Ernie Clark: Identity lost as schools consolidate
Bangor Daily News, October 26, 2007
(excerpt) One thing certain is that with fewer schools the interscholastic sports world will be condensed in a corresponding way, as a result the opportunities for high school student-athletes will be reduced.
Most bands or service clubs in a school aren’t limited by size, but only five teammates can be on the basketball court in a game at one time. So if 150 or so high schools become 80 or 90 over time, the number of varsity basketball players on the court at one time similarly is cut, particularly in areas where multiple small schools are merged into a few larger unions — think Washington and Aroostook counties, for example.
Perhaps the offshoot of this small chapter of the consolidation grand scheme will be to increase the influence and importance of private sports organizations such as Little League, AAU and ASA as they step in to in fill the role being vacated piecemeal by public school economies of scale.
On the surface it seems hard to believe that club sports might completely replace organized school sports one day, but that industry already has made serious inroads as a complementary piece of the youth sports equation.
And the reality is that change is drawing near, both in the overall framework of the public school system in Maine and in how that change affects the fabric of interscholastic sports in communities both large and small.
What form that latter change takes likely will be determined by the same issues that are driving the original administrative consolidation plan — money and local control.
(excerpt) One thing certain is that with fewer schools the interscholastic sports world will be condensed in a corresponding way, as a result the opportunities for high school student-athletes will be reduced.
Most bands or service clubs in a school aren’t limited by size, but only five teammates can be on the basketball court in a game at one time. So if 150 or so high schools become 80 or 90 over time, the number of varsity basketball players on the court at one time similarly is cut, particularly in areas where multiple small schools are merged into a few larger unions — think Washington and Aroostook counties, for example.
Perhaps the offshoot of this small chapter of the consolidation grand scheme will be to increase the influence and importance of private sports organizations such as Little League, AAU and ASA as they step in to in fill the role being vacated piecemeal by public school economies of scale.
On the surface it seems hard to believe that club sports might completely replace organized school sports one day, but that industry already has made serious inroads as a complementary piece of the youth sports equation.
And the reality is that change is drawing near, both in the overall framework of the public school system in Maine and in how that change affects the fabric of interscholastic sports in communities both large and small.
What form that latter change takes likely will be determined by the same issues that are driving the original administrative consolidation plan — money and local control.
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