HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS HOLD SPECIAL ATTRACTION
March 2002

For years I have been attending meetings where I have heard that AAU basketball especially, but also similar non-school groups for volleyball, soccer, swimming and other sports, will soon overwhelm and take over school programs. It is alleged that these programs are so aggressive and attractive that they will steal students away from the more regulated and restrictive interscholastic athletic programs.

More aggressive? Yes. More attractive? No.

The aggressiveness was observed again at the MHSAA Girls Basketball Semifinals and Finals when AAU coaches were so bold that they interrupted players' postgame celebrations to recruit them to AAU teams. This was in spite of a so-called agreement between the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan and AAU Michigan that this would not occur.

But AAU basketball will never be as attractive as high school basketball. The AAU's best card – college recruiters at summer tournaments – may be trumped by new NCAA rules that will restrict attendance by NCAA coaches at these meat markets.

And the charm of school sports is still most appealing to coaches, players and their parents. Here are just a few aspects of school sports that the AAU can't duplicate:

• Student cheering sections
• Pep bands
• Cheerleaders
• Pep assemblies
• League and conference affiliations
• Local radio doing play-by-play and reporting scores
• Local television providing scores and highlights
• Local newspapers providing box scores and game summaries on an almost-every-game basis

School administrators and coaches hold the best cards. They must continue to promote a pure, wholesome, amateur, local, educational program that is both right in principle and most popular with the participants.

--MHSAA Executive Director Jack Roberts