Awards Honor Those Lending a Hand
April 12, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Sports often make up a significant, although singular part of the lives of Michigan’s high school student-athletes and coaches.
Many also find ways to have significant impacts on the lives of others – and we’d like to tell the rest of our state how they’re making a difference.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association, together with Lake Trust Credit Union, will award this spring the inaugural Community Service Awards to recognize individuals and teams that have worked to benefit their communities.
Each winner will receive a $1,000 award to be applied toward an individual college scholarship, credited to a team’s account with its athletic department or even gifted to the group helped by our honoree.
Please help us get the word out. Encourage a student, coach or administrator to tell us about a completed or ongoing community service project. Any student, team or coach currently participating in interscholastic athletics at an MHSAA member high school can apply. Applications should be e-mailed both to the school’s athletic director and MHSAA’s Kurt Tiesman at [email protected].
The deadline for applications is May 1, and multiple winners will be selected and notified by May 12. Click for more information.
We hear and read about these contributions and successes throughout the school year. Thank you in advance for your help in allowing us to honor some of this great work in the community by those who also shine on the field.
PHOTO: Members of the Adrian boys track & field team help clean up after a tornado in Dexter in 2012.
Volleyball, Swim/Dive to Restart on Monday
December 29, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The remaining 32 teams in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Girls Volleyball Tournament and individuals from 128 schools who have qualified for the Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals will restart their postseasons Monday, Jan. 4, with championship events for both concluding Jan. 16.
Participants in both sports must take part in a rapid testing pilot program created by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). Athletes, coaches and other team personnel directly involved in practice and competition must test three times per week using BinaxNOW antigen tests that produce results within 15 minutes. Teams and individuals in both sports must complete one round of negative COVID-19 tests before beginning practice. Football teams still participating in the MHSAA Football Playoffs also are taking part in the rapid testing pilot program and scheduled to begin full-contact practice as soon as they complete a round of negative testing this week.
The Girls Volleyball Tournament will pick up with Quarterfinals on Jan. 12, followed by Semifinals on Jan. 14-15 and Finals on Jan. 16. Semifinals and Finals will be played at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek.
The Girls Swimming & Diving Tournament will conclude with Finals during the weekend of Jan. 15-16 at three sites – Division 1 at Hudsonville High School, Division 2 at Grand Rapids Northview High School and Division 3 at Lake Orion High School. The Diving Finals will take place Friday, Jan. 15, followed by all Swimming Finals on Jan. 16.
Spectators will not be allowed at competitions for either sport. Spectators also are not being allowed at Football Playoff games, which are scheduled to begin again Jan. 9.