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Already basketball was probably the least beneficial of our team games, Frequent—
ly, particularly in high school gymnasiums, the conditions are nov good, Intoa
roon, the ventilation of which has been planned for a gymnasium class of fifty,

are packed hundreds of spectators, usually crowded close to the side lines, The
air soon becomes foul and overheated, so that a game that at best is a severe tax
on the circulatory system, becomes more of a tax. Too, the proximity of
spectators -— often of the "town sport" variety -— and their remarks, incite the
players toward unsportsmanlike acts, which bring discredit upon players and school,
and upon educational procedures, at least upon this one,

 

As Dr. White and others suggest, this "speeding up" is peculiarly dangerous in
smaller communities where the size of the school makes impossible a sufficient
number of skilled substitutes. Hence, a few are compelled to play throughout the
whole game, Moreover, this change has added materially to the total energy
expenditure of the game. It has been estimated that the actual numbers of minutes
the ball is in play has been increased 25%, To adolescent school boys, many of
whom are still in the period of rapid growth, this is a serious added burden,

|; An article appearing in the Buffalo Courier-Express of January 21, 1938, indicates
that the insatiable Molock of too intensive interscholastic athletic competition
has reached down into the seventh and eighth grades, In Indiana, according to
this report, basketball tournaments conducted for teams from these grades are
being investigated by state authorities. Forty teams completed a tournament in
three days, each team of these immature boys being compelled to play two games
each day.

It is time that parents take this and similar situations in hand, and insist that
nothing shall be countenanced in the schools that is not for the physical, social,
and educational advancement of their children.

Parents and school administrators have the right to demand that boys and girls be
permitted to participate only in those school physical activities that are both
safe and beneficial. If interscholastic athletic competitions are educational,
they are definitely subject to the same criteria — mental, physical, and social —
as are other activities in the schools, and rules and regulations controlling
these contests should be established and enforced by elementary and secondary
school authority, not by any Rules Committee whose only interest seemingly rests
in intercollegiate competition.

There is a National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations, made a
up of delegates from State Interscholastic Athletic Associations, This Federation fcovned
has been a great influence for good, but naturally -— because of the great need of

such supervisory control — has given much of its attention to improving rules of 14

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eligibility. It has, too, been largely instrumental in bringing about

} modifications of playing rules, especially those of footballg@ The changes in
basketball rules advocated have helped in making this game safer in the
communities adopting them, This group could be a wonderful power for good if =

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would interest itself more intensely in matters relating to the physical welfare

of the you sters - a large percentage of them physically immature ~ who compete
‘in interscholastic athletics.

‘

This effort toward better control should take two directions: first, the
establishment of modified playing rules that would make these college games safer
for boys and girls of school age, To a considerable extent the Federation has
emphasized this need, but in all too many localities its influence has not been
potent enough to bring the needed added protection,