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AAA and the Arkansas General Assembly

Started by Tigers87Grad, February 18, 2014, 12:01:54 pm

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Tigers87Grad

There's a trend that has been followed for many years and it appears to be getting worse rather than better and that is the decline in participation levels for high school athletics, the quality of the coaches, and the amount of funding athletic programs have. I will try and elaborate on each point I've brought up.

A.) There was a time not too terribly long ago when the football stadiums and basketball gyms would be full in the student sections during events. Now a days its hard pressed to get 5 complete rows of bleachers filled with students! That has translated into very low numbers and the quality of student athletes in Central AR.

B.) The quality of coaches in the LRSD is beyond embarrassment! When a program suffers under the helm of a coach, where is the logic in that coach moving to another program only to keep the suffering going? Older coaches with an older view on coaching isn't conducive to the way today's youth are viewing the game. I formations, veer right, veer left, 1 or 2 passes and that's the playbook. Why would a good quality student athlete want to play the sport of football when that sums up the coaches philosophy? We're seeing students flock to schools in the surround cities because the grass is greener on that side of the fence! In basketball one LRSD high school has reigned supreme over the others for years while the other programs had steadily declined. The largest high school in the LRSD has the worst record and its all due to very poor coaching. I attended a game just this year and the head coach got off his rear end once the entire game and that was only to yell and scream obscenities at a player. It was so bad we packed up the group of kids we had taken informed the principal of the concern yet to only be told "There's nothing I can do to him".... I asked if this was in fear of a lawsuit, and the principal simply turned and walked away. Why is this allowed?

C.) The Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) is the governing body on Arkansas Athletics and it has a direct line of communications with the Arkansas General Assembly. If such a governing body has such affect on the Rules than govern Arkansas Sports, why does that same governing body set a cap on the amount of funding that goes into a program? The range in funding is acrimonious and very shady, with ranges from $500,000 to $10,000! With such a severe disparity how can other programs even attempt to play on a level field? It's simply unsportsmanlike. Let me point out this is high school athletics and NOT Collegiate athletics I'm referring to.

In closing my rant I'd also like to point out that the below needs serious a review from an unbiased panel. If coaches could focus on coaching and not teaching classes and doing piddly extra duties to make a mediocre salary, I assure you the quality of student athletes would be better and the numbers would rise in Arkansas High School athletics.

SECTION 2. COACHES OF COMPETITIVE SPORTS

Rule 1. QUALIFICATIONS. All coaches shall be licensed teachers meeting the employment criteria stated in Rule 2 as required by the Arkansas Department of Education or a credentialed Registered Volunteer as authorized by Act 1012 of the 1997 Arkansas General Assembly.

Interscholastic coaching by Registered Volunteers excludes the sports of football, basketball and track.

A.   Teacher-Coaches shall be regularly employed and paid by the local board of education for professional duties. Assignment of professional duties shall be for a minimum of three regular class periods or equivalent time each day.

B.    Assignment to a professional education duty other than a classroom teaching assignment all or part of the required three periods is permissible, but such assignment does not excuse a coach from the licensure required as a teacher.

Sports:
*Volleyball
*Competitive Dance
*Competitive Cheer
*Basketball
*Football
*Track & Field
*Cross Country
*Wrestling
*Soccer
*Baseball
*Softball
Golf
Tennis
Decathlon/Heptathlon
*Swimming/Diving

Q1. If a total of 12 sports are NFHS Mandated, why aren't all 12 required to have certified teachers as coaches? In other words why aren't Registered Volunteers allowed to coach Basketball, Football, Tack?

Lionheart88

Quote from: Tigers87Grad on February 18, 2014, 12:01:54 pm
There's a trend that has been followed for many years and it appears to be getting worse rather than better and that is the decline in participation levels for high school athletics, the quality of the coaches, and the amount of funding athletic programs have. I will try and elaborate on each point I've brought up.

A.) There was a time not too terribly long ago when the football stadiums and basketball gyms would be full in the student sections during events. Now a days its hard pressed to get 5 complete rows of bleachers filled with students! That has translated into very low numbers and the quality of student athletes in Central AR.

B.) The quality of coaches in the LRSD is beyond embarrassment! When a program suffers under the helm of a coach, where is the logic in that coach moving to another program only to keep the suffering going? Older coaches with an older view on coaching isn't conducive to the way today's youth are viewing the game. I formations, veer right, veer left, 1 or 2 passes and that's the playbook. Why would a good quality student athlete want to play the sport of football when that sums up the coaches philosophy? We're seeing students flock to schools in the surround cities because the grass is greener on that side of the fence! In basketball one LRSD high school has reigned supreme over the others for years while the other programs had steadily declined. The largest high school in the LRSD has the worst record and its all due to very poor coaching. I attended a game just this year and the head coach got off his rear end once the entire game and that was only to yell and scream obscenities at a player. It was so bad we packed up the group of kids we had taken informed the principal of the concern yet to only be told "There's nothing I can do to him".... I asked if this was in fear of a lawsuit, and the principal simply turned and walked away. Why is this allowed?

C.) The Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) is the governing body on Arkansas Athletics and it has a direct line of communications with the Arkansas General Assembly. If such a governing body has such affect on the Rules than govern Arkansas Sports, why does that same governing body set a cap on the amount of funding that goes into a program? The range in funding is acrimonious and very shady, with ranges from $500,000 to $10,000! With such a severe disparity how can other programs even attempt to play on a level field? It's simply unsportsmanlike. Let me point out this is high school athletics and NOT Collegiate athletics I'm referring to.

In closing my rant I'd also like to point out that the below needs serious a review from an unbiased panel. If coaches could focus on coaching and not teaching classes and doing piddly extra duties to make a mediocre salary, I assure you the quality of student athletes would be better and the numbers would rise in Arkansas High School athletics.

SECTION 2. COACHES OF COMPETITIVE SPORTS

Rule 1. QUALIFICATIONS. All coaches shall be licensed teachers meeting the employment criteria stated in Rule 2 as required by the Arkansas Department of Education or a credentialed Registered Volunteer as authorized by Act 1012 of the 1997 Arkansas General Assembly.

Interscholastic coaching by Registered Volunteers excludes the sports of football, basketball and track.

A.   Teacher-Coaches shall be regularly employed and paid by the local board of education for professional duties. Assignment of professional duties shall be for a minimum of three regular class periods or equivalent time each day.

B.    Assignment to a professional education duty other than a classroom teaching assignment all or part of the required three periods is permissible, but such assignment does not excuse a coach from the licensure required as a teacher.

Sports:
*Volleyball
*Competitive Dance
*Competitive Cheer
*Basketball
*Football
*Track & Field
*Cross Country
*Wrestling
*Soccer
*Baseball
*Softball
Golf
Tennis
Decathlon/Heptathlon
*Swimming/Diving

Q1. If a total of 12 sports are NFHS Mandated, why aren't all 12 required to have certified teachers as coaches? In other words why aren't Registered Volunteers allowed to coach Basketball, Football, Tack?
In regards to B; if a kid loves the sport, he loves the sport.  Kids that want to play football aren't going to not play because the coach won't run their preferred system.  This isn't pro or college ball, positions are still pretty fluid and it's not uncommon to see a kid that was a lineman in jr. high move to FB in high school as his body develops, or vice versa, or for a reciever or RB move to QB because he's the most dynamic athlete on the team (especially if it's a run-first team)  If a coach is going to run the Veer, he's going to put his top athletes at RB, even if they were receivers in jr. high.  It's not like a coach is taking a bunch of hotshot WRs and refusing to play them because he wants to run the triple option.  I don't buy the idea that great athletes are quitting the sport in droves because of the coach's offense or defense.

As to coaches not teaching; sure, if they were full-time coaches like college they'd do better.  And where are the schools going to get the money to hire another 15-20 teachers (or more or less, depending on the size of the school)?  Schools aren't exactly rolling in money, and most electorates are going to vote down huge millage increases so that the football coach can quit teaching his 4-5 classes a day.

As far as Q1 goes, I'd guess hat when the law allowing Registered Volunteers was passed, those sports were considered too important to trust to non-employees, or else the sports volunteers could coach weren't considered important enough to necessitate school employees.  Or something like that.

Coach DePriest, Sheridan

Quote from: Lionheart88 on February 25, 2014, 02:18:25 pm
As far as Q1 goes, I'd guess hat when the law allowing Registered Volunteers was passed, those sports were considered too important to trust to non-employees, or else the sports volunteers could coach weren't considered important enough to necessitate school employees.  Or something like that.
I've heard it's actually the other way around.  Those were the only 3 scholastic sports around when the rule was made by the Dept of Education. When the other sports were added, they were not grandfathered into that.  That's the story I was told anyway.

Lionheart88

Interesting.  Do you know when the law was enacted?

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