The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Prep scene deserves part of summer off
My wife is an elementary school teacher, and her school has a year-end custom that strikes me.
After she fills out exit paperwork and does room inventory, the school secretary takes the forms — and her school keys — and wishes her a nice summer. There are likely a litany of practical reasons why the keys are taken, but the symbolism screams out: Not that she would want to of course, but it basically says thanks for your hard work during the school year, but don’t come back here for two months.
It’s a shame such a gesture doesn’t exist in high school sports.
As the pressure to win, be at the peak among your peers and attract college interest increases by the season and not even by the year anymore, high school athletes, coaches and administrators don’t really have a summer.
There are safeguards, including no-contact periods instituted by the Ohio High School Athletic Association and the common sense to know when enough is enough.
But there’s also a persistent pratfall that goes with it: Someone else might be using that time to get better instead of resting.
If there’s not an upcoming 7-on-7 passing camp in football, there’s lifting.
If there’s not an open gym for basketball, there’s a summer league or showcase. If there’s not a club or travel commitment, there’s a clinic or combine in any number of sports.
Fully acknowledging this will never happen, high school sports should have a time — maybe one of or the middle two weeks in July — during which everything goes quiet.
No camps. No clinics. No offseason training or conditioning. Nothing.
Maybe it takes away part of a competitive edge, but maybe that’s the point.
We sometimes take for granted in the quest for success, amid the hours put in to refine a craft away from the spotlight, that the people who make high school sports tick are one thing as important — if not more important — beyond that: People.
The head coaches who guide teams around our area typically make a stipend between $3,000 and — for some tenured football coaches — north of $10,000. If you quantify that coaches’ salary out over a full season as an hourly wage — not including teacher salary if applicable — suffice to say it’s not a profitable figure.
Athletes should be afforded the time to be teenagers. If they want to hang out with friends or travel with their families and not have to be concerned with the next thing up in their sport — at least for a brief period — let them.
Administrators give their schools countless hours as the head of an athletic program. Is it really expecting too much to let these hard-working people have a week or two at home or hitting the road without their cell phone ringing because of some calamity?
Again, unfortunately, it is too much to ask, so it won’t happen. Because, instinctively, most people are greedy for more and not programmed like that.
That’s not a bad thing, by the way ... for the most part.
That extra round of strength training may seem like the difference between winning and losing for a football player in Week 9 with their team’s season on the line.
That extra half-hour working on a low-post move in basketball over the summer may mean the difference between getting a step in the paint in a tie game and seconds remaining or not getting a good look at all in the winter.
And it would be silly to not admit, with the money tied into the club/travel circuit, camps and the like that those people would dare want to see those dollar signs and direct deposits disappear into the money tree in the sky.
But if only it could. If only that work could be done in a tighter summer window and one part of the summer can actually be the summer.
No one loses a step if everyone is in the same boat. Or on the beach. Or at home in the front of the television.
Or doing something fun inside or out with the people they hold dear that has nothing to do with their athletic pursuit.
Basically, let people be people.
Take the key away, at least briefly.
Lillstrung can be reached at CLillstrung@NewsHerald.com; on Twitter: @CLillstrungNH.