Title IX at 50: Basketball Season Ready to Add to Rich Tradition
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
November 30, 2021
The 49th girls basketball season with MHSAA sponsorship began with a handful of games Monday evening, and more than 700 varsity teams are scheduled to get their seasons underway over the next few weeks.
The sport’s rich history has seen 188 champions awarded – four per season for 48 years, with 2020’s Finals canceled because of COVID-19 – with 101 schools winning at least one MHSAA title.
Detroit Country Day owns the MHSAA record with most appearances in a girls basketball championship game – 17 – and also has won a record 13 championships, its most recent in 2018. Detroit Martin Luther King and Portland St. Patrick are next on the Finals appearances list – with 12 apiece – and St. Patrick, Bloomfield Hills Marian and now-closed Flint Northern all are tied for second with six championships won.
Northern, which shuts its doors as a high school at the end of the 2012-13 school year, still is the only program to win four straight championships – doing so in Class A from 1978-81.
The first MHSAA girls basketball champions in 1973 were Detroit Dominican in Class A, Hudsonville Unity Christian in B, Hamtramck St. Ladislaus in Class C and Ewen-Trout Creek in Class D. All were coached by women; in fact, the first five Class D champions, the first three in Class C, the first three in Class B and the first four in Class A all had women coaches.
Awarding four championships each year has been a constant of the first half-century of girls basketball as part of the MHSAA championship series. But of course, many things have changed over that time. Among those 101 schools with at least one Finals championship, 14 no longer exist – including Dominican and St. Ladislaus.
Second Half's weekly Title IX Celebration posts are sponsored by Michigan Army National Guard.
Previous Title IX at 50 Spotlights
Nov. 23: Marysville Builds Winning Streak Yet to be Challenged - Read
Nov. 16: Wroubel Has Championed Girls School Sports from Their Start - Read
Nov. 9: Pioneer's Joyce Legendary in Michigan, National Swim History - Read
Nov. 2: Royal Oak's Finch Leading Way on Football Field - Read
Oct. 26: Coach Clegg Sets Championship Standard at Grand Blanc - Read
Oct. 19: Rockford Girls Set Pace, Hundreds After Have Continued to Chase - Read
Oct. 12: Bedford Volleyball Pioneer Continues Blazing Record-Setting Trail - Read
Oct. 5: Warner Paved Way to Legend Status with Record Rounds - Read
Sept. 28: Taylor Kennedy Gymnasts Earn Fame as 1st Champions - Read
Sept. 21: Portage Northern Star Byington Becomes Play-by-Play Pioneer - Read
Sept. 14: Guerra/Groat Legacy Continues to Serve St. Philip Well - Read
Sept. 7: Best-Ever Conversation Must Include Leland's Glass - Read
Aug. 31: We Will Celebrate Many Who Paved the Way - Read
(MHSAA file photo.)
Performance of the Week: Ypsilanti Arbor Prep's Mya Petticord
March 24, 2022
Mya Petticord ♦ Ypsilanti Arbor Prep
Basketball ♦ Senior
The four-year varsity standout capped her career by leading Arbor Prep to its first Finals championship since 2016. Petticord had 27 points (on 8-of-14 shooting from the floor and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line) as the Gators edged Kent City 54-50 in Saturday’s Division 3 championship game. She also scored 20 points in Arbor Prep’s 57-44 Semifinal win over Maple City Glen Lake two days before.
Petticord averaged 22.9 points with five assists per game this season as the Gators finished 25-2. Arbor Prep went 77-17 over her four seasons on the team. The 5-foot-9 guard finished runner-up in this season’s Miss Basketball Award voting and will continue her career next season at Texas A&M. She plans to study business and would like to become an entrepreneur.
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2021-22 Honorees
March 16: Charley Bayer, East Grand Rapids diving - Report
March 9: Ja'Marcus Smith, Detroit Mumford wrestling - Report
March 2: David Schaberg, Holt bowling - Report
Feb. 24: Adelaide McRoberts, Kingsford swimming - Report
Feb. 17: Christopher Kavanaugh, Petoskey hockey - Report
Feb. 10: Ira Jenkins, Whitehall wrestling - Report
Feb. 3: Emma Stewart, Salem gymnastics - Report
Jan. 28: Tyler Ray, Pinckney swimming - Report
Jan. 21: Elle Craven, Traverse City Central skiing - Report
Jan. 14: Nevaeh Williams, Mount Clemens basketball - Report
Dec. 2: Lucas Dunn, Chelsea football - Report
Nov. 25: Riley Nugent, Plainwell swimming - Report
Nov. 18: Harper Murray, Ann Arbor Skyline volleyball - Report
Nov. 11: Abby VanderKooi, Muskegon Western Michigan Christian cross country - Report
Nov. 4: Arianne Olson, Holland West Ottawa cross country - Report
Oct. 28: Jack Guggemos, Okemos soccer - Report
Oct. 21: Sachiv Kumar, Northville tennis - Report
Oct. 14: Kate Brody, Grand Blanc golf - Report
Oct. 7: Lilly Nelson, Negaunee tennis - Report
Sept. 30: Stella Chapman, Ann Arbor Pioneer swimming - Report
Sept. 23: Riley Hough, Hartland cross country - Report
Sept. 16: Josie Bloom, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep volleyball - Report
PHOTO Arbor Prep's Mya Petticord brings the ball upcourt during last weekend's action at Breslin Center. (Action photo courtesy of the Arbor Prep athletic department; head shot by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)