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Staying the Course

August 7, 2015

During my first days on this job 30 years ago this week, I told the MHSAA staff, interviewers and constituents that from my first week on the job to my last, there would be four fundamental issues which would continuously have our attention. Different problems, trends and fads would come and go; but we would remain faithful to these four topics:

  • Scholarship – meaning scholarship in high school, not athletic scholarships to college; maintaining school sports as a helper to the schools’ academic mission.
  • Sportsmanship – meaning the environment at interscholastic events, shaped by the attitudes and actions of players, coaches and spectators; seeing good sportsmanship as a precursor to good citizenship.
  • Safety – assuring parents that their children not only will be as safe as possible in school sports, but will develop habits that tend to encourage a lifetime of better health.
  • Scope – placing borders around school sports that tend to assure a sane and sensible, student-centered educational experience.

I said in 1986 that these would still be our top topics in 1996, 2006 and 2016; and the “Four S’s” have stood the test of time. In fact, they stand even taller now than three decades ago.

On Monday, the first day of this 30th year, 95 representatives of 70 schools gathered for training to execute one of two pilot programs we have launched for 2015-16 to improve the process of concussion detection at interscholastic practices and contests.

When fall practices begin next week, they will do so with three other health and safety changes.

  • All member schools, grades 7 through 12, must report all suspected concussions at practices and games to the MHSAA, utilizing a web-based reporting system on MHSAA.com.
  • All high school varsity head coaches must have a current certification in CPR.
  • All athletes in all levels of all sports in MHSAA member schools grades 7 through 12 will be provided, without charge to either their families or the schools, concussion care insurance aimed at assuring all students have access to prompt, professional medical care, regardless of family resources.

Sportsmanship To Citizenship

March 18, 2016

Given the current presidential campaign, what does it really mean to be “politically correct” these days?

Earlier this winter, almost everybody badly overreacted when a neighboring high school athletic association dared to describe cheers that should be avoided in school sports. Their efforts to maintain a positive and educational environment in school sports in that state were praiseworthy, no matter how unfairly persecuted that association was.

More recently, from another neighboring state, word has reached us of spectator cheers that are routinely hostile and sometimes racially charged. Combining this news with the daily barrage of uncivil campaign rhetoric reminded me that efforts to guide spectators toward greater civility are not only praiseworthy; they have never been more necessary.

I have often maintained that good sportsmanship is a precursor to good citizenship; and that we can predict the quality of citizenship in our nation by the standards of sportsmanship in our schools. One of the many ways we can return civility to politics is to insist upon improved sportsmanship in athletics ... even if it seems old fashioned, out of date or politically incorrect.