Rusty Shelley This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Scott Puryear - The Springfield News-Leader

   www.springfieldnews-leader.com - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/9/2002   Last Visited: 4/9/2002

   Another is Rusty Shelley, the athletic director at Joplin High School from 1986-99.
   
   Shelley, now an insurance agent in the St. Louis area, was at the helm when Joplin tried to save some bucks by dropping middle school sports in the late 1980s. A harmless, budget-trimming move, right?
   
   "It had an unbelievable, widespread effect," Shelley said.
   
   Because shortly thereafter Joplin High's teams, for the most part, went downhill, and stayed there for most of the 1990s. Or at least were meager compared to the highly competitive, tradition-rich Joplin programs of previous decades.
   
   Shelley and his fellow administrators learned the hard way that young athletes without a structured, school-sponsored and coached junior high system either quit sports altogether, discovered they had fallen far behind others by the time they reached high school, or simply moved to nearby Webb City, Carl Junction or Carthage to fulfill their middle school athletic needs.
   
   Shelley's advice to the Springfield board: Find another way, because the costs are greater than the savings.
   
   "My advice would be to do everything you can to hold on to (middle school athletics)," Shelley said on Monday. "One of the things about growing up is kids want to belong to something. What better place to spend your money than having them belong to a school team?
   
   "At least when you've got them involved in your programs, you have a chance to guide them and direct them, a chance to help them. That's what education is all about. (Middle school sports) are probably the best at-risk program we have as far as being able to help kids."
   
   ...
   Joplin went a year without middle school sports, Shelley said, then installed an intramural program "just to try to give those kids in that age group something to do ... but the competitiveness of that kind of program is not what really develops programs in the long run." Fortunately, Joplin saw the light. It reinstated middle school sports in 1999, and its programs are on the upswing.
   
   That the Springfield board would even look into cuts at the middle school level is a hot topic with the city's coaches, and not just in middle school.