Every day it happens.

A conversation with a parent, a coach, a player. Lots of e-mail too. Even calls from friends of athletes, retired teachers and rattled alumni.

Johnny did this. Susan did that.

They all have the same question: how do we get some publicity?

Many are more than just a score of a game, but great stories of individuals and their accomplishments. On Sunday Morning, my show from 8:00am to 10:00am, we have some marvellous athletes, coaches, officials and others elaborate on their accomplishments.

What boggles my mind, and it doesn’t take much these days, is that high schools in the Greater Toronto Area know that it’s as simple as an e-mail, a call, a Tweet or even – yes, a fax. But, as they tell me, they’re all too busy. That is, until a team is that close to winning a championship.

I do believe something is whacky, and both Boards of Education and athletic associations need to stop staring at each other and do something. That’s if they really do care about highlighting students in sports. There are people (whose salaries are paid by taxpayers) to do this job efficiently. Apparently, they’re having difficulty. Even they don’t get timely and accurate information.

When invited to talk about this on the radio, no one has picked up the offer. No one wants the opportunity to find a solution – or prove that I am wrong. No one wants to ruffle feathers. Principals abstain. Boards are worried about backlash from the Unions as teachers volunteer their time to coach. Athletic association reps are either always right or just sit and listen. So, every one stays their distance. Year after year it’s the same story.

In the past month, I have met with several groups in the Greater Toronto Area – to try help. The private and independent schools are eager. Sure, it helps their cause – but it also helps their students. They saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

What’s so simple is to make it mandatory for schools to communicate information - on time - to the Boards. Then, some of those people I had mentioned earlier need only to forward it to the media – like us at Sportsnet 590 The Fan – who actually care about amateur sport.

It’s that simple – or is it.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 14th, 2011 at 9:20 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.