Looking into RI's future: 'Heart' of school sports won't change

Predicting the future isn't easy. Back in 2000, who would have thought that by 2025 the Pawtucket Red Sox would no longer exist, or Rhode Island's first female governor would be telling people to "Knock it off" as a pandemic shutdown the state?

Now, as we embark on the second quarter of the 21st century, what could Rhode Island look like in 2050? The staff at The Providence Journal asked leaders in their field for their respective thoughts on what they think Rhode Island will look like in 2050. Here's what they have to say.

Predicting the future isn't easy. Would anyone in 2000 have guessed that basketball players would forgo playing in front of excited crowds at their local high schools in favor of empty stands at distant prep schools? Did anyone see hockey’s fall-off coming? The growth of lacrosse? The development of Unified Sports? Or the creation of electronic sports (E-Sports)? Probably not.

Or who saw Name, Image and Likeness coming 25 years ago, and what it has done to college sports?

Now, as we embark on the second quarter of the 21st century, what could Rhode Island look like in 2050? The staff at The Providence Journal asked leaders in their field for their respective thoughts on what they think Rhode Island will look like in 2025. Here's what they had to say:

What will high school sports look like 2050?

Name: Michael Lunney

Hometown: Portsmouth

Title: Rhode Island Interscholastic League executive director

Lunney wasn’t about to make a bold prediction as to what the future holds but he knows what he’d want to see in the next 25 years.

“I’m sure that high school athletics will look different in many ways, but the heart of what we do will remain the same,” Lunney said. “My hope is that even as technology advances and new sports and activities emerge that participation will still be grounded in education first using athletics as an extension of the classroom to teach values, character and citizenship.

“Most importantly, high school sports should continue to build a strong sense of pride in our schools and communities, bringing people together around positive experiences that shape young people for the rest of their lives.”

New sports are coming to the Rhode Island Interscholastic League — for instance, girls flag football — but it will be interesting to see what happens if participation numbers continue to slide. In 2000, there were 28 boys hockey teams, and last season, there were only 21, because of the emergence of co-ops. Field hockey had 20 teams playing as individual programs in 2001, and last fall it had 13, with four others existing because of a co-op.

Co-ops — under which multiple schools compete as one team in order to give athletes a chance to play at the high school level — are becoming commonplace and might end up saving many sports.

Hopefully, Lunney’s words will ring true and people will start seeing the value in participating and playing high school athletics, for educational benefits, personal enjoyment and community pride.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Looking into RI's future: 'Heart' of school sports won't change