By Staff
I have spent the end of my spring break catching up on the newspaper articles regarding the changing of seasons in Michigan.
Obviously, I am not happy with the decision, but it will create new challenges. After coaching girls basketball at the high school and college levels, and having three daughters heavily involved in sports, I felt Michigan was doing things just fine. I never felt Michigan girls were at a disadvantage. All of my daughters played college sports and also received tremendous educations.
We had huge turnouts for participation, and the talented athletes all were able to pursue college careers. There was no disadvantage at Buchanan.
One thing that I do believe has been overlooked is the focus of attention that has been put on the volleyball-basketball changes. They are not the only sports affected. In fact, changing those sports does not present a huge burden
for the athlete, but changing golf and tennis does!
Throughout the litigation process, the district judge in Kalamazoo also demanded the MHSAA realign sports to better fit the corresponding college seasons.
This judge saw that there were so many more boys' sports that were played corresponding with the boys' college seasons, and there were minimal girls' sports corresponding with the girls' college seasons. Thus, the judge mandated the MHSAA come up with a plan to put three boys and three girls sports in advantageous and disadvantageous seasons.
The MHSAA provided three possibilities for all schools in the state to vote on their preferred choice. The vote came down to switching golf and tennis, along with volleyball-basketball.
What will this mean? Switching girls' tennis to the spring means that the girls will have to wait nearly 18 months to resume their season. I am afraid that much interest will be lost, especially since girls' tennis will now have to compete with soccer, track, and softball.
Switching boys' tennis to the fall means the boys will be competing with football, soccer, and cross country.
Throughout the state, many schools report that the natural double for their athletes has been playing both soccer and tennis.
At Buchanan, we see nearly 70 to 80 percent of our athletes play both soccer and tennis. It is much easier to field a basketball team (five players) or a volleyball team (six players), but tennis requires 12 players (four singles and four doubles) – 24 with a JV program.
The transition period will be difficult. My junior varsity tennis coach, Brian Pruett, is the varsity soccer coach. We have decided to lessen the stress on the athletes and parents by taking the approach to recruit players to play both soccer and tennis. We are doing our best to plan competitions to not conflict, and make the practices realistic for the wear and tear physically and mentally on a two-sport athlete. We feel this is only fair for the players still in the high school.
During the transition, the younger players in middle school and elementary will have time to figure out what they will want to do.
What effect will this change have on the state? It will definitely have a huge impact on the smaller schools. Some schools will not have enough athletes and will have to drop JV or even varsity programs. That is a shame, since our state takes such great pride in student participation. For a while the quality of some programs will take a step back, but with time, we will settle into the new system. We have no choice.
It is a shame that two volleyball moms, who only had a concern for their daughters' college scholarship opportunities, created this dilemma.
Right or wrong, the state of Michigan schools and athletes liked the way we did things. The bottom line is that it worked. By the way, the volleyball mom's daughters all played college volleyball, even with the "disadvantaged season" in the winter. Maybe it is time for the soccer or tennis parents to sue? With the recent March Madness NCAA basketball tournaments completed, did we see parity in the coverage, interest, or attendance by putting the same sport against each other? Some times it might be in the "best interest" of the athlete to separate them…