Mike DiMauro: Summer HS sports scoreboard: Have-Nots 1, Haves 0

Jul. 31—This is the first summer in the history of state high school sports when equity has been a priority. All coaches in all sports, per a newly-adopted CIAC rule, are allowed up to four hours of weekly instructional time with players who choose to participate, thus allowing more equitable baselines of competition, giving have-nots at least one rock for the slingshot.

Indeed, it wasn’t always like this, with coaches (particularly football coaches) from affluent communities coaching their kids at expensive summer camps and clubs — opportunities that eluded low and moderate income families.

This is why I read with amusement recently quotes from some state football coaches concerned that multi-sport athletes would be “pulled in different directions” conceivably leading to “burnout.” This was never an issue when the same football coaches had their kids all to themselves every summer. Now that they must share and deal with that scourge called equity, they have these “concerns.”

I’ll take frauds for 600, Alex.

I mean, some of these football coaches are a hoot. They’ll go on a hunger strike to preserve Thanksgiving football, the sacrosanct “tradition” that manipulates the schedule and forces the 12 teams in the finals to play four football games in 17 days: Thanksgiving and three rounds of playoffs. No “burnout” issues there, right? No heeding the warnings of trainers and other medical personnel who say a glut of games in a short period of time increases risk of injury, right? Nah.

The truth? The new CIAC rule has been a smashing success, lauded in most places by coaches and kids alike. All sports treated equally. Yahtzee.

“It’s been great,” Waterford High three-sport athlete (soccer, basketball, baseball) Matt Shampine said. “I’m not burning out. I’ve focused more on playing (American Legion) baseball. So the day of a…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mike-dimauro-summer-hs-sports-005500044.html

Author : The Day, New London, Conn.

Publish date : 2024-08-01 00:55:00

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