NSAA Must Act Now to Save Sports

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One night years ago, in the wake of the loss
to Miami and the Orange Bowl, the late late night
talk show monarch Larry King took a call from a
distraught Husker fan bemoaning the heartbreaking thirty one to thirty defeat.
The fan wondered King if we would ever win another title. Well,
in Larry's typical hard boiled response, he got this, sports

(00:22):
is importantly unimportant, and then he went to the next caller.
King was materially correct. Sports isn't that important when pressed
up against death, destruction, disasters, And if too much of
life's payload is put on athletics while we all lose,
we're starting to lose. Last week, Lincoln High brought his
varsity football team to Omaha to play powerhouse number one

(00:42):
Millard South. The twenty twenty four Patriots are likely the
best they've ever had in the school's fifty four years. Conversely,
the Links have known better times. In that game. The
other night, the Patriots led sixty three to nothing at
the half, Links coach Mark McKee consulted with his staff,
his boss, and then conveyed to the Millard South staff

(01:02):
that is best for all of the kids if we
shut this down. Now game over wasn't about injuries or
player safety. Patriots could easily have scored over one hundred
points and with it buried the entire Lincoln High program.
And then this week Benson Football shut her down down
to less than thirty total players, with maybe fewer. By
Halloween announced it was forfeiting the last two games of

(01:24):
this season. Millard South is a super team. Last season
west Side rampage through the entire season and route to
a perfect record. Great public high school teams are quite common,
but until recently, they were organic, a collection of kids
who grew up together, played together, had talent, good coaching,
and won it all. Today's super teams are artificial, taking

(01:48):
advantage of lax transfer rules, strategic and aggressive recruiting, and
in some cases nil cash. An unhealthy trend is emerging.
Millard South plucked the best three plays from three other
metro schools this off season. West Side has a kid
from Lincoln High School. Free agents aren't new. Recently deceased

(02:10):
Pat Fisher, the All Stator in the early fifties before
a great career at Nebraska in the NFL, played his
senior year at Westside. Even though his official address was
thirty ninth in Farnham, but his dad got a job
at Westside High and was encouraged to bring his kid along.
But for decades those instances were rare. Sure are the
private schools like Prep and Olkcore. Mount Michael managed to

(02:32):
lure a few public school stars over the years, but
this hand to hand combat for talent today among public
schools is new. The learning community started this by allowing
open enrollment for any Metro kid to any other Metro
high school. The NSAA stepped in and said, hold it.
You can transfer, but it must be complete by May first,

(02:53):
before the next school year, or you must sit out
ninety school days. Well, it's time for the NSAA to
go Vatican two on sports eligibility. If you transfer for academics, fine,
but for sports, I propose no eligibility for a transfer
unless you are legal guardian, not an uncle or a

(03:13):
second cousin has resided in that district for at least
ninety days, and even then, transfers sit for at least
one hundred and eighty days. Enforce that, and the high
school transfer portal closes by noon. These lax rules are
killing competition, destroying opportunities at our public schools. The disastrous

(03:34):
learning community concept wrecks the potential of so many OPS
schools academically now athletically too. The Bensons, the Brians Northwest.
Now even once powerful, Burke get treated like eBay need
a linebacker. See if Brian has one quarterback, check out
that sophomore Burke. He wants to play for a winner.
When Terrence Mackie bolted Benson two years ago to coach

(03:56):
football at Central, he took the seventeen best and an
assistant coach with him, who served as the recruiting coordinator.
Now why would a public school football team need a
recruiting coordinator to steal players from other schools. At its
November meeting, the NSAA needs to act change and then

(04:17):
enforce new rules. Opportunities for underserved kids isn't the only
thing at stake. The quality of the community around them
is two