Emails, phone calls and internet postings continue to pile up in reaction to the changes instituted by the MSHSL board of directors on Monday. We know the headlines: no more long trips over spring break or any other time, limits on jamborees and scrimmages, fewer neutral-site playoff games, more single elimination in baseball and softball playoffs, and the golf season moved back one week.

There is no way to truly measure the reaction, but our web site offers two admittedly imperfect methods. One is the READER COMMENTS attached to the story from Monday’s meeting. The majority of people posting comments are opposed to the changes. In a Strib INSTANT POLL  with more than 1,000 votes so far, 60 percent are in favor of the travel limits and 40 percent are opposed.

One important point to remember: these decisions are made by the board of directors, not the MSHSL staff. Only the 20 board members vote. They come from around the state; most of them are associated with schools and some are from the public. Several members of the board are recommended to those positions by the governor.

Today I received a copy of a lengthy email that was sent to the MSHSL. It comes from an athletic director (whose identity I will protect since he was not the person who cc’d the email to me. He sent it to several other AD’s and coaches, and one of them forwarded it to me).

Here are some excerpts from that email …

Your decisions to limit the number of scrimmages, limit the travel, and restructure playoffs have the potential to be very damaging to both baseball and softball. Remember that the addition of lacrosse has already hit the numbers of track, baseball, and softball. We may not see this right now but you will in three years. The impact will be felt down the road. If the high school league’s intentions are to promote and offer opportunities to young people, you have really missed the mark for both baseball and softball.

From an educators perspective, you have now limited a traveling opportunity for people to see a different part of our United States. I can’t tell you how many times we talked about regional cultures of the athletes and schools that we played. Learning took place even though it wasn’t in a classroom. My athletes bonded on these trips and learned a lot of life lessons along the way. Some of these things could not have happened without the trip.

 I realize that decisions are made for the perceived betterment of programs as a whole, but it seems that baseball and softball took a major hit in this round. There is not one positive thing that came out of your recommendations and actions to benefit those two sports. At least golf got to move into better weather because of the one week late start. Baseball and softball, along with the other spring sports are taking a hit with the emergence of lacrosse and that is bad enough for their particular sports (not bad for kids because it offers opportunities).

I really think you did a disservice to the programs and the athletes in baseball and softball. I’m very disappointed in the decisions that were made.

Would anybody care to add anything? 

John Millea is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/stribjohnÂ

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 2:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.