Dangerous Plays
February 26, 2013
The MHSAA’s fourth health and safety thrust for the next four years focuses on competition rules. It intends to locate the most dangerous plays in each sport and to try to reduce their frequency. For example:
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We know that kickoff returns, punt returns and interception returns – plays in the open field with a change in direction – are the most dangerous football game situations.
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We know that heading the ball in soccer is injurious, especially to younger athletes, and especially to females.
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We know that checking from behind is a cause of serious injury in ice hockey.
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We wonder if protective headgear has a place in soccer, or if protective head and face protection has a future role in softball.
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We know that ACL injuries in female basketball players and volleyball players is near epidemic and wonder if there is equipment or conditioning that can be mandated or recommended to save our players from what are serious and sometimes career-ending injuries.
We can make changes ourselves – through MHSAA sport committees – for the subvarsity level, but our committees can only make recommendations to national rules committees for varsity level play. Over the next four years, we will be asking our sport committees to give more time to the most dangerous plays in their sport – identifying what they are and proposing how to reduce that danger.
Three New Winter Tournament Venues
February 16, 2018
It is an unusual season when there is one big change for the finals sites of Michigan High School Athletic Association tournaments. This winter there are three really significant changes.
The MHSAA Team Wrestling Tournament begins the first of at least a four-year run on Feb. 23 and 24, 2018, at Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo. This event was held at Central Michigan University the past two years.
The following weekend, the MHSAA Individual Wrestling Tournament moves to Ford Field in Detroit, and it has also moved to a condensed schedule – two days, rather than three (March 2 and 3, 2018). This will reduce school and spectator costs. The demise of The Palace of Auburn Hills after the relocation of the Detroit Pistons necessitated the MHSAA’s site change.
The MHSAA Girls Basketball Tournament Semifinals and Finals moves to Van Noord Arena on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, March 15-17, 2018. The previous host, Michigan State University’s Breslin Student Events Center, could not commit to the MHSAA’s dates because of schedule conflicts with the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament.
A single venue change is a challenge. Facilitating three major changes over four weeks will make this tournament season especially “interesting.” What is even more interesting is the long-term forecast.
These changes demonstrate how new forces are putting pressure on old relationships. College venues are available on fewer dates and for fewer years; and as they become less available, they also become more costly for high school tournaments. Expenses at commercial arenas are also escalating at more rapid rates than in the past.
Making or maintaining traditions for MHSAA tournaments over future seasons will be a continuing challenge.