THE SNICKERS’ RULE Written By: Harry Gribnitz During their junior high and high school years in Texas both Janet and Jim were very active in sports. I believe the experiences they had during those athletic activities helped to shape them into the adults they have become. In Texas, as with most states, both male and female students participated during the “traditional” seasons. Until, I moved to Michigan, I didn’t even realize that some states still treated girl’s sports differently than boy’s sports. Over the last ten years, I have listen to the argument that girl’s sports are some how improved by having them in the non-traditional seasons. I have never been impressed by the argument. It certainly was not “fun” for Janet or Jim when they had to get up early for a before school practice, but I think it was all a part of the character building process of athletic participation. I am amazed at the extensive, costly litigation involved in the process of resolving the issue. It seems that the funds spent on lawyers by both sides of the argument could much better be spent to improve athletic facilities, coaching and officiating. The current effort to equally “disadvantage” both groups just gives me a headache. Someone will have to explain to me how disadvantaging any student-athletes will make the system better. Rather than just complaining, I have a solution to propose. It is called the “Snickers’ Rule”. When I was growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, my best friend, Ray and I would help our parents by doing extra chores. Mowing the lawn, cleaning the garage, going to the store, shoveling the snow, whatever needed to be done. As a reward, we received a nickel. We would take the nickel and race to the neighborhood store to buy a treat, usually a Snickers bar (Yes, you could buy a candy bar for 5 cents!). When we got home, the problem was to divide it equally as to be fair to both of us. My mom had the best answer. She would get out the cutting board and a big kitchen knife. With a little guidance, one of us cut the bar, the other got to choose the “half” that we wanted. We developed amazing skill in dividing the Snickers equally. I propose that we apply the same “Snickers’ Rule” to the athletic scheduling problem. I propose that MHSAA create two schedules for all common sports, one for gender A and one for gender B. MHSAA could use all of the knowledge, skill and experience they can muster to create two equally fair schedules. Because the next step is to have the girls pick the schedule that they want! Thanks, Harry Gribnitz Your Home Loan Specialist for Life! PS: If you sent me an e-mail or other message about ice cream from last months letter, your “free” ice cream is enclosed. If not, please give me a call. If you “forgot” or were to busy to e-mail your favorite flavor last month, don’t give up, you have until September 22nd to send me an e-mail. PDF VERSION Warning: main(/home/wmmh/westmichiganmortgagehelp-www/bannerbottom03.htm): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/wmmh/westmichiganmortgagehelp.com/html/pr_snickers.php on line 45 Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required '/home/wmmh/westmichiganmortgagehelp-www/bannerbottom03.htm' (include_path='.:/usr/share/pear') in /home/wmmh/westmichiganmortgagehelp.com/html/pr_snickers.php on line 45