High school sports have been on a gradual decline since the 70's, and now it is getting critical. Attendance is down, participation numbers are high, but because there are more sports than ever for athletes to participate.
Friday night in Elkhart, Central and Memorial staged a rivalry basketball game at North Side Gym, capacity 8,000. The reports talked about a great turnout being 4,000 fans. North Side used to be full every time they threw the doors open. Now they rarely pull the seats out in the upper deck.
Anderson, IN tore down the Wigwam a couple of years ago, capacity 9,000. They just couldn't fill the place.
Football attendance seems to have been steady, but it's football, America's Habit.
What's wrong?
High school varsity sports used to be the best players in your community. Some of the best never play high school sports. Their travel teams play year round and are not limited by geography. They can compete for National Championships and are not limited by the school season.
Two prime examples: a swimmer and a tennis player.
The swimmer is my nephew, who I will call Chris. Chris has always been big and strong for his age and lives in a city with no HS swim teams. You would be out of luck in years past. Today, he swims for a travel program, can go all over the eastern seaboard, and has swam in Nationals since he was 9. The Olympics are a possibility in his future. Missy Franklin, gold medalist, swims for her high school in Colorado, but it's hardly competition.
A local tennis player, I'll call Steve, is home schooled. First off, he doesn't go to school, so he would be excluded from varsity athletics. No future? His future looks brighter than if he was in school. Since he is home schooled, he completes his day early and is off to practice. Professional tennis could very well be in his future: the worst he could do is a college scholarship, provided he stays healthy.
Okay, those are individual sports. How long until team sports start taking the same approach? I know of several baseball players getting college scholarships who never played HS baseball. Coaches are scouting travel tournaments to see how kids play multiple positions, see their pitching ability, and they can talk to the player without restriction, even work them out between games.
Sometimes, the state High School Associations are their own worst enemies. Indiana has restrictions on the Public Address announcer at Varsity games. Don't make it exciting, don't incite the crowd. Be careful: if the fans enjoy it, they might be back! I feel it denies a kid who may be staying in school to play ball recognition which could keep him developing. If he happens to go to college and makes a better life because of some recognition he earned, give it to him!
Or the rule being debated in Minnesota: allow the player to pick what gender they want to play. Supposedly, a disenfranchised transgender potential teen boy can play on the girl's team if that is the gender identified by the player. Some doctors will sign anything if the bill gets paid, and it's a matter of time until a boy who's not good enough to make the basketball team suddenly feels gender confusion because he can own the girls.
How do high schools fight back? Maybe their best answer is to do away with summer vacation. Go to school year round, and allow the athletes to work as a team on an athletic schedule, not a school calendar. Keep your teams together and play tournaments in the off season. Play as a travel team, and don't worry about Public Address announcers. Promote your sports all the time and package the student. After all, isn't the student/athlete what it is supposed to be about anyway?
So...am I off base?
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