Chrisinske, Inglis Receive Bush Awards
June 5, 2013
Two athletic administrators respected as mentors and role models in their respective regions and throughout the state – Dave Chrisinske of Middleville Thornapple Kellogg and Cody Inglis of Traverse City Central – have been named the recipients of the Michigan High School Athletic Association's Allen W. Bush Award for 2013.
Al Bush served as executive director of the MHSAA for 10 years. The award honors individuals for past and continuing service to prep athletics as a coach, administrator, official, trainer, doctor or member of the media. The award was developed to bring recognition to men and women who are giving and serving without a lot of attention. This is the 22nd year of the award, with the selections being made by the MHSAA's Representative Council.
Chrisinske has served as an athletic director the last 21 years and for 36 years total in public and community education. He came to Thornapple Kellogg in fall 2011 after 32 years with Allendale Public Schools, where he taught and coached before serving 19 years as athletic director and also as assistant principal and community education director. He has coached football, basketball, baseball and volleyball at school or youth levels, and also is a registered MHSAA volleyball official.
The 1972 graduate of Stockbridge High School also worked for Coopersville Community Education for two years after graduating with his bachelor’s degree in group social studies from Grand Valley State University in 1977. He earned a master’s in educational leadership from Grand Valley State in 1992 and became a Certified Athletic Administrator in 1997.
Chrisinske continues to lend his time and expertise to a number of committees and community efforts; he has served as a region representative for the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association for a decade, on various MHSAA committees including the baseball and wrestling sport committees and the scholarship classification committee, and on three successful school bond committees that led to new buildings and outdoor athletic facilities at Allendale. He also was a district representative for the Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association for 10 years and has served on recreation committees for both Allendale and Thornapple Townships.
Chrisinske was recognized as the MIAAA Region IV Athletic Director of the year in 2004, and as Athletic Director of the Year by the West Michigan Officials Association in 2006 and West Michigan Umpires Association in 2011.
“Dave Chrisinske has become a go-to person in his league and community, always willing to share his knowledge and enthusiasm for high school athletics and serving student athletes,” said John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. “His dedication shines through as well in his efforts with the MIAAA and as a frequent host of MHSAA tournaments. We are pleased to honor Dave Chrisinske with the Bush Award.”
Inglis also has served as an athletic director at two high schools, dating back to 1997. He spent 11 years at Suttons Bay, first as a teacher and also as assistant principal and middle school principal. He has spent the last five years as athletic director and assistant principal at Traverse City Central High School. Inglis is a 1989 graduate of Portage Northern High School and earned his bachelor’s degree from Hope College and master’s from Ohio University.
He coached boys and girls cross country and track and field at Suttons Bay from 1995-2008, leading his teams to numerous conference championships and the girls cross country team to a runner-up finish at the 2002 Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final. He was named Cross Country Coach of the Year after that season by the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association, and the MITCA Track Coach of the Year the following spring. He also served as an assistant coach for eight seasons for the Traverse City St. Francis-led cooperative hockey program.
Inglis has been a member of the MIAAA since 1997, became a Certified Athletic Administrator in 1999, and has served as an MIAAA region representative since 2001. He too is a regular host of MHSAA tournaments in a number of sports and has served as a member of the track and field, hockey, skiing and cross country sport committees and the site and officials selection committees. He was named MIAAA Region 2 Athletic Director of the Year in 2003. Inglis was league treasurer and secretary for the Northwest Conference from 1997-2008 and has served as Big North Conference secretary since 2009.
He’s also active in a number of community programs, including Boy Scouts, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Special Olympics, the Suttons Bay Township Recreation Committee, the Suttons Bay Art Festival and with his church.
“Cody Inglis is named time and again by his fellow athletic administrators as someone of integrity and character,” Roberts said. “He’s passed on these and various lessons to his coaches and athletes, but also as a regular speaker at the MIAAA’s annual conference. His impact continues to affect those he works with regularly in the Traverse City area, but also others across our state. He is a deserving recipient of the Bush Award.”
Rep Council Wrap-Up: Winter 2018
March 28, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
With a number of important topics filling the agenda for its Spring Meeting this May, the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association prepared for a number of possible votes by receiving and requesting additional information during its annual Winter Meeting on March 23 in East Lansing.
The Winter Meeting frequently serves as an opportunity for the Council to discuss items expected to come up for action at its final meeting of the school year, scheduled for May 6-7. Since June of 2017, the MHSAA has been pushing several projects forward – with work on the transfer rule and junior high/middle school sports receiving the most emphasis.
Addressing the chronically troubling nature of transfers in school sports, the MHSAA has facilitated nine months of discussions with leagues and administrative groups across the state to develop a proposal that would make the transfer rule sport-specific – that is, a rule that bases current eligibility on the sports an athlete has participated in in the past. The proposed new rule would make transferring students ineligible at a new school in the sports they played the previous year at their old school. However, transfer students would be immediately eligible in any sport they didn’t participate in the previous school year. A list of exceptions, including a change of residence, would still allow for transferring students to become eligible in all sports.
The Council discussed how support for this potential transfer rule change has grown, and suggested the MHSAA send further explanation of the proposal to school superintendents and principals before the meeting in May.
“Since last summer, there has been membership-wide discussion of proposals that pursue the elusive goal of adopting a transfer rule that is simpler and easier to understand and, therefore, more consistently enforced,” MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts said. “There appears to be broad consensus that we are on the right path.
“If adopted by the Council in May, the full effect of the changes would not be felt until the 2019-20 school year. What sports are actually played by a student during 2018-19 would determine that student’s eligibility after a transfer for 2019-20.”
The Council also is continuing work on a number of efforts related to the MHSAA’s growing presence at the junior high and middle school level. Under consideration is a proposal increasing the number of contests permitted within the maximum 13-week seasons for several sports, and another proposal relaxing or eliminating the Limited Team Membership regulation for most sports at that level. The Council also is considering expanding the MHSAA’s role as a presenting sponsor at events involving junior high/middle school students.
MHSAA membership at the junior high/middle school level has increased by more than 100 schools – nearly 14 percent – and nearly 70 percent of 800 member junior high/middle schools have begun accommodating 6th-graders in their programs since the MHSAA’s Constitution was amended in 2015 to allow 6th-graders to be included.
“The emphasis on policies and programs related to 6th-, 7th- and 8th-graders is essential if sports at the high school level will remain relevant to students and useful to schools which are trying to engage youth in 21st-century learning,” Roberts said. “We’ve also put many policies under a microscope to see if they can be modified to respond to our customers’ desires for more competition at the 6th- through 8th-grade levels while remaining faithful to our mission of providing these younger student-athletes the opportunity to sample sports and develop new interests and skills.”
A number of other topics were discussed during the Winter Meeting in advance of actions that could take place in May or at the Council’s Fall Meeting in December:
• The Council is considering two leading options for setting the girls and boys basketball regular-season and MHSAA tournament schedules after the 2018-19 season. For 2018-19, for the first time, the boys and girls seasons will flip start and end dates, with the boys starting and ending their season first. This will be done to adjust to the availability of Michigan State University’s Breslin Center to host the boys Semifinals and Finals. For 2018-19, no other arena available is large enough to accommodate the crowd that traditionally attends the final games of the boys postseason.
One option for 2019-20 and possibly beyond includes continuing the current strategy of using multiple sites for Semifinals and Finals weekends while accommodating Breslin (or another largest arena’s) availability – for example, this year’s Boys Semifinals and Finals were played at Breslin, while the Girls Semifinals and Finals were played at Calvin College’s Van Noord Arena because Breslin was not available for the girls weekend. (Breslin and Van Noord will be used for the 2019 Semifinals and Finals weekends as well, again to accommodate Breslin’s availability.) The second option would put the girls and boys tournament schedules over the same three-week period and use the largest available arena to host games on only two days; Semifinals would be played at various sites for both genders, with all four girls and boys championship games played at the largest arena during one weekend.
• Also in girls and boys basketball, the Council will consider possibilities for seeding the top two teams in geographically-determined Districts. MHSAA staff have created plans for possible implementation as requested by the Council at its May 2017 meeting.
• In football, the Council is considering options to assist 8-player football schools with their regular-season scheduling.
“While transfers and junior high/middle school programs are fundamentally more important than single sport issues, we have an eye on several that will generate significant interest,” Roberts said. “Schools which sponsor 8-player football will be receiving plans to assist their scheduling of regular-season games, and they will be asked to provide reactions through an online survey during April.
“Basketball continues to have two issues which have more public interest than genuine importance. One – the boys and girls tournament schedule and championship venue after 2019 – is moving toward a vote in December. The other – limited seeding of boys and girls District tournaments – is scheduled for action in May.”
The Council also talked about ways of involving more junior high/middle school students and at more grade levels, and what possible new high school sports might draw students with a wider variety of interests and abilities. There also was discussion on how eligibility and transfer rules are applied to boarding school students and what modifications would promote competitive equity between boarding schools and both public and nonpublic schools.
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 1,500 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.