A Message From the Executive Director …

Click to view index of columns

The Athletic Union Board of Directors has spent much of the 2007 calendar year developing a strategic plan to guide this organization through the next five years. The plan is to serve as a road map of sorts guiding the Athletic Union and its member schools toward continued development of interscholastic programs which best serve our 70,000 female student participants.

A copy of the plan is posted on our web site (http://www.ighsau.org/general/stratplan.htm). The cover letter accompanying the plan can be found at (http://www.ighsau.org/general/strategicplanletter.htm). The plan development is in its final stages, as the Board has made the document public through mailings to schools and through our web site. We urge your input and reaction. An email address has been set up (strategicplan@ighsau.org) to funnel that input to our Board of Directors. The Board will meet in December and January to sort through that input, modify the plan accordingly, and supply our membership with a final version in the spring. The purpose of this month’s column is to break down some of the more significant pieces of the plan, and hopefully encourage you to offer input. After all, this organization belongs to our 392 member high schools and must operate with the overall interests and goals of our membership in mind.

The intent of the Board is to ensure the strategic plan remains a living, breathing document that will adjust and adapt to a changing environment and unknowns, which may lie ahead. As a result, a significant aspect of the plan development was an assessment of the environment in which interscholastic athletics will operate. There was wide consensus that factors such as elimination of the budget guarantee and increasing federal and state requirements would lead to a reduction in the number of member schools. This potential is a major reason why development of a strategic plan is critical.

Two things will happen in the interscholastic world if a reduction in the number of schools does indeed become reality. First, two schools that combine have 15 players on their respective volleyball and basketball team. The new, combined team doesn’t have 30 players. It will have 15, with the remaining 15 students looking for something else to do.

In addition, the Athletic Union’s primary source of operational funds comes from the gate receipts at district, regional and state tournament games. Those funds account for 80 percent of our income. Fewer schools result in fewer tournament games, which means less revenue. Expenses, however, don’t record such a corresponding decrease. And, increasing ticket prices is not a viable alternative.

Thus, the strategic plan has to provide for creation of participation opportunities for students who will be attending fewer, larger schools, and also has to ensure the Athletic Union remains in sound fiscal condition without an increasing burden on schools or spectators.

The Athletic Union has a close relationship with the Iowa High School Speech Association. We consider the lifelong benefits derived through participation in speech and drama activities to be vital to future successes our students will enjoy. While speech events don’t have the chance to fill an arena, or show up on the front page of the sports section, they are equally significant to a student’s education. We currently contribute about $130,000 of cash in addition to in-kind services such as office space to ensure speech and drama programs receive the focus and attention they deserve. The plan spells out the desire to continue this support under any circumstance.

The plan identifies several ways in which we seek to ensure and expand input into the operations of the Athletic Union. It also spells out the need for a comprehensive study to examine the benefits of athletic participation. We all recognize data, which shows an increase in GPA and better lifestyle traits from those who participate in our programs. However, there is no data showing the impact of high school athletic participation on college success, or earnings potential or other factors in a student’s adult life. The educational funds used to provide for athletics require we constantly demonstrate the value of the interscholastic program to the overall education of the student.

Finally, coaches and officials education will be a priority going forward. The better preparation we can give the adults involved in our programs, the better the outcome for our student participants.

I believe the plan in its current form encourages the Athletic Union to look at schools for existing programs, which have significant participation but are not endorsed as championship events, and perhaps sanction official state championships in those programs. It encourages us to look for tomorrow’s programs and be a leader in their development today. Dance and drill, rodeo and even trapshooting are programs in schools today that are held important enough activities by those schools to justify local endorsement. It is my personal belief that if 10 schools believe a program is valuable enough to its students and its community that it chooses to operate a club level program within the school, the program is valuable enough that we should offer the recognition opportunity of a state championship for those same students and community. Who would have thought five years ago that bowling would now be a state championship sport with 70 schools participating?

The bottom line to this strategic plan is simple. What do you want the interscholastic athletic program to look like five years from today? Or even 10, 20 years from today? One answer isn’t acceptable…we can’t stand pat. Our environment is changing, our schools are changing, our expectations are changing, and our students are changing. If the interscholastic athletic program doesn’t change, we can’t possibly meet our ultimate mission…providing for the educational enhancement of our student participants and helping provide the intrinsic resources necessary for their success throughout life.

I hope you’ll take some time to provide your contribution to the ultimate direction of this plan.