Minding Our Business: Focus on Mental Health
December 30, 2019
By Mark Uyl
MHSAA Executive Director
For as long as I can remember, rules have played an important role in my life.
My father officiated high school and youth sports. So my brother and I did the same, and were fortunate enough to earn the right to work contests at the collegiate level. Today, my sons are officiating high school and youth sports.
I was hired by the MHSAA as an assistant director in large part due to my officiating background. Rules and regulations remain the backbone of athletics specifically, and society in general, as I learned more acutely when I entered the working world as a teacher and coach, then school administrator.
What also became abundantly clear to me within that framework was that it is our responsibility to provide our students not only the opportunity for competition, but also for our games and practices to take place under the safest conditions possible. From preseason physicals to equipment inventory and facility maintenance, a premium was placed on the well-being of participants and spectators.
Throughout my time at the MHSAA, various initiatives continued to target the growing list of health and safety concerns. My predecessor, Jack Roberts, often pointed to the “4 Hs” of the MHSAA’s health and safety campaign: Health Histories (Physicals), Heat and Hydration, Heads, and Hearts. Those pillars still hold the bulk of the content and resources on the Health & Safety resource pages of MHSAA.com. A few years ago, an extensive section promoting multi-sport participation was developed as an increasing amount of overuse injuries among single-sport athletes was being reported.
This fall, another section has been added as a sub-category to “Heads.” While attending an NCAA meeting in the summer of 2017, the topic of concussions came up, which I assumed to be the No. 1 issue concerning health and safety of student-athletes. It was quickly pointed out that student mental health – not concussions – had become the top health concern among our young people. That knocked me back.
Medical personnel have determined that depression, anxiety and other issues related to mental health are the No. 1 concern among adolescent-age children. There’s a real opportunity to provide some leadership and guidance in this area.
We need to offer resources on the subject, and also be prepared to provide guidance for our membership. The MHSAA has developed a Mental Health Speakers Bureau (please visit our Health & Safety page online). The first statewide Student Mental Health Summit scheduled for Lansing in October provided an opportunity for school principals, counselors, student leadership advisers and student leaders to convene on the topic.
The gathering was quickly sold out, indicating not only the growing nature of concern for this issue, but once again displaying the willingness of our educational leaders to recognize and react to another challenge.
This week, Second Half will publish the latest benchmarks report on the MHSAA’s mental health initiatives and those being undertaken by other states as well.
NFHS Voice: Committed to HS Football
February 12, 2020
By Karissa Niehoff
NFHS Executive Director
The enduring popularity of football in the United States was celebrated in the past year at all levels of the sport.
The NFHS celebrated its 100th year of service in all areas of high school sports, including the writing of football playing rules, although the first-known games date to the 1870s.
This past year, the NCAA recognized the 150th anniversary of college football which started in 1869 when Princeton and Rutgers met for the first time. And the National Football League just closed its 100th season, which started with a 1919 game between Dayton and Columbus.
From those beginnings to today, the impact of football on life in America is incalculable. From the youth leagues, through high school and college, and on to the NFL, football is the runaway leader as this country’s most popular sport – both from a participant standpoint with about three million players annually at all levels, to the millions of fans who attend or watch games.
Every fall, millions of families spend a portion of their weekends supporting their grade-school kids in youth football programs. Through these programs, kids are exposed to the basics of the sport and, more importantly, they begin to learn teamwork, sportsmanship and how to win and lose in a proper manner.
On Friday nights, beyond the one million high school students – boys and girls – actually playing football, there are more than 150 million fans who attend games each year. Parents are involved in booster club activities, and homecoming activities occur during one football game every year. In many communities – particularly smaller cities and towns – Friday night football is often the most anticipated event of the week.
Another 50,000-plus players are involved in college football on Saturdays. As is the case at the high school level, homecoming events are tied to one football game every fall. Postseason bowl games have been a part of American culture for decades, and the new College Football Playoff has brought even more excitement to the end of the season.
NFL games on Sunday complete the three-day weekend focus on the country’s favorite sport. Thanks, in part, to the singular weekly focus as opposed to multiple games each week in the other three major professional sports, football dwarfs its competitors.
The interest level in playing football – and following the sport at all levels – has never been higher. With that continued interest in the sport comes the expectation that everything possible is being done – at all levels – to ensure that the safety of each and every participant is of the upmost concern.
With that backdrop, last week we met with leaders from USA Football, several state high school association executive directors and high school coaches and athletic directors representing the National High School Football Coaches Alliance and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, respectively.
Collectively, these groups are committed to consistent messaging and support to ensure the ongoing popularity of the sport for the next 100 years. We believe the Football Development Model (FDM) enacted by USA Football will re-invigorate interest in the sport at the youth levels. The FDM reduces contact in youth football and advances the game through comprehensive education, game progressions and safety standards.
There was also agreement about the importance of high school football coaches. By connecting with coaches of youth football programs in their communities, high school football coaches can spur excitement on the part of youth players and their parents and improve chances of kids continuing to play the sport. Without a doubt, high school football coaches can be the focal point to success of programs in communities across the nation.
Working together, we can count on a continuation of the sport’s popularity at the high school level.
Dr. Karissa L. Niehoff is in her second year as executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is the first female to head the national leadership organization for high school athletics and performing arts activities and the sixth full-time executive director of the NFHS, which celebrated its 100th year of service during the 2018-19 school year. She previously was executive director of the Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference for seven years.