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I live and officiate in Michigan. It is my opinion that the lawsuit was wrongly decided by a judge who did not, and does not, understand the purpose of high school athletics.
Having said that, the woe-is-me lines I have heard from many in my state are wearing thin. We'll adjust and we'll be just fine. As Rut pointed out, it's not like Michigan has any fewer gyms than high schools in other states. Now the boys and girls basketball teams will have to share gym time? I suppose if the girls volleyball teams were practicing out in the snow, that might take a bigger adjustment, but it turns out that volleyball practices take place ... wait for it ... in a gym. I don't think the concerns about lack of quality officials are legitimate either. In my area, we've all received our assignments and the assignors are not pulling out their hair about any shortages. Assignors around here have insisted that if you want to work boys games you'll work girls games, too (and vice versa). So, for good or for ill, boys and girls will have the same "quality." Parenting has taught me that "equality" does not mean "sameness." And, even though Michigan's sport seasons are now the "same" for boys and girls, we still have work to do (as most every state and area do) before we reach the desired and deserved equality. The lawsuit was a crutch, and a poor one at that. But where our feet take us now that we're done with the crutches is up to us. |
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I think I have a very good understanding of High School Athletics. What is so great about having two different seasons for the players? Also keep in mind that the rest of the country plays basketball at the same time for both genders. What is the benefit? All I have heard was official's shortage and gym space (which are problems around the country). Are the girl's getting more volleyball scholarships?
Peace
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Let us get into "Good Trouble." ----------------------------------------------------------- Charles Michael “Mick” Chambers (1947-2010) |
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The purpose of high school athletics is to provide a venue for parents who have failed in their prior sporting endeavors to live vicariously through their children's accomplishments. That's why the amount of importance put on high school athletics is grossly out of proportion to academic achievement.
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Let us get into "Good Trouble." ----------------------------------------------------------- Charles Michael “Mick” Chambers (1947-2010) |
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I am not wishing to be "evasive," but I do not have the time or inclination to try to educate you on this point. If you truly are interested -- if you truly have NO idea why there might be some benefit to high school athletes in having separate seasons, then feel free to peruse the Michigan High School Athletic Association website (www.mhsaa.com) archives. (Some of the "explanations," as I earlier indicated, I disagree with -- e.g., shortage of facilities and officials -- not everything the MHSAA put out should be taken as the Gospel.) |
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Most of the larger A schools and "some" B schools have gym sizes to accomodate everybody but that is not the norm. With most schools there are 2 V teams 2 jv teams and 2 freshman hoops teams with even an A and B team on some freshman boys teams. All these teams need games and practices in the same gym all week. Volleyball normally filled up their game schedules with a week night and all day Saturday tourneys/invites. So they only required (a lot of times) one night a week for games. And one BBall court holds 2 VB courts for practices which for a lot of rural schools is V and JV only. So their practice scheduling was much easier....And they managed to play dozens more matches than other states because of the longer season. Girls had a great benefit playing hoops on Tue and Thurs in the fall as they did not have to compete with boys sports (friday night football) Girls VB will enjoy some of that benefit now except for the saturday part (college football coverage) My biggest gripe is they passed it off as a gender equity suit so volleyball would match the rest of the country....which btw 10 years ago 8 other states played GBB/Fall GVB winter. |
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I started officiating in rural Illinois and you were lucky if a school had 3 teams per gender. Everyone had a varsity team and a sophomore team, but freshman teams were not always a constant because there were not enough kids to fill those teams. The way I understand this was most gyms have the multiple hoop gyms (courts running sideways through the main court) and that would be how a lot of practices would be run. The girls would practice and one time and the boys would practice at another time. They way it was done is one would practice right after school and the other might practice later that evening. This of course included when both teams were around. When the season started and one team had to go on the road, this was not the same issue. I am not talking multiple gyms. I am talking a very small school with one gym for everything. Most of the schools in my state do not have over 1000 kids in the high school. And in some case the HS is the same building that the JH is located and they have to share the gym with those kids where many games at those levels are also played during a portion of the HS season. Quote:
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I equate this issue as what is happening here. Our state has had 2 classes for 30 years. Now the IHSA is going to 4 classes. Now I personally do not like it, but the change is here. There is nothing we can do about it now and many of the arguments to keep the 2 class system are minimal. The rest of the country has more than 2 classes and in some cases 5 and 6 classes. People gave similar arguments that it would change greatly affect the balance of competition and would change why people attended games. The more I think of it what I was holding on to was tradition because it was always done that way. I am sure we will get over it just like everyone else has had to deal with it. Peace
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Let us get into "Good Trouble." ----------------------------------------------------------- Charles Michael “Mick” Chambers (1947-2010) |
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Peace
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Let us get into "Good Trouble." ----------------------------------------------------------- Charles Michael “Mick” Chambers (1947-2010) |
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Bottom line, 2 parents of VB players were upset because their daughters needed to make the varsity squad as a freshman so they could be seen by College VB coaches by their junior season because other states players were being recruited at different (earlier) times. These mom's lawyers wrapped this up in a gender equity suit, called it a Title IX issue, highlighted a bunch of sports where boys and girls played at different seasons and sued crying GENDER EQUITY!!!TITLE IX !!!. Said boys and girls should be equally advantaged or disadvantaged when it comes to sports seasons. The MHSAA lost. The MHSAA compliance plan rotated a bunch of sports so boys/girls golf, Tennis, soccer, what have you, were all in the same season or arranged it so all the boys and girls were either equally advantaged or disadvantaged. This did not sit well with the moms and lawyers because GBB/GVB remained the same. That's when it got ugly for 4 more years of appeals and such. Basically all the moms were after was getting VB to the fall so they could start their precious club ball at the same time as other states. Quote:
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Yom HaShoah |
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I believe Lacrosse plays both genders at that same time. After all these sports you mentioned are outdoor sports and it would be very hard to move these sports to the winter in the Midwest. We all know that football, basketball and baseball/softball are king. The other sports would have little participation if you moved those sports to other times. Quote:
Peace
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Let us get into "Good Trouble." ----------------------------------------------------------- Charles Michael “Mick” Chambers (1947-2010) |
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The precious club mommies are not that different then other parents. Why don't they play AAU BB in the winter for HS age kids ? |
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From the evidence, this wasn't broken (evidently Michigan girls did not trail other states in scholarships) but the courts decided otherwise.
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