Resilience
November 8, 2011
Several seasons ago, University of Florida Men’s Basketball Coach Billy Donovan was asked what, after a necessary amount of player talent, is the key to a successful season. Coach Donovan responded: “Resiliency.”
Building on that, Harvey Gratsky, publisher of Association Convention and Facilities magazine, wrote: “Resilience, flexibility, persistence and the wisdom to take lessons learned and apply them are all characteristics of successful people.”
Mr. Gratsky continued with broadened remarks: “Resilient associations that dig deep and find ways to leverage the new normal have been rewarded.” He added, these organizations show “a real sense of urgency to reinvigorate . . .”
This publisher was addressing associations and the convention business that depends on healthy, vibrant associations; but he could have been describing the MHSAA these past three years. For even before the recession’s effects on associations generally, the MHSAA was dealing with a potentially lethal fee judgment in the sports seasons litigation.
But in what could have been our bleakest years, we’ve had our best. We accelerated our learning and expanded our services. Expenses went down and revenues went up, without increasing our basic tournament ticket prices.
We were resilient and felt urgency to reinvigorate our operations and programs; and we’ve been rewarded with the best three years in the organization’s financial history, poised now to serve our constituents in unprecedented ways.
Beyond the Noise
September 13, 2013
It has been said that when the law is not in your favor, then argue the facts; or when the facts are not in your favor, then argue the law; and when neither supports what you want, then just argue.
And this is the time of year when we are reminded that old adage is true.
It is in August and September when the MHSAA staff processes more eligibility questions and the MHSAA Executive Committee considers more requests to waive eligibility rules for individual students than at any other time of year. Often it is the least meritorious cases that create the loudest noise.
It is during these months and the next that the MHSAA deals with the most stressful of forfeitures caused by the participation of ineligible players. When an ineligible student plays in a varsity football game, that forfeiture not only means the loss of that game; that loss could also mean the team loses a spot among the qualifiers in the Football Playoffs.
Difficult eligibility and forfeiture cases sometimes make for good publicity for the individuals involved, but they can create bad precedent for the future of the program if it is only those noisemakers who are listened to and served.