Speaking of Sports Column Archive

Speaking
of Sports

by
Alex
Prasad

Jumping to Conclusions,
Only Funny in
Office Space

August 22, 2010

If there was ever a need for a Jump to Conclusions mat, as featured in the brilliant movie, Office Space, it occurred just a few weeks ago. The “???” square was the initial reaction many lept to after reading this article in the Free Press.

Certainly, as a public high school, it is difficult for NHS to compete with Catholic Central. But after reading that Novi Catholic Central has 72 players on its varsity squad, and Novi just 31, alarm bells went off, sounding across the local sports landscape.

After making the playoffs nine of the previous ten years, the Novi High School team dropped to 3-6 last year, Tab Kellepourey’s last as head coach. I too became a chicken little of sorts for a day or two. But after talking to a number of current and former players, along with some “insiders” I have concluded the sky is not falling on the Novi football program.

The drop off in participation was severe according to the Free Press article. Novi’s 2009 roster had 72 players. This year’s team had 41 less! But after recovering from the initial shock, it should be no wonder that the team faced a precipitous decline.

From my research, it seems that the skyrocketing costs of pay-to-participate was by far the biggest cause of the drop-off. We are all aware of the budgetary constraints our governments and schools are facing in these hard times. In fact, the Novi Board of Education only restored funding for athletic transportation at the beginning of August!

But the fact remains, when governments want less of something, like cigarettes, they tax it. When they want more of something, they subsidize it. There’s a reason for that - the more it costs to do something, the less inclined you are to do it!

Novi initially doubled the rate of pay-to-participate fees from the $175 it was in the 2009-2010 school year to $350 for 2010-2011. That rate isn’t a one-time fee, it’s a per season fee! Families had an overall limit of $700, but $700 is a whole lot of money.

Surely, the rate increase alone priced some kids out of the football team, especially if they play another sport. The proof that this was a major faction is that since the school board reset the fee at $175, the varsity football team’s numbers have jumped to about 40.

The Pay to Participate hike certainly played a major role in the declining participation. And the team usually sees a slight decline in numbers after a losing season according to former high school coaches. But a compounding, factor was the replacement of Coach Kellepourey with a new coach, Todd Pennycuff.

Unfortunately, I have witnessed the rough transition of a football program from an established legend coach (see Lloyd Carr) to a new, relative outsider (see Rich Rodriguez). There is infighting amongst members of the team. There are accusations against the new coach. There is fear at what the change in regime will bring.

All those aspects of transition came together in the worst possible way for the University of Michigan. We’re still dealing with the repercussions. So it’s not surprising to see the same phenomenon, albeit with a much smaller magnitude, with Novi football. Coach Pennycuff is not an unknown quantity since he teaches in the Novi school district and has significant KVC coaching experience, but he was not a Novi insider, considering he was coaching South Lyon East the past few seasons. According to some players on the team, he’s a tough coach, but they respect that. There is no love lost between those on the team and those who quit; the expected whispers about some not willing to work hard linger.

Outsider observers have noted that practices don’t seem significantly different from previous years, even if there is a greater emphasis on weight lifting. Pennycuff’s reputation preceded him, just as Rich Rodriguez’s famously tough workouts did at Michigan, and scared off some players that would otherwise be on the team.

So what’s the bottom line? Novi’s numbers, despite the reduction in pay-to-participate, are down. But that was expected to some degree. The program will bounce back, both in numbers, and on the field. And as many have said, “Winning cures all ills.”

Editor’s note: When investigating, the issue of “overpracticing” came up. In fact, the term doesn’t exist account to the MHSAA. According to MHSAA Communications Director James Johnson, “The MHSAA does not place any limits on the numbers of practices or the amount of time a school may practice in a week like colleges do.

If a member school, or a league or conference, or a coaches association, or an MHSAA committee would make a recommendation for such a rule, the Association would run such a proposal through its legislative process which ends with a vote by its member-elected governing board, the Representative Council. We’ve not heard, even on an anecdotal basis, anything from the membership that would indicate interest in having such restrictions.”

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Alex Prasad is a life-long Michigan resident, a student at the University of Michigan and a 2007 graduate of Novi High School. He was the Novi.org school and sports reporter while he was at NHS. Alex was also a captain of the NHS Cross Country Team and Track Team under legendary coach Bob Smith. His passion for running continues to this day, as he trains for a marathon.

Alex is currently General Manager of WOLV-TV, the student run television station at UM, and produces shows on both the Michigan Football and Michigan Hockey teams. You can also see his work on Big Ten Network coverage of Michigan baseball and softball this spring.

You can see more of his work here.