Mike Vlahovich: Making the case for keeping school sports

During a pair of recent meetings, school administrators peered into a crystal ball for a glimpse into the future of high school sports.

One meeting was a gathering of Spokane-area superintendents, principals and activities coordinators.

“It was one of the few times you see that many together at one place,” said Gonzaga Prep president Al Falkner.

The second was the state athletic directors conference that included a PowerPoint presentation by Mt. Spokane’s John Miller and Mt. Vernon’s Eric Monson.

The gist of both discussions was how high school athletics can be maintained in the face of increasing budgetary constraints and pressure on young athletes for full-time commitments to some club programs.

Miller’s answer? “We need to get back to what we do best and that is education of parents at an early level. We need to sell them.”

He said schools must convince people that while club teams are valuable, it is high school sports that are the showcase for the vast majority of participants. Kids want to have fun and compete in front of their peers, he said.

His presentation addressed the effects of select/travel teams on high school sports, and explained the role of sports in schools.

The thesis cited the instant effect on students, ranging from higher grades and fewer dropouts, to development of skills – teamwork, sportsmanship, cooperation, competition and worth ethic – necessary in the long run as work-force adults.

School athletics help combat racism and low self-esteem while minimizing socio-economical differences, he said. They are available to a broader number of youngsters.

Yet some school districts and boards faced with unfunded mandates encroaching on their budgets are saying why put money into sports when club teams essentially are feeding varsity teams, not elementary, middle school and junior varsity programs, Miller said.

The concern, Miller’s presentation asserted, is that while some high-powered, many for profit, club programs improve an athlete’s skill, they also foster a win-championships-get-scholarships mentality. That, he argues, is anathema to the fundamental premise of school sports.

The presentation asked: “Are we supporting athletic practices that would be intolerable in the academic program? Have we been seduced into supporting a professional sports model that has replaced the educational role athletics are supposed to be serving?”

That brings us back to the local meeting of school administrators empathetic to the plight of District 81, which publicly has suggested elimination of ninth-grade sports as a means to save costs.

“It was a great sharing,” Falkner said, “and the most important thing was to affirm the value of activities in high school, especially at the ninth-grade level.”

Far more youngsters are affected at lower levels of sport in schools than at the varsity level – “a natural thinning of the herd,” said Miller, who pointed out that 80 girls played volleyball at Northwood Middle School, and the vast majority don’t play club and may never make varsity.

That is where students become engaged in their schools. And, Falkner added, activities play an essential role in the entire educational process.

“Athletics are an important piece of the educational puzzle,” he said. “The lived experience of the classroom is through athletics. It is how we integrate youngsters into the community.”