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

Signature 2nd Quarter Surge Sends Kingston into 1st Girls Hoops Final

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

March 21, 2024

EAST LANSING — It was hard for even Kingston head coach Jay Green to come up with an explanation. 

For some reason this year, the second quarter has often been big for his team. 

“It’s just kind of been our quarter,” Green said. 

That proved to be the case again Thursday in the second Division 4 Semifinal at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center. While the other three quarters against Frankfort were pretty much even, Kingston dominated the second quarter en route to a 56-33 win. 

The Cardinals advanced to Saturday’s 10 a.m. championship game against Ishpeming,  a matchup of teams making their first appearances in a Final.  

Trailing 12-11 at the end of the first quarter, Kingston began turning a close game into a lopsided one.

The Cardinals scored 24 of the first 26 points of the second period, forced seven turnovers and made 7 of 9 shots from the field in outscoring Frankfort 24-4 over those eight minutes to take a 35-16 halftime lead.  

 Kingston’s Gracy Walker makes a move to the basket with Savina Anhalt defending.“They just rose to the occasion,” Green said. “We’ve had a lot of good second quarters over the year. We just kept the pressure on defensively. We got a lot of offensive rebounds, and when you are getting extra shots time after time, it’s just kind of a snowball effect. Sometimes that happens in basketball. We got on a nice run.”

Frankfort couldn’t cut the deficit during the third quarter and went into the fourth trailing 48-25. 

“We’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” Green said. “We were excited Tuesday to break that Quarterfinal hurdle and get down here. There’s just that overall desire to do the best you can, do your best and be relentless throughout.”

Sophomore Molly Walker scored 22 points, and senior Delaney St. George added 11 to lead Kingston, which had a 33-18 rebounding advantage. 

“We just had to come out fast, and if we played hard defensively, things would happen offensively,” Walker said. “It started to come together for us.”

Junior Savina Anhalt scored nine points to lead the way for Frankfort, which finished 22-6. 

“(Kingston’s) a great team,” Panthers head coach Tim Reznich said. “They’re really physical, they’re really strong and they wore us down.

“We had a great start. When they gained their composure, they really started pounding the glass and took over there. That’s where it got us. Once we dug that hole, we just didn’t have the energy to come out of it. But they’re a great team, and I wish them the best.” 

Kingston will turn its attention to Ishpeming, which also enters Saturday with a 27-1 record and was ranked No. 1 in Division 4 entering the postseason. 

“It will be a great challenge,” Green said. “They are the type of team with height and this and that. But we’ll be ready, and we’ll give them our best shot.”

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS (Top) Kingston players celebrate their Division 4 Semifinal win Thursday night at Breslin Center. (Middle) Kingston’s Gracy Walker makes a move to the basket with Savina Anhalt defending. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)