Continuing Education
February 17, 2012
Eight MHSAA staff devoted an entire Friday late last month to discussions with a visitor from another statewide high school association. The focus was on what that association was doing, how and why in the areas of electronic media, marketing, merchandising and branding and the dozens of sub-topics these categories spawned.
Two weeks earlier, five MHSAA staff joined staff of ten other similar associations for two days of meetings in Chicago. There was sharing on topics ranging from student leadership programs to information technology.
A few days before that, I joined my counterparts from 45 other states for discussions of a variety of topics important to school sports in general or the administration of our serving organizations. I amassed 13 pages of notes from comments made by speakers and colleagues over three days.
Meanwhile, the MHSAA office hosted 12 MHSAA committee meetings during January. Each committee focused on a particular sport, or on a specific topic that affects all sports. Their recommendations will be vetted this spring and considered by the Representative Council by May.
Ideally, every month presents opportunities for us to learn, but last month provided a particularly broad and deep curriculum.
No Further Review
December 15, 2015
The rise of instant replay came with the hope if not the promise that errors by officials could and would be corrected. Now we know those expectations are not being realized.
In many cases this fall, we have watched college and professional football instant replay officials stand by helplessly because the rules of replay would not permit them to change the call on the field. In many other cases, we have watched instant replay officials make wrong calls from the replay booth.
We have always known that the high school level would not be able to perform extensive instant replay review – we don’t have the number and quality of camera angles at our games to judge the plays. But now we know that the existence of such technology does not assure the accuracy of decision-making.
So, let the so-called higher levels interrupt and prolong their games with questionable procedures that are resulting in as much acrimony as accuracy. Turns out that on this matter, the high school level is lucky to lack the resources of the college and professional game. For us, there’s no need for further review of further review.