Sideline Chatter

Athletic Awards

2010-05-20T06:44:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to all of our student athletes who were recipients of different athletic awards last night at Senior Honor's Night...I am sure it was a special evening for both them and their families! The athletes listed below represent in a positive manner what it means to be a true "student athlete." In addition, they are just a small sampling of the many wonderful student athletes who participate at South on a daily basis...all of those student athletes deserve kudos as well.

The following are the award categories and the recipients:

U.S. ARMY SCHOLAR ATHLETE AWARD:
Ethan M.
Katie H.

U.S. MARINE SCHOLAR ATHLETE AWARD:
Nick H.
Amanda R.

DETROIT FREE PRESS SCHOLAR ATHLETE AWARD:
Michael S.

DETROIT NEWS SCHOLAR ATHLETE AWARD:
Chloe S.

MHSAA SCHOLAR ATHLETE WINNER:
Jonathan R.

MHSAA SCHOLAR ATHLETE FINALISTS:
Robert M.
Katherine S.

MHSAA SCHOLAR ATHLETE NOMINEES:
Christopher L.
Duncan M.
Victoria P.
Katherine P.
Tommy P.
Blake S.
Chloe S.
Linsdey T.

THURSBY AWARD RECIPIENTS:
Chloe S.
Ryan M.

The Golf Challenge Cup

2010-04-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

Every year, the booster groups at both high schools put on the "Golf Challenge Cup." It is a golf outing that takes place at Lochmoor Country Club. More importantly, South competes against North for a great cause - to raise money for athletics at both high schools! The teams are made up of individuals throughout the community, it is really a nice event. The GPS Athletic Booster Club is hoping that many of you in the athletic community (and elsewhere) will attend the post golf outing dinner at Lochmoor Country Club on May 10th. If you are interested, PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS SOON! You can email John Conroy at domer125@comcast.net before May 3rd so that the boosters can save you a place among the victors! Cost is just $50 per person and remember you will end up supporting the athletic department (and your team!) by taking part in this great evening. Please consider joining us as we raise money for athletics…GO SOUTH!

Time To Start Thinking About Summer Camps...

2010-04-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

Summer is getting closer and with that comes the offering of our summer camps. If you are interested in your son and/or daughter attending, please take the time to download the attached document by clicking on the link below and completing all the necessary information. Last year we enjoyed record numbers and we hope that the same will hold true for this year as well.

http://gpschools.schoolwires.net/17692081918348200/lib/17692081918348200/south%20sports%%20camps%202010.pdf

Squad Reductions

2010-03-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that we are officially kicking off our spring sports' season already. As fun and exciting that it can be for some who make our teams, it is also difficult for others who end up being "cut." One of the most difficult jobs of any coach is to cut a student/athlete based on his/her lack of ability. Not to mention, it can be a difficult situation for parents as well. It is an expectation that our coaches take extreme care in the handling of squad reductions. In the event cuts are made, coaches are responsible for meeting personally with each candidate and giving them an explanation of their weaknesses, and suggestions for what can be done for them to improve appropriately in the future. There is no doubt that the topic of not making a team can be stressful, but it is a reality for some of our sports. Anyone who has coached before and has had to handle cuts personally know that it is a discussion that no coach enjoys having to execute...it is my hope that everyone respects the process as coaches alone are responsible for squad selection, and determination of playing time.

The Benefits of Being a Student Athlete!

2010-03-12T09:34:00.000-08:00

When you get a chance, please take the time to read the following passage by Jean M. Keelan from Carrollwood Day School Preparatory in Tampa Florida. Jean is the Director of College Guidance for the school. (Thanks to our booster club president for forwarding to me!) The number of benefits to our student athletes participating in high school sports is impressive…

"There are many benefits to being involved in athletics in high school. The personal traits one develops as a high school athlete are: teamwork, perseverance, responsibility, physical endurance, commitment, time management, and personal and emotional health. When a student decides to join an athletic team, a commitment is made to attend all practices and to give 100% effort. The student athlete learns to work well and in conjunction with others. Teammates rely upon and support one another to reach a common goal. A student athlete shows loyalty to teammates by being dependable and responsible, showing up for all practices and putting forth his/her best physical and mental effort.

The wellness benefits for the student athlete are that emotional and physical health are developed and maintained. Practices occur on a regular basis where drills are practiced and physical energy is used at its optimum for maximum performance for games. The athlete develops physical stamina to be able to be physically prepared for competition. Emotional health is developed through athletics in many ways. One example of how emotional health is increased is the amount of endorphins that are released during physical activity. When these endorphins are released, a natural high occurs and the athlete feels good which increases emotional wellness. These endorphins also help fight off depression and will reduce stress. When adrenaline is released due to physical activity, the flight or fight response kicks in, and when the student athlete's fight response kicks in, his/her performance is elevated.

Another benefit of being a student athlete is that one is forced to maximize his/her use of time. Time management skills are put to the test because the student athlete not only is a full-time student, but now has an additional time commitment. Because of this additional commitment, in order to be both academically and athletically successful, self-discipline must be used to control one's use of time. Research has shown that when a person has more responsibilities, s/he is forced to take control of how his/her time is used and that person winds up accomplishing more and maintaining a high performance level in both academics and athletics.

Finally, in addition to the already great benefits listed above, when college admission counselors and college coaches see a high school student who has performed well both academically and athletically, they see a well-rounded student athlete who will be a welcome student in higher education. In order to participate in collegiate athletics, students must be registered with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The NCAA promotes high standards in collegiate athletics so student athletes may remain eligible to play on a team."

Practice Planning

2010-02-08T06:55:00.000-08:00

The past week I was reading one of the recent publications from BCAM (Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan) and found the article by Dr. David Hoch, who is the Athletic Director at Loch Raven High School in Towson, Maryland, important enough to share with community coaches as well as our high school coaches. The article, “Planning Practice – Blueprint for Success,” deals with developing practice plans, and making them more efficient and effective. Although he is primarily discussing basketball, much of what he writes about can apply to other sports as well. The following are some of his suggestions…

• Restrict practice sessions to two hours. Beyond this point, you get negative returns.

• Consider teaching new techniques, skills and plays in the first-half of practice while the players are still fresh and attentive.

• Do not continue any drill “until we get it right.” All athletes learn at different rates and it may take several days of repetitions until the skill is mastered.

• Also, every segment and drill on your practice plan is there for a reason and is important. Everything needs to be covered in order to ensure that the athletes are getting the full benefit of the practice session.

• Use only drills that teach or reinforce the skills and concepts that are part of your system. There isn’t enough time to use popular drills that others – even well-known and successful coaches – use unless they complement your approach.

• Take each aspect of your offense and defense and create your own “Breakdown Drills.” Practice these individual parts and then put them back into use as part of the Whole-Part-Whole Method of instruction.

• Develop a list of alternative drills to teach the same skill or concept. As the season progresses, vary the drills to keep things fresh and interesting for the athletes while still reinforcing the desired skills.

• Use part of your full-court press break as a warm-up drill. Not only are you preparing the athlete’s body for the rigors of practice, but you are also reinforcing concepts that will be used in games.

• Try to incorporate game-like conditions in order to make the conditioning drills at the conclusion of practice more fun and relevant for the athletes. Sprinting after a loose ball or finishing a fast break makes sense to a young person as opposed to merely running sprints and they both accomplish the physical purpose.

• Set the standard that the coach will strategically schedule water breaks for the athletes. By being included in the practice plan and timed, optimum efficiency and results can be obtained.

• Instruct your athletes at the beginning of the season that they should stop and listen whenever they hear the whistle. Total attention is necessary in order to hear the next instructions or corrections to the execution of a drill.

• Considering alternating intense drills with those who may be a little less demanding, but still instructive, in order to maintain maximum participation by the athletes. Without this consideration, you may find some athletes pace themselves in order to make it through a practice session.

• Use assistant coaches and, perhaps managers, in drills in order to allow the athletes to get as many repetitions as possible. Learning is an active and not a passive process. Standing and waiting for one’s turn is not an efficient approach to master shills.

• Shorten the length of practice sessions as the season progresses into the last third of the schedule. The players have already learned and incorporated the skills and system. The goal should be to prevent athletes from getting stale.

MHSAA Fall Start Dates 2010-11

2010-01-14T06:48:00.000-08:00

As families begin thinking about the summer during cold times like this, I often get several phone calls asking about start dates for fall sports during the summer months as families plan vacations...In order to help families plan their vacations more effectively, the following are the dates to be aware of for fall sports:

Football - August 9
Cheer - August 11
Field Hockey - August 11
Boys' Cross Country - August 11
Girls' Cross Country - August 11
Girls' Golf - August 11
Boys' Soccer - August 11
Girls' Swim/Dive - August 11
Boys' Tennis - August 11
Volleyball - August 11

Please keep in mind as well that student athletes will need completed physicals/emergency forms prior to these start dates.

Homecoming 2010

2009-12-05T06:08:00.000-08:00

This past week, we settled on the new schedule for the 2010-11 football season. As a result, the homecoming date has now been set - Friday, October 1. We will be playing Anchor Bay and the homecoming events that are already being planned should provide for another fun weekend of events. The Athletic Booster Club's "Run the Pointe" (which went very well this year), will take place on Saturday, October 2. Also to help you "get a jump" on scheduling your events for next year, we will play our cross town rivals, Grosse Pointe North, the week before homecoming. The date is Friday, September 24; the game will be played at GPN.

The future planning never ends for our athletic teams; please put these dates on your calendar and be sure to join us for all the fun!

An Ounce of Prevention...

2009-10-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

As the H1N1 flu virus has made headlines across the nation, it is important to remind everyone in educational athletics the importance of prevention techniques. Here are just a few as our student athletes begin to move indoors for the winter:

Focus on hygiene: More athletes are not showering at school after practice/games; we need to let them know how good personal hygiene prevents viruses such as the flu.

Remind athletes to clean practice equipment: I have often said to parents that it is important for their laundry rooms to smell every night...seriously! That way they know that their kids are bringing things home on a daily basis to get cleaned. Several parents have shared with me that they do not even allow their kids into their car unless they have their practice/game gear with them to take home in order to be cleaned. Coaches are demanding that these things be done, but parents need to help them.

Wash your hands: We need to be washing our hands frequently the good old fashioned way by using soap and warm water (hand sanitizers if necessary). In the fitness facility we have disinfecting wipes for students to wipe down equipment and keep that area as clean as possible.

The bottom line is that these things are common sense, however, it's good to be reminded of their importance.

It's Tournament Time...

2009-10-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that the fall sports' season is almost over...but that is quickly becoming a reality.

We have teams either gearing up for the State Finals or vying just to make the playoffs. This part of the season becomes the most fun for coaches and student athletes. Sure, teams will remember the highs and lows of the regular season, but when the season becomes "one and done" in the post season, everything takes on a whole new meaning. I wish all of our teams good fortunes in their quests for championships and hopefully many of you will be there to watch them compete and support all that they do for their teams and South.

Also, don't forget that this weekend (10/17) is the Athletic Booster Club's Annual "Run the Pointe." This is an important fundraiser for them and they hope to beat last year's participation numbers. The booster's are the financial "support" arm for our athletic department and without their contributions, a lot of what you see that revolves around athletics would not be possible. This is your time to give back to them so that they might one day impact your son, daughter, or community.

In either case, I will look forward to seeing you out and about...

The Parent-Coach Relationship

2009-09-18T05:55:00.000-07:00

Both parenting and coaching are extremely difficult vocations. By establishing an understanding of each position, we are better able to accept the actions of the other and provide greater benefit to children. As parents, when your child becomes involved in our program, you have the right to understand what expectations are placed on your child. That begins with clear communication from the coach of your child's program.

I would expect coaches to share with you their philosophy, expectations of your child, locations and times of practices, team requirements, injury protocol, and any type of discipline that might result due to a violation of team rules. I would expect parents to communicate to coaches their concerns, scheduling conflicts, or specific concerns in regard to a coach's philosophy and/or expectations.

Issues that are not appropriate to discuss with coaches include playing time, team strategy, play calling, and other student athletes. It is very difficult to accept your child's not playing as much as you may hope. Coaches are professionals. They make judgement decisions based on what they believe to be best for all students involved. Please do not attempt to confront a coach before or after a contest. These can be emotional times for both the parent and coach; meetings of this nature do not promote resolution. Therefore, issues like these must be left to the discretion of the coach; so please follow and respect the "24 hour rule."

It is my hope that everyone involved in South athletics enjoy their experiences, but more importantly understand their roles within them as well.

Go South!

Excitement is in the air...

2009-08-26T06:48:00.000-07:00

The bad news for many of us is that summer and all of its fun is almost over...

The good news is we are getting geared up for another exciting fall sports' season!

If you have been by the school or have driven or walked around the community lately you have noticed an increase in student athlete traffic. You have seen the cheerleaders working out on the track, football working hard on the turf, field hockey putting in strategy during practice, girls' swimming working on technique, volleyball sweating in the hot gyms as they run through drills, both cross country teams running throughout the neighborhood, girls' golf teeing it off at Plumbrook, and boys' tennis working on their swings at Elworthy...needless to say, all of this represents the fact that school is getting closer to starting and with that brings the opening of a new sports' season.

Along with our student athletes working hard, our coaches have been putting in a ton of time as well. Long after the student athletes are gone, it is typical to still find our coaches "hanging around" going over strategy, tough personnel decisions, and the many other things that involve coaching. Our coaches have also gone through professional development this summer dealing with team dynamics and communication in an effort to become even better coaches. When I speak to them and our student athletes, I can hear the excitement in their voices as they wait for their respective seasons to begin.

Hopefully you are excited as well and I look forward to seeing you at the games this fall...

New Academic Requirements in 2009-10

2009-02-28T07:28:00.000-08:00

Effective with the 2009-10 school year, the minimum academic standard for student athlete eligibility changes to "66% of credit load potential for a full time student" and the period of ineligibility following an academic deficiency at the end of a term is " 60 scheduled school days."

The prior rule for student athlete eligibility stated that student athletes must be passing a required 20 credit hours (four courses). The new minimum state standard means that student athletes who pass four of seven courses will no longer meet the new minimum state standard. Our student athletes will now need to pass five out of seven courses to maintain their athletic eligibility. In addition, the old rule stated that the period of ineligibility for student athletes displaying an academic deficiency was the following semester. As I said earlier, the new period of ineligibility will be 60 scheduled school days.

One important note: Student athletes who achieve credit for 20 credit hours but not 66% of a full course load during their last academic term of 2008-09 will remain eligible at the start of the 2009-10 school year only.

We pride ourselves at Grosse Pointe South High School by continuing to have high standards and expectations when it comes to academics. From our perspective, we expect all of our student athletes to pass 100% of their courses.

Football Changes

2009-02-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

At last week's Macomb Area Conference Athletic Director's meeting, there were changes made to next year's football schedule that impacts other activities for South...

As a result of these changes -

The Grosse Pointe North v. Grosse Pointe South game will be played on Sept. 25; this will be a home game for the Blue Devils!

The Homecoming date has been moved to Oct. 16 when the Blue Devils take on Port Huron.

Both of these changes are positive for the community so be sure to plan ahead accordingly!

Are You Interested In Becoming A New Athletic Booster Club Member?

2008-11-26T05:31:00.000-08:00

Anyone interested in becoming a new Grosse Pointe South Athletic Booster Club member, please contact our current president, Dutch Mandel, for more information...

dmandel@crain.com

This is a great opportunity to become part of a group that does so much for our athletic program.

John and Marlene Boll Athletic Center

2008-10-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

As I type this blog, we have now been in the new athletic center for over a month. Since our grand opening in early September, we have had the good fortune of receiving a significant financial contribution from the John and Marlene Boll Foundation. As a result, our new facility will be officially known as the John and Marlene Boll Athletic Center.

The pool is in full use and soon our auxiliary gymnasium will be getting utilized by our athletic programs. We continue to be in intense planning and preparation sessions involving our new fitness facility. It is my hope that we will be ready to open that portion of the building to our student athletes in January. I can say with 100% confidence that our fitness facility will be user friendly to both our male and female student athletes. Our athletic offices have moved as well; we are now located on the second floor of the Boll Athletic Center.

While we have been busy with the opening of our new athletic center, all of our fall sports teams have been competing at high levels the last two months. Currently, as we get ready for the close of the fall sports season in a few weeks, our winter coaches are slowly gearing up for their seasons. Hopefully, we will see you "out and about" at our games, meets, and matches as our fall teams get ready to compete in their respective state tournaments.

I would like to close by thanking all of those involved in the opening of the John and Marlene Boll Athletic Center; we are off to a good start for the athletic department and we expect to continue our momentum for the remainder of the school year.

NCAA Eligibility

2008-09-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I met with representatives from a company that services student athletes when it comes to NCAA eligibility. Their program, GradeCheck.net, is a self service website that student athletes (and other school personnel) can use to monitor and evaluate any student's NCAA scholarship eligibility. Students can enter their academic data into this easy to use system and let the program calculate, evaluate, and report their current status, noting any areas of improvement.

If you think this might be of interest to you, please visit: www.gradecheck.net for more information.

Resources for the College Bound Student Athlete

2008-03-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in learning more about the "tools" needed for the college-bound student-athlete, click on the following link:

http://www.mhsaa.com/college/

If you have any of your own personal stories to share in addition to what this site provides, please let our bloggers know!