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Preface

The title of this book may seem radical; frankly, that is by intent. However, it has an important premise and, dare I say, even promise, in proposing needed changes to a long-standing, popular, but ultimately fragmented sports delivery and entertainment system that is in desperate need of change. Proposing that the United States change its deeply imbedded, educationally based sports system is akin to changing the health-care marketplace in America or proposing new gun control measures, and one does not have to look too far to see the challenges both of those issues present. Is it any wonder that this, too, is a difficult proposition? The United States’ primary way of delivering sports while concurrently developing athletes of all skills is under immense pressure as to how it fits within the funding-starved public education system. Yet, educationally based sports in America remain incredibly popular overall, despite this tenuous relationship. School-based competitive sports have long been touted, in many ways correctly, as a source of community pride, an effective strategy for school branding, and a way to develop skilled athletes, while presenting many other intrinsic and tangible values. Still, this does not mean that we as citizens should not look at ways to potentially change the status quo of sports development and delivery, for the potential betterment of the country and our entire sports development system.

There are many direct and indirect comparisons when it comes to attempting to change existing, deeply embedded systems, regardless of what they may be. This applies even if the need for improvement is highly evident, as I feel it is with how we do sports in America. Change is hard for many, especially when money and control are involved. Resistance to change in most any walk of life will always be there, by those who are comfortable and/or fear change for whatever reason. For example, it is arguably critical to the health and economy of the United States to have better access to health care for all, which in turn might increase competition, lower costs, and provide health and wellness benefits. This sounds great in theory and may ultimately be accurate, but it certainly does not mean there will not be resistance to any change in the American health-care system, since the current system does benefit certain segments of society and those populations do not want to abandon the status quo. We see arguments about this subject almost every day in the news.

One can also debate the current state of sports delivery and sports development in the United States, both as it compares to other countries around the world and as to whether the primary education-based model should be revised, if not changed completely. Sports development and sports delivery are broad terms that need to be defined. Essentially, there are several definitions, and in this country there are no standard definitions for overall sports development and sports delivery processes. Empirically, elite sports development has been defined as “the skill development of talented athletes in the continuum of elite athlete ‘production’” (Hogan and Norton 2000, 215–16). Sports development can also be described as a delivery system of sports in a certain context, such as how sports are delivered to and accessed by groups and individual citizens of a certain country. In America, sports development and sports delivery are rather fragmented, in that the United States does not have a centralized national sports policy or a governmental sports ministry to provide a governance framework, as is the case in many other countries. What we have is a mishmash of several organizations that are educational, public, and private, which provide sports and exercise opportunities throughout the country. For the purposes of this book, “sports development” is an umbrella term for all sports delivery options that currently exist in the United States, whether scholastic, public, private, professional, or amateur.

This book proposes various options to potentially assist in creating better and more centralized sports development systems in order to offer more alternatives for athletes, coaches, administrators, and others, beyond the current educationally based system in America. Despite the availability of other options, competitive and recreational sports opportunities in America are still primarily available only in schools. According to the United States Olympic Committee, educationally based athletics encompass over 80 percent of all sports delivery and sports development options in the United States. Access for all participants in sports beyond the schools is often restrictive and limited because of cost and a dearth of offerings. Meanwhile, most schools are focusing more on elite sports development and delivery than on mass participation and exercise. We are becoming a nation mostly of spectators and the systematic development of elite athletes rather than a nation with a system or systems that provide access for all. Sadly, even most of the primary and secondary public schools in the United States are charging additional, often high participation fees for athletes just to play in sports that are ostensibly already funded by public taxes, thus making it even tougher for individuals to participate and exercise in what might be one of the only available sports development options.¹

Scholars have debated and analyzed the issues and problems with educationally based sports development for over a century. Somewhat ironically, this is about the same time period that organized sports gained a foothold in our education system. I have been part of this debate for well over a decade, following a long career in intercollegiate athletics as a coach and administrator in which I passionately defended the very system this book proposes to change. I am intensely cognizant of what this book is suggesting, and absolutely understand that dramatic change will not be quick or easy, but that does not negate the need to create, analyze, and modify different approaches that can ultimately provide real and meaningful change before it is too late. These are not short-term options. Any potential solution must present generational changes and proposals, but significant alteration of sports development and sports delivery in America can and should be done.

I do not think it is either quixotic or wishful thinking to propose dramatic changes to the way we do sports in America. There is almost universal agreement among scholars, coaches, university presidents, secondary school teachers, and even athletes themselves that the present commercialized, economic, and academic foundation of educationally based sports is on very shaky ground and its future is certainly in doubt. Thus, many conclude that it is not a question of whether economics, legal challenges, and athlete’s rights movements and other forces will change the current system, but only a matter of when.² Even some of the most jaded supporters of the education-based model are raising questions and looking toward the future. Big Ten Conference Commissioner Jim Delany, one of the most powerful people in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletics, recently said, “Anybody who thinks that we’re in a good place or that what we have is totally sustainable—I would suggest, is not really reading the tea leaves, because of the federal litigation, the federal interest in Congress, and the public’s skepticism, and even the media’s skepticism. We’re not in 1965; we’re in 2015. We think it’s time for a good, full, broad, national discussion on where education fits in the system” (Planos 2015).

The United States of America is basically the only country (with some exceptions, such as a limited system by comparison in Canada and limited educationally based extramural sports opportunities elsewhere) whose primary avenue of sports development and delivery for most of its citizens lies within the structures of primary, secondary, and higher education. On the surface, this may appear to be a mutually beneficial arrangement and even a noble effort to combine the shared aspects and goals of education and sports development. Education, maturity, and growth have consistently been discussed in terms of the effort to foster a sound mind and sound body in developing a total person as part of the educational process. Ostensibly, gaining a valuable education while participating and competing in sports, even at an elite, hypercompetitive level, can seem to be an effective and promising combination. This meshing of sports and education is not unique, in the sense that most educational systems in the world include some type of physical education and sports component. Most young people in countries other than the United States actually get their first exposure to sports in school through broad-based sports participation opportunities, while more specialized and competitive development continues in local and regional sports clubs.³ The main difference between the United States and other countries is in the prominent place sports has in education and the academic eligibility requirements to be able to practice and compete.

Interscholastic and intercollegiate athletic competition in America is not only hugely popular and at times profitable, it is also the primary avenue for mass participation as well as elite sports development and competition. That is where any similarity between the United States and other countries with regard to sports and education begins and ends. As mentioned previously, it is estimated that over 80 percent of sports development and delivery in the United States is done through educational systems. Approximately 65 percent of the US Olympic team at the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games had participated in university-based sports programs (Forde 2015). This does not even include the numerous athletes from foreign countries who come to the United States not only for an education, but also to hone their athletic skills within its higher education system. In the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Brazil, 1,018 athletes, representing many nations, were either current, incoming, or former American college athletes, including the 430 athletes in the US delegation (Martinez 2016). This in itself can cause numerous issues, not the least of which is that the primary American sports development system is providing training opportunities for elite foreign athletes who may take away opportunities from potential US athletes.⁴ There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but it is another reason why more opportunities should be available to all athletes, beyond the education system, to play and participate in sports in America. In countries such as those in Europe that are a primary focus of this book, the major avenue of sports development and delivery is outside the educational system, embedded in separate nonprofit sports club systems. The details, benefits, and weaknesses of this model, when compared to the current educational sports model in America, are discussed in greater depth as the book progresses.

Despite the existence of empirical research and popular discussion regarding issues and problems with the American sports development and sports delivery models, there has been a dearth of discussion regarding potential changes to the status quo. Ironically, very little of the research has discussed the mechanisms, concepts, or theories for change, even though there is almost universal agreement that change must occur. In 2015, an outstanding empirically based book, Sport Development in the United States: High Performance and Mass Participation, by Peter Smolianov, Dwight H. Zakus, and John Gallo, put forth a practical, theory-based process for potential changes to the current US model and began to drive serious discussion about needed changes to the way this country conducts sports and develops athletes.⁵ Candidly, that book is a primary inspiration for this work, and I strongly feel that both sets of proposals are needed to add to the debate and the body of knowledge regarding future sports development models and changes in the United States. Many of the ideas presented in their work are similar to mine. Although there are significant overlaps and synergies in potential applications, this work is based more on conceptual models of change, including modification of the current educationally based model.

This book analyzes historical aspects of interscholastic and intercollegiate sports development in the United States as well as reasons for the parallel development of the non-education-based model found in European countries. The final chapters discuss the why and how of reviewing, analyzing, and ultimately proposing new models of sports development and delivery for the United States both inside and outside the existing educational system. Some of my proposed changes to the existing American model draw upon the European sports club system as one of the potential templates. The overarching analysis points to the inevitable unsustainability of a primary sports development and sports delivery model being part of all levels of education in the United States. The “why” concerns the challenges to the system via legal and legislative structures, as the NCAA’s Jim Delany mentioned, and also those arising within the system itself. The primary thrust of this work is one of extreme caution or even outright worry. An overwhelming percentage of all participation in sports in the United States, whether elite or mass, is grounded in education, and the potential for loss of many of these opportunities (outside the special cases of football and men’s basketball) within the educational system is very real. There is also very real potential for the continued and worsening loss of external opportunities in a number of sports that are not available or are out of reach for many because of the costs involved. The ability of America to be competitive internationally in many of those sports in the future could also be dramatically impacted. The loss of these opportunities within the American education system is already happening, bearing negatively on public health in the United States due to decreased exercise and sports options. The lack of mass sports participation and physical education opportunities is a significant contributor to the epidemics of poor health and obesity facing America today. If we continue on our current path of chiefly supporting only commercially viable sports that can rake in television, sponsorship, and ticket revenue, opportunities in other sports, and the health benefits that come with them, will eventually be reduced or even evaporate.

My personal sports background, while fairly broad based, was mainly in wrestling. As checkered as my competitive and coaching careers were, my participation and competition in sports was a defining, largely positive element in my life, and one I was fortunate to have access to throughout my formative years. Sadly, sports like wrestling, swimming, gymnastics, and track and field are being downsized at all levels of the US education spectrum, if not outright eliminated, in the face of increased costs, budget reductions, and a desire to field more competitive teams in football, men’s basketball, and other largely male-dominated, entertainment-centric sports. It cannot be discounted that other extracurricular offerings at the scholastic level, such as music programs and other nonathletic options, are also being downsized and eliminated to save costs.⁶ While these other issues are not within the scope of this book, there are very real dangers to not providing broad-based educational and nonathletic life-skill opportunities for American students. In the critically acclaimed 1995 movie, Mr. Holland’s Opus, starring Richard Dreyfuss as the title character and longtime high school music teacher, Mr. Holland reacts to his music program being eliminated by saying, “The day they cut the football budget in this state, that will be the end of Western civilization as we know it!”

I am not promoting the end of Western civilization by advocating the end of sports as we know them in America. To the contrary, I am actually advocating massive expansion of low-cost sports- and health-related options for all Americans, most notably our youth. We must as a country begin to explore alternatives and determine the best role for sports and physical activity to play within and outside the educational system. Our goal must be to establish options that improve health, physical fitness, access to sports, and competition. It is time, after more than a hundred years of a primarily education-based sports development model, to explore structures that will not only grow sports opportunities for people of all ages, but also keep the United States a premier player in the competitive international sports world. This can be done, and must be done, by taking at least some of the sports delivery stress away from the educational system, developing alternatives that are both publicly and privately financed.

My main goal here is to help move the discussion and frame the inevitable changes that are both already occurring and on their way in sports and sports development in America. The United States is a leader in the world in arenas ranging far beyond those of sports. It is important for it to understand and accept the responsibility of being (or becoming) a leader in this sphere, too, by pushing for the adoption of improved international sports development and sports governance systems. I hope that this book also adds to that needed conversation.