Follow the 2011-12 Parade of Champions

June 28, 2012

A total of 97 schools won one or more of the 127 team Finals championships awarded by the Michigan High School Athletic Association during the 2011-12 school year. Four schools – Grosse Pointe South, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice, Marquette and Houghton – tied for the high with four championships apiece.

A total of 18 schools won multiple titles, including Birmingham Seaholm, which won in Division 2 girls tennis and is the primary school in the Birmingham United co-op program that won in Division 1 girls lacrosse. In addition to those schools that won four championships, four more won three titles: Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood, St. Ignace, Detroit Country Day and Ishpeming Westwood.

One-third of this year’s champions – 43 of the 127 – were repeat winners from 2010-11. Of those multiple winners, 19 claimed titles for at least the third straight season. The Lake Leelanau St. Mary boys golf team’s Lower Peninsula Division 4 title was its school’s first MHSAA championship in any sport.

Sixteen of the MHSAA's 28 championship tournaments are unified, involving teams from the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, while separate competition to determine titlists in both Peninsulas is conducted in remaining sports.

Click for a sport-by-sport listing of MHSAA champions for 2011-12.

PHOTO: The Birmingham United girls lacrosse team celebrated its Division 1 championship earlier this month at Rockford High School. 

Eight Members Elected to MHSAA Representative Council

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

September 26, 2024

Elections were completed recently to fill positions on the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s legislative body, its Representative Council, with seven members receiving re-election from their respective constituencies and one new member selected to join the Council beginning with its Fall meeting this December.

Four of the seven re-elected members ran unopposed. Midland athletic director Eric Albright was re-elected to continue representing Class A and B schools in the northern section of the Lower Peninsula, and Portage Northern athletic director Chris Riker was re-elected to continue representing Class A and B schools in the southwestern section of the Lower Peninsula. Bangor athletic director Fredrick J. Smith was re-elected to represent junior high and middle schools, and Vic Michaels, director of physical education and athletics for the Archdiocese of Detroit, was re-elected to continue representing private and parochial schools.

Winning re-election by majority votes were Harbor Springs athletic director Anna Rigby to continue representing Class C and D schools in the northern section of the Lower Peninsula, Brighton athletic director John Thompson to continue representing Class A and B schools in the southeastern section of the Lower Peninsula, and Calumet faculty member and past athletic director Sean Jacques to continue representing Class C and D schools in the Upper Peninsula. 

Fenton High School principal Michael Bakker was elected for the first time, for a statewide at-large position. He ran unopposed.

All eight were elected to serve two-year terms.

The Representative Council is the 19-member 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 Council meets three times annually. Five members of the Council convene monthly during the school year to form the MHSAA’s Executive Committee, which reviews appeals of Handbook regulations by member schools.

Additional elections took place to select representatives to the Upper Peninsula Athletic Committee. Lake Linden-Hubbell athletic director and varsity girls basketball coach Jack Kumpula was re-elected to represent Class D schools. West Iron County High School and Middle School principal, athletic director and varsity football coach Mike Berutti was re-elected to represent high school athletic coaches. 

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.