Hopes for the 2024-25 Sporting Year

In a break with convention, there will be no end-of-year column grumbling about things which have transpired in the scholastic sporting year. Conversely, and in an effort to curb being too critical, a list of hopes for the 2024-25 sporting year follows.

The overarching hope for the year is that no student-athlete carries forward after high school a physical liability due to a sports injury. This is almost akin to wishing that Texas could go one day without a fatal traffic accident – it has been years. But yet it remains a sincere hope. 

If there is one request associated with that hope that no injury continue to plague a student-athlete after graduation, it is that all coaches endeavor to place their athletes in the best possible physical condition. While there is no data to support this, it remains a common belief that being in top shape can prevent injury.  

Also associated with that request is a corollary. It is the hope that athletes, trainers, coaches and parents communicate frequently and sincerely when it comes to injury treatment. That this communication is focused on the complete rehabilitation of said injury, with a view toward alleviating any possible life-long effects. 

The second hope for the upcoming year is the hope that scholastic sports will be championed as, just that, ‘scholastic sports’ not ‘mini-versions of professional sports.’ This is akin to turning a big ship while underway – it is a slow process, degree by degree. 

Unfortunately, scholastic sports have been trending each year more and more toward the professional game. With seemingly no good reason, sports administrators have acquiesced to becoming mini-versions of the big brother.

A healthy argument should be taking place at UIL and within districts and coaches’ offices about the high school game of (fill in the blank) and why the rules for scholastic sports should or should not mimic the professional brand. 

Readers of this page know that the author is strongly in favor of retaining high school sports as high school sports and not mimicking every oddity of professional sports. The main reason is simple: the players are developing pre-adult students, not fully mature adults paid to entertain.

Perhaps these few words will put the rudder over ‘easy’ and get the big ship of scholastic sports tracking back toward its own path.

The next hope for the year is that, collectively, communities keep scholastic sports and the support of those sports on an even keel. Is it possible to support a team too much? You bet. When a community is defined by a scholastic extracurricular team and not the school which produced that team, then the horses are behind the wagon.

There is some not-so-subtle messaging when the horses are behind the wagon. That messaging doesn’t do our student-athletes any favors, as they can misinterpret rousing support for communicating that nothing is more important than whatever team or game in which they are involved. 

Sending that message would be doing a disservice to our sons and daughters.

The author is a big sports fan, not the biggest sports fan, but a big one. Presently, there is no doubt that the purest form of organized sport in the nation is high school scholastic sports. 

Before we figuratively adopt the National Football League rulebook for our high school teams, let’s take one of our six allotted time-outs and ask if we are indeed steering scholastic sports on the proper course.