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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-Sept. 27, 2002
Contact: John Johnson or Randy Allen
517.332.5046 or www.mhsaa.com

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Sept. 26 - A company well known in the Michigan educational community, MEEMIC Insurance, has become the Michigan High School Athletic Association's newest corporate partner, helping to underwrite the Association's efforts to provide education and recognition in the area of sportsmanship.

MEEMIC becomes the driving force behind the MHSAA's Good Sports Are Winners! program, which annually provides educational materials and programming; and which will also recognize over 1,000 schools and communities for displaying good sportsmanship at MHSAA post-season tournament events.

"Sportsmanship is an area where we can never have enough going on in terms of educating our schools and the general public, and then recognizing those who practice it," said John E. "Jack" Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. "With a major player in the school community like MEEMIC becoming involved, we hope to be able to spread our message on a larger scale than ever before.

In providing sportsmanship education, MEEMIC is helping provide schools with tools like the annual Good Sports Are Winners! Sportsmanship Kit, available on the MHSAA Web site www.mhsaa.com/services/02smankit.pdf; camera ready messages about sportsmanship for schools to utilize in their own regular-season souvenir programs www.mhsaa.com/services/slicks.pdf; and a new brochure, "Sportsmanship-The Educated Choice," which will be made available in quantity to MHSAA member schools to distribute to students and the public. The brochure is also available on the MHSAA Web site www.mhsaa.com/services/smanbro.pdf

MEEMIC will also become an underwriter of MHSAA programs in alternating years to provide a statewide Sportsmanship Summit, and mini-grants to local schools, leagues and conferences to conduct local sportsmanship education efforts.

The recognition side of the program will see schools honored at the District, Regional and Final levels of the following MHSAA post-season tournaments: Girls basketball, football and boys soccer in the fall; boys basketball, girls competitive cheer, ice hockey, girls volleyball and team dual wrestling in the winter; and baseball, girls soccer and softball in the spring. All schools which achieve a high level of sportsmanship will be recognized at the District and Regional levels of tournament play, and at the Finals level, one or more teams displaying exemplary sportsmanship may be honored with a crystal trophy and commemorative banner. Tournament site management will be responsible for selecting teams to be recognized.

"We have found that the recognition program give schools something to point towards during tournament play that is more important than the final score," Roberts said. "Our best sportsmanship education efforts deserve to backed up through recognition, and through MEEMIC's sponsorship, we're pleased to have the complete program intact again."

"Sportsmanship is a learned response, an educated choice," said Lynn Kalinowski, president of MEEMIC Insurance. "It makes sense that MEEMIC Insurance, a company which has worked with educators for over 50 years, provide a program on sportsmanship and its lifelong character elements - integrity, ethics and respect - to MHSAA member schools."

MEEMIC Insurance Company, with headquarters in Auburn Hills, writes full coverage private passenger automobile protection and homeowners insurance for educational employees and their immediate families in the state of Michigan. MEEMIC was founded by teachers for teachers in 1950. Most representatives of the company are or were teachers themselves. MEEMIC's history of competitive pricing and a commitment to superior service has cultivated a tradition of teachers serving teachers and their families, our "MEEMIC Club."

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.

MEDIA ADVISORY - For additional information about MEEMIC, contact Mike Post, Director of Sales & Marketing, toll free at 888-4MEEMIC (463-3642), Ext. 7544. A copy of the brochure, Sportsmanship-The Educated Choice, is enclosed with this mailing.