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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-Aug. 31, 2004
Contact: John Johnson or Andy Frushour
517.332.5046 or www.mhsaa.com

EAST LANSING , Mich. – Aug. 31 – The mission of high school sports to enhance the educational experience of its participants, and the role that the teacher-coach plays in that process, is highlighted in a new video produced by the Michigan High School Athletic Association which was distributed to its member schools in August.

In keeping with its “High School Sports: It's About Team!” theme, the new video, “Coaching Character,” underscores that the role of the school coach goes well beyond the Xs and Os of the playbook. The 11-minute video promotes the coach as a character builder of young men and women – focusing on preparing student-athletes for the challenges they'll face in life rather than the pipedream opportunity of playing at the so-called next level of sports.

Annually, the MHSAA produces a video resource for schools to utilize in meetings with student-athletes, coaches, parents and community members, and Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts says this year's production delivers an important message that continues to differentiate high school sports from other levels of athletics.

“At no other level of sports do we depend more on our coaches to be actual teachers than we do at the school level,” Roberts said. “The things that have to happen in school sports to educate youngsters go well beyond the boundaries of the playing field, and the coach is the all-important delivery system of that message. It's important that our coaches, our teacher-coaches, prepare kids properly, and this video reveals the characteristics that teacher-coaches should have.”

The video features high school coaches and former high school athletes who have moved on to success in sports and in life, talking about the role of the coach, and in some cases talking about how their high school coach prepared them for adulthood.

Appearing on the video are: Dr. Blanche Martin, an East Lansing dentist who played basketball at River Rouge High School under the late Lofton Greene, and who went on to become an Academic All-America in football in Michigan State University ; Vicki Groat, the girls volleyball coach at Battle Creek St. Philip High School, who played on MHSAA championship teams at St. Philip coached by her mother, Sheila Gurrera; Chris Hofer, the football and track and field coach at Kingsford High School, and his father, Ken Hofer, the football coach at Menominee High School; Jerome Malczewski, who played football at Birmingham Brother Rice for the state's all-time winningest grid coach, Al Fracassa, and who went on to the U.S. Military Academy and fought in Operation Desert Storm; John Sperla, a Grand Rapids attorney who led Flint Holy Rosary to MHSAA Class D boys basketball crowns in 1967 and 1968, and who still holds the record for the most points in the Final round of the boys basketball tournament with 122 in the 1968 Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals; Michael Goorhouse, the 2004 MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award scholarship recipient in boys tennis from Holland Christian High School; and Deanna Nolan, a Flint Northern High School graduate who has gone on to stardom in the WNBA with the reigning World Champion Detroit Shock.

The video, narrated by Jack Doles, sports director of WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids , is available for viewing on the Services page of the MHSAA Web site. VHS copies of the video may be purchased from the MHSAA office at a cost of $10 each.

The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.

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MEDIA ADVISORY –Selected media members were sent a copy of the videotape in a separate mailing. The video can be viewed through the MHSAA Web site at one of two addresses:

For Broadband Connections – http://www.mhsaa.com/services/coacheshi.wmv
For Dial-Up Connections – http://www.mhsaa.com/services/coacheslo.wmv

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