Be The Referee: Pregame Meeting

January 8, 2020

This week, MHSAA executive director Mark Uyl discusses this basketball season's addition of a pregame meeting including officials, coaches and players and the importance for all parties to attend.

Be The Referee is a series of short messages designed to help educate people on the rules of different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.

Below is this week's segment - Pregame Meeting - Listen

Beginning in the 2019-20 basketball season, a mandated pregame conference will take place near the scorer’s table with approximately 13 minutes remaining on the pregame warm-up clock.

This conference will be conducted by the officials and will include the head coach and captains of both teams. This is required for both genders and at all levels.

Because important details will be covered at this conference specific to the game being played, the head coach must be present. Assistant coaches may not be sent in place of the head coach. A head coach’s failure to attend this conference will cause him/her to lose his/her coaching box privileges during the game.

This meeting ensures that all parties receive the same information, that each coach receives the same attention in the pregame conversations and that there is consistency across the state in the timing of the meeting.

Past editions

Dec. 19: Alternating Possession - Listen
Dec. 12: Ratings - Listen
Dec. 5: Video Review Success - Listen
Nov. 28: 
More Injury Time - Listen
Nov. 21: Football Review - Listen
Nov. 14: Sideline Safety - Listen
Nov. 7: Officials Playlist - Listen
Oct. 31: Most Important Line - Listen
Oct. 24: Automatic 1st Downs - Listen
Oct. 17: Catch Momentum - Listen
Oct. 10: Golf Rules Changes - Listen
Oct. 3: No Tackle Box - Listen
Sept. 26: You Make the Overtime Call - Listen
Sept. 19: Swimming Finishing Touch - Listen
Sept. 12: Curbing Gamesmanship By Substitution - Listen
Sept. 5: Football Safety Rules Changes - Listen
Aug. 29: 40-Second Play Clock - Listen

Happy Birthday & Happy to be Back: Hagemann, Edison Celebrate at Breslin

By Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com

March 22, 2024

EAST LANSING – Detroit Edison senior guard Devin Hagemann couldn’t have found a better way to celebrate her 18th birthday.

A victory, and another chance to win a championship.

The Pioneers used a balanced attack, coupled with their size and athleticism, to overpower Negaunee 63-46 in Friday’s Division 2 Semifinal at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.

“It’s my birthday, but we’re still trying to win a championship so I can celebrate after that,” said Hagemann, who was one of three Edison players in double figures scoring with 11 points. “We still have to get the job done.”

Isis Johnson-Musah paced Edison with 16 points, seven assists and five rebounds, while Myana Cooksey recorded 13 points, three assists and three steals.

The Pioneers will seek their second Finals win in the three years Saturday. They won Division 2 in 2022 before losing during Regionals a year ago.

The Pioneers’ Nabrea Lane (11) gets to the basket.“We are just really glad to be back here,” Edison coach Monique Brown said. “Our seniors were here as sophomores, and we had a chance to finish that out with a victory.

“Last year we got stung, and we had that on our mind the whole year. The whole summer they worked hard, and to be able to get back here and get a chance to win again is an awesome feeling right now.”

The Pioneers broke up a close game at the end of the opening quarter with a scoring barrage during the second and third. Edison went on a 13-1 run in the second quarter to snap a 16-16 tie and never looked back.

Their lead ballooned to 48-28 in the third quarter as Hagemann knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

“I told her to shoot it, and I wished her Happy Birthday in the middle of the game,” Brown said. “I think that kind of got her going.”

The balanced scoring, along with pressure defense, have become major factors in this postseason run.

“That is who we have been,” Brown said. “Just really trusting and sharing the basketball and playing good defense. We had to do it by committee this year as far as scoring, and that's why we are here right now.”

Negaunee, playing in its first Semifinal, finished the season 26-2.

“They are very good, and we respect their program,” Miners coach Mike O’Donnell said. “They showed why (they are) one of the top teams in the state, and their size bothered us. We haven’t seen that size this year, the closest was Ishpeming, and their quickness and athleticism in transition.”

Senior Ella Mason, the Western Peninsula Athletic Conference Player of the Year and the school’s all-time scoring leader, tried to keep Negaunee in the game.

She finished with a game-high 25 points, shooting 9 of 18 from the field and 5 of 10 from beyond the 3-point arc.

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS (Top) Detroit Edison’s Devin Hagemann (1) launches a 3-point shot Friday with Negaunee’s Aubrey Johnson defending. (Middle) The Pioneers’ Nabrea Lane (11) gets to the basket. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)