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Push Pause

May 2, 2017

For the past 15 months, the Michigan High School Athletic Association has focused more of its precious resources of time and money on these four priorities:

  • Define and Defend Educational Athletics

  • Promote Participant Health and Safety

  • Serve and Support Junior High/Middle School Programs

  • Recruit and Retain Contest Officials

These topics were brought into focus by making time for the MHSAA staff and Representative Council to pause from the frenetic pace of everyday duties to talk about constituents’ current needs and to think about the next big things that are just down the road and perhaps around a metaphorical corner.

It is time to ignore the tyranny of the urgent, push “pause,” and engage the MHSAA staff and Representative Council once again in a time of research into and reflection about the current and near-future needs and wants of the constituents they serve. This discussion could lead anywhere, but these topics will get things started:

  • What’s next for kids that could/should involve us – e.g., Robotics? E-Games? Water Polo? Girls Field Hockey? Boys Volleyball? Girls Flag Football? Road Racing? Snowboarding? Weightlifting?

  • What’s our role with respect to special programming for students with cognitive or physical disabilities?

  • If given a windfall, how would we best spend $50,000? $250,000? $500,000?

Not Acting Like Grownups

December 26, 2015

Take a look at Fox Sports Detroit today, the second of two days replaying the 2015 MHSAA 11-Player Football Finals at Ford Field.

What I’d like you to see – what I’m most proud of – is the behavior of the players.

Score a touchdown? Then hand the ball to the official, without any childish end zone dancing.

Sack the quarterback? Then head back to the huddle, without any ridiculous pointing and prancing.

So different from the professional game.

But sadly, some of that bad behavior is settling to the college level; and sometimes, there’s even a hint of it in our high school games.

But for now, the players behaving most maturely are the youngest, and behaving least maturely are the oldest.