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Staying Alive

June 9, 2015

It has been said by others more clever with a phrase than I am, “Travel has its dangers, but routine can be deadly.” 
World travel is something I'm passionate about and it has added adventure and perspective that have enriched my existence; but I do not dare pontificate on how other people choose to live their personal lives. That's each person's personal business and none of mine.  
However, at this stage in my career, I do feel comfortable suggesting that this travel metaphor is a healthy way to think about one's professional life, and a productive way to nurture the life of organizations. Many executives and their boards may get too comfortable with routine, emphasizing risk management more than innovation, reducing the chances of failure and criticism rather than seeking the adventure of new ways of thinking and acting that could lead to new ways of serving.  
I say, with massive respect for the traditional core values of school sports, that fear of doing big, untested things – risky adventures – has caused school sports organizations to miss opportunities for so many years that they have become close to irrelevant in the youth sports experience of this country. We have failed to travel, or taken such safe trips that we are dying rather than thriving on behalf of students, their schools and our society.
For the past half-dozen years, and especially in 2015-16, the MHSAA is in a traveling mode. In doing so, we add some danger to our lives, but at least we stay alive. In fact, we may never, ever have been as vibrant as we are right now.

Inside Information

September 25, 2015

The source you choose selects your news.

If your source is Fox News, you will get different stories than from ABC, CBS and NBC, and different slants on the same stories.

If your source is publicly supported radio, the news stories will be different than on commercial radio stations; and if you choose Public Radio International, you will hear some topics that are much more frequently and deeply covered than by National Public Radio.

PRI is, for example, where I was following the crisis of refugees fleeing from Northern Africa to Europe long before that story became headlines for other news sources. Did you know, for example, that there are more displaced people in the world today than at any time except World War II?

Similarly, if I were to listen only to coaches of one sport or another, I’m likely to learn about issues that affect that sport, but not much about issues that affect other sports, or affect schools as a whole. Our sources must include input from all sports. 

Our sources must also include the perspective of principals who deal with academics more than athletics and who are as attentive to the essential needs of harassed, homeless, displaced and disabled students as they are to the athletic desires of gifted and talented students.

And our sources must include the even broader perspective of superintendents who are fighting for the financial life of their districts. Sometimes that means they are throwing open the doors of their schools and recruiting students from far and wide to replace the dwindling school age children of their local population.

Ours is an association of schools. Not an association of football coaches, or of all coaches. Ours is an association of schools whose directions are determined by blending top-down with in-the-trenches views.

From our vantage point at the Michigan High School Athletic Association we do not learn about everything happening in our state’s secondary schools. But from the myriad calls, emails and letters we receive and the many meetings we have with administrators, coaches, officials and students, we know much more than those who are on the outside looking in.