MichiganRadio

Ending Discrimination Could End MHSAA ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - This month marks the end of an experiment that's been a decade in the making.

Ten years ago, Diane Madsen and Jay Roberts-Eveland, two mothers in Grand Rapids, complained that their daughters were harmed because the state's high school volleyball teams played in the winter. Every other state played in the fall. They felt this made it harder for their daughters to get college scholarships.

They said the solution was to move the girls volleyball season from the winter to the fall. But that meant women's basketball would also have to be moved from the fall to the winter, when the boys play. In fact, they said, all boys and girls sports should be played in the same seasons.

At first blush, it seems impossible to disagree. Fair is fair, after all.

But the leaders of the Michigan High School Athletic Association did disagree. They liked having different seasons for boys and girls basketball, swimming, golf, tennis and soccer. That way, coaches and especially referees - all in short supply -- could work both the boys and girls seasons. Smaller high schools didn't have to build more swimming pools or soccer fields or basketball or tennis courts, or have one team practice at 9 at night.
And the old schedules didn't seem unfair. More Michigan girls participated in basketball, tennis and golf than boys. Female volleyball players, like the plaintiff's daughters, played one third more games than volleyball teams in bordering states. Even recruitment, the cause of the original complaint, didn't seem to be suffering. Michigan's female athletes ranked among the very top of scholarship recipients in the nation. Several college coaches said they preferred Michigan's system, because they could recruit the girls before their own seasons began. And let's not forget: less than two percent of high school athletes get scholarships. If that's the point of playing, we should cancel all high school sports right now.

So who wanted this change? Not the schools. Most of them voted to keep it the way it was. Not the girls, either. Most of them voted the same way.

But the moms persisted in pushing their case in court, and the MHSAA persisted in resisting it. For a decade. In a classic battle between self-righteousness and stupidity, self-righteousness won every case, right up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

So, this year, the seasons finally changed. The result? It looks like participation in girls sports is down. Attendance and local press coverage are WAY down. The MHSAA's debt, however, is way up: $7.7 million, to pay the plaintiffs' legal fees, including interest. That's $1.7 million more than the entire non-profit organization is worth. So they're considering filing for bankruptcy. If that happens, they might not be able to pay for the state tournaments they sponsor for 28 boys and girls sports.

When the plaintiff's attorney, H. Rhett Pinsky, heard about the tournaments he said, Yeah? So?

Well, yeah, so, indeed.

It seems clear the two moms were not really concerned about greater sports opportunities for all the girls. Their concern was for a few scholarships for elite athletes, like their daughters - who, by the way, got them anyway, under the old system. And the lawyers would happily sacrifice state tournaments to collect their millions.

The letter of the law was apparently on the plaintiffs' side. But they spirit, they missed entirely.
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