A tentative date has been set for early January to release a report that hopes to have lasting impact on the way high school athletics are done in Maine.

The Coaching Maine Youth to Success project, the University of Maine Sport & Coaching Education initiative, will rollout its report Thursday, January 6 at the Augusta Civic Center.

“I think it’s going to be a terrific report,” said Duke Albanese, co-director of the initiative. “There’s a lot of content. It’s going to be very useful for school districts and school boards in making school policy.”

The Coaching Maine Youth to Success panel has been working for over a year to determine how high school sports should be done. The report was originally slated for release in November. Because of the elections, plans were rescheduled for December, but because of publishing deadlines, it was decided last week that the rollout would come in January.

“We want to do it right,” said Albanese. “We’re being fussy about everything.”

The report will feature photos and comments from student athletes as well as addressing issues such as sportsmanship, parents and community, the quality of coaching, the opportunity to play, health and fitness, middle school sports and leadership, policy and organization.

The rollout in Augusta will invite representatives from schools state-wide, much like the Maine Sports Summit last spring in Orono.

The goal of the report is to serve as a call to action for schools and communities. It will highlight what should be core practices and what should be considered out-of-bounds.

“We’re just going to present the report and give an overview of the report and allow for questions,” said Albanese. “We’re going to say Take this home and start a conversation in all of your communities. You make a decision at your local level about signing on to this.'”

The National Association of State Boards of Education just recently released its own report – “Athletics and Achievement: The Report of the NASBE Commission on High School Athletics in an Era of Reform.”

That report says that more scrutiny must be paid to high school athletics, which are being overwrought with a growing professionalization. It says that state boards of education must be more proactively involved in ensuring sports programs, like all other extracurricular activities, complement student learning instead of compromising it.

Albanese says the findings in that report should be reinforced and complimented by what the Coaching Maine Youth to Success report reveals.

“I think it’s going to be good content and good direction for schools but also something useful for people to refer too,” said Albanese. “I’m pretty optimistic that this will have high interest.”

The report has already been mentioned by Education Weekly. That publication may send staff to Maine to cover the rollout in January.

“They talked about our work and it said that we were coming out with a report,” said Albanese. “(Education Weekly) is sort of the Bible for education all across the country. To have sports on the front page is pretty significant.”