Hoopfest Returns to Jenison Field House
March 19, 2018
Second Half editor
March Magic Hoopfest will return to Jenison Field House for this weekend’s MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals, with extended hours and a Project UNIFY tournament highlighting the ninth championship weekend the event has run concurrent with the games being played at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.
Up to 10 Special Olympics Project UNIFY teams will take part in a tournament played during the afternoons of March 22 and 23. Unified teams put special education students on the court participating in concert with their general education peers. Lineups must consist of three unified student athletes and two unified student partners on the floor at all times.
Games will be played on the two Hoopfest center courts. On March 24, the center courts will host a number of “JumpBall Jamboree” games made up of teams of boys and girls in grades 3-8.
A number of other favorite attractions will return including slam dunk (on lowered rims), 3-point shootout and half-court shot areas where fans can visit at any time and participate, and the festivities also will include a court for timed “Around the World” shooting games and another court featuring a skills challenge. Also returning is the Walk of History, showcasing championship games, life-size photos and display boards from throughout the MHSAA Finals’ near century-long run.
Hoopfest again also will be home to Hoopie, the event’s mascot who made his first public appearances during the 2014 MHSAA Finals.
Admission to the March Magic Hoopfest is $2 per person, and fans attending the MHSAA Boys Basketball Semifinals and Finals will be admitted free with their game tickets. Hours on March 22 and 23 will be 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.; the event is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on March 24. Jenison Field House, site of Hoopfest, also was the site of the MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals for 31 years. To find out general information about the event, visit the March Magic Hoopfest website.
The March Magic Hoopfest is conducted in partnership between the Greater Lansing Sports Authority (GLSA), a division of the Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the MHSAA, with vital support coming from the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics at Michigan State University.
“Hoopfest is not just for kids, but the kid in all of us,” MHSAA Director of Brand Management Andy Frushour said. “The adults who stop in seem to love it as much as their children. There are basketball hoops everywhere, and with all of the different games to try it’s like being back on the playground.”
The Greater Lansing Sports Authority’s mission is to be the leading voice of sports tourism in the Greater Lansing area and to promote economic growth by attracting a diverse range of sporting events to the region. The GLSA strives to enhance the quality of life for area residents through the development of local sports and fitness programs for all ages, and supports the continued development and maintenance of safe, high-quality athletic facilities.
“Hoopfest has become the must-attend event for spectators of the MHSAA Tournament,” said Meghan Ziehmer, Associate Director of the Greater Lansing Sports Authority. “With games geared for all ages and abilities, the young and young-at-heart can play before, between and after sessions. With activities like the skills challenge, 3-point shooting contest and lowered rims to show off your athletic prowess, there is no shortage of fun activities.”
Survey Shows Multi-Sport Participation Holding Steady, Led by Consistent High Achievers
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 14, 2023
The MHSAA's fifth Multi-Sport Participation Survey, conducted this spring for the 2022-23 school year, showed for the second-consecutive year that 44 percent of athletes at member high schools participated in more than one sport, and with several schools retaining high rankings in their respective Classes for the percentage of their athletes playing multiple sports.
Early and intense sport specialization has become one of the most serious issues related to health and safety at all levels of youth sports, as overuse injuries and burnout among athletes have been tied to chronic injuries and health-related problems later in life.
This past year’s survey showed 44.7 percent of athletes at MHSAA member high schools participating in two or more sports, a slight increase from the 44.3 percent who were multi-sport athletes in 2021-22 – and 1.9 percent higher than the percentage measured with the first survey in 2017-18.
For 2022-23, 47.5 percent of male athletes and 41.2 percent of female athletes played multiple sports. Class D has enjoyed the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes over all five years of surveys, this time at 62.5 percent, followed by Class C (59.0), Class B (49.6) and Class A (36.9).
Similar results for overall sport participation and multi-sport participation relative to enrollment size were seen by further breaking down Class A into schools of fewer than 1,000 students, 1,000-1,500 students, 1,501-2,000 students and more than 2,000 students. For both sport participation as a whole and multi-sport participation specifically, the smallest Class A schools continued to enjoy the highest percentages, while percentages then decreased for every larger size group of schools. This has remained consistent over the last five surveys.
Since 2018-19, the survey also has shown a slight increase in three-sport athletes across all four Classes and overall with 12.6 percent of athletes at MHSAA member high schools playing at least that many in 2022-23.
In early 2016, the MHSAA appointed a Task Force on Multi-Sport Participation as part of a continued effort to promote and protect participant health and address the issues leading to early sport specialization. The annual Multi-Sport Participation Survey was among results of the task force’s work. The 2022-23 Multi-Sport Participation Survey received responses from 85.2 percent of member high schools, a few tenths more than in 2021-22 in setting a survey response record for the second-straight year. (No survey was conducted for 2019-20 as spring sports were canceled due to COVID-19.)
The MHSAA Task Force also recommended measuring multi-sport participation in MHSAA member schools to recognize “achievers” – that is, schools that surpass the norm given their enrollment and other factors that affect school sports participation.
Battle Creek Harper Creek, Detroit Cody and Grand Rapids Northview have appeared among the top 10 percent of their respective Classes four of the five years the survey has been conducted. Several more have appeared among the top 10 percent of their Classes three of the five years: Athens, Decatur, Detroit Douglass, East Grand Rapids, Gibraltar Carlson, Hamtramck, Hillsdale Academy, Holland Calvary, Kinross Maplewood Baptist, Livonia Franklin, Manton, Marquette, New Baltimore Anchor Bay, Ovid-Elsie, Parma Western, Warren Fitzgerald, Warren Lincoln and Warren Michigan Collegiate.
In Class A, Sterling Heights (85.7 percent) and Grand Rapids Union (84.0) posted the highest percentages of multi-sport athletes in 2022-23, with Livonia Franklin (73.1) and Battle Creek Harper Creek (71.3) also reaching 70 percent. In Class B, three schools achieved at least 80 percent multi-sport participation –Warren Michigan Collegiate (85.2), Detroit Cody (84.2) and Battle Creek Pennfield (81.5).
Class C saw eight schools reach 80 percent – Jackson Lumen Christi (92.5), Delton Kellogg (92.3), Decatur (86.2), Muskegon Western Michigan Christian (84.0), Indian River Inland Lakes (83.3), Detroit Crockett Midtown Science & Medicine (82.4), Martin (80.6) and LeRoy Pine River (80.0). Two Class D schools responded at higher than 90 percent multi-sport participation – Coldwater Pansophia Academy with 100 percent for the second-straight year and Carney-Nadeau (94.0) – followed by Brighton Livingston Christian (88.9), Carsonville-Port Sanilac (88.6) and Holland Calvary (87.0).
The full summary report on the Multi-Sport Participation Survey is available on the Multi-Sports Benefits page of MHSAA.com