KEY POINTS:
It is not too difficult to see why Auckland secondary school heads were tempted to consider an anti-poaching rule. The plundering of sporting talent is a distasteful spectacle, especially for the schools on the receiving end. They see promising students, many of whom they have nurtured for years, whisked away by richer rivals on a pretext of sometimes-specious scholarships or some other form of enticement. But whatever the sour aftertaste, it should not have led to a college sport bylaw so draconian in nature that in any employment forum it would be denounced as restraint of trade.
Under the new rule, passed overwhelmingly by principals at the end of last year, students who move schools cannot play top-level inter-school competition for 12 months unless their old school gives permission. The edict is far more severe than the previous four-game stand-down. Already, it is causing controversy, notably in the case of Lara Diamond-Brahne, a New Zealand under-19 touch representative who has been sidelined since her shift to Mt Albert Grammar because her former school, Auckland Girls Grammar, has decided against releasing her.
This reluctance highlights the importance of inter-school competition, the very intensity of which prompted the new law. But it also illustrates the unfortunate tendency of some schools to place their interests ahead of those of their students. Forgotten in the rush to defend a school's standing on the sports field are those youngsters who are keen to improve themselves, and the parents who support their ambition. If another school offers better coaches, facilities and resourcing in their field of sporting prowess, obstacles should not be placed in their way. The choice should be that of the student, not the school.
Those schools that have tended to lose students would do better to improve their own performance, especially in the management of talent, rather than resort to such artificial instruments. College sports fields around Auckland provide more than enough evidence that this can be done, and that there is no inherent reason for state schools to play second fiddle. Professional sport, to which many of these college stars aspire, delivers the same lesson. Wealth is no guarantee of a winning performance. Sometimes it may produce fleeting success, but this will be sustained only if a team has capable coaches and a cogent management structure.
In the college context, that will encourage youngsters to stay at a school, among their friends, rather than take flight to strange new surroundings. Students understand when a school is doing its very best for them, and see that a shift would be pointless. Indeed, a move to a college intent on securing every last drop of talent could be, at best, frustrating and, at worst, counterproductive. Professional sport has many teams rendered dysfunctional by a surfeit of top performers. The players attracted there would have been better staying in a situation where they were guaranteed matchplay and the chance to be noticed.
Schools that manage their young sporting stars well soon gain a standing. They not only retain their students but are approached by others. "We don't have to go out and poach - they come knocking on the door," says the headmaster of Mt Albert Grammar, Dale Burden. Under the new rule, that school is being penalised for its well-established reputation for excellence. Worse still, students who want to go there, or who want to improve themselves at other schools, are being punished. A basic right is being removed in a way that would not be tolerated in other walks of life. Nor should it be sanctioned in schools.
