The Football Team vs. The Band

It's the age old question that has flummoxed students, athletes, coaches, and directors: The Big Game is this weekend. Meanwhile, the biggest performance of the year is this weekend too(Maybe at Midwest). The first chair Trumpet player and the star of the team happen to be the same person. Just what do you do? That question is hopefully answered in Mike Morgan's presentation 'Tearing Down the Wall between Music and Athletics' Mr. Morgan comes from a small town in Washington state, where he is both the Band Director and the Head Football Coach. This gives him a unique perspective on the topic. In 2010, he wrote an article in the Music Educators Journal, which he has since parlayed into a presentation he has given to both music educators and coaches across the country. He lead off the talk by asking us to ponder stereotypes of both athletes and musicians. That lead into a comparison of different attributes that athletes and musicians both use in plying their trades. He even invoked Plato, referencing the great philosopher's belief that people needed to partake of athletics and the Fine Arts to be well-rounded. This in turn lead to statistics showing that athletes and musicians both finished in top percentiles in positive attributes that will help them later in life. The talk ended with an entreaty against the growing trend of over-specialization at younger ages. If Kenny Chesney, Doug Flutie, and Pete Carroll can excel in sports and music, so can our children.