[Robmoz]

More than 82 percent of Michigan schools which responded to the last survey indicated that they opposed this realignment of seasons. Associations of coaches for basketball, tennis, swimming and diving, golf and soccer are opposed. Associations of volleyball officials are opposed.

For example, a coach of boys and girls swimming at one Michigan high school volunteered that if the girls and boys seasons had been conducted at the same time of year, he would have eliminated 600 boys and girls from his programs over the last ten years because of facility limitations.

The group (Communities for Equity, the litigants) will tell you that forcing girls to play volleyball in the winter and basketball in the fall is costing them precious college scholarships.

Hogwash! First of all, it is not the role of the MHSAA to make sure students have the opportunity to receive athletic scholarships. Less than 1 percent of our athletes are going to receive athletic scholarships anyway, so changing the athletic calendar for those few students is sheer lunacy. But pretend for a moment that athletic scholarships are priority No. 1 for the MHSAA. As it turns out, it is doing quite well in that area, thank you.

Last year, the state produced the fifth-highest number of Division I volleyball scholarship athletes in the country and was No. 6 in the nation in women's basketball scholarship winners. This is why: Michigan's high school sporting schedule provides a tremendous advantage to basketball and volleyball players here.

Ask yourself: When is the easiest time for a college coach to evaluate prospects? When that coach isn't coaching his/her college team. College coaches can come here to evaluate players and not have to worry about coaching their team or neglecting their home state in recruiting.

You might say that since volleyball is played in the fall in other states, college coaches are finished recruiting by the time we even begin playing volleyball here. That is not true because college recruiting has become so sophisticated, most college coaches know to whom they are going to offer scholarships before the athlete's senior season even begins. Most coaches spend the school season concentrating on evaluating juniors, not seniors.

Many of the litigants are parents of volleyball players who want the volleyball season moved from the winter season to the fall season, in hopes of increasing their daughters' exposure to college coaches. What such litigation ignores, however, is that even if volleyball players would benefit from such a switch, an equal number of other athletes would suffer. The rearrangement in South Dakota, for instance, shifts girls' basketball to the winter, causing the state's female basketball players to receive less exposure to college recruiters. Worse yet, many girls are forced to choose between two sports that did not conflict in the previous system. Thus, regardless of whether the sports seasons are rearranged or the current schedule remains in place, it is unavoidable that some girls will feel as though they are denied the opportunities and exposure that other girls receive.

In more than half of the states in which both girls' and boys' basketball are scheduled for the same season, freshman or junior varsity squads have been eliminated! This was done in order "to accommodate [increased] demands on facilities, coaches and officials. With the current scheduling, Michigan averages 30 girls' basketball players per school, far more than in other states. For example, Missouri and Iowa average 24 players, Ohio averages 23 players, Florida averages 21 players, Alabama and Oklahoma average 15 players, and Tennessee averages 14 players per school. Judge Enslen used Kentucky to illustrate that a state can schedule boys' and girls' basketball during the same season. However, Kentucky has only 5,950 girls playing basketball, well surpassed by the 21,000 girls playing basketball in Michigan.

Equal opportunity? You want equal opportunity?

If the lawsuit filed against the MHSAA seeking to switch when some sports are played does produce that result, try this for some equal opportunity:
[list][*]Boys and girls will both have a greater chance of being cut from a team. [*]Those who make the team will not have as much time to practice their skills. [*]They will have a chance to play under coaches of lesser quality than they do now. [*]They will get to have their games worked by inferior officials. [*]They can even play in front of smaller crowds and draw less attention from the media. [*]All in the name of what has sadly become the holy grail of high school sports the college scholarship.

Sounds like a winner, doesn't it? NOT!