By Mike Phelps
High school swimmers and divers in Nebraska are one step away from earning the right to participate with their school and club teams concurrently. Meanwhile, a legislative bill that would have allowed all Nebraska athletes in all sports the right to dual participation has fallen by the wayside.
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The Nebraska State Athletic Association's Representative Assembly voted 46-3 on April 3 to forward the dual-participation proposal to a referendum vote of all member schools later in the month, where it received the three-fifths majority required to pass. In the final step, the NSAA Board of Control must review and ratify the proposal at its June 2 meeting.
According to the proposal,
"a student may, after fulfilling all requirements, practices and competitions of the school swimming and diving team, practice and/or compete as a member of a non-school team or as an individual participant in an organized non-school swimming and diving practice or competition."
However, the student-athlete must also comply with several conditions. First, priority must be given to all school team practices and competitions. If a conflict occurs, the school activity takes precedence, unless an exception is granted by a school administrator. Also, the student-athlete can not miss any school time to participate with their non-school team, unless approved by an administrator. Lastly, no school may replace its swimming or diving program with a non-school program.
"It addresses outside participation with a loyalty clause, addresses school time, practice time and other obligations that must be met in order for it to be considered," NSAA Board of Control member Dallas Watkins told the Lincoln Journal Star.
Many in Nebraska felt the vote was long overdue, as athletes, such as Lincoln Northeast High School freshman Mollie McNeel, were being forced to choose between competing for their high school team or a club team. Club swim meets are often more competitive, receive greater national attention, and offer a wider variety of events.
"We're very happy it happened, but it's not the end of where we're looking to go," Mollie's mother, Lisa McNeel, told the Journal Star. "We don't want this to be just for swimming and diving. Soccer was an issue also. We're still going to try to see the same thing happen for soccer kids or possibly any sport."
For the time being, though, the road will stop at swimming and diving. Nebraska Legislative Bill 228, which would have allowed all athletes in the state to participate on a club team and high school team during the same season, died when the state education committee voted not to forward the bill to the entire floor. In March, NSAA Executive Director Jim Tenopir told KETV in Omaha, Neb., "It's a bad rule to mix the two," citing overuse injuries as one of the problems student-athletes could face when competing for two teams.
Some also worried dual participation could create an uneven playing field.
"It's a competitive advantage for some high schools to have teams with dual participation, versus kids that may not have (the ability) to afford it," Omaha Public Schools Athletic Director Bob Danenhauer told KETV.
Nebraska is not alone in dealing with dual participation rules. In 2004, the Missouri State High School Activities Association passed an amendment to Bylaw 235, by an overwhelming 416-82 vote, which eliminated an existing non-school-competition clause.
Mike Phelps is an Assistant Editor at Athletic Management.
FEEDBACK
As an adult who has devoted the past 15 years to developing sport-specific training programs to help adolescent female athletes minimize their risk for injury and helping them to become the best student-athletes they can become - this Nebraska initiative is a very bad idea.
All in the name of allowing some extremely talented 14-15 year olds to obtain national acclaim. How many kids in the U.S. are there who will benefit from this? College coaches have plenty of time to see 17+ year olds compete before making decisions about which athletes they desire for their programs.
The vast majority of kids will end up with overuse injuries before they are 17-18 years old and instead of having collegiate and post-collegiate careers - they will join the list of kids who burn out from over zealous parental pushing.
As a former basketball player through high school, college, and semi-pro; we never thought of financial gains from playing. We just loved the sport(s) we played and if we were good enough - college coaches found us.
Enough of the argument that showcases need to be given more attention so college coaches can see a masses of people. The adults making these arguments are trying to make their living off of parents and their kids who think they have the next Michael Phelps or Michael Jordan.
Allow kids to be kids. Allow their growth plates to close. Allow each kid to make the best decision for each of them around 14 years old or so after they have been given a chance to experience different activities; not just sports.
ROI - this for an asset like real estate or stocks. Today's parents have to stop thinking about getting an ROI from their daughter or son.
Warren Potash, Fitness Therapist
Sport Fit Conditioning Programs
www.sport-fit-programs.com
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I agree with Warren Potash that high school athletes should not compete on their school team and a club team at the same time. It will increase the chance of injury and burnout. The ruling impacts only a small percentage of student athletes. Most teenagers will have a tough enough time just training for one sport. When I was in junior college I ran for a club team during the summer only. Students and parents must make a sound decision.
Bob Darling
Personal Trainer, NSCA
San Francisco, CA
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The club vs high school issue is becoming more significant and expanding to many sports. The bottom line is that state and national athletic organizations must look at their mission statements and make educated, well informed decisions that are in the best interests of our student athletes. These organizations must address the heart of what athletics is and should be. Decisions should not be based on overzealous parents with attorneys, searching for elusive college scholarships, Olympic medals or fame and fortune in the professional ranks.
Athletics should remain the center for teaching character, integrity and the multitude of life skills that student athletes will carry with them after school. We often forget that high school athletics is a classroom.
We need heed the warnings of medical professionals about the increase in overtraining, burnout and life changing injuries to teenage athletes. Club and high school coaches can co-exist and should be working together, however clubs and club coaches should have similar training and accountability. Coaches should never discourage students from participating in other sports or with other organizations. Kids still need to be kids, have fun and be with their friends. Life is full of choices and parents and students may need to make choices that match their goals. Hopefully these decisions are in the best interest of the child and not the parent or organization.
College coaches and athletic departments are not helping with this issue. Due to limited funding, many college coaches focus on attending the very large state, regional and national club events since they get to see more potential recruits with one trip. Most high school events become secondary for recruiting and athletes not competing in club sports may be missed in the recruiting process. Club coaches can use these potential scholarships as leverage to increase participation and collect fees. Students and parents rationalize that it is OK to miss school time to attend these events.
Lastly, high school principals, athletic directors and coaches need to recognize the value of creating a system that teaches success without making winning the primary goal. Winning we all agree is more fun, but not at any cost.
Steve Pilcher, MS, CAA
Athletic Director
Nevada Union High School
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I find it incredibly interesting that the individuals wanting high school and junior high school athletes to be able to compete in a club sport concurrently with the same school sport are not the athletes competing. It is the parents.
In the past 5 years I have increasingly had to deal with more burnout and overuse injuries that are a direct result of concurrent sports. What is worse is the parent who won't listen to the child who is suffering with these issues. They just want to find another doctor, coach, or personal trainer who will trade a promise of getting their child to the next level for a negotiated fee. We would never ask a fully developed, mature, adult professional athlete to do the amount of competition we ask of these growing adolescents. I remember the professional sporting community questioning whether Bo Jackson would be able to handle the rigors of competing in professional football and then going directly to professional baseball with minimal rest and recovery time.
No one is questioning whether a 14 year old can go to 6 hours of class, go to a 2-3 hour school soccer practice, go directly to a 2+ hour club practice, go home and eat a quick meal before hitting the books for 2-4 hours so they can get 5-6 hours of sleep before doing it all over. Most state high school governing bodies limit the total number of games an athlete may compete in a week and season to try to prevent injury. Unfortunately these student athletes will then play 3-6 games over a weekend at some "showcase" tournament because it will somehow net them a D-1 scholarship. When are these athletes supposed to recover?
I often will tell an athlete they will need to rest over the weekend so their injuries such as shin splints, rotator cuff aggravations, quadriceps soreness can get better. They then tell me they can't because of a club tournament with lots of games. I often respond that if I was that special D-1 coach sitting in the stands evaluating you, what would I be writing in my book? I would probably be thinking the athlete seems slow, out of shape, lazy and low motivation. The truth is the athlete is exhausted, run down, dehydrated, undernourished and injured.
We ask professional basketball to play 82 regular season games in 9 months, but we don't blink at a high school AAU player to play 60+ games in 8-10 weeks over the summer. When the championship trophy is hoisted at the end of any season the team with the best players is not always holding the trophy. I hear many winning coaches include comments of how they were lucky to not have many injuries. Luck may be a small factor, but the majority of injuries can be linked to fatigue and overtraining. Rest and recovery is a vital factor in reaching potential. Nutrition and hydration is another.
In my evaluations of the metabolic rates of athletes and their caloric consumptions I have found an imbalance that should be cause for concern. Why does the average high school football player who weighs 205 in August weigh 190 at the end of November? He is not losing fat, he is losing muscle. Just ask him if his bench or squat max is the same as in August. What happened over the summer is he was able to eat and the food was used to recover and build muscle.
During the school year he was more interested in sleep than breakfast, and lunch was 2 pieces of pizza and a bottle of sports drink. This totals about 800 calories. Then he goes to a 2-3 hour practice burning 800 calories an hour or more, and then dinner is whatever the $5.00 mom gave him will buy at a fast food place. Even if he can supersize the meal for 1200 calories he has only consumed 2000 calories for the day. The problem is he is burning 4000 to 5000 calories. The deficit is made up by his body eating its own muscle to try to slow down its metabolism. What about the all day soccer tournament. It takes food 2-4 hours to clear the stomach and another 10-14 hours to actually be able to be used in the body. During exercise the body can only digest about 350 calories an hour. So even if the athlete is drinking a carbohydrate drink while competing, they can't keep up with the calories they are expending which can be 800-1200 per hour. There is no physiological way to be able to refuel or rehydrate adequately to what was lost during 2-3 games on a Saturday.
When the coach is yelling at the athlete "what are you thinking?" after a mental mistake, trust me they weren't thinking at all because their brain is low on glycogen. A Snicker bar and a Gatorade between games may taste good, but is not going to get the athlete ready for the next game in time. When is the body supposed to rebuild what was torn down? This epidemic of parents believing playing time is going to make their child the next LeBron James has got to stop. Parents, let your student athlete be what they want.
You are the adult and you need to limit what they do so they can reach their potential before they have a career ending injury or burnout from the very thing they love. Just because your 10 year old likes soccer today doesn't mean they need to or want to do it 24/7/365.
Steve Friebus, M.Ed., ATC, LAT
Head Athletic Trainer
Bixby Public Schools
Bixby, OK