Sportsmanship is a Way of Life
January 4, 2013
Twenty years ago the MHSAA received a plaque from a member school that I continue to prize above all other awards our organization has received. The plaque reads: “In recognition of outstanding contributions to interscholastic athletics, and for promotion of sportsmanship as a way of life for all young athletes.”
There are no words I would more prefer to describe the work of the MHSAA then and now than those highlighted words. No work we do is any more important than promoting sportsmanship as a way of life. Reduced to a phrase, that’s our most essential purpose; that’s our product.
Not victories, titles or championships, but sportsmanship. Not awards or records, but sportsmanship.
It’s teaching and learning sportsmanship more than speed and strength; sportsmanship more than coordination and conditioning; sportsmanship more than skills and strategies. Even more than teamwork, hard work, discipline and dedication, it’s sportsmanship we teach and learn.
In Discovery of Morals, the sociologist author (not a sportsman) writes, “Sportsmanship is probably the clearest and most popular expression of morals. Sportsmanship is a thing of the spirit. It is timeless and endless; and we should strive to make it universal to all races, creeds and walks in life.”
Sportsmanship is more than a list of do’s and don’ts; more than grace in victory and defeat; more than how we play the game and watch the games. It’s how we live our lives.
Sportsmanship begins in our homes. We work on it in practice. It extends to games. It reaches up to the crowd. It permeates the school halls and shopping malls. And it begins to affect society for good, or for bad.
No Place They Would Rather Be
April 24, 2018
Seven years ago, the Michigan High School Athletic Association and its Student Advisory Council began the MHSAA’s trademarked “Battle of the Fans.” That was 2012.
Buchanan High School has been a contestant five times, a finalist four times and the winner twice ... in 2013 and again this year.
Many of us complain of all that competes for attention of students and spectators. But at Buchanan, the culture is different. And it’s not an accident. Being involved in school and attending school events is the thing to do. By design.
Starting with a few individuals with vision and energy, student engagement has become the norm. Middle school students saw this in 2013. They were invited to be a part of it then; and now they are leading the effort at Buchanan High School.
At Buchanan, attending athletic events is the thing to do – and not just boys sports or winter sports. To attend events, to cheer loudly and to actually think and talk about what good sportsmanship looks like has become a year-round thing.
Buchanan High School and the other two finalists for 2018, Boyne City High School and Petoskey High School – and all the BOTF applicants, are helping to define and defend educational athletics.
View Buchanan’s application video for the 2018 Battle of the Fans