Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics
Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics |
|
User Sections |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Sept. 30, 2008 MHSAA Basketball Finals To Play At Breslin Student Events Center; EAST LANSING, Mich. – Sept. 30 – Michigan State University’s Jack Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing will host the Semifinal and Final games of both the girls and boys basketball tournaments of the Michigan High School Athletic Association on consecutive weekends in March of 2010 and 2011. The 14,759-seat Breslin Student Events Center has hosted the Semifinals and Finals of the boys tournament since 1994, and will host again in 2009. The Breslin Center also hosted the girls Semifinals and Finals in 2004, 2005 and 2006. The girls event will complete a two-year agreement this season at the Convocation Center on the campus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. “Michigan State University and the greater Lansing community have provided us an economical opportunity to showcase both the girls and boys tournaments in the same facility, one that is best located for our statewide constituency,” said John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the Association. Other boys Finals venues over the years include: Pre-MHSAA Finals tournaments from 1917 to 1924 on the University of Michigan campus, using Waterman Gymnasium and Yost Field House, with Yost also hosting classes of the first MHSAA tournaments in 1925 and 1926; College Gymnasium at Michigan State from 1919 to 1926; Detroit Central and Detroit Northwestern High Schools in 1927; Olympia Stadium in Detroit was the first building to host the Finals in all four classes from 1928-30; Demonstration Hall on the MSU campus hosted from 1931-33; the Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids and the original IMA Auditorium in Flint alternated as the site from 1934-39; Jenison Field House first hosted from 1940-42, with no statewide tournament in 1943, and then the Boys Vocational School Field House in Lansing (now the Don Johnson Field House) was the site in 1944 because of military operations taking place on the MSU campus; Jenison Field House had its long streak from 1945 to 1970, and last hosting in 1972 and 1974; Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor hosted in 1971, 1973 and then from 1975-89; and The Palace of Auburn Hills was the Finals site from 1990-93. Girls Finals have taken place over the years at high school sites in Grand Blanc, Grand Rapids, Owosso, Alma and East Kentwood from 1973-76; Jenison Field House at MSU from 1977 to 1980; Calihan Hall on the University of Detroit-Mercy campus in 1981-82; Read Fieldhouse on the Western Michigan University campus in Kalamazoo from 1982-85; College Fieldhouse at Grand Valley State University in Allendale from 1986-89; Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek from 1990-96; and Rose Arena on the campus of Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant from 1997-2003. The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,600 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. -0- RL09-014 Farm Bureau Insurance, Farmers Insurance & the MEEMIC Insurance Company are year-round MHSAA Corporate Partners
|