21st WISL Conference Set for Feb. 2-3
January 7, 2014
The first, largest and longest-running program of its type in the country, the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Women In Sports Leadership Conference will take place Feb. 2-3 at the Crowne Plaza Lansing West, formerly the Lexington Lansing Hotel.
The 21st edition of the conference will feature three keynote speakers and a variety of workshops. The program annually attracts upwards of 500 participants, most of them high school female student-athletes. High school students, coaches and administrators are invited to register on the MHSAA Website.
Cost is $50 for students and $60 for adults, not including lodging for those intending to stay overnight in Lansing. A registration form for lodging also is available on the MHSAA Website. Registration closes Jan. 17.
The theme for this WISL Conference is #JustLead, and Dr. René Revis Shingles will focus on leadership in her opening address. Revis Shingles is a certified athletic trainer and sport sociologist and currently serves as a professor and the director of athletic training at Central Michigan University. Revis Shingles has earned degrees from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Illinois State University and Michigan State University, and CMU annually presents a leadership award in her name to a student in its athletic training education program.
University of Michigan softball coach Carol Hutchins will speak on “The Importance of Leadership” at the WISL Banquet during the evening of Feb. 2. Hutchins, a member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Hall of Fame, has led the Wolverines to more than 1,300 wins and the 2005 NCAA championship during her 29 seasons as coach. She holds a master’s degree in physical education from the University of Indiana and a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State.
MSU women’s basketball coach Suzy Merchant will speak on “Leading Through Vision, Values, Voice” during the morning of Feb. 3. Merchant is in her seventh season at MSU after previously coaching at Eastern Michigan University and Saginaw Valley State University and serving as a captain while a player at Central Michigan. Merchant led the Spartans to the Big Ten Conference title in 2010-11 and finishes of third place or higher in each of the last five seasons. She earned a bachelor’ degree at CMU and a master’s at SVSU.
Workshops offered during the conference include topics on coaching, teaching leadership, officiating, sports nutrition, college preparation, multi-sport participation, cultural awareness and the roles and responsibilities of captains. A complete itinerary is available on the MHSAA Website.
The WISL Banquet will include the presentation of this year’s Women In Sports Leadership Award. The winner will be announced later this month.
Follow the #JustLead hashtag on Twitter to learn more about the conference’s activities.
MHSAA Survey Shows Continued Lower Rate of Schools Charging Participation Fees During 2021-22
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
July 28, 2022
Although participation in high school sports rebounded significantly at Michigan High School Athletic Association schools during the 2021-22 school year, the percentage of member schools charging participation fees remained near its lowest of the last two decades after a major reduction during 2020-21 when fall and winter activities were affected by COVID-19.
Only 40 percent of MHSAA member schools charged participation fees during the 2021-22 school year, following 41 percent using them during 2020-21 – after 48 percent of member schools reported charging them during the 2019-20 school year, when athletics operated normally until the pandemic resulted in a shutdown that March. The dips into the low 40s were the lowest percentages of schools assessing fees since the 2006-07 school year.
The MHSAA participation fee survey has measured the prevalence of charging students to help fund interscholastic athletics annually since the 2003-04 school year. The percentage of member schools charging fees crossed 50 percent in 2010-11 and reached a high of 56.6 percent in 2013-14 before falling back to 50 percent or below during recent years.
Of the 690 schools (92 percent of membership) which responded to the 2021-22 survey, 279 assessed a participation fee, while 411 did not during the past school year. For the purposes of the survey, a participation fee was anything $20 or more regardless of what the school called the charge (registration fee, insurance fee, transportation fee, etc.).
Class A schools remained the largest group charging fees, with 57 percent of respondents doing so. Class B and Class C schools followed, with 39 and 34 percent charging fees, respectively, and 33 percent of Class D schools also charged for participation.
Among schools assessing fees, a standardized fee for each team on which a student-athlete participates – regardless of the number of teams – has shown for a number of years to be the most popular method, with that rate at 46 percent of schools with fees for 2021-22. Next were 32 percent of assessing schools charging a one-time standardized fee per student-athlete, followed by 14 percent assessing fees based on tiers of the number of sports a student-athlete plays (for example, charging a larger fee for the first team and less for additional sports).
The amounts of participation fees have remained relatively consistent over the last decade. For 2021-22, the median annual maximum fee per student was $150, and the median maximum fee per family was $300. The median fee assessed by schools that charge student-athletes once per year was $120, and the median fee for schools that assess per team on which a student-athlete plays was $75.
The survey for 2021-22 and surveys from previous years can be found on the MHSAA Website. Click for the full 2021-22 survey report.
As reported earlier this month, participation in MHSAA-sponsored sports rebounded 6.6 percent in 2021-22 from the previous school year.
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.