The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association requires student athletes to take four “recognized courses,” and pass two.
Chicopee Comprehensive High school senior Kara A. Lacoste is part of a task force that is reviewing student academic eligibility requirements.Kara A. Lacoste says even students think it’s too easy to qualify for high-school sports teams in Chicopee.
“I don’t know if they like the idea, but I feel the majority of students here feel the academic eligibility standard should be raised,” says the Chicopee Comprehensive High School senior.
If all student-athletes were like Lacoste, there would be no issue in Chicopee or elsewhere. Not only is she a swimmer who holds most of her school’s records, Lacoste is also an academic honor student and a member of the school’s Student Advisory Council.
Not every teenager falls into those categories, and she understands.
Nonetheless, Lacoste belongs to a task force that is looking at the rules governing eligibility for Chicopee’s high-school athletic teams, and she does not like what she sees.
“Playing sports is a perk, a privilege. It is not a right,” Lacoste said. “School should come first. That’s why we’re here.”
Athletes at Chicopee’s two public high schools must pass at least four classes out of a course-load that can include as many as seven courses per marking period to remain eligible to compete.
The task force of students, faculty and parents had its first meeting on Thursday. It is expected to develop a proposal for the Chicopee School Committee, which has been wrestling with the issue for months without action.
At issue is whether raising the standard would disqualify students whose interest in remaining in school is pinned to playing sports.
Proponents of retaining the current standard say it is all too easy to dismiss that argument on the grounds that academics should come first.
Losing teenagers from the school system will eventually cause problems later for the students – and for society.
Earlier this year, that point was made by Chicopee Ward 5 School Committee member Deborah A. Styckiewicz. She said many students come from disadvantaged personal situations, including broken homes, that are not conducive to learning.
School is often their last hope, Styckiewicz argues, and losing them altogether will ultimately cause more hardship to the student – and the community – than retaining a relatively easily attainable standard.
Even some students are questioning that view.
Chiccopee High School senior Taylor McAndrew is a three-sport athlete and a member of the task force.“You would think teachers and the School Committee would want to see our students come out with better grades,” said Chicopee High School senior Taylor L. McAndrew, a three-sport athlete. “I definitely think teachers want kids to step up to the plate. It almost boggles my mind (that) they are still debating this (on the School Committee).”
The eligibility debate is being waged in Chicopee, but it applies to every school district.
Chicopee School Committee member John Mruk did a survey of 16 systems throughout the region, and found that Chicopee ranked near the bottom in expectations.
He thinks if students are required to improve their classwork, they will.
“I think they will rise to the occasion. Five (passing grades) out of seven would be a start; I would be comfortable with six,” Mruk said.
Only four of the 16 districts in Mruk’s survey allowed for no failures. Most also allow for an appeal process.
West Springfield requires five passing grades in a seven-class schedule.
“You can make the standards more stringent. We have toyed with that idea, but we are not prepared to make a change at this time,” West Springfield principal Michael J. Richard said.
Ludlow practices an unusual policy which is similar to allowing a “mulligan” in golf. As a rule, no failures are allowed. Ineligible student-athletes can apply for a waiver, but only once during their high school careers.
Ludlow’s policy also applies not only to sports, but to all clubs and activities. That is true in some other systems, but not all.
Holyoke’s policy, like Chicopee’s, requires four of seven courses to be passed. Athletic director Aaron Patterson said he is not opposed to stiffening the rules.
“It is hard to look at a report card with all Ds and Fs, and you still allow the kid to play,” said Patterson, who did a college master’s thesis on the effect of academics on teams.
Teams with stricter rules often have more success on the field because their athletes become more disciplined, says Patterson.
Chicopee’s current standards sent a bad message within the schools, McAndrew said.
“Teachers get upset when kids fail classes and still think they’re ‘all it.’ A lot of kids do sports but take school seriously, and it makes me mad when some don’t,” she said.
The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association governs high school sports statewide. It sets guidelines for eligibility but does not wish to make the rules for individual communities, a spokesman said.
“Some schools use our guidelines as a benchmark, but if a school wants to maintain a higher standard, they are welcome and encouraged to do it,” Paul Wetzel, spokesman for the association, said.
The MIAA requires students to take four “recognized courses,” and pass two, Wetzel said. This policy is at the basis of formulas used by many communities who require passage of 50 percent of the course load, or slightly more.
A more detailed MIAA policy is impractical because course schedules vary. Districts such as Northampton’s carry as few as four “block” courses, while other systems carry as many as seven.
Northampton requires three passing grades, one more than the MIAA guidelines.
“Athletics are important. Academics are more important,” said Northampton High School athletic director Jim Miller.
If students in any district meet the MIAA standard but fall short of their own district’s requirement, they are not eligible to play, according to Wetzel.
He said many urban communities, including Boston, opt for a higher standard than the MIAA's.
Most local systems seem satisfied with their own rules.
“We do lose a few athletes here and there, but I wouldn’t consider it a problem,” said Agawam athletic director David J. Stratton, whose system demands five of seven passing grades. “Most of our athletes are students first.”
“Our kids have not complained about it,” said Ludlow athletic director Tim Brillo. “We say, this is our standard. Live up to it.”
The policy does come into question “once in a while,” Brillo added. “We had a parent question it, and I asked them, if your kid came home with an F, would that be acceptable to you. The answer was no,” he said.
If educators and even students are lining up to support rigid standards, though, their view is by no means unanimous.
On Friday, Styckiewicz said she was not opposed in principle to raising standards in Chicopee. She was skeptical it could be done without having students fall by the wayside, though.
"If we could do it without hurting the kids ... the most important thing is to keep the kids engaged,'' said Styckiewicz, whose husband, Al, coaches hockey at Chicopee High School.
Springfield Public Schools’ athletic director Michael Martin believes the view that losing athletes to grades could mean losing them altogether has merit.
“I don’t discount it. A lot of kids are not in school for the right reasons, but they have stayed long enough to turn themselves around,” Martin said.
He said he has seen the importance of keeping kids in school first-hand.
“It helped a lot of kids when I coached basketball at (the High School of) Commerce (in the 1970s). Your only chance of getting them (to become productive) is if they’re in school,” Martin said.
Azell Cavaan, chief communications officer for the Springfield Public Schools, said formal discussions have been held within the past two years about whether the rules should be modified. Springfield requires a 1.67 grade-point average and a maximum of one failing grade for eligibility.
One danger in toughening grades, Martin said, is the risk of expecting students to improve their classwork, without providing support systems that help them do it.
A basketball player once failed typing “because his fingers were too big,” Martin said.
Even Martin acknowledged the dual response such cases provoke. To some, it sounds like the kind of of cop-out tougher guidelines are designed to eliminate. To others, including himself, the episode might seem frivolous, but in fact unnecessarily jeopardized a student’s future.
James P. Blain, athletic director for Chicopee’s two high schools, said the necessary support system for student-athletes exists in his district. Students are allowed and even encouraged to miss practice, for instance, in order to do necessary work on academics or school projects, Blain said.
That sentiment is echoed elsewhere. Northampton students, for example, can miss practice for academics, as long as they bring a note, according to Miller.
In Agawam, parents can track students’ progress by computer on a daily basis, Stratton said.
Such steps don’t entirely answer Styckiewicz’ concern that toughening the rules will shut out kids who don’t always have interested, supportive parents, helping them work through the challenges of high school.
Blain has seen that world, too. A former coach and assistant principal at Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical High School, he serves as chairman of Chicopee’s task force. He tries to take the role of mediator for the group, but said it does not keep him from expressing a strong belief that Chicopee’s rules are too weak.
“At Putnam, we had more stringent rules than Chicopee did, and the students would do exactly what you would tell them,” Blain said. “If all we are about as educators is making kids eligible to play, we’ve failed. And to fail three classes and still be eligible says our system lacks high enough expectations for the student-athletes.”
Those comments, and for that matter those of the other side of the issue, go to the heart of the eligibility debate.
By keeping kids in school through any reasonable means, are systems recognizing the greater good and showing the wisdom or patience, especially with students from disadvantaged backgrounds who just need a chance?
Or, are relatively easy standards not only making a poor statement about the priorities of an academic system, but underselling the talent and potential of the very kids it is serving?
Lacoste, the star student-athlete at Chicopee Comp, knows where she stands.
“(Almost) every other community has higher standards than ours, and they do fine,” she said. “If we raise the bar, kids will raise their grades.”
Staff writers Sandra Constantine, Jeannette DeForge, Jack Flynn, Diane Lederman, Elizabeth Roman and Ted LaBorde contributed to this report.