Default Setting
January 25, 2012
In the computer world we’ve become accustomed to the “default setting,” a place our computer returns without any intervention on our part.
It is not too long a leap to apply this metaphor to school-based sports. To suggest that with major college and professional sports programs crashing with scandals and strikes, the safe setting in the world of sports is interscholastic athletics.
With the absence of gaudy glitz and glamour, school-based sports has reduced possibilities for “operator error.” It is almost as if school sports is fresh out of the box, pre-installed with policies and procedures that allow coaches and administrators to operate with a minimum of moves, motivations and messages.
I said during MHSAA Update Meetings last fall that our current theme is “cheap and simple” – that is, doing what we can to keep costs down and procedures simple during these days when school personnel have reduced resources, including time, to devote to school sports. Increasingly, I see the challenge as providing the MHSAA membership fresh from the box services. For example . . .
- This was the primary motivation for the MHSAA moving to online rules meetings for coaches and officials that has saved them countless hours and miles to fulfill their meeting requirements in recent years.
- This has been the primary motivation behind the digital broadcasting program by which member schools have a safe, reliable place for streaming school productions of both athletic and non-athletic events.
- This is the primary motivation for the ArbiterGame electronic management tools being developed for member high school athletic departments fully integrated with MHSAA policies, systems and data.
In a world of increasing costs and complexities, ours is a difficult challenge to keep things cheap and simple in school sports; but we’ll be trying.
Exploring Esports
May 18, 2018
One of the liveliest topics of discussion during the May 6-7 meetings of the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association was “esports.”
Some Council members, sensing an opportunity to connect with additional students, are intrigued; and they wonder how long we can dissect the topic before the train leaves the station without our involvement and influence.
Other Council members, seeing the violent nature of many of the popular games and the lack of physical activity by participants, question what authentic place electronic gaming could ever have in educational athletics.
Where money drives the enterprise, there has been little hesitation to become involved. Most professional sports leagues and/or franchises are already heavily invested. The only value judgment being made is the return on investment dollars.
Intercollegiate athletics is not far behind. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) sponsors events. The NCAA has a powerful work group developing strategies. More than 100 colleges are providing scholarships, including Michigan institutions.
At least a half-dozen of our counterpart organizations across the US will conduct or endorse esports seasons and tournaments for high schools during 2018-19. The MHSAA has organizations both within and outside Michigan looking for our leadership.
The industry has lots of hype and cash behind it. But before it will be educators who will question how shoot-and-kill games have a place in schools.
There may be many beneficial outcomes for participating students: e.g., improved hand-eye coordination, problem-solving skills, concentration, multi-tasking, memory – even team-building skills. There also may be negative outcomes, including too much of what might be a good thing, leading to insomnia and addiction.
PlayVS, an esport upstart company aiming at the high school level, promotes esports with the slogan, “It’s not a sport; it’s our sport.”
Arthur Piccolo, CEO of New Sports Group in New York, counters, “So-called esports is not a sport, it is computer game playing.”
I delight in the debate because it is rare that something comes along that so quickly drives discussion to defining issues of school-based sports ... to searching for the sweet spot that expands student engagement without abandoning what makes school sports a force for good in students, schools and society.