Rep Council Wrap-Up: Winter 2015
April 1, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The selection of a new venue for its Team Wrestling Finals highlighted actions taken by the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association during its annual Winter Meeting on March 27 in East Lansing.
The Team Wrestling Finals will be hosted by McGuirk Arena at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant for two years beginning with the 2016 tournament. The Team Wrestling Finals previously had been hosted by Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek since their inception in 1988.
McGuirk, formerly Rose Arena, is part of the CMU Events Center and reopened in 2010 after the facility underwent $22.5 million in renovations. McGuirk seats 4,867 fans for wrestling competitions, and the building also features adjacent practice areas that will be utilized by teams competing at the MHSAA Finals.
Rose Arena formerly served as host of the MHSAA Girls Basketball Finals from 1997-2003.
“We are grateful to the athletic directors, staff and volunteers whose time and energy factored heavily into creating and growing the Team Wrestling Finals at Kellogg Arena,” MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts said. “The decision to move from Battle Creek was not an easy one. However, we believe Central Michigan University offers us a fantastic opportunity to continue growing one of our most popular championship events.”
The Representative Council also continued discussions on three issues which may require action at meetings later this calendar year.
Continuing its examination of athletics at the junior high/middle school level, the Council discussed recommendations submitted by the MHSAA’s Junior High/Middle School Committee, including one which may come up for vote at the Council’s May meeting. It is a request for a membership vote to amend the MHSAA Constitution to allow for school membership beginning at the 6th grade. If the Council approves, the amendment vote likely would occur in late October after another round of membership meetings.
The Council also continued its discussion of potential changes to out-of-season coaching rules and considered results of surveys taken during the MHSAA’s Update Meetings in the fall and by athletic directors and leaders of leagues and conferences during the late fall and winter. The major changes in rules that were proposed for discussion last summer have not gained traction with the MHSAA membership, but three modifications intended to give school coaches longer and more flexible contact with their student-athletes out of season during the school year will receive Council action in May.
Continuing its work regarding the eligibility of international students, the Council also approved that MHSAA staff continue reviewing school-operated international student programs for the purpose of granting students athletic eligibility at MHSAA schools. A proposal first approved at the March 2014 meeting granted the MHSAA authority to grant athletic eligibility to students placed through an Approved International Student Program that had not been accepted for listing by the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel (CSIET), so long as that Approved International Student Program is not eligible for CSIET consideration and listing. CSIET will only review existing programs, but the MHSAA’s supplemental process will allow programs too new for the CSIET process to gain approval for 2015-16.
Those international students placed through an Approved International Student Program are eligible for a maximum of the first two consecutive semesters or three consecutive trimesters at any secondary school in the United States, after which the student is ineligible for interscholastic athletic competition at any MHSAA member school for the next academic year. International students who do not meet one of the residency exceptions recognized by the MHSAA or are not enrolled through an Approved International Student Program or CSIET-listed program may become eligible after one semester to participate at the subvarsity level only.
The Representative Council is the legislative body of the MHSAA. All but five members are elected by member schools. Four members are appointed by the Council to facilitate representation of females and minorities, and the 19th position is occupied by the Superintendent of Public Instruction or designee.
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.
MHSAA 2023-24 School Year Classifications Announced
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 6, 2023
Classifications for Michigan High School Athletic Association elections and postseason tournaments for the 2023-24 school year have been announced, with enrollment breaks for postseason tournaments posted to each sport’s page on the MHSAA Website.
Classifications for the upcoming school year are based on a second semester count date, which for MHSAA purposes was Feb. 8. The enrollment figure submitted for athletic classification purposes may be different from the count submitted for school aid purposes, as it does not include students ineligible for athletic competition because they reached their 19th birthday prior to Sept. 1 of the current school year and will not include alternative education students if none are allowed athletic eligibility by the local school district.
All sports’ tournaments are conducted with schools assigned to equal or nearly equal divisions, with lines dependent on how many schools participate in those respective sports.
For 2023-24, there are 750 tournament-qualified member schools. Schools recently were notified of their classification, and sport-by-sport divisions were posted to the MHSAA Website today (April 6). MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said schools may not subsequently lower their enrollment figure. However, if revised enrollment figures are higher and indicate that a school should be playing in a higher division, that school would be moved up.
Five MHSAA Finals champions awarded so far during the 2022-23 school year are assigned to different divisions for 2023-24. Division 6 champion Grand Rapids West Catholic will play 11-player football in Division 5 this upcoming season. The Holland Christian boys soccer team will be moving into Division 2 after winning the Division 3 Final in the fall, and East Grand Rapids’ girls swimming & diving program is headed back to Lower Peninsula Division 3 after winning in LP Division 2 this past season. A pair of cross country champions are on the move – LP Division 4 boys champion Wyoming Potter’s House Christian to LP Division 3, and Upper Peninsula Division 3 girls champion Munising into UP Division 2 – and the Grass Lake boys bowling team will compete in Division 3 next winter after winning the Division 4 championship last month.
Also set to change divisions among Finals runners-up from head-to-head sports are Cadillac volleyball (Division 2 to D1), Ann Arbor Greenhills boys soccer (Division 4 to D3), Mendon 8-player football (Division 2 to D1) and three 11-Player Finals runners-up – Caledonia (Division 1 to D2), Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central (Division 2 to D3) and Muskegon (Division 3 to D2).
Visit the respective sport pages on the MHSAA Website to review the divisional alignments for all MHSAA-sponsored tournament sports. Click the “SPORTS” menu above to access the page for each sport, then the “Assignments” link on the selected sport page and then “DIVISION LIST” to see the 2023-24 division.
Traditional classes (A, B, C, D) – formerly used to establish tournament classifications – are used only for MHSAA elections. To determine traditional classifications, after all counts are submitted, tournament-qualified member schools are ranked according to enrollment and then split as closely into quarters as possible. For 2023-24, there are 187 member schools in Class A, Class B and Class C, and 189 member schools in Class D.
Effective with the 2023-24 school year, schools with 807 or more students are in Class A. The enrollment limits for Class B are 380-806, Class C is 177-379, and schools with enrollments of 176 and fewer are Class D. The break between Classes A and B decreased eight students from 2022-23, the break between Classes B and C decreased 11 students, and the break between Classes C and D is six students fewer than for the 2022-23 school year.
The new classification breaks will see 21 schools move up in Class for 2023-24 while 24 schools will move down:
Moving Up from Class B to Class A
Bay City John Glenn
Fowlerville
Garden City
Lansing Eastern
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s
Tecumseh
Moving Down from Class A to Class B
Detroit Henry Ford
Detroit Mumford
Harper Woods
Plainwell
Sault Ste. Marie
Spring Lake
Moving Up from Class C to Class B
Ann Arbor Greenhills
Grand Rapids Covenant Christian
Hartford
Ishpeming Westwood
Kent City
Mason County Central
Pinconning
Moving Down from Class B to Class C
Blissfield
Clawson
Clinton Township Clintondale
Detroit Northwestern
Elk Rapids
Fennville
Sanford Meridian
Stockbridge
Moving Up from Class D to Class C
Auburn Hills Oakland Christian
Benton Harbor Countryside Academy
Detroit Crocket Midtown Science & Medicine
Grand Traverse Academy
Martin
Munising
Rudyard
Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary
Moving Down from Class C to Class D
Eau Claire
Fowler
Jackson Prep
L’Anse
Marcellus
Merrill
Mesick
Morenci
Muskegon Heights Academy
St. Ignace
New Postseason-Eligible Tournament Schools in 2023-24
Waterford Oakside Prep
Enrollment Breaks by Classes – 2023-24
(Number of schools in parentheses)
Class A: 807 and above (187 schools)
Class B: 380 – 806 (187)
Class C: 177 – 379 (187)
Class D: 176 and below (189)