AUGUSTA – The University of Maine’s Sport and Education Coaching Initiative continues to command national attention.

This week, co-director Duke Albanese will head to the Washington, D.C., area for a meeting of the National Association of State Boards of Education, where he is scheduled to give a presentation on the UMaine initiative Friday.

“The interest has come from all over the place,” Albanese said last week at a meeting of a select panel charged with putting together guidelines.

“We’re focused on Maine kids and coaches, but my sense is that the issue is across the country,” he added. “… When [organizations] hear that I’m working on an initiative at the University of Maine on sports, they’re very interested.”

One of NASBE’s focuses this year is interscholastic sports with a focus on the middle school and high school levels – exactly what Albanese and co-director Bob Cobb are doing in Orono. Albanese will be speaking to NASBE’s Commission on High School Athletics in an Era of Reform.

“This commission was named because they feel there are so many issues there that they can no longer ignore,” said Albanese, who is the former Maine Commissioner of Education.

Other speakers include officials from the National Federation of State High School Associations, which sets rules and regulation for high school sports, a member of the Maryland State Board of Education, and former Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson.

Albanese and Cobb were both in attendance for last week’s panel meeting at the Maine Principals Association office.

The panel is made up of 18 men and women from all over Maine and different aspects of sports and education.

The ultimate job of the panel is to make recommendations for a series of guidelines that schools all over the state can use to improve the training of coaches and shape their interscholastic athletic programs.

The Coaching Maine Youth to Success initiative is being funded by a $397,400 congressionally authorized grant. Albanese and Cobb have said they want to present the guidelines to the public this fall.

It was the third meeting for the panel. Main topics of conversation included a discussion of coaching requirements, highlights from student surveys, the challenges faced by athletic directors, and planning for future sessions.

Some of the issues tossed around – many of which will likely be discussed in future panel meetings – included the lack of women coaches in Maine, coaches who are not employed by the school district in which they coach, the differences between interscholastic and age-group sports programs, and how to keep kids interested in interscholastic sports.

“This group is very productive and very insightful,” Albanese said.

The panel has started planning for a March 9 student-athlete summit, which will take place at the University of Maine’s Orono campus. More than 300 people are expected to attend the summit.

Albanese said the group hopes to have a student from every high school in Maine and for all kinds of representation, from star athletes to students who have decided not to continue with sports.

“The kids are great,” Albanese said. “They’re so astute and they inform the process.”