Cutter: “Next Year”

Not to worry, these girls on last year's Dakota volleyball
squad WILL be back for this year.

One of the most important roles of journalists is to get things right and get facts straight. This means so much more than making sure the rushing yard count is correct.

Somewhere down the line a mistake will slip through the cracks. Even when we don't know of their existences until later down the road.

I would like to bring light to one of the most common high school sports media mistakes that even the most seasoned professionals make. In fact, sports media types alone do not make the mistake. I have also heard coaches and athletes make this same mistake.

This is the belief that a junior, sophomore or a freshman on a particular varsity team “will be back next year.”

For example: “All of the girls on Dakota's volleyball team will be back next year” (as mentioned in 2012).

Do we know this for a fact? Did the girls commit to a multi-year agreement that they will play until the end of their senior year?

As not to pick on one particular team, does any athlete in the area sign a four-year contract before their freshman year stating that they are bound by a particular program until graduating high school? Has this ever happened?. As much as our coaches would like to see every freshman player stay for all four years, we all know that the success rate of that happening is not 100%.

This may seem like semantics for print journalists, but think of it this way: If the not-so-entirely-true phrase of “will be back next year” is put in print, and the newspaper ceases operation, someone looking back through microfilm many years down the road will still be confused. They have put that phrase on record.

With “will be back next year,” journalists have given an indication that these particular athletes are definitely returning for the following year. Readers do hold on to that as a truth. When they do so, they don't give out the fine-print information – you know, the stuff said real fast at the end of a car dealership commercial.

Over 100 years ago, high school yearbook accounts often mentioned the “disbanding” of high school sports teams after the last contest, or after the postseason banquet. We are seeing less and less of this disbanding in today's high school sports environment with strict weight room commitments and the like.

Technically, no high school student can be committed to a particular team for a cycle of one year. This is because, technically, high school students do not belong to a particular high school during the summer vacation (save year-round schooling).

We forget that there is a period of time when all high school students are considered “free agents” in a way. The only way these kids can come back to their school is after they fill out all of the registration paperwork and pay the fees. The only way an athlete can come back to their team is if they fill out all of the participation paperwork and pay the fees.

This is the clause that gives athletes and their families the right to transfer to another high school. No contracts are ever breached when someone transfers. No punishments are handed out and no fines are doled out.

No athlete is any kind of property of a particular team when the season is not taking place, nor is any student any kind of property of a particular school when the school year is not taking place. This also gives students the opportunity to switch sports in a particular season if they do choose.

Speaking of transfers, the number of those taking place in the area are on the rise – for whatever reason. This fact is also a terrific reason why we should never suggest that anyone “is returning” to their team “next year.”

How many among those followers of Winnebago's boys basketball team, in 2011, said that Marcus Posley “is returning next year?” (He went to Auburn, where he was eventually ruled ineligible by the IHSA).

How many among those followers of West Carroll's softball team, in 2009, said that the next two years were going to be really awesome, since Jordan Kasbohm was just a sophomore? (She went to Moline for her next two years, where she helped lead the Maroons to a Class 4A title in 2010 and a third-place finish in 2011).

How many among those followers of Dakota's boys basketball team, in 2012, said that the Indians were going to be the team to beat because Kendall Lawson “is returning next year?” (He went to Rockford Lutheran and helped lead the Crusaders to a 3A regional).

Rather than believe an athlete has pulled a lie on someone, there is a more correct way to address a team's future, without having to elaborate on transfers or writing up fine-print information.

Instead of saying “five of Keith Country Day's six starters will return next year,” we should say “Keith Country Day loses one starter to graduation this year.” The latter statement about the volleyball program is more of a fact. Did we know at the time they won the IHSA Class 1A championship that those non-seniors on the team would definitely be returning for 2013?

On an aside, to suggest that any team would be a “team to beat” because they “will be returning a lot of their starters,” is not an absolute fact. That's another column for another day.

Such varsity starting spots are not automatically reserved for anyone just because they have so many more years of eligibility left. In fact, no athlete practicing today should consider themselves a varsity starter “this year.” They are only that when the first contest arrives.