Presidents Converge on MHSAA Office
January 29, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Coaches serving over three seasons and in a variety of different sports can have a variety of perspectives when it comes to most topics, including MHSAA rules.
The Coaches Association Presidents Meeting, an annual event hosted Monday at the MHSAA office in East Lansing, allows an opportunity to gather that valuable input as our staff works through pressing issues at the start of each new year.
Presidents from high school coaches associations representing nearly all of our MHSAA-sponsored sports met in East Lansing for an inside look at some of our latest efforts and how that work could affect their sports and the coaches they serve.
On the menu this time was an update on the MHSAA's drive to increase coaches health and safety training, followed by updates on recent research into how the association might better serve junior high and middle schools.
The entrée was discussion on out-of-season coaching rules, and how or if they should be altered to allow high school coaches more contact with athletes during offseasons than currently allowed.
This meeting allows for input on these topics, with the key, again, that the input comes from various sources who face differing circumstances but are all tied together under the umbrella of interscholastic athletics. Input from our coaches associations will be valuable as MHSAA staff and its Representative Council consider potential rules changes over the rest of this school year, and beyond.
Coaching Advancement
March 21, 2014
Over the past nine months we have marched down the field in our effort to enhance the health and safety preparation of those who coach school sports. There have been two big plays during this offensive drive.
Last May, the Representative Council adopted the requirement beginning in 2014-15 that all assistant and subvarsity high school coaches must complete the same rules/risk management session as high school varsity head coaches, or, in the alternative, complete one of several free, online health and safety programs posted for this purpose on MHSAA.com.
Last December, the Council adopted the requirement beginning in 2015-16 that all high school varsity head coaches must have current certification in CPR.
It’s my hope that we will not fumble now that we’re in the red zone, that we won’t drop the ball before crossing the goal line on this current health and safety drive focusing on enhanced preparation of coaches.
The next play the Representative Council is considering is to require that all persons hired for the first time at any MHSAA member high school as a varsity level head coach must have completed the Coaches Advancement Program Level 1 or 2.
More than 10,000 people already have done so; and other people who want to be high school varsity head coaches have more than two years to complete this requirement.
Finishing this drive won’t put Michigan’s high school coaching standards at the head of the class; but it will keep us in the classroom of best practices for coaches education. The standard of care is advancing nationwide and on all levels of sports.