By Staff
Athletic Management, 18.5, August/September 2006, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/am/am1805/wusportsright.htm
IF SOMEONE ASKED YOU TO NAME THE BIGGEST problems in high school sports today, you’d probably have no trouble answering. Maybe you’d say parents who think athletic programs exist solely to benefit their child. Or coaches who put winning above all else. Or the lack of sportsmanship among today’s student-athletes.
Administrators and educators have shaken their heads at problems like these for years, but now, a growing number of high schools in Maine are facing them head-on, using a new program called Sports Done Right. Conceived by the University of Maine and its Maine Center for Sport and Coaching (MCSC), the program is hoping to revolutionize high school athletics in the Pine Tree State.
By signing on to the program—which is open to all high schools in the state—an athletic department agrees to follow a set of core principles and practices. It uses the program’s assessment tools to evaluate itself regularly and appoints a leadership committee of administrators, coaches, community members, and other stakeholders to oversee the whole process.
Sports Done Right’s core principles are broken down into seven categories: philosophy, values, and sportsmanship; sports and learning; parents and community; quality of coaching; opportunity to play; health and fitness; and leadership, policy, and organization. Within each category, there are both general and specific guidelines to follow.
For instance, under “quality of coaching,” the core principle states that, “The coach is the key to making the student-athlete experience appropriate, positive, and educational,” and practices include the coach serving as a role model at all times, recognizing the need for balance in the lives of student-athletes, and promoting connections between the sport experience and academic learning, life-long learning, and character development. Also included for each principle is a set of “out-of-bounds” behaviors—such as coaches communicating through intimidation, favoring the most skilled athletes, or promoting sport-specialization.
“The program serves as a guide that can be used in everything from specific policy decisions to department-wide mission statements,” explains Karen Brown, Director of the MCSC. “And a wonderful result is that it takes a different shape in every school that signs on, because each group of people brings their own ideas and has their own problems to address. Every Sports Done Right school subscribes to the same core principles, but they’re adapted to unique situations and needs.
“For instance, our ‘opportunity to play’ principle has been a great success story in a lot of different ways,” Brown continues. “Instead of cutting kids from teams, some Sports Done Right schools have started intramural programs, some have partnered with their local recreation department to form new leagues, and some have created expansion teams. However they choose to do it, they’re creating opportunities for more kids to participate, which is the whole idea of that principle.”
Since the program’s success depends on getting all the stakeholders on board, Sports Done Right also includes a set of compacts to be signed by parents, coaches, student-athletes, and school administrators. Each is customized for one specific group, and by signing, the parties agree to promote and honor the program’s core principles and practices.
So what kind of impact is Sports Done Right having at schools that have signed on? “It gives me something on paper that I can point to and say, ‘This is what we believe in and what we live by,’” says Don King, Cocurricular Director at Poland Regional High School, one of 12 pilot sites that rolled out the program in 2005-06. “And we judge our department by how well we’re adhering to the program’s core values.
“For example, when I’m hiring a coach, I’ll pull out a copy of the Sports Done Right report,” continues King. “I’ll ask the candidate if they’re familiar with it, let them take it home and read it, and then we’ll talk about the core principles—good sportsmanship, promoting personal growth, being a constant positive influence on athletes.”
Another big effect at Poland Regional is that it’s enhanced student-athletes’ voice in the athletic department. “Our school’s Sports Done Right committee put together an anonymous end-of-season evaluation form, and I look at the athletes’ responses when I’m evaluating coaches,” King says. “We’ve also started holding student-athlete luncheons, where we’ll invite 10 to 15 kids in for pizza and throw out some discussion questions. The student-athletes definitely enjoy that we’re interested in what they have to say, and the impression I get is that they’re really proud of being in a Sports Done Right program.”
› For more information, visit:
www.sportsdonerightmaine.org.