John Millea has been writing about sports and people, youngsters and communities sharing their passion for life and competition for many years. He is a renowned storyteller, a person with a deep caring for humanity.
Millea is a former communications staffer with the Minnesota State High School League. He recently authored a post on X where he made his annual pitch for a break from competition during the holidays to allow studentathletes, coaches and school staff working in activities departments to rest, regroup and focus on spending precious quality time with family. It’s a thought-provoking suggestion.
One seemingly obvious answer is the holiday break gives athletes and coaches the opportunity to practice and refine skills, to compete, to bond as a group and do something the students and coaches enjoy doing.
It could be changed. Millea’s former bosses, the MSHSL’s board of directors, could nix high school sports and activities between, say, Dec. 23 to Jan. 1.
Here in our little corner of the world, there is some support for the idea of taking a reset in the name of time with family and other priorities. Brad Skogerboe, NPHS’s activities director’s reply was succinct.
“100% agree,” he said, responding to an email seeking his thoughts on Millea’s suggestion.
“The pressure is so strong to dedicate 100%, but if everyone took a break and there was no pressure to sacrifice family time, I think everyone would appreciate it,” said boys’ swimming head coach Tracy Torgerson, who’s own youngsters swim.
‘Everyone.’ Without a mandate from a school board or the MSHSL bosses, a holiday break is unlikely.
The Trojans’ girls’ and boys’ hoops teams are competing this week in the St. Cloud area and Lakeville, respectively. NP’s ‘rastlers are going to Fargo, N.D. The girls’ and boys’ ice hockey teams, the gymnasts, dancers and floor hockey teams are taking a break from tournament competition but are likely practicing.
Dan Wagner NPHS wrestling coach says the state of youth and high school athletics makes the issue “tricky.” The opportunities for students are much greater than they have been in the past, he said.
Wagner is taking his team to Fargo, N.D., for Rumble on the Red, a wrestling mega tournament featuring 80 schools. To provide the opportunity for his athletes, the tournament must be done over the holiday break to avoid student-athletes missing days of school.
Wagner is taking a different approach this year. “I made the Rumble on the Red optional for kids to attend. I told them ‘no-questions-asked.’ If you feel you need to be home with family a little more over break, or if you feel you are not ready for an event of this nature. This gives them the opportunity to unplug a little more if they feel they need to. However, it still provides the opportunity to participate in one of the toughest and largest high school tournaments in the Midwest.”
Holiday tournaments are far from the biggest challenges the MSHSL has faced. In 1987, Minnesota was the first state to OK open enrollment, a program under Gov. Rudy Perpich’s “Access to Excellence” initiative.
Originally, it allowed students to attend public schools outside the child’s home district to access more advantageous academic programming. It was distorted for athletics. In the late-1980s and early-‘90s, a handful of Eden Prairie’s best ice hockey players played for Minnetonka, bolstering the Skippers’ state tournament hopes.
The suggestion students be allowed to access academic programs at a public high school outside their home district but return to their home district for co-curricular activities drew a retort from Dorothy McIntyre, at the time a MSHSL associate director and champion of girls’ sports and equal opportunity. She asked why someone would be so anti-opportunity for students.
Having seen what happened in Eden Prairie, his response started with, ‘Mam, let’s be honest about what is really happening …’
There is no shortage of anecdotal evidence of students chasing their athletic dreams at high schools elsewhere.
As the NCAA stated in an ad promoting collegiate academics, most students will graduate in something other than sports.
To the MSHSL’s credit, it stopped school-hopping. Priorities reset.