Logo

Hockey Penalties Toughened for 2014-15

December 4, 2014

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Seasons are underway for teams participating in 12 winter sports for which the Michigan High School Athletic Association sponsors postseason tournaments, with stronger penalties for excessive contact in ice hockey highlighting rules changes taking effect with the beginning of competition.

Eight sports including ice hockey began play during the final two weeks of November, with the remaining four sports beginning competition over the next 10 days – Lower Peninsula Boys Swimming and Diving on Dec. 6, Boys Basketball on December 8 and Boys and Girls Skiing on Dec. 13. Upper Peninsula Girls and Boys Bowling teams began competition on Nov. 29, and Lower Peninsula teams may begin Dec. 6.

Changes to ice hockey penalties resulting from opponents being forced into the boards continue a focus on improving safety by establishing different levels of severity based on the flagrance and violence of the offending act. 

Any excessive contact – including checking, cross-checking, elbowing, charging or tripping – that causes an opponent to be thrown violently into the boards will receive a 5-minute major penalty; previously this boarding infraction resulted only in a 2-minute minor penalty unless the contact was flagrant. If the flagrant or violent check causes a player to crash headfirst into the boards, a 5-minute major will be assessed as well as either a 10-minute misconduct or game disqualification depending on the severity of the offending check. Players disqualified from ice hockey games are not allowed to play in the next two games as well. 

A 5-minute major penalty also will be assessed to any player who pushes, charges, cross-checks or body-checks an opponent from behind in open ice. Previously, this excessive contact came with a 2-minute minor penalty and 10-minute misconduct. 

A handful of notable rules changes also go into effect for girls and boys basketball:

  • Intentional fouls were redefined to include excessive contact with any opposing player – not just the shooter – while the ball is live or until an airborne shooter returns to the floor. All excessive contact committed by any player will be ruled intentional.

  • Also, additions to the definition of personal foul were added to eliminate excessive contact on ball handlers outside of the lane area. The following additions constitute a foul when committed against the ball handler/dribbler: placing two hands (fronts or backs of hands) on the player, placing an extended arm bar (forearm away from the body) on the player, placing and keeping a hand on the player, and contacting the player more than once with the same hand or alternating hands.

  • The rule for players releasing to the lane on a free throw attempt was changed to its previous version; a player occupying a marked lane space again may enter the lane on the release of the ball by the free throw shooter. Players behind the free throw line extended and 3-point arc behind the free throw line must wait until the free throw attempt touches the ring or backboard or has ended (touches the floor) before entering the lane. This was the rule prior to the 1994-95 season.

  • Players may wear arm sleeves, knee sleeves, lower leg sleeves and tights, but all sleeves and tights must be black, white, beige or the predominant color of the team’s uniform. All team members wearing sleeves or tights must wear the same color. Knee braces do not count as part of this uniform regulation.

    • A significant change for wrestling affects team tournaments stretching multiple days, including the MHSAA Finals, for which weigh-ins are conducted each day. An athlete must weigh in at the same weight both days in order to continue competing after the first day of the tournament. Previously, an athlete could compete at whatever weight he or she weighed in at on the first day and then the new weight, if different, on the second day. Beginning this season, that wrestler may not compete the subsequent days of the team event if he or she weighs in at a different weight after the first day. 

    The 2014-15 Winter campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls and Boys Swimming & Diving Finals on Feb. 21, and wraps up with the Boys Basketball Finals on March 28. Here is a complete list of winter tournament dates: 

    Boys Basketball
    Districts – March 9, 11 & 13
    Regionals – March 16 & 18
    Quarterfinals – March 24
    Semifinals – March 26-27
    Finals – March 28 

    Girls Basketball
    Districts – March 2, 4 & 6
    Regionals – March 10 & 12
    Quarterfinals – March 17
    Semifinals – March 19-20
    Finals – March 21

    Bowling
    Team Regionals – Feb. 27
    Singles Regionals – Feb. 28
    Team Finals – March 6
    Singles Finals – March 7 

    Girls Competitive Cheer
    Districts – Feb. 20-21
    Regionals – Feb. 28
    Finals: March 6-7 

    Girls Gymnastics
    Regionals – March 7
    Team Finals – March 13
    Individual Finals – March 14 

    Ice Hockey
    Pre-Regionals – March 2-6
    Regional Finals – March 7
    Quarterfinals – March 10-11
    Semifinals – March 12-13
    Finals – March 14 

    Skiing
    Regionals – Feb. 9-13
    Finals – Feb. 23 

    Swimming & Diving
    U.P. Girls & Boys Finals – Feb. 21
    L.P. Boys Diving Regionals – March 5
    L.P. Boys Finals – March 13-14 

    Wrestling
    Team Districts – Feb. 11-12
    Individual Districts – Feb. 14
    Team Regionals – Feb. 18
    Individual Regionals – Feb. 21
    Team Quarterfinals – Feb. 27
    Team Semifinals & Finals – Feb. 28
    Individual Finals – March 5-7

    2018 Scholar-Athlete Finalists Announced

    By Geoff Kimmerly
    MHSAA.com senior editor

    January 19, 2018

    By Geoff Kimmerly
    Second Half editor

    The 120 finalists for the Michigan High School Athletic Association's Scholar-Athlete Awards for the 2017-18 school year, presented by Farm Bureau Insurance, have been announced.

    The program, in its 29th year, has recognized student-athletes since the 1989-90 school year and again this winter will honor 32 individuals from MHSAA member schools who participate in at least one sport in which the Association sponsors a postseason tournament.

    Farm Bureau Insurance underwrites the Scholar-Athlete Awards and will present a $1,000 scholarship to each recipient. Since the beginning of the program, 736 scholarships have been awarded.

    Scholarships will be presented proportionately by school classification, with 12 scholarships to be awarded to Class A student-athletes, six female and six male; eight scholarships will be awarded to Class B student-athletes, four female and four male; six scholarships will be awarded to Class C student-athletes, three female and three male; and four scholarships will be awarded to Class D student-athletes, two female and two male. In addition, two scholarships will be awarded at-large to minority recipients, regardless of school size.

    Every MHSAA member high school could submit as many applications as there are scholarships available in its classification, and could have more than one finalist. Saline has four finalists this year, while Negaunee, Rochester and Saginaw Swan Valley each have three. Seventeen schools each have two finalists: Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, Chelsea, East Grand Rapids, Ferndale, Grand Rapids Christian, Harbor Springs, Kingsford, Ludington, Marshall, Northville, Okemos, Paw Paw, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, Saranac, Sault Ste. Marie and Troy.

    Multiple-sport participation remains the norm among applicants. The average sport participation rate of the finalists is 2.63, while the average of the application pool was 2.20. There are 65 three-plus sport participants in the finalists field, and all but two of the 28 sports in which the MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments are represented.

    Of 396 schools which submitted applicants, 39 submitted the maximum allowed. This year, 1,422 applications were received. All applicants will be presented with certificates commemorating their achievement. Additional Scholar-Athlete information, including a complete list of scholarship nominees, can be found on the MHSAA Website.

    The applications were judged by a 64-member committee of school coaches, counselors, faculty members, administrators and board members from MHSAA member schools. Selection of the 32 scholarship recipients will take place in early February. Class C and D scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 6, Class B scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 13 and Class A scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 20. All announcements will be made on the MHSAA Website.

    To honor the 32 Scholar-Athlete Award recipients, a ceremony will take place during halftime of the Class C Boys Basketball Final, March 24, at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing.

    To be eligible for the award, students must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.50 (on a 4.0 scale) and previously have won a varsity letter in at least one sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament. Students also were asked to respond to a series of short essay questions, submit two letters of recommendation and a 500-word essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.

    Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan was founded in 1949 by Michigan farmers who wanted an insurance company that worked as hard as they did. Those values still guide the company today and are a big reason why it is known as Michigan’s Insurance Company, dedicated to protecting the farms, families, and businesses of this great state. Farm Bureau Insurance agents across Michigan provide a full range of insurance services—life, home, auto, farm, business, retirement, Lake Estate®, and more — protecting nearly 500,000 Michigan policyholders

    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. 

    2017-18 Scholar-Athlete Award Finalists

    BOYS CLASS A
    Kobie Mueller, Ann Arbor Huron
    Adam Good, Auburn Hills Avondale
    Jacob Willemsen, Byron Center
    William Marano, Dearborn Edsel Ford
    Anthony Joseph, DeWitt
    Ben Forstner, East Grand Rapids
    Anthony Kim, Grand Blanc
    Nicholas Weigle, Grandville
    Yzrael Silguero, Holland
    Danny deForest, Holland West Ottawa
    Joseph Corner, Holt
    Luke Rambo, Marquette
    Aditya Middha, Midland Dow
    Paul Cheng McKinley, Okemos
    David Paquette, Petoskey
    Michael Robert Melaragni, Rochester Hills Stoney Creek
    Cole Johnson, Rockford
    Anthony G. DeKraker, Saline
    Aidan Delfuoco, Saline
    Reagan Miller, Saline
    Emmett Turner, Saline
    Hunter Gandee, Temperance Bedford
    Nathan Frazier, Warren Cousino
    Nick Seidel, West Bloomfield 

    GIRLS CLASS A
    Maggie Wood, Battle Creek Lakeview
    Emily Rooney, Birmingham Seaholm
    Susannah Deems, East Grand Rapids
    Kelly Ann Giles, East Kentwood
    Olivia Perkins, Farmington Hills Harrison
    Maria Poortenga, Grand Rapids Christian
    Sarah Van Dyke, Grand Rapids Christian
    Breanna Probst, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central
    Lauren Sickmiller, Grosse Pointe North
    Samantha Hild, Holly
    Talia Naomi Edmonds, Kalamazoo Central
    Tess Scheidel, Middleville Thornapple Kellogg
    Grace VanArendonk, Muskegon Mona Shores
    Kendall Dillon, Northville
    Roan Haines, Northville
    Anushka Murthy, Okemos
    Hallie C. Roman, Port Huron Northern
    Kendall Jordan, Rochester
    Karlyn Kelley, Rochester
    Jenna Norgrove, Rochester
    Anna Fischer, St. Joseph
    Meghan Monaghan, Troy
    Megan Worrel, Troy
    Julie Smith, Walled Lake Northern 

    BOYS CLASS B
    Jackson Lund, Big Rapids
    Lucas Misra, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood
    Patrick J. Bertoni, Chelsea
    Justin A. Lyle, Dowagiac
    Jacob Keener, Ferndale
    John Stellard, Ferndale
    Vincent Goyette, Flint Powers Catholic
    Anthony Harris, Frankenmuth
    David Ameriguian, Grosse Ile
    Sawyer Perpich, Kingsford
    Caleb Schoon, Ludington
    William Rayner, Marshall
    Thomas Otten, Paw Paw
    Anthony Reo, Paw Paw
    Hunter Goldensoph, Saginaw Swan Valley
    Troy Joseph Distelrath, St. Clair 

    GIRLS CLASS B
    Kate Cao, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood
    Caroline Hirth, Chelsea
    Hannah Shorkey, Essexville Garber
    Katelyn Brown, Jonesville
    Jordyn Kriegl, Kingsford
    Mackenzie Luce, Ludington
    Mackenzie Horn, Marshall
    Grace VerHage, Otsego
    Celia C. Gaynor, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep
    Lauren Neiheisel, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep
    Megan Brooks, Saginaw Swan Valley
    Emily Buska, Saginaw Swan Valley
    Valeta A. Gage, Sault Ste. Marie
    Mackenzie M. Kalchik, Sault Ste. Marie
    Izabella Marie Taylor, Three Rivers
    MacKenzie Desloover, Yale 

    BOYS CLASS C
    Jack Avery Harris, Ann Arbor Greenhills
    Parker Hayes, Beaverton
    Matthew Harazin, Bridgman
    Ilhan Onder, Calumet
    Joseph R. Claramunt, Harbor Springs
    Thomas Kelbel, Harbor Springs
    Evans Brown, Kalamazoo Hackett
    Eric Vandefifer, Montrose
    Luke Skewis, Negaunee
    Colton Yesney, Negaunee
    Ben Hogan, North Muskegon
    Bryant Kieft, Watervliet 

    GIRLS CLASS C
    Shelby Trevino, Beal City
    Kendall Gassman, Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart
    Kelleigh Keating, Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart
    Ellen Charlotte Laurenz, Breckenridge
    Rachel Nesburg, Charlevoix
    Morgan Hartline, Marcellus
    Clara Johnson, Negaunee
    Emily Spitzley, Pewamo-Westphalia
    Halie Robinson, Royal Oak Shrine Catholic
    Kendahl Grace Overbeck, Saranac
    Emma Pachulski, Saranac
    Melody Antel, Saugatuck 

    BOYS CLASS D
    Nicholas Burlingame, Ashley
    Brendan Delaney, Gaylord St. Mary
    Peter Kalthoff, Hillsdale Academy
    Andrew Pechette, Kinde-North Huron
    Andrew Hager, Mio
    Jeremiah Torrey, Onekama
    Aaron Jacob Fahrner, Owendale-Gagetown
    Thomas Hursey, Suttons Bay 

    GIRLS CLASS D
    Katelyn Smith, Akron-Fairgrove
    Corra Hamilton, Athens
    Madison Kadlec, Bellaire
    Ciera Weber, Fowler
    Laura Lyons, Lake Linden-Hubbell
    Stephanie Schuman, Lawrence
    Ellie Haan, McBain Northern Michigan Christian
    Sophie Ruggles, Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart