Monthly Archives: August 2011

The Over-Exposure of High School Sports

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Is there too much coverage of high school sports?

It seems to me that the coverage of high school sports is growing to the level of coverage that college and pro sports receive.  There are many people out there who wish that high school athletes receive no coverage so they can focus on their sport and academics.  Maybe too much coverage can be a distraction to some high school student athletes.

I’m sure some high school athletes played to the cameras because they knew the cameras were in the gym or on the football field or the baseball diamond.  Some coaches play towards the media as well by over-reacting or over-coaching when they see TV cameras.

That’s one of the examples I can think of regarding too much coverage of high school sports and how it can go to your head, in other words you would get big-headedness.

I can remember a long time ago when I was in high school in Virginia Beach, Virginia, when there was very little coverage of high school sports. On the local news channels the sports coverage would have some highlights and the scores of the games but that was about it.

In those days, you knew very little about the other players on the other teams because there was absolutely no coverage of what the players were doing.  There was also no Internet so any information you heard about players was all rumors or speculation on what was going on in your league.

I think what changed was the fans who enjoy high school sports wanted to know about the players in the communities.  It became a fascination of gathering information about high school athletes from all sports, from all cities and towns.  We all wanted to know where the local kid was going for college or who was recruiting which players.

High school players have always been talked about in the newspapers, now that’s changed to having discussions on the Internet.  High school athletes are being written about on blogs, message boards and many websites.  If you want to see a player’s latest game just go to YouTube and just type in the athlete’s name and you may find a video.  In most communities throughout this country, high school sporting events are being covered on local TV and streamed over the Internet.  ESPN is now covering high school ball games.

The coverage of high school sports is big and getting bigger. It’s all because of the fans’ fascination about high school players.  The public wants to know about these players so much that this is why there is TV networks covering all high school sports; why there are so many blogs posts and message boards about high school sports.  So much exposure of these student athletes does help with recruiting.   Recruiting is such a critical aspect of high school sports that many parents believe if their son or daughter is on the team that is getting national coverage those players will receive national recruiting coverage and exposure.  I believe some of that to be true but you still have to be able to play the game, be an outstanding student and an outstanding person to get into college in the first place.

At some point, college athletes are going to get paid-it’s bound to happen and because high school sports is extremely popular those student athletes will also be looking for some kind of compensation.  Look at it this way: no one is buying a ticket to see some student take a math test, who cares?  But a lot of people are buying tickets to these high school games all the time because they, the fans, do care.  High school student athletes at some point will receive some kind of special compensation for being an extremely privileged athlete.

There are some parts of this country where high school sports is so popular that the players are treated extremely special.  Some communities have raised enough money where they have built incredible football stadiums or basketball facilities just to support high school sports. Now if that’s not privilege, I don’t know what it is!

This might sound kind of crazy but, I always felt that if high school coaches were paid full time to coach their sport like college coaches do I believe it would be a huge benefit to the sport, to the parents and most definitely the student athletes.

Paying high school coaches to coach full time would only work with high revenue producing sports.  So if the soccer coach is not selling out a lot of tickets they wouldn’t be eligible for this new coaching role.

Recruiting is such a big deal these days; by having the high school coach totally focused on their players I believe this would help eliminate many recruiting problems and issues going on now.

There’s no way around it: high school sports is more popular than ever. The players are being over-exposed but that might not be a bad thing.  If more people are talking about high school sports then that’s always a good thing.

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The NCAA Has Too Many Stupid Rules; Just Ask Mike Krzyzewski!

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I was reading a story about Duke’s basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, stating that he may have violated a sacred NCAA rule.  Coach Krzyzewski was at an AAU basketball tournament in Orlando, Floridarecruiting top prospect Alex Poythress of the Georgia Stars AAU basketball club.  The violation may have happened when coach Krzyzewski offered a scholarship to Alex Poythress before the tournament was over.  According to the rules, you cannot offer a scholarship until the tournament is completed.

Now, the problem I have with the NCAA is that there’re so many rules and regulations that it’s almost impossible to keep up with each and every one and it’s impossible to not ever break any. 

College coaches almost have to walk around with a compliance officer glued to their side making sure they’re not violating the many ridiculous rules by the NCAA.  It’s almost like before you can talk to a player or recruit a player at a tournament you have to consult with a compliance officer before you can do anything.  It’s very ridiculous and it slows down the recruiting process.

I understand there has to be rules and regulations to protect the players from coaches who may not have their best interests in mind.

The NCAA is a joke; they have rules that are 50 years outdated.  This is not the 1950s or 1960s where college sports was totally different; the players were different and the world was different.  This is the more modern world now where the players are extremely different and the world is extremely different but the NCAA is stuck on old and stupid.

The NCAA should focus their attention on the real criminals out there; those coaches who clearly violate major rules.  Like paying players money or paying some fake recruiting service thousands of dollars to persuade players to their program.  There are a lot of college coaches who only care about winning games, making a lot of money and nothing else.

There are a lot of college coaches who would do whatever it takes to recruit players, even if that means breaking the rules which is exactly what they’ll do.  The NCAA will catch these rule-breaking coaches long after they’ve made their millions, won a lot of ballgames or maybe a championship before any kind of punishment is handed down.

Big-time college athletics has changed and the players should be paid because the coaches are getting paid. The fans are buying tickets and jerseys at these games and the players see none of that money.  I can understand why players leave college basketball or football after one year when their eligibility after three years is up; because it does not pay to be a college athlete for four years when everyone else is getting paid and not them!!

Coach K, is one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time. The fact that some kind of rule violation may or may not have taken place is the issue.  A coach with an incredible reputation for winning is now being accused of rule violations and this just tells me how ridiculous the NCAA really is.

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