Projects That Matter
December 1, 2015
The white board that confronts me every day in my office lists a lot of things I’d like the MHSAA to get done. Our challenge is to choose to do those projects that are large enough to matter, yet small enough to accomplish.
Step by step, we have attempted, for example, new goals for coaches education and new initiatives for concussion care, as well as new means of communicating the message of educational athletics which I have discussed less as I’ve addressed the other projects more in recent months.
Managing the message of school-sponsored, student-centered sports in the midst of a constant blizzard of communications from youth, college and professional sports, is as important as anything we do.
We are particularly pleased with “This Week in High School Sports” which John Johnson prepares and Second Half by MHSAA which Geoff Kimmerly manages. Positive news reflecting the purpose and values of educational athletics in Michigan. These projects matter.
It’s Change, Not Status
January 5, 2016
When I see a professional sports team install a scoreboard that is more expensive than the total of the interscholastic athletic budgets of the two dozen high schools closest to that stadium, I gripe.
When I see a half-dozen medical professionals scamper out to attend to an injured college football player, and then watch a local high school junior varsity soccer game where no medical professional is present, I grieve.
But in spite of these dispiriting moments, I never wish that my life’s work had been at those higher levels. Long ago I was impressed by the statement that we should measure impact by change, not by status.
It is at the school sports level, much more than at so-called higher levels, that lives are changed. No glitz. No glamour. Just huge results, with limited resources.