Time to Get Back to Basics In High School Athletics

Not long ago, high school athletics was a way to build character, to learn valuable lessons about teamwork, effort and determination, and ultimately to have fun. While these still remain the objectives of any legitimate athletic program, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain these goals.

Adults in education, parents and the media have taken the innocence out of the endeavor and turned it into a cynical activity solely based on winning and material reward.

The most recent phenomenon is the “free agency” of student-athletes created by open enrollment, promoted by high school coaches, administrators and parents, and subsequently highlighted by the media.

The children can’t be held responsible for this development. Adults created the rule, adults steer their kids toward winning programs, adults find ways to contact student-athletes and try to woo them from one school to another. And adults write about “impact transfers” in the newspaper, further chipping away at the virtue of youth sports.

It is up to adults to reverse this trend. Parents must seriously weigh any decision to change schools. It should not be based solely on their child’s place on a depth chart. Coaches must stay true to the letter of the CIF law regarding improper contact with student-athletes. Administrators must seriously and carefully examine any transfer.

All applicants should be evaluated on their ability to meet the school’s admissions criteria, not simply on how they may help the school’s athletic program. And the media, while bound to report news, must take a role in deglamorizing open enrollment.

Unless and until adults start to reverse this trend, high school athletics will drift farther away from the very noble goals they were originally intended to achieve.

GARY MURPHY

Principal, Chaminade High

Simi Valley

ROB WEBB

Athletic director, Chaminade High

Saugus