Go With It
April 30, 2012
One of my counterparts in another state asked me last week, “How do you do it?” He meant, how do I find time to prepare two blog postings every week; and he also meant, how do I find topics for 104 postings each year; and he also meant, how do I go about the actual writing?
As for finding time, it’s no problem; because writing helps me think. It helps me clarify and prioritize. And going public with these thoughts helps me be more certain that I’m committed to the ideas. For me, writing daily is as important as breathing deeply.
As for finding topics, it’s rarely a problem. I find subject matter in what I read, what I hear and what I observe in everyday life and worldwide travel. And I’ve discovered that the richest sources for writing about school sports are often found the furthest from school sports.
And as for the actual technique, I go about it this way: I try to provide a plain circle, and then invite readers to color it however they wish, to use any shade they prefer, to color outside the lines if they think that’s most beneficial to their situation.
When we were children we were praised for coloring within the lines and utilizing the appropriate shades for sun, sky, grass and flowers. These days I just want to provide a blank circle and ask, “What can you do with that?” Not dictating what readers should do, but inviting readers to take an idea and do with it what they will where they live, work and play.
At least that’s what I want to do.
Slow to Seeding
April 11, 2016
While it is an inevitable topic of discussion, it is not inevitable that the MHSAA Girls and Boys Basketball Tournaments will involve seeding of any significant scope.
The fact that there was no seeding proposal even considered by the MHSAA Basketball Committee this year is indicative of two facts:
There are many people who are totally against seeding the MHSAA Basketball Tournaments; and
Those who favor seeding cannot agree on how to do it.
It is possible that someday there will be limited seeding that does not involve margin of victory or cause additional travel for participating teams – perhaps placing the top two teams of a geographic District onto opposite District tournament brackets, or perhaps seeding the four teams that reach the Semifinals in each class.
Proposals that encourage teams to run up scores during the regular season or send teams to Districts outside their geographic area and/or involve the Regional tournament level are less likely to win favor. And, of course, the devil is in the details of the criteria for determining which teams are better than others.
The MHSAA Representative Council has taken the position that if seeding is to occur in MHSAA tournaments, it will be considered on a sport-by-sport and level-by-level basis. While some MHSAA tournaments already have seeding at one level or another, the Council knows that seeding for some sports and some tournament levels of other sports may never be acceptable.
The MHSAA Representative Council is also wise enough to know that seeding is really not an important topic, at least in comparison to the compelling health and safety issues to which the Council has been devoting great time and money during this decade.