Back at work … with a fresh controversy
Posted on July 5th, 2009 – 7:22 PMBy John Millea
Happy post-holiday wishes to everyone. Now it’s time to return to the grindstone and see what happens.
The Lake/Classic Lake conference mishmash appears to have settled down (at least for the holiday weekend), but I’ll be keeping an eye on that during the days to come. Another controversy is bubbling, and this one involves high school baseball.
I’m hearing that some baseball coaches are not too happy that the MSHSL is considering moving the season back a bit in the spring; it makes sense on a weather level, certainly. The unhappy coaches feel that their sport should be left alone, and hints are being dropped that baseball might be better off if it was not part of the MSHSL.
Yes, you read that right. There is a suggestion on the table that baseball coaches should consider removing their sport from the auspices of the governing body for all high school sports in Minnesota. They are looking at the True Team track concept — which is administered by the track coaches association and is separate from the MSHSL — and wondering, “Can we do the same thing with baseball?”
Drastic? Certainly. Loopy? Maybe. I’ll keep an eye on this, too.
Have a great week.
John Millea is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/stribjohn
20 Responses to "Back at work … with a fresh controversy"
Maybe the football coaches should remove their sport from high school league rule as well. Thinking out loud with a keyboard, and admittedly crazily, they could go back to the five class model, which although seemingly excessive as well, seemed to work better years ago. Some classes cannot even field 64 teams. That would help legitimize the playoffs, especially if they also decide that not every school fielding a team gets in. Finally, instead of pulling an NCAA and having schools forfeit victories, suspend the school from any playoff contention for the succeeding year. Even better, suspend the bureaucrats from their “activities” duties and pay.
Instead of wasting time moving it back, MSHSL should do what they do in other cold-weather states: move baseball (and softball) to the fall, and move the other sports (except football) to the spring season. That makes more sense. And probably gives the coaches yet another reason to want to break away from MSHSL.
I believe Iowa plays their baseball and softball seasons in the summer. Not a bad concept. Most kids are playing legion or babe ruth anyways.
High-school baseball is #3 for any developing player in Minnesota: #1 is Legion, #2 is a camp (like John Anderson’s) and #3 is HS ball. Let’s be real about the real pecking order.
I don’t think FB would be let to leave; they’d (the MSHSL) would fight tooth and nail to keep it. The Prep Bowl is a big money maker and I’m sure one of the few tournaments that makes money (Basketball and Hockey being the others that come to mind).
Jay, you are correct Iowa’s season is in the summer (as mentioned in here a few weeks back by me and confirmed by John)… and for those reasons John thought it wouldn’t be moved; And I agree - I played some HS Baseball here in the 90s.
In this time of economic hardship, maybe it’s time to get in line with the rest of the world (go ahead, call me a socialist) and just separate all sports from high schools. Most kids play on club teams when they’re “out of season” anyway, so why not save school districts millions of dollars on athletic programs and put the money toward improving education so we can better compete with India and China.
My first thought was that I have always thought hockey should move away from the MSHSL and operate closer to the international standard… But baseball? Why not? I guess I am moving closer to thinking that the school system and ALL sports should be separated.. Why are we making schools the organizing unit for athletics anyway? Tradition? Traditions can and should change!
Similar threats by coaches a number of years back when the MSHSL wanted to phase out 9-Man football. So this kind of posturing is not unprecedented. Are the coaches so upset about the Spring trips south being eliminated by the MSHSL?
Rico and Spicey,
I think the day is coming when schools will not have sports. We can’t keep cutting money from education and leave sports alone. I say cut’em, give them to clubs and get teachers back in the classroom teaching. Maybe some of these, “Coaches” will actually have to work for their money, instead of thinking they are Bobby Knight or Woody Hayes.
The problem I see with losing sports is two-fold.
1. How do the less privelaged kids participate? This has already started to become a problem in some schools that have a high particiaption fee.
2. How do you pay for field usage? The schools are already charging everyone wanting to use some of their space an unbelievable amount of money to use what we tax payers have already paid for. If sports becomes privatized the schools will have a gold mine renting space because they are the only ones with the space.
TommyP… Valid points. I guess I would hope that there would be some public money and perhaps some kind of new “activities” district involved. I am very familier with raising funds for a small, rural hockey assn. It can work. I was actually thinking from the angle that removing sports would help schools focus on their mission.
Sports should be removed from education and should be handled with private funds instead. Schools need to focus on education, not on building stadiums.
If you think sports should be removed then all extra-curricular activities should be removed as well - like choir, theater, debate. etc.
Bill Brasky… I’ll go for that. Maybe what we’re talking about is re-aligning competitive athletics, rec athletics & Arts into a more “community” oriented thing and focussing schools on academics.
Coaches… I’d say be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. No way that school districts will pull an activity away from the MSHSL, so that means creating non-school teams. If you think you’ve got problems with parents now, just wait until the parents have to fork over two to three times the amount of money they do now for their kid to be in a sport. They expect playing time and they expect wins. You guys have enough pressure on you just trying to coach and not have parents run you out of town. Don’t try to reinvent the system.
In response to Bill Brasky’s comment that all extra-curricular activities should be removed:
I see a lot more educational merit in debate, speech, theater and even choir, than I do in sports. Not that sports don’t have an educational component, I believe they do, just not to the same level.
I’d be open to looking at the elimination of spring sports (baseball, softball and track).
The weather in Minnesota doesn’t cooperate. And as “tonkaboy” points out, Legion and Club baseball rank #1 and #2 in development over high school. The same can be said for softball in many cases (at least in the metro area).
It would give the “summer” baseball and softball programs an extra month to prepare for their seasons — where there are no travel rules, no number of contest restrictions, etc.
I lived in Iowa for several years before moving back to MN. And Tonkaboy is correct - Iowa’s HS baseball season is May, June and July. Apparently done for 2 reasons - 1. Eliminate the conflict with Track 2. Eliminate the spring weather issues.
I can honestly say that Legion BB isn’t that strong in Iowa (certainly not to the degree it is here) and that town / club ball doesn’t really start until after the kids there leave HS.
As to whether or not to “eliminate” spring sports (none of which are considered “Revenue” sports) - at least one arguement for keeping them is Title 9 which requires equal opportunity for female and male atheletes. Not sure what eliminating Baseball, Track and Softball would do…but my guess is that it would not be good. Maybe they’d cancel each other out…
Another reason to keep in the schools is the ability for schools to provide a chance for all to participate. For many of the rural areas of the state - there’s the school teams or no teams. Club teams / town teams aren’t as accessable to the person that lives 30 or 40 miles from the town.
I have a feeling that what to “do” about school-based sports is a discussion that is just beginning. It is traditional for schools to sponsor athletics, but does that practice “fit” anymore. I guess we need to stay tuned!
While the idea of moving certain sports out of their traditional seasons to better fit MN weather and HS schedules isn’t all that bad of an idea, it could have a negative impact on potential college recruits. In a sports management class I took at the U, we read a case study on a similar scenario in another state where some sports were moved out of their traditional seasons. A girl’s family sued the HS league for that state and won b/c having the season outside the traditional season limited her ability to be recruited by college coaches. The signing dates for college athletic scholarships are set-up around the traditional seasons so in the case of soccer, for example, I believe the signing date is some time after the fall season. If you played in the spring, then the senior season for those athletes wouldn’t really count for those athletes b/c they would have to sign before the senior season. This is no different then it is for the current spring sports, but the difference is that all traditional spring sports have to deal w/ this, while traditional fall sports do not. Moving a fall sport to the spring would put our athletes at a disadvantage compared to the majority of the country. Just some thing to think about.
I think that although there are some benefits to moving sports away from the HS’s, it still would have more negative impact. Club sports are way more expensive than school sports and would greatly limit participation of those who don’t have as much money. Competing for the HS gets community support and creates school spirit. Maybe if there were not HS teams then club sports would get more attention, but currently few people come watch club sports besides family/friends of the players. If you think recruiting and politics in HS sports is bad now, I’m sure it will get worse if school teams go away and everything is club.
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