Rush to Ridicule
February 5, 2016
Last month the statewide high school athletic association of a neighboring state sent to its member schools a reminder of its sportsmanship standards. From almost all media reports you would have thought the association did a terrible thing.
In fact, the athletic association did nothing wrong – nothing that it and similar organizations have not done many times before to point people away from declining standards of sportsmanship prevalent in other programs and point people toward behavior that is more appropriate for an educational setting – i.e., in programs sponsored and conducted by educational institutions.
Then one of that athletic association’s schools did an unsurprising thing – and what dozens of schools, perhaps hundreds of schools, have done many times before. It distributed the athletic association’s message to its students and coaches.
Where this good work went bad was an isolated incident where one student-athlete at one school posted a profane reaction on social media, criticizing the message; and the student’s school suspended the student from a few contests.
That’s the story. But it’s been mangled by most professional and social media which have rushed mindlessly to ridicule the athletic association.
The association was not wrong to promote positive cheering sections and mutual respect during athletic events. And the association is taking an amazingly high (sportsmanlike?) road to say that it will use this media fiasco as an opportunity to review its sportsmanship guidelines.
We have proven in this state through our Battle of the Fans, a contest conceived by our Student Advisory Council, that cheering sections can be larger and louder by encouraging positive behavior; fun that is also respectful. We prohibit no specific cheers, but we promote positive cheers and the schools where that is the norm.
In a society where standards of all kinds appear to be slipping, this is praiseworthy work.
Engagement
October 31, 2017
In addition to daily calls, texts, emails and old-fashioned mail delivery, Michigan High School Athletic Association staff engaged face to face with its core constituents in these ways from August of 2016 through July of 2017:
- More than 350 local school visits, including:
- Approximately 120 to attend regular season local contests to evaluate officials for MHSAA tournament readiness.
- More than 60 to support or evaluate MHSAA pre-Final tournament events.
- More than 60 to speak at or support MHSAA CAP sessions (plus 25 CAP sessions at the MHSAA building).
- 12 for MHSAA.TV, NFHS Network or School Broadcast Program.
- 6 for Second Half website features.
- 6 for new school orientation.
- 5 for Battle of the Fans (each involving 3 MHSAA staff).
- 5 for officiating classes.
- 2 for Reaching Higher (each involving 4 or more staff).
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More than 60 local officials association visits, including:
- 45 for rules meetings/presentations.
Plus 8 visits to officials camps,
5 presentations to college officiating classes, and
9 officiating recruitment events.
- More than 50 coaches association meetings.
- 24 for MHSAA rules meetings/presentations.
- 6 for CAP programs.
Plus the Coaches Association Presidents dinner at the MHSAA office involving 9 MHSAA staff.
- More than 50 league meetings, including:
- 8 to conduct student leadership or sportsmanship events or for team captains clinics (usually involving multiple MHSAA staff).
- 8 to provide event marketing assistance.
- 7 to provide MHSAA information/updates.
- 6 to provide MHSAA rules meetings/presentations.
- 3 for ArbiterGame training (usually involving 2 or more MHSAA staff).
Plus the League Leadership Meeting at the MHSAA office involving most MHSAA staff.
- More than 15 MIAAA meetings.
- 10 MHSAA staff at the March conference.
- 2 MHSAA staff at the summer workshop.
- 2 to 4 MHSAA staff at most board meetings.
- At least 1 staff at multiple committee meetings, strategic planning, etc.
- More than 50 standing committees, task forces and ad hoc study groups convened at the MHSAA office, and several did so multiple times.
What is abundantly clear here is that the MHSAA staff does not operate from an ivory tower or information vacuum.