By Staff
Coaching Management, 14.4, April 2006, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm1404/bbindycomeback.htm
Coaches know that football can be a common target whenever schools look to streamline their athletics budgets. But when the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) proposed fielding football teams in only three of the system’s high schools as part of a plan to reconfigure athletics, the community said no. So the administration modified its proposal, keeping the sport at all seven city high schools, while bolstering feeder programs and support services.
The decision to preserve football at all schools was part of a larger initiative to improve athletics in the public schools of Indiana’s largest city. First-year Superintendent Eugene White, a former basketball player at Alabama A&M, convened a meeting of the district athletic directors last summer and, along with Curt Ervin, the district Supervisor of Athletics, wrote a proposal to take to the school board.
White’s plan was prompted largely by a near drought in state titles in several sports by once-competitive IPS programs, and the idea that district students were at an unfair disadvantage because their schools, where 82 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, lack the feeder programs and facilities found at wealthier suburban schools. In addition, Indianapolis media outlets have publicized cases of talented athletes leaving IPS for more prosperous school districts in the past few years. At the same time, several parochial schools in the city have built strong athletic traditions.
The core component of White’s current proposal is the introduction of fifth- and sixth-grade feeder programs in football as well as in track, cross country, basketball, volleyball, and soccer. The most recent plan calls for putting each elementary school into newly created athletic districts based on the feeder paths for each high school and supplying each with a program coordinator. The high school head coaches would serve as facilitators in their respective sports, with coaching provided by high school assistant coaches, high school athletes, and parent and community volunteers. To encourage high school coaches to take part, the elementary seasons would be held outside the traditional high school seasons—football, for example, would be held March through May, with summer clinics from June through August.
“That’s a positive move, because a lot of kids need to learn the fundamentals,” says Ken McMichel, Head Football Coach at Northwest High School. “A lot of kids want to punt, pass, and kick the ball, which is fine, but when they get to a competitive situation, they don’t know what the defensive line does or what the offensive line does. Once kids understand the game, that can help them immensely.”
A main thrust of the pre-high school plan is to give IPS students more opportunities to learn and play sports, matching programs that are common in suburban schools, where there are more likely to be summer leagues. While the city’s Police Athletic League runs a youth football program in Indianapolis, the first exposure to organized football for many players is high school, says Mike Akers, Head Football Coach at Washington Community School.
To supplement the spring season for fifth and sixth grades, IPS football coaches plan a series of summer clinics funded by the NFL Junior Player Development program. “We’re trying to find a way to teach the fundamentals in the lower grades,” says Akers. “Some of our varsity players will help run the clinics. They’re a way to provide some sense of belonging to the younger kids and develop them like some of the other successful programs have with their youth football. We have some youth football programs now, but by the time they finish middle school, the better kids are getting taken in by the other schools. That’s one thing we’re trying to prevent.”
White’s plan calls for phasing in changes beginning with the 2006-07 school year. The initial fifth- and sixth-grade football season would be in spring 2007. High school football teams would also be allotted a sixth paid assistant-coach position for the 2008 fall season. There would be additional spending for improved strength and conditioning facilities and stipends for elementary athletics coordinators in each athletic district. Head coaches would also see stipend increases to reflect their added role as coordinator.
Much of the money for these improvements would come from savings obtained by applying the magnet school model to other sports. In addition to football, each of the seven high schools would have boys’ and girls’ teams in basketball and track and field. But volleyball, golf, and soccer would be offered at only four schools. Baseball, softball, wrestling, cross country, and tennis would be offered at three schools, and only two schools would have swimming teams. This spring, the IPS plans a series of public meetings to explain the proposal’s details and to get feedback on it.
The true bright spot for Indianapolis football coaches seems to be saving the sport district wide while giving it, and other sports, more attention in the all-important earlier grades. “There are a lot of businesses surrounding our school community, and we’re trying to reach out and get them involved in the games, in partnerships, and things of that nature,” McMichel says. “If they see we’re serious about it, they’ll be serious about it, too.”
“We’re excited about the program,” Akers says. “It’s going to take a lot of work for us to get started with this fifth- and sixth-grade program, and we may not see the fruits of our labors for four or five years. But in the end, we hope we’ll be competitive like the IPS once was.”