MHSAA Announces Revised Format for 2021 Bowling Tournaments
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
February 26, 2021
The Michigan High School Athletic Association has revised its 2021 girls and boys Bowling Regionals and Finals, scheduled for next month, in an effort to reduce the mixing of communities and spread of COVID-19.
Regional competition, traditionally a two-day event with team competition Friday and singles Saturday, will be a two-day competition still but with boys competing Friday, March 19, and girls Saturday, March 20. Instead of bowling separate competitions to determine qualifiers for the team and singles Finals, all Regional participants will bowl four regular games on their designated day, with those scores determining the Finals qualifiers for both formats.
No Baker games will be rolled at Regionals; instead, 20 regular games will be counted toward a team’s score. Those 20 regular games may be bowled four each by five bowlers or subs, with the maximum of four games per bowler. A bowler must roll four games to qualify for Finals in singles.
Two teams – instead of the traditional three – and 10 singles will advance to the MHSAA Finals to be bowled March 26-27. At the Finals, teams will compete Friday and singles Saturday, as in the past. The 10 singles qualifiers from Regionals also is the same number as usual. At the Finals, the traditional scoring for team competition of regular and Baker games, with qualifying and match play, will continue to be used.
Bowling the boys and girls on separate days for Regionals will allow host bowling centers to spread competitors out among twice as many lanes. Fewer team qualifiers for Finals also will limit congestion at those four sites.
Spectator limits at Regionals and Finals will be determined locally following Michigan Department of Health and Human Services orders and fire marshal capacity limits at centers. Spectators will not exceed one per participant.
MHSAA ‘AD Connection Program’ Debuts with Start of 2023-24 School Year
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 7, 2023
A first-of-its-kind mentorship program is greeting more than 100 first-time high school athletic directors who are officially beginning their tenures at Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools with the start of the 2023-24 school year.
The “AD Connection Program” has matched those first-year high school athletic directors with one of eight mentors who have recently retired from the field and will now provide assistance as those new administrators transition to this essential role in school sports.
A total of 102 first-year high school athletic directors are beginning at MHSAA schools, meaning a new athletic administrator will be taking over at nearly 14 percent of the 750 member high schools across the state. Athletic director turnover at MHSAA high schools has reached 10 percent or more annually over the last few years, and it’s hoped that this additional mentorship will support athletic directors adjusting to the high pace and responsibilities of the position for the first time.
The AD Connection Program will build on training received at the required in-service program all new athletic directors must attend each fall. There is also a strong connection to programming from the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA), the professional development organization for the state’s athletic administrators.
"When you crystalize it, the AD Connection Program is an attempt for us to give a true year-long in-service to new athletic directors with people who have done it,” said MHSAA Assistant Director Brad Bush, who is coordinating the program and joined the MHSAA staff in January after more than two decades as an athletic administrator at Chelsea High School. “This also connects new ADs with a larger professional group, and it will culminate in March at the annual MIAAA conference, where there will be several face-to-face meetings with all ADs.
“These mentors are meant to become that first-year AD’s go-to person.”
Mentors will conduct frequent meetings with their cohorts. They also will meet monthly (or more) with each first-time athletic director individually via zoom, and at least once during the academic year face-to-face at the mentee’s school.
The eight mentors, noting their most recent schools as an athletic director, are Chris Ervin (most recently at St. Johns), Brian Gordon (Royal Oak), Sean Jacques (Calumet), Tim Johnston (East Grand Rapids), Karen Leinaar (Frankfort), Scott Robertson (Grand Haven), Meg Seng (Ann Arbor Greenhills) and Wayne Welton (Chelsea). Leinaar also will serve as the AD Connection Program’s liaison to the MIAAA, which she serves as executive director.
High school practices at MHSAA member schools may begin today, Monday Aug. 7, for the nine fall sports for which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament. The AD Connection Program was approved by the MHSAA Representative Council during its annual Winter Meeting on March 24.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 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 more than 1.3 million spectators each year.
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