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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.
ruxin

For the record, the Unified Track team won sectionals and placed 4th at state last year, gymnastics sent a girl to state, girls track had Jasmine McLemore finish 2nd at state and the boys track team finished 3rd at the DAC meet, 3rd at sectionals, and sent 4 individuals to state in 6 events.

Also, there's only one DAC school that requires student-athletes to have higher than a 1.5 GPA (LaPorte at 2.0). Not sure why we would hold our students to a higher standard than these other schools are.
Mike D
QUOTE(ruxin @ Nov 27 2015, 11:16 PM) *

For the record, the Unified Track team won sectionals and placed 4th at state last year, gymnastics sent a girl to state, girls track had Jasmine McLemore finish 2nd at state and the boys track team finished 3rd at the DAC meet, 3rd at sectionals, and sent 4 individuals to state in 6 events.

Also, there's only one DAC school that requires student-athletes to have higher than a 1.5 GPA (LaPorte at 2.0). Not sure why we would hold our students to a higher standard than these other schools are.



Thank you for the correction on the sectional title - my apologies to Unified Track. Congrats to others mentioned in your reply. There has been representations at state meets in swimming and other sports as well and those athletes are to be congratulated for their efforts. Everyone is proud of these achievements.

WEFM broadcasted a second report (taped) from the MCAS board meeting about its response and reasoning for not holding a vote on the 2.0 GPA criteria for board application. The first report aired was straight forward and to the point, with Mr. Burgwald stating his case - and without editorial comment by Mr. Miller. The second report, aired a day later, was a tape of Ms. Pishkur reading a prepared statement with a letter from a group against the proposal (I asked for a copy of this letter from three board members via email - so far no reply; minutes of board meeting are often published after 60 days - so not available at this time - ugh - Laporte is 30 days btw). The letter states "Ruskin's" reasoning, which the author fundamentally rejects. The letter also talked about how sports sometimes is the only reason an athlete might stay in school at all, which is terribly sad commentary on the state of mind of a young person, and terrible misguidance by the adults in his stead. Education is THE ONLY WAY OUT, despite some of the current political rhetoric (which has largely been debunked). Young people need to be led by education and swept up into sports, not the other way around. As the name implies, they are "student-athletes" (or musicians or dancers, et al.)

if you do not like the 2.0 GPA, how about adopting the NCAA requirements? This is a scaled up version, where the athlete would have to achieve a 2.0 after several quarters. High school students achieving a less than 2.0 GPA have little chance for post-secondary educational progress - with or without sports.

Laporte's 2.0 GPA requirement was brought into existence without much fanfare. The handbook was amended to include the provision and the Board approved the handbook. No lawsuits have been brought, there have been no complaints, and everyone at LCSC is committed to this change in order to create an environment of excellence. LCSC is very comparable to MCAS in terms of enrollment and funding, but seems to be doing just fine with the 2.0 GPA requirement. In fact, its numbers in almost all areas of education and athletics (graduation rates, college bound seniors, and, yes, sports success) are higher than MCAS, and quite comparable to DAC standings in general.

Thank you for your reply.
Southsider2k12
QUOTE(Mike D @ Dec 2 2015, 01:48 PM) *

Thank you for the correction on the sectional title - my apologies to Unified Track. Congrats to others mentioned in your reply. There has been representations at state meets in swimming and other sports as well and those athletes are to be congratulated for their efforts. Everyone is proud of these achievements.

WEFM broadcasted a second report (taped) from the MCAS board meeting about its response and reasoning for not holding a vote on the 2.0 GPA criteria for board application. The first report aired was straight forward and to the point, with Mr. Burgwald stating his case - and without editorial comment by Mr. Miller. The second report, aired a day later, was a tape of Ms. Pishkur reading a prepared statement with a letter from a group against the proposal (I asked for a copy of this letter from three board members via email - so far no reply; minutes of board meeting are often published after 60 days - so not available at this time - ugh - Laporte is 30 days btw). The letter states "Ruskin's" reasoning, which the author fundamentally rejects. The letter also talked about how sports sometimes is the only reason an athlete might stay in school at all, which is terribly sad commentary on the state of mind of a young person, and terrible misguidance by the adults in his stead. Education is THE ONLY WAY OUT, despite some of the current political rhetoric (which has largely been debunked). Young people need to be led by education and swept up into sports, not the other way around. As the name implies, they are "student-athletes" (or musicians or dancers, et al.)

if you do not like the 2.0 GPA, how about adopting the NCAA requirements? This is a scaled up version, where the athlete would have to achieve a 2.0 after several quarters. High school students achieving a less than 2.0 GPA have little chance for post-secondary educational progress - with or without sports.

Laporte's 2.0 GPA requirement was brought into existence without much fanfare. The handbook was amended to include the provision and the Board approved the handbook. No lawsuits have been brought, there have been no complaints, and everyone at LCSC is committed to this change in order to create an environment of excellence. LCSC is very comparable to MCAS in terms of enrollment and funding, but seems to be doing just fine with the 2.0 GPA requirement. In fact, its numbers in almost all areas of education and athletics (graduation rates, college bound seniors, and, yes, sports success) are higher than MCAS, and quite comparable to DAC standings in general.

Thank you for your reply.


Demographically City and LaPorte are nothing alike.
indianamaniac
Boys golf won its sectional last year, girls tennis has won all but two of the sectionals it has competed in since consolidation... Are golf and tennis not sports?
Mike D
QUOTE(indianamaniac @ Dec 2 2015, 08:24 PM) *

Boys golf won its sectional last year, girls tennis has won all but two of the sectionals it has competed in since consolidation... Are golf and tennis not sports?



Thank you for reading the post. I appreciate your corrections, especially for tennis, where we have one the best coaches of any sport. On the GPA issue, Ms. Pishkur never produced the document read at the meeting from an opposing group and the minutes will no be available for another month and may or may not be featured in the minutes. I still plan to publish it along with its authors. I found it interesting that Ms. Pishkur kicked my inquiry upstairs to President Dulaney - check the box there. My own rep, Ms. Chubb has never answered an email, so no luck there.

I did some asking around of local administrators and most said they didn't want it, but might consider a scaling up version like the NCAA requirement. When asked why not, most repeated the same reply here "Why when no one else is doing it?" - which of course is not true. This reply by our administrators is also interesting since at LPHS the requirement was driven by administrators and had no politics attached at all.

As far as demographics go, MCAS is actually smaller than LCSC by almost 1000 kids. MC and LP have very similar median incomes, home values and income distributions, even though MC is about 7000 people larger in population (though the gap is closing because LP is growing and MC is shrinking). I am guessing the reply is about race, which is not a factor in education. The overwhelming factor in the education gap is income differences - by a very wide margin. In fact, almost no other factor comes close. If you want to consider race (which you shouldn't), MC's black population is very diverse and often folded into "mixed race", which further tightens the differences. Throw in LP's fast grow Hispanic population, and you might have parity in the next decade. LP's graduation rates are slightly higher at 88% v. 84%, but many more go to college. LP's ISTEP scores are above the state's average at 86% v. 63% for MCAS. Numbers for both (HS is called ECA) LPHS and MCHS are the same, though MCHS is 400 kids smaller.

Welcome to check DOE Compass Education Stats for Indiana the DOE's number here.
Southsider2k12
QUOTE(Mike D @ Dec 9 2015, 05:26 PM) *

Thank you for reading the post. I appreciate your corrections, especially for tennis, where we have one the best coaches of any sport. On the GPA issue, Ms. Pishkur never produced the document read at the meeting from an opposing group and the minutes will no be available for another month and may or may not be featured in the minutes. I still plan to publish it along with its authors. I found it interesting that Ms. Pishkur kicked my inquiry upstairs to President Dulaney - check the box there. My own rep, Ms. Chubb has never answered an email, so no luck there.

I did some asking around of local administrators and most said they didn't want it, but might consider a scaling up version like the NCAA requirement. When asked why not, most repeated the same reply here "Why when no one else is doing it?" - which of course is not true. This reply by our administrators is also interesting since at LPHS the requirement was driven by administrators and had no politics attached at all.

As far as demographics go, MCAS is actually smaller than LCSC by almost 1000 kids. MC and LP have very similar median incomes, home values and income distributions, even though MC is about 7000 people larger in population (though the gap is closing because LP is growing and MC is shrinking). I am guessing the reply is about race, which is not a factor in education. The overwhelming factor in the education gap is income differences - by a very wide margin. In fact, almost no other factor comes close. If you want to consider race (which you shouldn't), MC's black population is very diverse and often folded into "mixed race", which further tightens the differences. Throw in LP's fast grow Hispanic population, and you might have parity in the next decade. LP's graduation rates are slightly higher at 88% v. 84%, but many more go to college. LP's ISTEP scores are above the state's average at 86% v. 63% for MCAS. Numbers for both (HS is called ECA) LPHS and MCHS are the same, though MCHS is 400 kids smaller.

Welcome to check DOE Compass Education Stats for Indiana the DOE's number here.


The key number is free and reduced lunches. Socioeconomic background is everything. Population numbers are test scores are meaningless.
Mike D
QUOTE(Southsider2k12 @ Dec 9 2015, 10:26 PM) *

The key number is free and reduced lunches. Socioeconomic background is everything. Population numbers are test scores are meaningless.




"The key number is free and reduced lunches."

I am guessing that you have not worked with a school system in a while. The lunch programs are a form that gets filled in (our family qualified one year because of a short unemployment time) and I doubt gets checked much (no tie to IT returns or anything). This data point is often used politically b/c it is federal program. More sigh ups, more federal money. Feds never audit. Program supported by National Cattlemen's Association et al. - strong lobbies in Washington. Though I would not use your adjective to describe the data point, it is largely discounted (and often ignored) by researchers as unreliable. please provide research or experience for your claim. Key to what? You also say test scores are meaningless. if the former is true, the latter is a non-starter.


"Socioeconomic background is everything"

Define that. I believe you are marginalizing people who may be born into a certain culture, which is about as un-American as it sounds. My own ancestors landed here with nothing, and our current family members are quite affluent. Socioeconomic background may begin at a certain spot, but it certainly does not have to end there. That's why the Founding Fathers (and every generation thereafter until very recently) wanted a free and public education, so that the mind set that you present, has the ability to be broken - by the individual through the education system. I see that you have lost sight (as many have) a fundamental principal by which this country was founded. That's a shame, though I suspect you are part of the majority in Indiana.

Simple put - poor people have less of an opportunity for better education than more affluent ones. In MC and LP, the income levels are about the same as are home values and income distribution - they are readily comparable. That's means there is something else going on.

Thankfully, there are communities and systems embracing systems to break the cycle (not all of them successfully), but it is happening. By observing those success stories, MCAS could adopt some of those changes to improve its system - and a few units have (these are obvious). LCSC is doing it system wide.

"Population numbers are test scores are meaningless."

The population numbers and other data points were for background and comparison purposes only. Your comment is ungracious.

Test scores are under great scrutiny in Indiana right now, so we will know whether you have a following in your comment in 2016. But they are never "meaningless", because they provide "a" data point - perhaps not the best or right one, but a data point indeed. A successful school system has to have feedback either through data or anecdotes.

Please define what you would replace the test scores with that would not be "meaningless". Or do you not believe in feed back?

Welcome to provide your research and references or your experience to back up your claims (as I have). If your claim is right (test scores are meaningless, socioeconomic background is everything) and everyone thinks like you, I would not be surprised to see the school system here collapse and people like me (and my household income) move out. Better start supporting police and county detention services .
Southsider2k12
The idea that all kids are created equally, and should be judged equally based on a couple of sets of tests is idiotic, at best.

We know from decades of research that kids coming from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have all sorts of disadvantages long before they ever hit their local school systems. These kids are more likely to have missing parents, jailed parents, undereducated parents, and drug addicted parents. They are less likely to receive early vital early education, including things like basic reading skills. They are more likely to be abused, starving, and generally neglected. They are more likely to have not only learning disabilities, but undiagnosed ones. They are also more likely to have mental and physical handicaps. So no, I don't see Michigan City and LaPorte as peer school systems. They do not face the same challenges.

Yet schools are supposed to take the kids above, and have them to compete with kids who get everything, and put out products that are equal to their standards. In the testing environment we have set up it is better to take a kid with A level skills, who is lazy and produced B level production, versus taking a kid with F level skills, and pushing him to C level production. The test scores are going to say that the second child is doing worse than the first, therefore his school system is a failure.

We as a state do not generate meaningful data to truthfully analyze how good a school system is doing with the population of students they receive. We have a slew of data would could take and run some true quantitative detailing on what expectations are for a student in their specific backgrounds, versus their peers in other classrooms, schools, and states, but we don't. We take the simple approach. We look at test scores.

The funding system we have set up in the State of Indiana is taking all of that data, and wrongly using it to punish schools who are poorer (and darker, by and large), while redistributing those needed funds to the schools who are richer (and whiter). I took the Indy times article this summer detailing which school systems lost and gained the most funding, and contrasted that with free/reduced lunch and racial make up, and it turned out that the schools on the losing list had about twice as high of both non-white populations and free and reduced lunch rates as the ones on the gain list. So now we are taking kids who are going to on average have more risk factors and less opportunity, and punishing them for it. The system we have set up is a disaster in motion. This combined with the fact that Michigan City was also last in the state (until very recently) for local levels of community funding rates put into the schools, and it makes that even worse.

That being said, I think we have an amazing administration team in place right now, after the unmitigated disaster of the previous one. Dr Eason-Watkins team is doing everything they can to push this system forward. They aren't using the data and state of education in Indiana as an excuse, and are doing everything they can to save as many kids as they can from repeating the cycles of poverty. As to the school board members, I feel that a few of them are only there for the photo-ops, and not for the hard questions. I'd be OK with a few new members up there.
outsider
I agree with Southsider on this issue. If you look at the Indiana Department of Education website at school grades and allocated bonuses - those bonuses go to Carmel, Avon, Plainfield, Munster, Penn and other suburban schools where free-reduced lunch %'s are minimal.

Teachers in this state are punished for factors that teachers can't control. I know a teacher who won teacher of the year, but received an ineffective rating the following year. She was ineffective the following year because her school became a choice school within her district. The year she was teacher of the year she had all suburban kids. The next year she has 8 inner-city kids, 4 ESL kids, and a handicapped child who actually died in her classroom that year. None of those kids were even in her school the previous year. I think she deserved teacher of the year for surviving that second year.

Going back to your very first post about City sports in crisis- The number of free-reduced lunches also effects what else is around the City. MC has fewer opportunities for kids to be in sports clubs to hone their skills because these clubs are expensive and the population can't afford them. Those who can afford them have to travel out of town to participate. High school is not and has not been for the last few decades the place where a lot of coaching takes place - coaching takes place in the clubs. Similar to school testing performance - IHSAA champions are mostly suburban and private schools. The odds of City, a Gary school, or most urban schools have at winning state championships are long gone.
taxthedeer
QUOTE(outsider @ Dec 10 2015, 02:57 PM) *

I agree with Southsider on this issue. If you look at the Indiana Department of Education website at school grades and allocated bonuses - those bonuses go to Carmel, Avon, Plainfield, Munster, Penn and other suburban schools where free-reduced lunch %'s are minimal.

Teachers in this state are punished for factors that teachers can't control. I know a teacher who won teacher of the year, but received an ineffective rating the following year. She was ineffective the following year because her school became a choice school within her district. The year she was teacher of the year she had all suburban kids. The next year she has 8 inner-city kids, 4 ESL kids, and a handicapped child who actually died in her classroom that year. None of those kids were even in her school the previous year. I think she deserved teacher of the year for surviving that second year.

Going back to your very first post about City sports in crisis- The number of free-reduced lunches also effects what else is around the City. MC has fewer opportunities for kids to be in sports clubs to hone their skills because these clubs are expensive and the population can't afford them. Those who can afford them have to travel out of town to participate. High school is not and has not been for the last few decades the place where a lot of coaching takes place - coaching takes place in the clubs. Similar to school testing performance - IHSAA champions are mostly suburban and private schools. The odds of City, a Gary school, or most urban schools have at winning state championships are long gone.
Gary West Side boys track team won the team state championship at IU Bloomington in 2014.

The now closed Gary Lew Wallace was state 3A runner up in boys basketball in 2010.

Bowman Academy boys basketball team won the state championship in class 2A in 2013, state championship in class A in 2010, runner up in class 2A in 2012, runner-up in class 3A in 2014.

Bowman Academy is located on 5th Avenue is the Brunswick section on the near west side of Gary. City has Bowman Academy as a home non conference game at the end of this season (Feb 13), another solid addition to the Wolves schedule last season.


outsider
http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/table...281/13762,11655

See above link to free-reduced lunch statistics for five years - can be sorted by county and by school district. MCAS free-reduced rate is 73.8% for 2015 and LaPorte is 52.4%. That is a significant difference demographically.

TaxTheDeer - There are also other examples of urban schools doing well in sports, but for the most part the odds are stacked against urban schools.
Mike D
QUOTE(outsider @ Dec 11 2015, 08:31 AM) *

http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/table...281/13762,11655

See above link to free-reduced lunch statistics for five years - can be sorted by county and by school district. MCAS free-reduced rate is 73.8% for 2015 and LaPorte is 52.4%. That is a significant difference demographically.

TaxTheDeer - There are also other examples of urban schools doing well in sports, but for the most part the odds are stacked against urban schools.



Thank you to all who read and replied to this post.

As promised, here is the letter to the MCAS Board in response to a "flyer" on raising the GPA for extra-curriculum participation. The letter was written by Michigan City Commission on the Social Status of African-American Males , whose members are listed here MC Commission on the Social Status of African-American Males.

The intention was to stimulate a discussion on whether or not Michigan City readers here would recognize problems in their sports landscape - primarily in terms of leadership at Park & Rec and MCAS. Sounds like most people don't see it, so I'll punt. I am guessing that many people here, as with the Park & Rec and MCAS Boards, do not have children in the system - and perhaps I will be joining them soon.

Please read my post on Indiana Choice and Laporte County. I plan a sequel or new post once the ISTEP situation gets sorted out.
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