The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Officials air concerns on MHSAA ruling
By Austen Smithand Dan DuChene
PUBLISHED: April 19, 2007
An April 2 decision from the U.S. Supreme Court to not hear an appeal of the gender equity lawsuit brought by a Grand Rapids-based group of volleyball moms, has caused unrest among area athletics' officials.
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Originally filed on June 26, 1998, the Communities for Equity group charged that the Michigan High School Athletic Association was in violation of the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act because volleyball was a fall sport and girls' basketball was a winter sport. It's the other way around at the collegiate level nationally and in virtually every other state on the high-school level, and that structure has hindered student athletes in the pursuit of collegiate scholarships.
This fall, eight sports will switch seasons: statewide girls' basketball from fall to winter, statewide volleyball from winter to fall, Lower Peninsula boys' golf and girls' tennis from fall to spring, Lower Peninsula girls' golf and boys' tennis from spring to fall, Upper Peninsula boys' soccer from fall to spring and U.P. girls' soccer from spring to fall.
While Ypsilanti Public Schools' Athletic Director Michael McIntosh said that he will comply with the new changes, he has concerns with how it will affect student athletes.
"Number one, I have to do what I have to do, which is comply," he said. "But I do have concerns with things like facility usage. We now will have six basketball teams wanting to use one gym and one partial gym.
"We'll have to figure out a system so these kids aren't practicing at either 6 a.m. or at 10 p.m."
McIntosh, who was athletic director from 1987 to 1996 and then came back in 2005, said most parents were aware that the athletic directors and other school officials throughout the state supported the MHSAA claim. Among the MHSAA's concerns are that thousands of student-athletes must change the combination of sports they play; that college volleyball coaches and players can no longer coach at the high-school level; that volleyball officials who work at the college and high school levels must choose one; that basketball coaches who coach both genders, and officials who work at games for both, must choose one; and that media attention for basketball would be more thinly spread.
McIntosh said a significant readjustment will be swimmers who also are volleyball players.
"Now, those student athletes are going to have to choose," he said.
"Same goes with boys' golf and baseball and girls tennis. It's a whole readjustment to a new situation. We have to look at use of the main gym floor, (Ypsilanti schools) are unfortunate that we have no auxiliary gyms.
"People want to do the best for their kids and make it work. I think well do a good job readjusting."
McIntosh said he already has heard complaints from some student athletes. Because there is no rule against a student playing on two teams simultaneously, McIntosh is afraid some students might try to do that and get burnt out.
"A student could try to do both and keep up his or her school work and stay alive," he said. "There's no rule against it, it's a just a matter of how healthy that would be for the student and whether the parents support it. But, it's been done before."
Lincoln Consolidated Schools Athletic Director, Sid Wright, voiced similar concerns about the recent decision.
Wright said there are more than 250 young women playing for various Railsplitters' teams. Of those, he said nearly 125 girls will be effected by the change.
"Now some of the young ladies will have to make some decisions," Wright said. "There's complaints about it, but we're going to have to make it work."
Aside from making young woman choose between sports, he said some coaches might find themselves in a similar situation.
"Our track coach is the tennis coach," Wright said. "He's going to have choose between coaching track or tennis."
He said there are other coaches for the district will have to choose as well.
"They can't coach them both at the same time," Wright said.
"It's going to be an athletic director's nightmare, but we're going to make it work," he said.
Because Michigan was one of just a few states to fall in line with the rest of the country, Wright said he was not surprised by the Supreme Court's decision.
"I had a deep gut feeling it was going to happen," he said. "We might as well have gotten in line."
Unlike other districts worried about space in the gymnasium to handle both men and women's teams, Wright said it won't pose a large problem for Lincoln. Because there are three schools in the district's main campus, each with its own gym, he said there should be space for everyone.
"It's going to be a strain on a lot of facilities with only one gym," Wright said. "It's not going to be a problem with us for space."
Heritage Newspapers' Joe Slezak contributed to this report.
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