Make High School Sports More Equitable

“It’s the way things have always been done.”  We’ve all heard that saying at some point in our lives.  If you’ve been involved in coaching or instructing girl’s sport programs, it’s a saying you’re all too familiar with.   For a long time, many high school sports programs have over-emphasized football and boys’ basketball. Those are the glory sports at most high schools, the ones that raise a school’s profile and/or generate the most revenue.

But it’s 2022 now, and in the wake of women’s competitive sports taking a prominent place in the mainstream, these games are proving to be not only popular, but profitable.  The old school way of thinking must change.

As a high school athletic director, district athletic director, or conference commissioner, you have the power to make high school sports more equitable.  Some may still think that winning championships in major sports is most important to your school and to your own career opportunities.  Since the bottom line is the bottom line: if you’re not making money for your employer, then you’re out of a job. But as an educator, giving student-athletes equal opportunity to develop to their fullest IS your job.

 

 

Not only is it the right thing to do but creating a more equitable program will serve your career goals just as well or better than the flat-out pursuit of glory or gold. For example, becoming known as the pioneer who put just as much emphasis and energy into girls’ volleyball as into football puts the spotlight on you and your program.

The spotlight will draw more families who want to support their daughters’ dreams of taking volleyball as far as they can…to high school championships, college scholarships, and beyond. There is nothing inherently more valuable in football excellence than in volleyball supremacy. But creating opportunity where it is lacking – giving historically under-resourced populations a chance – IS inherently more valuable than blindly maintaining the status quo.

One way you can achieve this is by providing all sports within your program equal access to technology that levels the playing field. Whether at the school, district, or conference level, you can generate equal opportunity for ALL athletes to gain exposure.

How? Pixellot’s Vidswap lets you capture practice and game video for streaming, and for analysis that coaches can share with players as they work to improve performance, and highlights packages to share with college recruiters. All of this and more, such as unlimited storage, is available through Pixellot’s partnership with the NFHS Network.

 

 

One pioneer, Baltimore County Public Schools Athletic Administrator Michael Sye, said: “In a time when technology is so important to developing our student-athletes, Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Athletics looked at this partnership as an awesome opportunity to use Pixellot’s VidSwap to better develop our student-athletes, provide teaching tools for practice/game instruction and preparation, and to allow coaches and students the ability to provide film for college recruitment. This partnership with Pixellot will provide greater opportunities for our student-athletes and equity amongst our 24 high school interscholastic athletic programs.”

Every one of the student-athletes we all are committed to serving deserves a Michael Sye! That’s why we are offering special pricing for savings up to 30% on Pixellot’s VidSwap packages for every new NFHS Network member or renewal. After all, it’s the equitable thing to do.