Thoughts on the Class of 2013

Fortunately for everyone that attends our annual graduation ceremony, I have established the goal of completing the ceremony in an hour or less.  This year we just came in under that self-imposed deadline, and in future years with more graduates, we will have to be a little more efficient if we are to get it done.  When I say fortunate what I mean is because of this goal, I really work had to keep my remarks very brief, which for those of you that have taken the opportunity to talk to me, know that it is very difficult for me to be brief any time I am talking!  So as not to take a whole lot of time standing up there and risking that some in the audience will nod off, I set a limit to the length of my remarks based upon how much I can type on the script in 16-point font.  What is frustrating when I take on this task really came to a head this year as there was a lot more that I wanted to say about the Class of 2013 than I was able to in the time allotted.  So, I will do some of that now.

For those of you at our commencement ceremony, you will remember that my general theme was “talent.”  This group of graduates is perhaps one of the most talented classes of students that I have had the opportunity to work with in my years as an administrator.  I can think of a class of students when I was a teacher somewhere around twenty-five years ago that had tremendous talent as well, and as the years have gone by, many of them have done tremendous things.  This group reminds me a bit of them, and thus I have tremendous hope for them.  I generally end my remarks at graduation with a challenge to leave a positive mark on the world, and I honestly believe that each student can do that.  Basically, I believe we can all have a positive impact on others, and while one of these kids may not come up with the next Facebook or Twitter, there is no question that they can make life better for other people. 

When I speak publicly, I learned a long time ago that when you list names, you run a huge risk of leaving people out.  My last year as a teacher at Galva-Holstein I was asked to give the commencement address and I decided that I was going to mention every graduate in the speech.  I went over that speech twenty times and had a list of the graduates right next to me, checking names off.  And dang it if I didn’t miss one!  Actually, his name was in the speech, I just skipped over it when I was reading it.  I did feel bad about that, so I hesitate to try and include lists of people when I put something out to the public for fear of leaving someone out.  It is for that reason that I was somewhat vague in my references with the speech and am so here as well.  However, these kids really do exist!

As we work with a class of students at high school, they generally take on some characteristics as they come through.  Some come in with “reputations,” which generally change as they work their way through high school, due mostly to maturity and the inevitable changes that adolescents go through.  The Class of 2013 was somewhat non-descript when they arrived at NFHS.  I remember a couple of loud, funny young men that stumbled their way through that awkward first year, but for the most part, as a class there was a not a lot that they did that drew attention to them.  But, as they grew up, people really started to take notice!

I spoke of writers, musicians, and performers when I spoke at graduation, and in my mind, that is where this group starts.  I recall sitting with a couple of them listening to them read some of what they had written and was truly moved by their words and ideas.  Writing is tough!  Yet with some of our students in this class, they make it look easy.  Another part of writing is that you want to get it right when the public is going to read it.  When you write about other people, you have a responsibility to the subject(s) to tell their story, which is something that members of this class have done as well as can be seen in publications with our student’s work.

On stage these kids have excelled!  Whether it is singing, playing, acting, or just “yucking-it-up,” we have had the opportunity to be truly entertained.  It pains me that in this day of cable television and the Internet that we can’t seem to get anyone other than parents and grandparents to come to a program at school, so what these kids have done is really somewhat of a secret.  I guarantee that for your entertainment dollar, folks who have come to watch the performances at the high school the past four years have gotten a lot more of a return than what others who have stayed home in front of a screen have received.  Hey, I am a TV fanatic, and yet there has not been one time that I walked out of the PAC disappointed by what I saw and heard.  Plus, I can watch my favorite shows on Hulu the next day. 

I’ve wandered off my intended path, which is another reason to limit my time, so back to the point!  What is a little frustrating to me is that it does not appear that at this point when I have inquired that many of these kids are going to pursue these areas where they have demonstrated so much talent.  Yes, a couple of them look like they are headed in the direction of writing and communications, and I don’t have a problem with others playing it safe or having a fall back plan.  I certainly get it.  I also know that things change, and there is that saying that comes up time and again that people need to find out what they are passionate about and do it.  That way you never have to “work” a day in your life because you love what you are doing.  Because many of us have loved what these kids have done the past four years, I hope that at least for a few of them the passion will continue to burn and they keep doing it!

School vs. Club: Where Do Sports Belong?

The game is over coached, and under taught.  That was the message from Coni Yori, the head women’s basketball coach at the University of Nebraska in an article I read about the current state of young basketball players.  It accompanied an interview her colleague on the men’s side at the university, Tim Miles, who bemoans the fact that so much time is spent playing games in the summer on AAU teams with little if any attention paid to the developing the fundamental skills of the game.  Along with Rick Pitino, coach of this year’s NCAA champion Louisville Cardinals, who says the game suffers because of the lack of fundamentals, Miles also points to a decrease in scoring in the college game because players simply don’t have the skills to score.

Coach Yori, who may be familiar with some of you “hard core” Iowa girl’s basketball fans because of her amazing career as a player at Ankeny High School a number of years ago, comments about a conversation she had with a young camper who shared that she had played 100 basketball games that summer and according to Yori, didn’t think she really needed to work on her individual skills.  She described her as “a kid playing all of these games and basically thinking she has it all figured out.”  Yori scored 3,068 points in her star-studded career in high school, and only played 25 games in a calendar year, all of them with her high school team because there were no club or travel teams.

We live in a sports obsessed society right now, and it only seems to becoming more so when one hears about the billions of dollars that are being poured into various events.  At one point I thought that perhaps it would come around and common sense would come into play, particularly in college athletics, but that does not seem to be the case.  There is simply too much money.  There are a number of things I do not like about high school athletics, but overall, I still believe that it is the best place for young people to get the experience of playing these games.  Even though there have been changes over the years, there are still strong structures in place and high standards in regard to coaching qualifications and expectations.

As a family we have also been involved in the club, travel, or select world of sports.  I do see a lot of positives out there for this kind of experience.  In fact, I believe that there are some aspects that far exceed scholastic sports.  However, I also see first-hand what Miles and Yori are saying.  Now I will say that there are some fundamental differences between the sports, as the two that my kids have played – softball and soccer – tend to be those “suburban” sports where private instruction accompanies membership on a team.  That is different from a lot of the AAU and club basketball programs out there that exploit poor kids from inner cities, usually for the personal gain of the coaches.   However, there is a common theme with these programs and that is the fact that nearly all of the players are playing for themselves, not team, or like scholastic sports, the school.  Their motivations are different.  They want the scholarship and to do that, they have to stand out as an individual.  And to do that, they often ignore some of the fundamentals of the game.

What we have today is a choice.  With the exception of football, a club alternative exists for every sport we offer in high school.  There are already kids in Iowa that choose to play club for a number of reasons, and opt to not play for their high school team.  We see it in soccer and softball right now.  But I think there is something to read between the lines with both Coach Yori and Coach Miles, and that is the fact that they would rather work with the high school coaches and believe that at that level, education does take place.  Not only teaching on the basketball court, but also in the classroom.  Sports in our schools are an extension of the classroom, and it is for that reason that we really need to keep them in proper perspective.

Small Town Success Story

A while back I had a conversation with Coach Guyer, who stopped in to let me know that North Fayette alum and Warburg All-American, John Helgerson had qualified to participate in the Olympic wresting trials in Iowa City.  I have only been introduced to Helgerson and shook his hand, but I have heard a number of people talk very highly of him since I arrived nearly four years ago.  Without knowing a lot about the history of our area, I wonder how many people from our community have had opportunity to reach the pinnacle of their chosen field?  Helgerson did not make the Olympic team, but he was in that final one or two percent that had a chance.  If you ask me, that is a pretty exclusive club and when you think about it, according to the last census, there are 313,914,040 people in the United States, so the fact that he was one of eight that even had a chance to make the team, that certainly puts him at the very top of peak!

I mention this because there seems to be an inferiority complex among many folks who grow up in a small town.  You often hear someone in less than a proud manner say in a conversation, “I grew up in a small town.”  One doesn’t need to have an advanced degree in mathematics to figure out that where there are larger concentrations of people, there is a greater likelihood that more people will excel.  It’s in the numbers.  I read a story recently about the number of outstanding professional basketball players who grew up in Brooklyn, New York.   Brooklyn is one of the boroughs of New York City and holds a little over 30% of the cities population.  In the 2010 census there were just fewer than 2.6 million Brooklynites.  Iowa has a population of a bit over 3 million.  Now I am not as much of an aficionado of basketball as I am other sports, but I wonder over time how our state compares to Brooklyn in terms of players who have done well in the NBA.  Fred Hoiberg, Raef Lafrentz, Kirk Heinrich, Nick Collison are four names that come to mind and it appears as if Harrison Barnes and Doug McDermott have careers at that level in front of them.  So maybe being from a small town doesn’t make it a long shot.

To go further with this, many of us are aware of the fact that at one time in the past ten years or so, four men who graduated from Aplington-Parkersburg were playing at the same time in the NFL.  In fact, per capita, A-P was producing more professional football players than any other high school in the country.  Take that Texas high school football!  That goes to show that the small town kid can make it to the top level of a given field!

So why do I bring this up?  One of the things that I have stated a time or two in the past year as we have moved forward into the whole grade sharing agreement is that where a person lives should not impact the opportunities they have in life.  In some respects being in the right place at the right time is a definite advantage.  Not too many Iowans are going to become professional surfers.  But, over the long haul, growing up in a small town should not impede goals and aspirations.  The key in the education area is that you have to have resources and opportunity, and that is why I was 100% on board with sharing from the first day it was mentioned.  An example that I shared with some folks is with a question: why should students at West Des Moines Valley have a choice of English classes when they are juniors and seniors and our students don’t?  There is a critical mass that provides opportunity, and with what we are planning to have in place next year, we are taking advantage of that.  I want to make sure that our students have what they need to move toward that dream or goal.

John Helgerson didn’t attend a big school.  He graduated from North Fayette with a class just a little bigger than the ones that are going through our high school right now.  He had the opportunity to wrestle in high school and he parlayed that into a chance to wrestle in college.  Through hard work and perseverance, he qualified for the Olympic Trials.  If anyone ever told him that he couldn’t get there because he was from a small town, he ignored them.  I would like to think that we have students in our school now that have aspirations and dreams, and with John Helgerson as an example, hopefully it doesn’t matter that they are from a small town.

When Should School Start?

At a meeting I attended in West Des Moines last week, an education lobbyist spoke to our group about what is going on right now on Capital Hill relative to education.  We are past the funnel and a number of education bills are going forward and are currently being worked on in committee.  One that educators are watching closely is whether Iowa districts will get 4% allowable growth funding next year, which would be great for all of the districts and students in the state.  However, while this is important, as is the pending legislation on teacher evaluation and compensation, I have a feeling that another topic that we are being told is going to come up for a vote this year is going to generate its fair share of water cooler talk.  What is that, you ask?  School start date.

From what I am told, politicians are tired of this being brought up every year and to get past it, they are going to bring it up for a vote.  Here is the debate.  According to Iowa Code, school in Iowa cannot start until the week of the first of September.  However, schools can apply for a waiver and start earlier.  I don’t know the exact number, but nearly all districts submit that waiver and start much closer to the middle of August rather than the first of September.  Like many of you, it seems to me that school starts earlier each year, but looking at past calendars, the actual start date has been relatively constant.  The comment I hear most often justifying the mid-August start is “I don’t want to be going to school in June!”  I get it, but I am one of those in what seems like a minority because I argue that in buildings that are not air conditioned, it is a heck of a lot hotter in August than it is in June!  I don’t have a problem waiting a little while to start school.  So the reason that the legislature is said to be having this discussion is because Todd Wolverton would rather wait until September to start school, right?  No!  There are far more powerful forces out there pushing this agenda.

We do have people in our area that attend the State Fair in August, some who would just as soon we start school a little later in the month so that they can exhibit their livestock, or spend vacation with family at the camp grounds.  But even they don’t have the power to push this agenda with the legislators.  The influence is coming from the State Fair and the tourism lobby, and right now it looks as if they have the ear of our elected officials in Des Moines.  I am not sure that waiting to start school is going to increase attendance at the fair, but I guess that it could.  However, high school students are a source of cheap labor that vendors and others who need workers want to employ during the run of the fair.  I am not sure that cheap labor is a worthy trade-off for school, but that is the loudest voice as other employers like Adventureland and the resort areas throughout the state want to keep these kids on the payroll through Labor Day if they can. 

If you have a strong opinion about the school start date, you need to contact your elected officials.  If you believe that local school districts are in the best position to make the decision as to when school should start, then express that with your legislator.  Personally, I don’t have a horse in the race right now.  I just hope that whatever happens it does not inhibit districts from having a longer school year.  I do have an opinion on that!

Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

I like to see people happy.  I get choked up when little kids run into the arms of returning parents.  I get teary-eyed when I get to see people experience unrestrained joy.  I can think of a number of times that has happened, many of them sports related because I am tuned into that, but I can recall others as well.  Have you ever seen that look on the face of the groom when he catches that first look of his bride-to-be at the end of the aisle?  Yeah, I watch the groom while most are watching the bride!  Heck, she takes a long walk and you can see her for a while.  Take that moment to watch the groom and you will see what I mean!   I’ve had opportunity to be there when a student gets word that he has been awarded a major scholarship.  That smile is priceless.  Back to the romantic, how about when that courageous guy pops the question in front of thousands of his “best friends” and on the Jumbotron?  Or when that accountant finds out that she passed the state boards?

A while back I watched the video of Norfolk State students in their student center watching the final few seconds of their basketball teams monumental upset of Missouri (I can’t believe I would pick a team that I loathe as much as Mizzou to win it all on my bracket!) in the NCAA tournament and explode into a crazy sea of wild celebration.  I don’t know anyone at Norfolk State, let alone in the video, and I could not help but beam at the chance they had to be so happy.  Those kinds of moments need to be shared, and more important, in all of our lives we should be so lucky to get to experience the amazing adrenaline that flows through our body at that moment.  I’ve gotten to do that a couple of times at some sports events when the “amazing” happens.  I remember standing on the sideline as the seconds ticked off under the lights at one of the first night games Nebraska played when Tom Osborne had a team that finally defeated Barry Switzer and OU.  My split loyalties between my two college alma maters came into play as Iowa State fans went absolutely delirious with joy in 1992 following quarterback Marv Seiler’s amazing run that lead to the defeat of Top-5 ranked Nebraska.  Iowa State fans were crying with joy, and my new wife was jumping up and down so wildly that I thought for sure she was going to fall over the rail of the second deck!  I remember Chay Wood, a young man I coached a few years back, rise up after pinning his opponent in the state finals and look to his mom in the crowd with his wry smile.  I know what I was feeling standing in his corner, but I cannot fathom the joy he was experiencing at that moment.

Pure, unadulterated joy!  It is such an incredible feeling that it makes me wonder why we would want to make anyone feel anything else.  The cool thing is that when you witness it, you can’t help but feel some of it too!  Watching those kids go crazy when their team wins gives me a smile and a warm feeling.  So why don’t we seek ways to make people feel happy?  It feels good to see that smile; that sparkle when their eyes light up.  Is it that difficult to find nice things to do, or kind things to say?  I confess that often when I am out and about I am “on a mission” and am oblivious to those I meet.  It isn’t that tough when I slow down, make eye contact, and say something nice.  It doesn’t always have to be much. Sometimes less is more.  But I think we live in a world of cynicism and many of us for whatever reason indict those who are really happy.  Is it because we are jealous or envious?  Are we so competitive that it always comes down to winners and losers?  In a warped way, are some of us happy being miserable?  I suppose it could be a number of things.  Regardless, look for those opportunities to smile and laugh, and more important, take a pause the next time you see someone that is really, really happy . . . and try to absorb some of it.  I guarantee you will be happy too!