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Second Half by MHSAA

Lift

November 11, 2011

Not too long ago there was a television commercial that depicted a huge jumbo jet taking off.  Then the pilot spoke about what it takes to lift such a large load off the ground.

The pilot said that to get such a huge weight off the ground you don’t go with the wind.  You go against it.  He said, “What pushes against us, lifts us up.”

There is no question that this is the recent story for the MHSAA which, momentarily in 2008, was knocked off balance by an adverse judgment by a federal court.  In many respects, the MHSAA is stronger – financially and in other ways – because of 2008.  The bad times made us better.

I’m hoping we will be able to say the same about local school sports generally a few years from now.  That these bad times made us better.  That today’s headwinds gave us the lift we needed to reach new and improved heights in school-based sports.

Committee Work

January 6, 2015

The winter months are the busiest for MHSAA committees, especially for those that must review or prepare recommendations for changes for the following school year.
Each year, up to 20 MHSAA committees consider proposals for Representative Council action relative to MHSAA tournament policies or procedures or Handbook regulations or interpretations.
During school year 2014-15, wherever applicable, the committees are being asked to address health and safety issues as well as policies and procedures relative to subvarsity and junior high/middle school students; and as a result of positive 2014 Update Meeting Opinion Poll responses, each sport committee is being asked to respond during calendar year 2015 and beyond to several concepts for MHSAA tournament seeding.
MHSAA committees are dominated by coaches, but they are not a rubber stamp for proposals that proceed from that sport’s high school coaches association. The difference of opinion often results from the committee seeing things differently than a coaches association leadership that the committee believes is not representative of schools of diverse size, location and demographics.
It is appropriate for committees to ask: Who was not in the room when this recommendation was drafted? Who will not be served well by this change?
When committees go through this process, they tend to reduce the quantity but improve the quality of recommendations to the Representative Council, which increases the percentage of recommendations the Council adopts.