04/14/2007

Coaches oppose switching seasons

Group wants girls to stay in fall

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

KALAMAZOO — A group representing Michigan high school tennis coaches has asked a federal court to let girls continue to play in the fall, rather than switch to spring under a court-ordered gender equity case settlement.

The switch harms girls because the fall season is warmer and takes less of a physical toll on players, the Michigan High School Tennis Coaches Association said in a brief Thursday in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo.

"It's such a strong case that the fall is the better season,” said University of Michigan law professor Richard Friedman, who is representing the coaches. "It hurts the girls it is meant to help.”

"There's two premises, the first that girls do have the better season already,” said TC Central boys and girls tennis coach Larry Nykerk, a member of the association's board of directors. "The second premise is that participation in girls tennis will go down in the spring.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on April 2 refused to hear an appeal of a ruling that Michigan's prep sports scheduling discriminates against girls. A group of parents sued the Michigan High School Athletic Association seeking changes in the schedules.

Tennis is among a number of sports seasons now set to switch next school year.

Diane Madsen, spokeswoman for Communities for Equity, said on Friday that the parents group never had objected to girls playing tennis in the fall. She said moving girls' tennis to spring was the MHSAA's idea.

MHSAA spokesman John Johnson said the court ruling said that, in addition to basketball and volleyball, the MHSAA was mandated to switch the seasons of two other girls' sports.

After seeking input from its members, the MHSAA's board voted to switch tennis and golf, Johnson said Friday.

"Tennis shouldn't have been on the table in the first place,” Friedman said. His daughter Rebecca is a freshman tennis and softball player at Huron High School. "The girls have had the better season.”

Nationally, states with 60 percent of the nation's population schedule girls' tennis in the fall, the coaches group said.

Nykerk said the chances are "slim” that the MHSAA will leave the tennis seasons the way they are now.

"Do I think this is going to happen? It's a long shot,” he said. "But it's something (the coaches' association) had to do. That's the way we all look at it.”