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Taking Our Half in the Middle

September 22, 2015

When there is a rule that is as frequently criticized for being too weak as for being too harsh, it’s likely the rule is just about right. 

For every administrator and coach who complains that the transfer rule misses a situation where there is no question the student transferred for sports participation, there are as many administrators and coaches – and many times more parents – who plead for leniency under the transfer rule.

For every congested community in Michigan that offers students multiple school options, and some of those who participate in interscholastic athletics shop for the situation that best fits their needs or desires, there are many more communities in Michigan where few options exist, and transfers by student-athletes are both low in number and logical in nature.

For every call for a mandatory year-long, no-exceptions period of ineligibility to penalize athletic-motivated transfers, there are dozens of transfers by low-level, low-profile student athletes who do not deserve such draconian consequences.

For every statewide high school association in the U.S. that has a tougher transfer rule than Michigan, there are as many that have a weaker transfer rule; or, they have no rule at all because the state’s legislature intervened, usurped the association’s authority and overturned its over-reaching regulation.

The MHSAA transfer rule is not perfect and likely never will be, which is why it is among the two most reviewed and revised rules of the MHSAA Handbook. But the MHSAA transfer rule is on the right path. A dramatic detour will serve school sports badly.

What most negatively affects the administration of the existing transfer rule is the reluctance of administrators and coaches to report directly the violations they observe personally. If these people won’t do their part, they have no right to critique the rule or to criticize the rule makers.

Words from Down Under

February 1, 2013

In the County Hotel, one of the few buildings in Napier, New Zealand, that survived the 1931 earthquake in that region, there is a library of books that have been left by previous travelers and may be exchanged for books of current travelers.  Among the books I found was Lord Cobham’s Speeches.  Lord Cobham was the Governor General of New Zealand from 1957 to 1962.

From his speech at the “Sportsmen Luncheon” in Wellington, NZ, 52 years ago today, I found these pearls:

  • “. . . sport is a great character-former; it teaches that self-control which must always precede self-expression, and that gracious acceptance of defeat is the gold to victory’s silver.”
  • “Sport is harmony, balance and rhythm, the triple heritage handed down from ancient Greece, without which art is barren and civilization itself out of joint.  Above all, the acquiring of a technique is increasingly important in an age when automation and the machine have robbed human beings of that sense of fulfillment that comes of fine craftsmanship.”
  • “Today we see the result of trying to hustle youth through childhood and adolescence into manhood and womanhood.  Education is one of the few things that cannot be hurried, although modern techniques may facilitate instruction, for which education is often mistaken . . .  In these instances, sport and games can and must play an increasingly important part in producing well-balanced citizens.  But before we do this, we must see to it that the games themselves don’t fall victims to the prevalent evils of selfishness, sharp practice and greed.”
  • “It is when the player of the game thinks himself greater than the game that both get into trouble.”