselves if we must.