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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-Nov. 28, 2002
Contact: John Johnson or Randy Allen
517.332.5046 or www.mhsaa.com

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Nov. 26 - At its Fall meeting, December 6 in Mt. Pleasant, the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association may vote to add one or more additional post-season tournaments to the existing 24 events it already sponsors.

The Fall meeting of the 19-member legislative body of the Association's 1,300-plus member schools is one of its three regularly-scheduled sessions each year, featuring an agenda which will include reports from a variety of ad hoc committees convened by the Association to study a variety of other issues impacting high school athletics.

Utilizing student interest surveys conducted in 1997-98 and 2001-02, its annual sports participation survey of member schools, and a follow-up survey in the summer of 2002 about sports in which the MHSAA does not currently offer post-season tournaments, the MHSAA Executive Committee appointed in August study groups to evaluate bowling, lacrosse, field hockey and girls ice hockey. MHSAA staff have also met with the statewide leadership of the water polo and equestrian communities. The Representative Council is focusing on the sports that show the most potential for growth in female participation in all types of schools and communities in Michigan, but the Council may not avoid a sport simply because it also has boys participation.

Because school sponsorship of bowling already exceeds the 64 school minimum for consideration of MHSAA post-season tournaments, that sport is certain to draw attention at the December 6 meeting. That high school bowling occurs in the winter, the season of least participation in high school sports, and does not utilize over-used school facilities, also supports its case for MHSAA post-season tournament sponsorship.

The last addition to the MHSAA tournament schedule occurred in the 1993-94 school year, when the first Girls Competitive Cheer tournament took place that winter, attracting more participating schools and spectators than girls skiing and girls gymnastics combined. Prior to that, boys and girls soccer tournaments were initiated in the 1982-83 school year.

The Council will also review the outcome of surveys recently taken of the MHSAA membership regarding its feelings on conducting a team track and field meet, and considering the use of Sunday as a make-up date during tournaments in which an emergency forces the postponement of a Saturday play date. Ad hoc committee reports on the possibility of seeding at the lowest levels of selected MHSAA team tournaments, alternative education issues, and transfer rules are also on the agenda

The Representative Council is the 19-member legislative body of the MHSAA. All but five members are elected by member schools. Four members are appointed by the Council to facilitate representation of females and minorities; and the 19th position is occupied by the Superintendent of Public Instruction or designee. Three of the four appointed positions to the board will be filled at this meeting.

The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,300 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.