Tending a Small Garden
June 12, 2015
I offer this posting as an important qualifier to my previous posting.
Year after year I expanded the borders of my garden. And year after year the overall quality of the garden declined.
I didn't notice at first. I failed to see as I introduced new plants that some of the older plants were struggling, or that other plants were growing without shape or direction. I didn't see that some weeds were taking hold in the original space that was receiving less of my attention than the newer space.
I am unable to miss this metaphor for school sports.
When we try to grow interscholastic athletics too large, we risk becoming incapable of maintaining the essential beauty and purity of educational athletics. Certain programs grow out of control, other programs weaken. Influences are introduced, some of which can be aggressive enough to take over the whole enterprise.
Let international, professional, major college and even youth sports grow out of control. Ours is and must continue to be a small garden, tended closely and carefully.
Current Events
November 3, 2017
This is the ninth year that I have been posting blogs twice a week – each Tuesday and Friday. A recent project required I go back through the postings of the eight previous years; and a sidebar of that project is this posting.
I rediscovered that in the fall of 2009, I was writing about topics that remain current today. For example,
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August 18 – What new sports may be in the future of high school athletics?
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August 25 – The prospects of 8-player football.
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September 4 – Baseball pitching rules.
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September 8 – Video streaming.
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October 6 – Protection from head injuries.
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November 17 – Foreign students.
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November 20 – Football scheduling.
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November 27 – Football Playoffs.
And on several occasions over the first six months, the topics were problems in school finance and the financial pressures on school sports, reasons for various eligibility rules, changes in playing rules to promote participant safety, tournament classification, and the need for stronger leadership on all levels of school sports.
All of these topics remain current. Proving once again, perhaps, that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Or, that there are no genuinely new topics.