Let's Learn What This Time Can Teach Us
April 8, 2020
By Kevin Wolma
Hudsonville Athletic Director
A simple service return that landed into the net last fall ended my son’s tennis career.
When you are a senior, there is an end date. Just like that it is over.
Seems like yesterday I was playing catch with him in the front yard. Seems like yesterday I was rebounding as he shot at our basketball hoop. Seems like yesterday I put a tennis racquet in his hands for the first time. The success and failures along with the laughter and frustration all came to an end.
Along the way people would warn me about how fast the time goes, but when you are living day to day, you don’t really believe them. Going into the final day of the season, I had those thoughts that this would be the last day I’d watch my son play a competitive tennis match, but it didn't really hit me until I watched that last ball go into the net.
However, I also realized that we were going to experience many final moments during his senior year and this was a natural part of the journey. What I didn't know on that day was that this was the very last time I would see him compete. The cancellation of spring sports season with the COVID-19 crisis took that opportunity away from him competing in track & field this spring.
We never know when things will be taken away from us.
Administrators, Athletes, Coaches, Officials, Trainers:
Do you have a message that will provide inspiration, motivation or comfort to Michigan’s high school sports community during this unprecedented time? We’d like to help share it. Submit your “viewpoint” – written or video – to [email protected] for consideration for publication on Second Half.
My daughter, also a senior, will also lose the opportunity to finish her tennis career at Hudsonville because of the COVID-19 shutdown. For the two of us, tennis was more than a sport – it was our connection. From the time she was 5 years old hitting foam balls in the gym to now, the tennis court became far more than a surface with a net and lines.
The tennis court was our place of solitude. We hit thousands and thousands of tennis balls over the years. But more importantly, the tennis court created a platform where lessons were shared, stories of success and failure were told, and a love for a sport was born. I dread the day the tennis court sits silent, because that means my daughter will move on to her next stage in life. That time could be now.
Sports is not the end-all, and it surely does not define a person. However, it is a mechanism to bring people together and to teach life lessons that are often taken for granted, until we realize it is over.
The purpose of this article is not to talk about the end as much as it is to emphasize the importance of those moments leading to the end. Don’t let those moments slip away. If your son or daughter asks you to go outside and play catch, please put down the computer or phone and do it. The email can wait. The phone call can wait. The game on TV can wait.
Admittedly, I have been occasionally guilty of this as well and now realize the importance of time and how unpredictable it can be. I have one more chance with my youngest daughter to make sure we don’t take those moments for granted. They are moments we will never get back, and again, we never know when those moments will be taken away.
As a high school athletic director, all I’ve wanted was more time. Sixty plus-hour work weeks while trying to navigate work and home schedules is often a challenge. Many of us live this life every day. We all would like more time.
However, over a 48-hour span during the month of March 2020, time was all I had. In those two days, after the Utah Jazz’ Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, both the NCAA and NBA shut down while schools and businesses began closing their doors indefinitely.
Now, time is all any of us have.
My hope is that we realize time is a gift and we must be willing to receive it when available. Take advantage of the time to regain a perspective of what is really important in our lives and act on that. This moment in time will end and for many of us, our lives will resume juggling personal, work, and sports schedules. Are we ready? Did we take this “time off” from the busyness of life and focus on how we can maximize every moment of every day?
For some of us, this gives us a chance to hit the restart button and maybe look at youth sports through a different lens. Maybe our interactions with our kids, coaches, and officials will be more positive. Maybe we worry less about the outcome and more about the process. Once we get back to the playing field, maybe we will look at participation in sports differently. Maybe we will understand that it is truly a gift, and every gift deserves a level of gratitude – gratitude toward the many people who allow this experience, and all its life lessons, to transpire.
Years from now, when we look back at the year of COVID-19, will we still value the essence of time and living in the moment? Will we still give gratitude to the gift of sports? Each one of us wants to look back at our kid’s experiences with athletics and have no regrets. No regrets with our actions. No regrets with our time. We have an opportunity as parents right now to pause, reflect, and make changes that could impact youth sports for generations to come.
We must seize this opportunity now because this part of life will be over before we know it. For some of us, maybe even more quickly than we expected.
Wolma has served as Hudsonville's athletic director since 2011 and previously coached boys varsity basketball and girls varsity golf among other teams. He also previously taught physical education and health. Photo courtesy of the Hudsonville High School tennis programs.
'The Comeback is Always Better than the Setback'
By
Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
November 12, 2021
Following is the publisher’s note and cover story from the Fall 2021 edition of benchmarks, which was published earlier this school year and highlighted changes coming to tournaments as MHSAA activities moved back toward normal.
Suffice it to say, as we stride into the 2021-22 school year, it is not just another year for the MHSAA, nor will it be business as usual as we continue to monitor the COVID clouds that can’t dissipate quickly enough. However, we do intend to make it as close to “business as usual” as possible.
From the Publisher: Not “Just Another Year” Ahead, But Here’s Hoping
After the disheartening cancelation of numerous winter tournaments and the entire spring seasons of 2020, together we navigated through a tumultuous 2020-21 athletic campaign with plenty of blood, sweat and tears to combat a multitude of obstacles.
The entire MHSAA staff owes a debt of gratitude to every individual who made last year possible, from our school administrators to ticket takers, literally thousands of contributors who made sure we reached the finish line against seemingly insurmountable odds.
There were many occasions during the pandemic when the easiest path would have been to give up and give in. School sports was the one thread of normalcy in many school communities, and it provided the important opportunity to remain physically active. Even more critical, it offered an in-person avenue for personal connections and relationships with a student’s coaches, teammates and even opponents during a time that was so virtual and distant in most other ways.
And, now we move forward, taking steps toward a better future.
One of my favorite quotes is “The comeback is always better than the setback.” There have been many setbacks for all of us over the past 16 months, and we look forward to working with your school and school community in finding more normalcy for our kids in this year of the great comeback.
Let’s continue to come together and support our young people during a time where school sports are needed now more than ever.
The end goal? Nothing new and earth-shattering. In fact, we’re shooting for the opposite.
– Mark Uyl, MHSAA Executive Director
Off and Running
With the school year in full swing, hopes are high that the only changes for this year and beyond will be membership-driven.
The 2020-21 MHSAA athletic year could best be described as both unforgettable and forgettable. Seasons began, and were halted. Some sports didn’t begin, then they did, then were put on hold. Testing was mandated and modified. Masks were part of the uniform at some venues, and not required at others.
Last school year began, from the standpoint of the MHSAA and its constituents around the state, with the first of what would be 37 updates concerning processes and procedures outlining everything from testing to tournament schedules in the most fluid and chaotic period of time anyone currently in school sports has experienced.
In the end, through the tremendous leadership and fortitude of athletic administrators, coaches, contest officials and parents – and the resilience and the enthusiasm of the student-athletes we serve – the year culminated last June in settings as close to normal as things have been since March 2020.
Although some clouds remain overhead, and eyes and ears continue to closely monitor developments which threaten the health of athletics and participants, here’s hoping for mostly sunny skies and a 2021-22 year that will return to normalcy.
With that in mind, there are a few new wrinkles to this Fall’s tournament season.
One of the most anticipated sport-related changes for Fall 2021 is the full implementation of the “enhanced strength-of-schedule” format for selecting the 256-team field for the 11-Player Football Playoffs. The new format eliminates automatic qualification based on win total and bases it solely on playoff-point average, which also is determined differently in that it now awards teams more for playing tougher schedules.
The new playoff-point formula was used in 2020 to seed teams at the District and Regional levels, but its use for qualification was put on hold as COVID-19 caused a one-season switch in playoff format that allowed all teams to qualify.
"Schools for years have struggled finding opponents during the regular season, especially those programs that have had some success over the years,” said MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl. “Now, qualification for the playoffs will be based strictly on playoff points, so schools will benefit by scheduling tough opponents, win or lose. This new approach will build excitement, and will address a scheduling problem that has occurred for many years."
Lower Peninsula Cross Country also will implement a change that was postponed last year when adjustments were made to thin the Finals field by running in “sessions” and spreading the Finals over two days.
This year, spectators will likely see more runners at Michigan International Speedway than ever before due to a potential increase in Regional qualifiers to the Final.
The Cross Country/Track & Field Committee in January 2019 recommended a change to allow a minimum of seven individual qualifiers to advance from each Regional race. The MHSAA Representative Council approved the idea for 2020, and the change will take effect this fall.
“The Committee felt that in some years a Regional with a few strong teams limits or hinders the ability of individual runners not on those teams from advancing; meaning that if they weren’t in the top 15 they weren’t going to advance,” said MHSAA Assistant Director Cody Inglis, who oversees the Cross Country Tournament.
“Standardizing the amount of individual runners per race allows more competitors while also ‘guarding the gate’ against making the races too big in each division. This standardization of the individual qualifiers allows more kids to get a taste of the Finals while not limiting the strong teams that exist in several Regionals around the state in each Division.”
Previously, runners on teams that did not qualify as a whole could still advance to the Finals if they finished among the top 15 individuals at a Regional – but at some Regionals runners from the team qualifiers filled the great majority of those top 15 finishes. The seven individual qualifiers from each Regional this season will be the first seven finishers from teams that do not qualify as a whole, even if they finish outside of the top 15.
While COVID factors delayed action in most sports, the pandemic in fact expedited change in the sport of golf. The Golf Committee’s recommendation for live scoring in 2019 was implemented in tournaments during 2020-21, and now is required for regular-season events as well, beginning this school year.
“The state of the pandemic precipitated the move to the use of electronic scoring during the MHSAA Girls Golf Tournament in the fall of 2020, as eliminating the exchange of physical scorecards was a measure that decreased contact points between participants and helped ensure the safety of all at MHSAA events,” said Inglis, who also oversees all golf activities.
The scoring platform is made available through the MHSAA Golf app, which was created and is operated by iWanamaker and allows golfers, coaches and fans to chart scoring in real time.
“High school golf at times was one of the only sports where no one knew what the score was until after the round was completed, often times far too late to make any corrections or adjustments,” said MHSAA Project Coordinator Cole Malatinsky, who heads up the iWanamaker system. “The MHSAA Golf app and iWanamaker scoring platform allows people to track results in real time and helps the MHSAA better manage the logistics of tournaments, two aspects much needed in high school golf.”
Additionally, the system provides increased accountability and fair play.
“This system not only provides coaches and tournament managers an easy and efficient means of setting up and scoring tournaments, but helps to increase scoring integrity,” Inglis said. “Recording only your score for each hole on a scorecard (electronic or paper) was defined as a deficiency in the scoring process for high school golf. While no system replaces integrity – which you either have or don’t have – iWanamaker allows more ‘eyeballs’ on all scores during the course of a match.”
Along the lines of competitive integrity, a change also has been made for the MHSAA Tennis Finals. If a seeded player withdraws on the day of the MHSAA Final, all seeded players below that withdrawing player (including the provisional seed in that flight) will move up and be placed on the proper line for that new seed. Playing against the same team more than twice at the Finals is permitted in this instance.
“The Tennis Committee felt that this was a logical solution to situations that sometimes arise on the day of the event,” said MHSAA Assistant Director Dan Hutcheson, who coordinates tennis events. “This way, individuals who have worked hard to earn seeded positions will be elevated to the next position on the brackets.”