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Questions

September 9, 2014

Sometimes leadership looks at questions as a challenge to its authority, or as a way to obstruct progress. Both can be true.

But a better way to view a good question is as a valuable gift. It can provide an opportunity to learn, to consider details that hadn’t been addressed or alternatives that hadn’t been raised.

And a better way to look at a leader than the one with all the answers is to view the leader as a collector of questions.

The quality of those questions can have a direct relationship on the quality of ideas and initiatives that form, and a direct effect on programs and services that follow.

During August and September, MHSAA Associate Director Tom Rashid has been meeting with athletic administrators at their league meetings. Among several objectives has been to ask these front line administrators to think about some new approaches to some old topics – like out-of-season coaching limitations and policies and programs for junior high/middle school students. He has been asking questions, and then he’s been listening to questions, both of which are preparing us for more in-depth discussions on these topics throughout the remainder of the 2014-15 school year.

Sport Sponsorship Should Be Up

March 25, 2016

MHSAA member schools plan to sponsor significantly more sports during 2016-17 than they indicated a year ago they would sponsor in 2015-16.

As of March 8, with only one more member school than at the same time in 2015-16:

  • Lower Peninsula Track & Field expects 16 more boys teams and 12 more girls teams next year than this year.

  • Bowling anticipates 15 more boys teams and 11 more girls teams.

  • In LP Golf, the anticipated increase is 12 girls teams, but a decline of 5 boys teams.

  • In LP Cross Country, the growth is projected to be 7 teams for each gender.

  • Girls Competitive Cheer and Girls Volleyball each expect 5 more teams next year; both Boys Lacrosse and Girls Lacrosse plan on 4 more teams; in skiing, it’s 5 more girls teams and 3 more boys teams; in LP Soccer it’s 4 additional boys teams and 2 additional girls teams. Baseball may be up 4 schools, while girls softball expects no change. Football expects a net gain of 4 schools; in Basketball, boys may grow by 2 schools, and no change is the current projection for girls.

  • In LP Tennis, girls now expect a 1-team decline; but boys could continue its dramatic slide, down another 9 schools next year.

The overall theme may be that, no matter how much schools are struggling for resources and resorting to outside funding, they value the high school brand of sports. They see school sports as a magnet for attracting students and an igniter of positive school and community spirit. In short, sports make most schools better.