MHSAA, MHSFCA to Provide Spring Evaluation Camps for College Football Hopefuls

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

March 27, 2023

The Michigan High School Athletic Association, in partnership with the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association (MHSFCA), will be hosting first-ever Spring Evaluation Camps to provide athletes with aspirations of playing college football opportunities to show their skills and abilities to college coaches at one of five locations.

The one-day camps will take place between May 15-18 at Jenison High School, DeWitt High School, Jackson High School, Brighton High School and Detroit Country Day High School. The MHSAA’s involvement will allow for the opportunity for Division I college coaches to attend, and representatives from college football programs at all levels are expected.

Athletes who will be juniors or seniors in Fall 2023 may register to participate via a link on the Football page.

“This is an attempt by the MHSAA to help our athletes get exposure during the spring evaluation period in a way that does not intrude on spring sports,” said Brad Bush, an MHSAA assistant director and past high school and college football coach. “We are working with the MHSFCA to help put together a first-class experience for the athletes and college coaches.”

Cost is $20 per player, and each registrant will receive a shirt to wear based on the athlete’s graduation year and registration number so college coaches in attendance can monitor their camp performance. College coaches also will receive registration information for each athlete in attendance.

All athletes must have a coach from the athlete’s school staff present at the camp, and that coach must be a member of the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association.

MHSFCA executive director Andrew Pratley called the Spring Evaluation Camps a tremendous opportunity for high school athletes in Michigan.

“We are very excited with the partnership with the MHSAA that allows our kids the opportunity to wear a helmet and do drills in front of college coaches in the spring at a minimal cost,” Pratley said. “College coaches are thrilled, and it's a unique opportunity to have the rules waived by the MHSAA at these events only in order to showcase the tremendous talent all over the great state of Michigan.”

The Michigan High School Football Coaches Association (MHSFCA) has been devoted to the promotion of high school football since its inception in March 1972. The MHSFCA has more than 2,500 members and provides several educational and development opportunities for members and their athletes, including an annual coaching clinic, an annual leadership conference for coaches and potential team captains, and the annual summer East-West All-Star Game for graduated seniors. Additionally, the MHSFCA’s Leadership Development Alliance is in its third year of training coaches and offering veteran members of the association as mentors.

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.

MHSAA Reports 2020-21 Participation; More than 240,000 Participants Counted Despite Pandemic

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

November 4, 2021

While COVID-19 surely played a part in reduced participation in sports at Michigan High School Athletic Association schools during the 2020-21 school year, a total of 244,012 participants continued to take part in athletics across the 28 sports for which the MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments.

The overall MHSAA participation totals count students once for each sport in which they participate, meaning students who are multiple-sport athletes are counted more than once.

Generally, the MHSAA provides as part of its annual participation release a comparison of totals, both overall and per sport, to the previous school year. But a comparison of the 2020-21 overall participation total to that from 2019-20 cannot be considered relevant because the Spring 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19 before the start of competition, which likely affected participation counts from those spring sports. Similarly, the Fall 2020 season saw a number of schools put some sports on hold for that year, including in the highest participation sport football, which also affected identifying participation trends in those sports. Enrollment reported by MHSAA member schools did see a 2.1-percent decrease from 2019-20, to 444,085 students overall.

The participation figures are gathered annually from MHSAA member schools to submit to the National Federation of State High School Associations for compiling of its national participation survey (although the NFHS has not compiled national surveys for 2019-20 or 2020-21 amid the COVID-19 pandemic). Results of Michigan surveys from the 2000-01 school year to present may be viewed on the MHSAA Website.

The following chart shows participation figures for the 2020-21 school year from MHSAA member schools for sports in which the Association sponsors a postseason tournament:

 

BOYS

GIRLS

Sport

Schools (A)

Participants

Schools (A)

Participants (B)

Baseball

656/11

16,035

-

-/18

Basketball

728/5

18,806

722

13,285/15

Bowling

421/25

3,465

413

2,414/51

Competitive Cheer

-

-

362

5,191

Cross Country

667/4

8,372

667

7,248/16

Football -11 player

543/103

30,630

-

-/115

                  8-player

104/18

1,737

-

-/23

Golf

531/51

6,075

358

3,585/108

Gymnastics

-

-

102

613

Ice Hockey

298/11

3,221

-

-/13

Lacrosse

174/8

4,497

121

2,777/13

Skiing

121/0

818

115

778

Soccer

504/16

13,129

486

11,130/60

Softball

-

-

647

11,389

Swimming & Diving

274/18

4,051

279

5,111/56

Tennis

310/16

5,879

339

7,125/25

Track & Field

702/0

17,390

692

12,739

Volleyball

-

-

720

18,430

Wrestling

491/158

7,296

-

-/283

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(A) The first number is the number of schools reporting sponsorship on the Sports Participation Survey, including primary and secondary schools in cooperative programs as of May 15, 2021. The second number indicates the number of schools that had girls playing on teams consisting primarily of boys.

(B) The second number indicates the number of additional girls playing on teams consisting primarily of boys and entered in boys competition.

The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,400 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 1.4 million spectators each year.