One Community at a Time
July 24, 2012
In the northwest corner of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula there is a group of volunteers who are focusing on the character-building potential of youth and high school sports. They are teaching the principles and recognizing the people that make character education happen frequently and by design, rather than only rarely and by accident.
The group is known as Beyond The Scoreboard. It draws on resources from Character Counts, Positive Coaching Alliance and others; and it delivers character education through inexpensive workshops for athletes, coaches, officials, sports leaders and spectators.
Beyond The Scoreboard also conducts a Champions of Character Awards Dinner, the 8th Annual held June 11, 2012 in Petoskey. I’ve attended most and was the speaker in 2011. This year’s speaker was my counterpart with the Arizona Interscholastic Association, Commissioner Harold Slemmer.
At an event like this there are many moments that uplift the best of youth and school sports. Here are two from this year’s banquet:
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When East Jordan High School runner Luke Hawley was thanking those who helped him be the kind of person who would be honored as the high school male athlete, he thanked many people, including the maintenance person who prepared the high school track. I had never before heard a high school student-athlete include a groundskeeper in his support group. And it told me a lot about this young man. He’s likely to be a good employee, spouse and parent someday.
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When a member of the Petoskey High School football team was introducing his coach, Kerry VanOrman, who was being honored as the high school coach, he said the first thing Coach VanOrman would say to every player he greeted was a question about something other than sports; and he would be the same way to every player, no matter how skilled. He’s coaching more than a sport; he’s coaching kids. Helping them become better people.
After a single banquet, an attentive person could develop a game plan for character building for an entire season. Imagine all that’s been shared to improve youth and school sports after eight years! Congratulations to founder Jack Taylor, Executive Director Ron Goodman and all board members and volunteers.
Data is Due
December 4, 2015
Allow me to wander way outside my expertise for a moment … to quantum physics. I believe this is the discipline where it is said that “something doesn’t exist until it is described and measured.”
This statement embodies one of the reasons the MHSAA has mandated that, beginning this school year, member schools must report all possible head injuries in the practices and events of school sports. We want to get at least a general description and approximate measurement of our story here as we listen to the nationwide narrative about health and safety in school sports.
Early returns – that is, preliminary numbers for fall sports – are being presented to the MHSAA Representative Council today. A public release will follow before the end of the year. A more complete report – based on fall, winter and spring sports – will be provided after the conclusion of the 2015-16 school year. And in the future, year-to-year comparisons of the numbers will provide a more meaningful story.
The MHSAA is also gathering data from two pilot programs that are intended to increase attention on sideline concussion detection and recordkeeping, and also from the concussion care insurance the MHSAA has purchased for all participants in all MHSAA member junior high/middle schools and high schools beginning this school year.
Data from all three initiatives may help those who make the equipment and prepare the rules of play in the ongoing campaign to make our good school sports programs even better.