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[Mike D]

MC Sports In Crisis 2015

How poor leadership and fading support are holding our kids back

Duneland Conference Standings - All Sports

The headlines have not been kind to MC Sports lately. MCHS football just lost its coach and had a very unfortunate disciplinary charge against it this past season. The MCAS Board would not even bring a vote on raising the GPA for its student athletes (and others) to 2.0. No sports have been even close to a sectional victory except for basketball. Park & Rec “partner” sports are down dramatically in participation. MC Sports are in crisis. It is the current doormat of the Duneland conference.

Why? Poor sports performance is almost always linked to poor coaching, poor management and lack of motivation of parents (yes, parents not kids). In MC, all are true – culpability is equally shared amongst sedentary leaders, 1950’s mentality of sports management and the inability to keep parents of good athletes “in the fold”. Indeed, parents of good athletes are moving their kids away from MC sports and into programs that better fit their children’s degree of seriousness – be it for performance or just plain management. Most of the young stars in swimming, soccer, football, baseball and a variety of other sports now train and compete outside of their 46360 zip code.

Program Decline Roots

As a parent in this community for over 10 years, the experience in sports in MC has been disappointing and frustrating. Disappointing in that the programs are led by the same people year-in-and-year out, without any regard to changing times within the sports and their environs. It is frustrating because the people who run these sports have absolutely no interest in new people and new ideas entering their sphere of influence (which ranges from ownership to political power). Football, baseball, swimming, soccer and others have been run (into the ground) by people who have been there for a decade or longer. Ask and find out for yourself.
Though the people who run youth sports are to be commended for their dedication to helping children promote healthy bodies and learn about competition, in MC programs these folks have become so grounded in their own methods that they fail to consider how much things are changing in technology, children’s ideals, even the sports themselves (in terms of make-up and intensity). Many have ”no skin in the game” – i.e., no children in the programs themselves – a big red flag. Others are passing the leadership torch to their siblings. Their vision is not only myopic, but short sighted.

Park & Rec seems to have no interest in policing the activities of its partners or the tenants of their fields. Further, it runs programs that lose money and have negative impact on retaining youth athletes through its lack of leadership in managing its tenants. Park & Rec’s focus is on building projects and maintenance – perhaps rightly so – but it has absolutely abdicated (or should, entirely) their responsibility for building and maintaining sports programs in our community. Just read the minutes. For their partners and own programs, there are no annual report requirements, customer service, (in case a parent has a complaint or an idea), development function or anything else that might help our sports programs progress and develop. But if you want to paint and bench, mend a fence, build barn or cut a tree, Park & Rec really wants to hear from you. Got a complaint or idea for sports management? Not interested. - take it to your elite sports manager.

2014 MC Park & Rec Annual Report - see Last Section on Participation

As another example of poor leadership, look at Park & Rec’s “progress” on the No Smoking ordinance, which was passed (if you can believe it) just this past year. Instead of a broad and all-encompassing program to rid the parks of smoking (at least during youth events), the Board covered just three parks, then under -funded it. Checkout the signage at Patriot Park – it is pitifully inadequate. Park employees have no instructions or accountability to police infractions. If it were not for a few parent complaints, there would have been no ordinance at all – a true example of dismal leadership in the department and its Board.

MCAS really has not helped its own cause, either. The recent decision to not vote on the 2.0 GPA requirement is testament to a problem root – lack of leadership. If we do not ask our young people to strive for excellence in their studies, how do we ask them to be excellent on the playing field. The reasons in the discussion were laughable(check it out), but the threat of legal action is completely hollow. Several neighboring schools, including Laporte, passed the resolution with little fanfare and great support from the communities. The MCAS Board missed an important opportunity to lead.

MCAS also requires none of its coaches to participate in the community from which it draws its athletes. There seems to be no interest in the newest of coaches to actually change the status quo. The result of course is losing. Many Duneland conference coaches are intricately involved in youth sports in their jurisdiction – basically consulting on their feeder systems – and work hand-in-glove with youth coaches. Ask a MCHS coach where he gets his athletes from – you’d be surprised to learn that they have no idea. MCAS also has no facility for any after school activities – turf-ing it off to contractors.

The sports landscape and youth sports in general have changed dramatically over a generation. Kids today trim down their sports agendas to focus on the things they really want to do. The two-sport athlete and walk on athlete are largely in the past.

Technology and knowledge are also changing the way kids approach sports and how parents involve themselves in their kids’ sports activities. Software programs that management sports increase productivity for parents – often busy with multiple venues, equipment needs and ride sharing. Yet many sports in MC have not employed these techniques or fail to involve parents to deploy them.

The future looks bleak. Families are actually moving out of the town to seek better opportunities for their kids. MCAS is struggling to find good coaches. Park & Rec has no interest in leadership and its partners are mired in nepotism. Unless the current power structures allow new ideas to breech, the picture of MC sports will look much like it is today - and with even less parents and strong student athletes.