League Leadership
February 15, 2014
This past Wednesday, we convened for the 28th year the leadership of the various high school leagues and conferences across Michigan. Our purpose is to provide a “heads-up” and stimulate feedback on many of the proposals heading to the MHSAA Representative Council in March or May.
Each of the substantive changes in Handbook regulations is presented. Every MHSAA committee recommendation to the Council is detailed.
This year’s higher profile topics are proposed changes in undue influence penalties, international student eligibility requirements, increasing requirements for coaches, new football practice policies to improve acclimatization and reduce head contact, and enhanced standards for officials assigners. A progress report on a year-long look at junior high/middle school policies was provided, and the athletic related transfer rule that takes full effect in August was reviewed.
The MHSAA asks the league leaders to provide written and/or oral reports to their league members and to relay reactions to MHSAA staff prior to the Council’s March and May meetings.
Of course, what we’re asking is a very small part of the important role that leagues and conferences have in the life of school sports. For most schools, leagues provide the core schedule for regular-season contests. They nurture healthy local rivalries in a competitive arena and provide opportunities for students to interact outside the arena during programs that promote student leadership and sportsmanship.
Hurry Up and Wait
May 16, 2017
I work so far in advance of events that I’m the subject of some ribbing by my colleagues on staff of the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
I prepare agendas for winter meetings during the previous summer – to help us plan. I draft minutes of those meetings before they occur – a device I’ve found helps to expose gaps in preparation for those meetings. I keep an ongoing file of possible questions for future surveys. I have bulging files that will help us address important topics when interfering urgent matters get out of the way.
So, it feels odd that I write to suggest athletic directors and officials assigners delay some planning for the 2018-19 school year.
You may have read in MHSAA communications or elsewhere that changes in policies of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament have made MSU’s Breslin Student Events Center unavailable to host the MHSAA girls Finals in 2018 and 2020-2022 and the boys Finals in 2019, that the MHSAA will conduct the 2018 girls Finals in Van Noord Arena at Calvin College, and that we will use the upcoming summer and fall to consider alternative venues, season calendars and tournament schedules for 2018-19 and beyond.
Decisions may be made that affect the season starting and/or ending dates of girls basketball, boys basketball or both, as well as other winter sports. Decisions could affect the end of the girls volleyball season as well.
Rather than consider this as a huge disruption, we are choosing to look at this as an opportunity to review how and when we do things, both regular season and MHSAA tournaments. Possibly there are some improvements that can be made.
On the other hand, we may find it inappropriate to upset sound scheduling and many valued traditions because of changes made in a college basketball tournament, and that we should use NCAA Division I facilities less or not at all, if necessary, to continue with our current schedules.
Nevertheless, the fact of these discussions and the potential for changes might cause leagues and local schools to delay in finalizing 2018-19 schedules and officials assignments.