88th Annual NFHS Summer Meeting Held in Palm Desert, California

By Bruce Howard

Key leaders in high school sports and activity programs gathered in Palm Desert, California, June 30-July 4 for the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) 88th annual Summer Meeting.

About 600 delegates from NFHS-member state high school athletic/activity associations were in attendance at the five-day meeting held at the Desert Springs Marriott in Palm Desert.
In addition to the 38 workshops on key topics in high school sports and a report on the new NFHS Coach Education Program, the 25th induction ceremony of the National High School Hall of Fame closed the week's activities in grand fashion with another stellar class of high school athletes, coaches, officials and contributors.

Former two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Jim Plunkett, who was a high school standout at James Lick High School in San Jose, California, and Terry Steinbach, former Major League Baseball star who was one of Minnesota's best two-sport athletes at New Ulm High School, were two of the more noteworthy inductees in the 2007 class. However, Hawaii's first athlete in the Hall of Fame, Charlie Wedemeyer, stole the hearts of everyone in attendance.

Wedemeyer, a three-sport high school star in the 1960s at Honolulu Punahou High School, has survived the past 30 years with Lou Gehrig's disease. Although he can no longer walk, talk or breathe on his own, Wedemeyer, who communicated through his wife, Lucy, delivered the acceptance speech on behalf of the 2007 class and received a standing ovation when he received his award.

Other members of the 2007 class were Clyde Duncan (Iowa), and Jim Johnson (Michigan) in the Athletes category; John Bagonzi (New Hampshire), Lewie Benitz (Wisconsin), Rick Insell (Tennessee) and Joan Wells (Kansas) in the Coaches category; Jane Hansen (New Jersey) and Sam Short (Alabama) in the Officials category; and Tim Stevens, a sportswriter from Raleigh, North Carolina.
Summer Meeting attendees also received an update on the new NFHS Coach Education Program, which was launched earlier this year as the first and only education program designed exclusively for interscholastic coaches.

Tim Flannery, NFHS assistant director who is in charge of the Coach Education Program, told attendees that about 40 state associations will be on board with this new program in 2007-08.

The online portion of the program was started in January and the blended approach, which utilizes the classroom approach for a part of the course and the remainder online, was launched in June. The one-of-a-kind Coach Education Program consists of two courses – a Fundamentals of Coaching course and a First Aid for Coaches course.

A new four-minute DVD entitled "Minimizing Risk – A Shared Responsibility" was unveiled at the NFHS Summer Meeting as well. The DVD, which was produced to be shown at preseason meetings, will be used by athletic directors and coaches to warn athletes and their parents about the inherent risk of injury in sports. Copies of the DVD will be sent at no charge to the 51 member associations of the NFHS.

Among the national topics of concern discussed during the 38 workshop sessions were the public/private school issue, steroid use and abuse, marketing, heat and hydration, threats at events, and recruiting and retaining officials.

For the closing speech by NFHS Executive Director Bob Kanaby, click here.