Time for European Club Model to Replace Public School Athletics

Just in the last two weeks, there have been public school districts in California, Oregon, and Alabama who have had to face the possibility of eliminating all or some athletics in their district's schools due to budget shortfalls. This trend is bound to continue as we see education spending continue to take a major hit in this country. It comes down to keeping teachers employed or fielding athletic teams. Even as ardent as I am in regards to the benefits of athletic competition, I could not support cutting teachers jobs to keep scholastic athletics. Perhaps it is time for us to learn a thing or two from our European neighbors and begin to move junior athletics out of the public schools and to the private club realm. The vehicle for accomplishing this already exists in several sports. The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) provides competitive competition in virtually every sport offered by American high schools. I feel it also may offer a better experience and quality of training than the traditional American high school model. Since I am a basketball writer, I will concentrate on the benefits to basketball players, yet I contend this model is adaptable to virtually all scholastic sports.

I was first exposed to the European Club model regarding junior basketball more than 15 years ago. Every since I saw this concept first hand, I have felt it was a far superior method by which to train youth than the way we go about it. In most foreign countries the players begin to learn the game and compete in athletic clubs, very similar to our YMCA's. The YMCA of course is where many of our youth here in America are first introduced to the game. I was the product of an excellent YMCA program in Raleigh, NC. The difference starts when the youth reach the age of middle schoolers. In America, it is then that we begin to switch the kids to the scholastic model. Traditionally, they play for their middle school team and then go on to play for their high school team. In the European model, they continue to play for the club as they grow older. They compete in their age group against other clubs. It is seldom that their school offers the sport and if it does it is considered a much lower level than the club level. This trend can continue indefinitely for some of these participants as they go from bantam and junior level all the way to the adult level. Many of these clubs offer professional teams. The pro teams in these organizatins will many times recruit players outside of their area or even country to make them more competitive and increase their fan attendance. These clubs develop intense rivalries between each other that are very similar to our scholastic rivalries. I remember being in Belgrade, Serbia a few years ago and was amazed how all the junior basketball players were either members of the Red Star Club (The former Yugoslavian Army club) or Partizan (The former Yugoslavian Police club.) and each side despised the other, it reminded me of the Duke/Carolina rivalry in ACC basketball here in America.

The funding for these clubs comes primarily from private sources. I believe most of the clubs do get some tax exempt status in their countries, yet the fundraising is all up to the club itself. Again, very much like our AAU basketball model that already exists. The clubs also charge fees to the players to help offset expense but in most cases they do have some scholarship money set aside for those who may not be able to afford the cost. Local and national companies are very involved with sponsorship in these clubs.

If a similar approach were taken in America you would see many more benefits to the athlete and improve the overall experience. The current trend in American high school basketball is that those players who can, are opting to get out of the public system and attend private schools with elite programs. In these schools they many times play twice the number of games as they did in their public school and are exposed to many more opportunities for college recruitment. The public school system limits so much of what the coach or athlete can do that it makes it tough for the player to be successful or gain exposure to college recruiters. Public school districts tend to limit the number of games that can be played, the time a coach can train his players in the off-season and how far the teams can travel to play games. There are also very stringent age restraints and even bans or restrictions on foreign players. Many of these constraints are financially related and some are just philosophical differences in regards to the importance of athletics. In a majority of states state legislatures actually oversees the public school athletic association. Now it seems that many of the private school state associations are mimicking their public counterparts in the implementation of these rules. That is not the case in the Tar Heel state. The North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association is one of the most liberal high school athletic organizations in the country. They are one of the few organizations that allow reclassification (When a student repeats a grade to improve academically or for more physical and emotional maturity.)or foreign students to have more than one year of eligibility. For these reasons, their basketball teams have become some of the most powerful in the country and feature several nationally ranked teams each year. In South Carolina, the opposite is true. Their private school league (SCISA) mirrors their public school league rules. The only alternative for South Carolina players wanting a better basketball experience is to attend school out of state.

It seems to benefit everyone from the student-athlete to the public schools themselves if athletics were systematically moved to the private sector. In regards to basketball, I see a huge opportunity for the AAU to step up and propose winter leagues and tournaments. I also see a door for the shoe companies and other national level sponsors to step in and subsidize such a program, thus having a profound effect on school budgets throughout the nation. In my next blog, I will show you how we are implementing just such a club in North Carolina.