I was just thinking to myself yesterday about how a handful of sports in Michigan high school athletics — most notably girls’ basketball and volleyball — play their seasons opposite the college schedule and almost every other state in the country. In Michigan, girls’ basketball is in the fall and girls’ volleyball is in the winter.
And then I ran across this Freep article on the subject. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Michigan’s schedule is unfair to the girls playing these sports because it reduces their chances to participate in the same club play and college recruiting activities that everyone else in the country does. That said, I don’t quite understand how the whole thing is billed as a Gender Equity Lawsuit.
The defense claims that the switch will throw these sports (especially basketball) into more direct competition with the boys, to the girls’ detriment. Competition for facilities and competition for spectators. Boys’ and girls’ golf, tennis, and soccer are also affected, but basketball is the only sport involved in the switch that will result in boys and girls competing in the same season where they don’t currently. Hence the particular concern over facilities.
I figure if the rest of the country does it this way, I don’t see why Michigan can’t do it that way. The transition year will be a bigger inconvenience for club sport scheduling than for school sport scheduling. However, I can’t imagine where my little high school will be holding two or three extra practices per day in the winter. I haven’t been back in a while, but I’m pretty sure they haven’t added on a second basketball court.
