MIAA hosts National Federation of State High School Associations’ summer summit in Boston

“There are issues now that are challenging education-based athletics, and some of it is what’s going on at the collegiate level, some of it is professional, and the swirl is how is this going to influence kids,” Niehoff told the Globe following her presentation. “I think it challenges us to be really clear and hone in on why we’re different. We are, in many cases, in protection mode.

“One place all kids have to be is in school. What people forget is that 95-96 percent of student-athletes will not play in college, so there’s a lot of distractions about some of the issues like NIL, recruitment, transfer [portal], all of that. Most of our kids, high school is it.”

Among the highlights of her presentation, she noted that 28 of the 51 executive directors have three years or less experience, including Stephanie Hauser, the mother of Celtics forward Sam Hauser, who has led the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association since July 2021. Niehoff implored delegates to network with one another and provide a support system to each other.

While the shortage of officials has been well-documented, she also said there is a shortage of athletic trainers and coaches.

Instead of having a series of keynote speakers, the MIAA put together a panel moderated by Sean McDonough (Hingham, 1980) that included Harvard athletic director Erin McDermott (Oakmont, 1990), Patriots Super Bowl champion Jermaine Wiggins (East Boston, 1993), while Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault (Leominster, 2003) joined via video conferencing.

“I said I’d like to identify three or four high school graduates who played sports and have them showcase who they are today, but let’s have them go back in time of how they got to where they are today,” MIAA executive director Bob Baldwin, said of the different format.

MIAA staffers leaned on personal contacts to attract the panelists.

They hit on a wide range of topics like sports specialization, relationships forged through athletics, how they learned to deal with failure.

McDermott played field hockey, basketball and track, but noted if she had to pick which sport she wanted to focus on as a 12-year-old, it probably would not have been basketball, which she played at Hofstra.

“When I said I feel like we’d be in a better spot [if high school was the leading pipeline to college], I think what we’re losing is exactly what Mark spoke to about his experience of when you play sports in that high school atmosphere,” said McDermott, who has been Harvard AD since July 2020. “And that’s really important to you that you become so close to your teammates, that playing for your school really matters, and that sense of community is really important.

“Now with the focus less in that realm, and more in the travel/club stuff, we’re losing that. There’s not much of a sense of what you’re playing for. It’s become a bit more about the individual,” McDermott continued. “At our level now, coaches have to teach being teammates, having different roles on the team, even that you’re playing for Harvard and that matters — and I think it does matter to them — but they’re coming in with a lesser sense of what part of that identity is.”

The convention opened Friday, and Baldwin said more than 1,400 delegates and guests went to the Red Sox game, with outgoing NFHS president Tom Keating, executive director of the Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA), throwing out the first pitch.

Bob Lombardi, executive director of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), will assume the role of president for 2024-25 following the meeting.

The annual meeting will conclude Monday night when catcher Joe Mauer, who spent his entire 15-year career with his hometown Minnesota Twins, 15-year NFL linebacker Takeo Spikes, 10-year NFL running back Tyrone Wheatley and Dot Ford Burrow, a girls basketball standout, headline the 41st NFHS National High School Hall of Fame induction.

Mauer, a three-sport star at Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, Minnesota, will be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 21. Spikes was a two-way standout on the gridiron in Georgia. In addition to helping his team to a football state title in Michigan, Wheatley won nine individual state titles in track. Ford Burrow averaged nearly 50 points per game in 1949-50 and is still the top scorer in Mississippi history. She is also the grandmother of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.