OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION.
[Illustration: C. G. McDAVITT, President.]
[Illustration: H. I. PRATT, Vice-President.]
[Illustration: O. E. MICHAELIS, Treasurer.]
The officers or the National Interscholastic Athletic Association, whose portraits appear this week, are all prominent workers in their respective organizations. Mr. McDavitt, in addition to being president of the National Association, is president of the New York I.S.A.A.; Mr. Pratt is president of the Long Island I.S.A.A.; Mr. Dunbar is president of the New England I.S.A.A.; and Mr. Michaelis is secretary of the Maine I.S.A.A.
The address of the secretary of the National I.S.A.A. is H. Nelson Dunbar, Esq., 552 Shawmut Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. All communications on matters connected with the association should be addressed to him.
Dr. White, of the Berkeley School, says that he feels sure "the head-masters of the preparatory schools throughout the country will look with anxiety upon the formation of a National Interscholastic Athletic Association," and he gives his reasons for this belief in a letter to a New York paper; but I believe a great many of his objections, if looked at from a slightly different point of view, can be turned to the favor of the new organization. Dr. White has, to a certain extent, condemned the weaknesses of the young association, instead of suggesting improvements and remedies. He begins, for instance, by saying that "the avidity for athletic competitions among boys has already been fostered too keenly," and he adds that "we already have so many contests of a competitive nature that the schools cannot without danger stand the pressure of still another and more engrossing series."
In advocating and encouraging the formation of a National Association, the main object of this Department was to secure the organization of a parent or controlling body that would bring order out of the present chaotic state of interscholastic contests. The holding of an annual field meeting was purely a secondary consideration, the principal desire in urging the formation of the association being to secure uniformity in the schedule of events contested at minor meets, establish a standard of record, and to fix a cast-iron definition of what constitutes an amateur with regard to athletic competition among schools. In favoring the holding of a field day this Department believed, and still believes, that the many smaller school meetings would be done away with, and that interscholastic sport would thus be rid of one of its worst features. Take New York city as an example. Almost every school in the local League holds a field day previous to the big meet in May controlled by the I.S.A.A. These little meetings could be done away with altogether. I am heartily in accord with Dr. White when he says that "the avidity for athletic competitions among boys has already been fostered too keenly."