High school sports done right

More than a year ago, the committee formed by Bob Cobb, chairman of the College of Education at the University of Maine, issued a report called “Sports Done Right,” on its findings concerning issues and solutions involving high school athletics in Maine.

I found that the report had some good ideas, but it did not focus on the real problems facing athletes in Maine high schools. In my view, the following are some of the more important factors that need to be addressed before dealing with the issues listed in the “Sports Done Right” manual.

Panel: The panel and associates are people who are not currently directly working with student athletes. Only one is presently coaching a high school or middle school team. A more effective method to deal with problems and solutions in athletics is to work with ideas formed from groups of educators who deal with kids on a daily basis. Mandates from the top down basically do not work.

Coaching: Coaches are the focal point of high school athletics because they are the leaders. They are in a position to have a tremendous impact on young lives. Because there is so much passion involved with what they do, they have an opportunity to teach kids more about life than any other member of the school faculty. If the basketball coach fails at his or her job, the whole town is upset. If the math teacher fails at his or her position, maybe a couple of parents care. That’s wrong, but that is reality.

Coaching contracts: Several decades ago school superintendents separated teaching contracts from coaching contracts. This simple action created coaching positions with no teaching positions to accompany them.

Today many positions on the athletic staffs are filled with rent-a-coaches or volunteers. Educationally it is best when the coach is also a teacher in the system.

To add to the tenuousness of the situation, today coaching contracts are for a single season. Each year the local school board has to approve the coach whether he has coached for one or 21 years. Every other professional person has more job security than coaches do. After several years of probation a teacher gets a continuing contract. For the sake of stability, coaches need the same treatment.

Coaching education: Coaching education has decreased. Previously, people interested in coaching went to college, played a sport or sports, took coaching courses along with other education preparation courses. That progression seldom happens now. With the separation of teaching from coaching, training for coaches has suffered.

The American Coaches Education Program (a few hours of preparation from videos and printed lessons) has been the substitute for the solid preparation of the 1950s and 1960s. The whole process has to be revised with the input of a lot of different people and groups, including colleges and universities if we are going to have better trained coaches. It starts with the teacher-coach combination that was mentioned previously.

Coaching majors must be created with education minors so coaches can better fit the school model.

Student fitness and health: The obesity level in Maine schools is of epidemic proportions. High school physical education programs are woefully weak in addressing this problem. Although the following are guesstimates from some physical education teachers I know, one in 20 central Maine kids can do 50 sit-ups; one in 10 can do one pull-up; and one in 30 can run a mile. Physical education programs need to be comprehensive quality venues for kids to learn solid fitness regimes, sound diet instruction and good substance abuse education. Strong leadership from the Department of Education, school boards and administrators is necessary to get this accomplished. Students in all grade levels need to take part in physical education classes with performance guidelines requisite for credit.

Maine Principals Association: Classification for Sports Participation.

The MPA must think outside the box on this issue! In some sports, (football and hockey), schools should be classified according to strength of program. It is ridiculous for some schools to be matched with opponents who are much stronger year after year, just because of school enrollment. Being overmatched constantly takes away a kid’s or team’s incentive to compete, plus in contact sports it is unsafe.

Transfer rule: The transfer rule is another area that MPA needs to adjust. A student should not be able to go from school X to school Y just because school Y has a better basketball program. All of us know examples of kids changing schools just to be part of a better team. In my view, any transfer of a student without a parental change in residence, the student must sit out a year of athletic activity.

Sportsmanship: Although the MPA suggests and employs public awareness announcement endorsing sportsmanship, the reality is that few schools enforce circumstances of bad behavior. Students and fans need to be held more accountable and removed from contests when they can’t follow the guidelines.

Athletic officials: Officiating an athletic contest is a difficult job, one that most people don’t want to attempt because of the passion involved. There are some very good officials, and there are some at the opposite end of the spectrum. In my view, we need a new system of evaluating officials, developed by conference members, to get the best officials at games and one which encourages younger people to join the officiating ranks.

Philosophy of high school athletics: “Sports Done Right” states that high school athletics should be “fun.” The problem is that fun is defined differently by individuals. Someone may think that running five miles is “fun,” while the next person would think it is torture. In my view, the value of high school athletics is working hard with your teammates to reach a common goal. Sometimes you reach that goal, other times you may not. That is life. Life lessons are what high school athletics should be about.

These are some observations and suggestions to help improve sports/physical activities in high school for kids. I’ve watched these events firsthand in over 60 years of playing, coaching and administering athletics in Maine. I do not presume to have raised all the questions or to know all the answers; however, with help from other interested parties, physical education, intramurals and interscholastic athletics can be made better for all students in Maine schools.

I like the motto that used to hang on a plaque in the Cianbro board room: “There’s no one person smarter than all of us!”

Wally Covell is a retired Colby College baseball coach. He coached high school and college athletics for over 55 years, served as athletic director in both high school and college, and is currently baseball coach and assistant football coach at Lawrence High School in Fairfield.