With an enrollment of less than 600 students, Frankenmuth (Mich.) High School has always been fairly quiet. The past year, however, has been anything but. Two of its most successful coaches resigned, parents held protests at school board meetings, and debate over student-athletes' time commitments were heard across the state.

At issue was a set of athletic policies rolled out in April of last year. The rules restricted coaches to 25 summer contact dates, including summer league competitions, open gyms, camps, clinics, and practices involving more than three athletes. Weightroom work, film study sessions, and youth clinics or camps put on by the team would not be affected. Weekend practices and competitions on the high school campus were banned during the summer break.

The new policies also addressed tryouts and playing time. Varsity coaches could no longer cut just one player and weren't allowed to drop seniors who had played on the team for the past three years. Coaches were encouraged to divide playing time equally at the varsity level, while freshman and j.v. coaches were required to give every team member equal playing time.

Frankenmuth Superintendent Mary Anne Ackerman and then-Athletic Director Tim Croel felt the policies were needed to de-emphasize sport specialization and the time devoted to sports. "We are a small school with a lot of athletic offerings, and we need our athletes to participate in more than one sport to keep them all going," Ackerman says. "In the past several years, there has been a big increase in the amount of time our athletes are spending with their teams, especially during the summer.

"A two- or three-sport athlete could be at the school two or three times a day for conditioning or open practices during the summer months," Ackerman continues. "We were just looking for a way to make summer participation manageable for our kids and not have them burn out."

But not everyone saw it that way. More than 300 parents, student-athletes, and coaches showed up at a school board meeting to voice their disapproval and the head boys' basketball and girls' volleyball coaches threatened to resign.

"I had been coaching under my own philosophy without any problems or concerns from parents or players for years," says former Head Girls' Volleyball Coach Sharon Bade, who was entering her 12th season and nearing her 500th win at Frankenmuth when the policies were announced. "When the administration came in and totally revamped the policies, I told them there was no way I could coach under those rules.

Who wants to take something like open gym time away from kids? I just don't understand it."

It turned out most of the "new" policies announced were already in place and even printed in coaches' handbooks. "This situation pointed out to us as administrators that we need to review with everyone the rules we have in place--and often," Ackerman says.

Ackerman convinced Bade and boys' basketball coach Tim Crawford to give the rules a try, and both remained on staff through the fall, with the volleyball team winning its fourth consecutive district title. But the two coaches did eventually resign, while debate continued.

"It hurt," Bade says. "The decision killed me, and I hated to leave my players, but there was no way I could have continued to coach."

In late fall, Ackerman created a committee that included new Athletic Director John Blankenship (who replaced Croel after he left for another position during the summer), the girls' basketball coach, the boys' soccer coach, a school board member, a parent, and a community member to revisit the athletic policies. She also sent surveys about playing time, tryouts, and summer activities to coaches, student-athletes, and their parents.

"The committee took all that survey data, along with articles and research they had found on their own, and presented a recommendation to me," Ackerman says. "In January, we unveiled a new version of the policies, and I think we found a reasonable medium. Most of the changes were in the wording, so instead of 'thou shalt not do this' we have 'thou shalt try not to do this.'"

Among the changes: Varsity coaches are asked to make every effort not to cut seniors, and if underclassmen are promoted to the varsity team, it is expected they will receive significant playing time. While there is no longer a limit on summer activity dates, no weekend activities are allowed without the approval of the athletic director.

Coaches must post their summer schedules before Memorial Day so any conflicts can be resolved and families can plan summer vacations. Varsity coaches are also asked to go out of their way to communicate that all summer activities are strictly voluntary and have no bearing on regular season participation.

Many people across the state closely watched Frankenmuth's controversy unfold, including the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA). "We were interested because there are some pretty strong philosophical things in play here," says John Johnson, Director of Communications at the MHSAA. "It makes people stand up and wonder, what is the most appropriate way to handle high school sports in terms of year-round activity?

"Most educators feel that year-round contact for high school sports isn't completely appropriate, but there are other schools of thought, too," Johnson continues. "One is keeping up with the Joneses, and another is that if a high school coach doesn't have the attention of their athletes all the time, they may lose them to other programs outside the school. These debates are something we talk about internally as a staff, and they are certainly well worth having."

The Frankenmuth School District has hired a new boys' basketball coach and plans to post the volleyball coach position after this school year. Though it was a wild ride, Ackerman says she and the district learned a lot.

"If we had done the surveys prior to the initial changes, we probably would have had more community support, but quite honestly, we never saw the negative response coming," Ackerman says. "We probably should have also given the coaching staff ample opportunity to tell us how things were working beforehand. So it took a while and it took a lot out of us, but in the end, we got to where we wanted to be."

FEEDBACK

My name is Tim Croel, and I am the former Athletic Director of
Frankenmuth who is mentioned in The Right Balance article in the
April/May issue of Athletic Management. I would like to clarify a
couple of points.

1) Suggesting that coaches divide time equally at any level,
especially at the Varsity level was NEVER suggested or
institutionalized. It was put into policy that a coach should not cut a
Senior who was in good standing (in other words, a good kid who had
played in the program for the previous three years and was not a
discipline problem) I strongly believed that they should have the
choice of whether or not they wanted to continue with the program even
if that meant that their playing time might be significantly limited.
At the college level, scholars whose athletic careers don't quite pan
out have the option of continuing on at that school as a role player,
transferring or just plain quitting. Rarely do they ever have their
scholarship taken away. Why should we do that to a high school kid? As
an Athletic Director, I ALWAYS protected my coaches from parents who
complained about playing time. Being part of a team is also about
understanding ones role. Any parent who thinks their kid is entitled to
equal playing time is just way off. Are drama club advisors expected to
give every kid the same amount of lines?

2) JV and Freshman coaches were expected to keep as many kids as
possible and give them every opportunity to play....not equally. As an
AD, I didn't want to see kids have to sit out a complete game at the
freshman and JV level. That doesn't mean coaches had to play them
equally.

3) As for contact time during the summer, we were just trying to
put a realistic time constraint on coaches. College coaches can't even
coach their teams at all during the summer. The MHSAA has pretty much
allowed each coaching organization to dictate what the summer contact
situation should be for each sport. Thus, when you look at the MHSAA
guidelines, they are all over the place. What has happened in the past
thirty years? As Jack Johnson of the MHSAA put, 'coaches are trying to
keep up with the Jones.' So, what has happened is that MORE has become
better, especially in basketball. We were just trying to bring things
back to normalcy. I saw too many kids having to choose between sports
and I decided to make a stand.

4) Coach Bade's comments about taking away open gyms simply have no
merit. Open gyms were never taken away, they just needed to be included
in the 25 days of contact.

5) After receiving coaching schedules from my coaches after first
implementing the policies every coach was well below the 25 day contact
limit except three. My varsity girl's basketball coach was over by two
days, Bade (my varsity volleyball coach) was over by two days and
Crawford (varsity basketball coach) never turned in a schedule, but
promised he would stop when he reached the 25 day limit.

Frankenmuth is a great town, but like so many small school districts
that have continuous success in both the classroom and playing fields,
there are many opinions on how to do things ... I wish nothing but the
best for the administration, the community and the coaches ... but most
importantly, the kids. Agree with my policies or not, I made the
decisions for them.

- Tim Croel