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Guild and Guide

December 2, 2016

Today is the first meeting of the full Michigan High School Athletic Association Representative Council of the 2016-17 school year. This is the meeting that tees up some of the topics for action by the Council in March and May.

Posted on the meeting room wall will be banners that remind Council members of the over-arching topics previously identified for 2016-17:

    • Define and Defend Educational Athletics

  • Promote and Protect Participant Health and Safety

  • Serve and Support Junior High/Middle School Programs

  • Recruit and Retain Contest Officials

If we are to make any headway on these topics during this school year and beyond, then we must see the MHSAA’s role is to be both a guild and a guide.

On my bucket list for personal travel is a trip to the mountains of Peru where for a week my wife will weave and I will hike. She will be with a guild that allows her to learn more about her craft, while I’ll be on a high altitude trail to Machu Picchu with a guide that keeps me from getting lost or discouraged.

In similar ways, the MHSAA must be an organization that provides opportunities for people to learn the art of athletic administration and then both points the way and steadies the step of coaches and administrators. We must help new officials get started and stay with it. We must aid and direct team captains and other student leaders.

Starting Five

December 6, 2016

The Task Force on Multi-Sport Participation which the Michigan High School Athletic Association appointed early in 2016 has identified its top five projects. They all encourage the MHSAA and its member schools to get in the game earlier.

The Task Force wants the MHSAA to:

  1. Partner with groups which are promoting diverse physical activity for youth, like the NFL’s “Play 60” and the United Dairy Industry of Michigan’s “Fuel Up” programs.

  2. Meet with groups which could influence more and better physical education in schools that would encourage more sport sampling by youth and increased literacy in basic athletic skills and movements.

  3. Prepare tools for administrators to use when interviewing coaches, conducting preseason meetings for coaches and encouraging coaches to “walk the talk” of promoting balanced, multi-sport participation by members of their school teams.

  4. Prepare for junior high/middle school and elementary school parents a “What Parents Should Know” guidebook with units created by medical personnel, high school and college athletes and coaches, educators and sports scientists.

  5. Prepare for junior high/middle school and elementary school parents a “Reality Check” video describing the costs of sports specialization and the facts about sports as a path to college tuition assistance.

Those who love and lead school sports cannot wait until kids (and their parents) reach high school before we start talking with them regarding the values of school-sponsored sports, the benefits of multi-sport participation, and the meaning of success in educational athletics.