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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

    Scholar-Athlete Awards Finalists Named

    By Geoff Kimmerly
    MHSAA.com senior editor

    January 25, 2012

    The 120 finalists for the Michigan High School Athletic Association's Scholar-Athlete Award for the 2011-12 school year -- including three each from three schools -- have been announced.

    The program, which has been recognizing student-athletes since the 1989-90 school year, 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 Award, and will present a $1,000 scholarship to each recipient. Since the beginning of the program, 544 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, there also will be two at-large honorees which also are part of the general judging process, may come from any classification, and are designated by their school at the time of entry.

    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. Marlette, Northville and Rochester Adams each have three finalists this year, while 20 schools have two: Bay City Central, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice, Birmingham Groves, Dearborn, Delton Kellogg, East Lansing, Frankfort, Hillsdale Academy, Hopkins, Jenison, Kinde-North Huron, Midland, Midland Dow, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, Rochester, Spring Lake, Springport, Tecumseh, White Lake Lakeland and Williamston.

    Multiple-sport participation remains the norm among applicants. The average sport participation rate of the finalists is 2.58, while the average of the application pool was 2.13 – both within a tenth of last year’s rates in those categories. There are 66 three-plus sport participants in the finalist field, and all but three of the 28 sports in which the MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments are represented.

    Of 386 schools which submitted applicants, 51 submitted the maximum allowed. This year, 1,636 applications were received. All will be presented with certificates commemorating their achievement.  Additional Scholar-Athlete information, including a complete list of scholarship nominees, can be found on this MHSAA Website link.

    The applications were judged by a 62-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 on February 7; Class B scholarship recipients will be announced on February 14, and Class A scholarship recipients will be announced on February 21. All announcements will be made on the MHSAA Web site.

    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 submit a 500-word essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.

    Farm Bureau Insurance, one of Michigan's major insurers, has a statewide force of more than 400 agents serving more than 380,000 Michigan policyholders. Besides providing life, home, auto, farm, business and retirement insurance, the company also sponsors life-saving, real-time Doppler weather tracking systems in several Michigan communities.              

    The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,600 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 approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.


    2011-12 Scholar-Athlete Award Finalists

    BOYS CLASS A

    Matthew Alexander Beem, Traverse City West

    Brendon Clover, White Lake Lakeland

    Ryan Denison, Dearborn

    Saeed El Saghir, Bay City Central

    Steven Alexander Fox, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central

    Christopher Robert Hagan, East Lansing

    Alexander Hassan, Ann Arbor Huron

    Joshua M. Heinze, Plymouth

    Knute Hoffman, Midland

    Hunter Holtrop, Okemos

    Josh Hoogendoorn, Jenison

    Nick Iacobellis, DeWitt

    Jeremy Kozler, Livonia Stevenson

    Conrad Arthur Lather, Midland Dow

    Alec Latta, Northville

    Gabriel Martinez, Livonia Franklin

    Robert Paul, Bay City Central

    Andrew Poterala, Northville

    Nick Rao, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice

    Christopher Sesi, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice

    Blaine Stannard, Birmingham Groves

    Alex Taylor, Rochester Adams

    Daniel Tzou, Midland Dow

    Garret Zuk, White Lake Lakeland

     

    GIRLS CLASS A

    Kelsey Adamski, Richland Gull Lake

    Ellery Alexander, Caledonia

    Kortnie L. Bush, Southgate Anderson

    Jaymie Dyer, Hartland

    Bethany Easom, Saline

    Yara Nidal Fakhoury, Dearborn

    Heather Smith, Farmington Hills Mercy

    Amanda Marie Fodera, Fraser

    Alexa Giovanatti, Rochester Adams

    Morgan Hawver, Grand Haven

    Hannah Marie Howarth, Gibraltar Carlson

    Kelsey Kerin, St Clair

    Hannah Lee, Rochester Adams

    Maria Lepore, Rochester

    Kelly Lunghamer, Birmingham Marian

    Nicole McDermott, Mason

    Gina Marie McNamara, Northville

    Katelyn Alexandra Pekala, Midland

    Abigail Rawling, Rochester

    Dana Schrauben, Lake Orion

    Alexis Stanton, Jenison

    Alexandra Trecha, East Lansing

    Jessica Turner, Birmingham Groves

    Abigail Wilson, Trenton

     

    BOYS CLASS B

    Jordan S. Daley, Grand Rapids Christian

    Griffin Dean, Grayling

    Nathaniel P. Gaynor, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep

    Mason E. Geno, Essexville Garber

    Jeffrey John Gregory, Kingsford

    Nathaniel Ferris Iveson, Middleville Thornapple Kellogg

    Andrew Kelley, Allegan

    Nathan Kossey, Tecumseh

    Joseph Longstreet, Hastings

    Dan Macalka, Comstock Park

    Dillon McCarthy, Whitehall

    Jacob Mineau, Marysville

    Nick Huston Parnell, Spring Lake

    Caleb Pung, Portland

    Craig Zebell, Dowagiac

    Alan Zhen, Livonia Clarenceville

     

    GIRLS CLASS B

    Sara Marie Barron, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep

    Kathryn MacDermid Bollman, Williamston

    Julie Buursma, Holland Christian

    Kristin Gilbert, Hopkins

    Hannah Grischke, Williamston

    Sarah Hartley, Birch Run

    Emily Kendro, Spring Lake

    Nathalie Kenny, Manistee

    Keara Kilbane, Hopkins

    Laurin Masnari, Three Rivers

    Erin Moser, Midland Bullock Creek

    Rachel Neumann, Flint Powers Catholic

    Brianne Nowak-Scott, Tecumseh

    Emily Oren, Hamilton

    Miranda Scott, Charlotte

    Kaitlyn Stevens, Ovid-Elsie

     

    BOYS CLASS C

    Zachary French, Ishpeming Westwood

    Dakota M. Hard, Quincy

    Jonathan Andrew Harper, Clare

    Ryan Hook, Delton Kellogg

    Kolby Lange, Marlette

    Trevor Lewis, Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port Laker

    Gregory Long, Sand Creek

    Sean McBrayer, Unionville-Sebewaing

    David Powers, Jr., Michigan Center

    Benjamin Rebertus, Negaunee

    Dirk E. Stoneman, Breckenridge

    Ryan Watson, Delton Kellogg

     

    GIRLS CLASS C

    Brandy Bowers, Springport

    Cayla Broton, Hesperia

    Emily Crick, East Jordan

    Lauren Dietrich, Gobles

    Megan Kangas, Norway

    Rachel Leightner, Springport

    Lena Madison, New Buffalo

    Rachel McEwen, Marlette

    Karley Sauder, Marlette

    Elyse Ann Louise Starck, Morley-Stanwood

    Kelcey Stauffer, Sandusky

    Isabella Yzerman, Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart

     

    BOYS CLASS D

    Evan Chalker, Buckley

    Evan Dhyse, Kinde-North Huron

    Seth Kintigh, Jackson Christian

    Timothy Logghe, Peck

    Joseph Nugent, Frankfort

    Adam Plumstead, Frankfort

    Sabeek Pradhan, Hillsdale Academy

    Benjamin Ross, Lawrence

     

    GIRLS CLASS D

    Haley Buckey, Caseville

    Kelsey Butcher, Morrice

    Quinnlin Daily, Kingston

    Natalija Galens, Watervliet Grace Christian

    Haley Moore, Kinde-North Huron

    Margaret Aileen Ryan, Hillsdale Academy

    Jamie Lyn Seppanen, Eben Junction Superior Central

    Alexandria Whitman, Fulton