MHSAA Building Named for Retiring Director
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
June 26, 2018
To recognize 32 years of leadership and service to Michigan educational athletics, the MHSAA Representative Council has named its home office in East Lansing after longtime Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts, who will retire in August.
The dedication of the “John E. ‘Jack’ Roberts Building” was approved by the Council during its Spring Meeting, May 6-7 in Gaylord, with the fabrication and assembly of the lettering financed by several private donations.
The building, located at 1661 Ramblewood Drive in East Lansing, opened as headquarters for the Association on January 3, 1997. The 20,000-square-foot, two-story facility houses MHSAA staff offices and resources including a publications library, plus multiple conference spaces frequently used to host meetings not only for MHSAA business but by leagues, coaches associations and other groups joining people from across the state.
Roberts, who announced his retirement April 24, will conclude his tenure next month as the second-longest serving full-time executive director during the MHSAA’s 94-year history. He is the fourth person to serve that leadership role full time, following Charles E. Forsythe (1931-42, 1945-68), Allen W. Bush (1968-78) and Vern L. Norris (1978-86). Roberts currently is also the nation’s longest-serving executive director of a state high school athletic association.
“This is an entirely unexpected honor,” Roberts said, “and while I am proud of the building, I’m even prouder of the people who have worked in it.”
The metallic lettering announcing the building’s name was designed by Image360 of Brighton and placed on the façade at the center of the building below the large MHSAA logo facing the property’s parking lot.
John Peckham, then of Martin Property Development of East Lansing, oversaw the original Ramblewood project. The building was designed by Keystone Design and built by Granger Construction.
Prior to the move to its current offices, the MHSAA was housed at 1019 Trowbridge Road in East Lansing from 1976-96. The MHSAA moved to the Trowbridge location from a downtown Lansing office it had leased since 1958.
With his retirement upcoming, Roberts also will leave the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Board of Directors later this week during the Summer Meeting in Chicago. He also will conclude an extended term as board chairperson of the NFHS Network. Roberts previously served as an assistant director for the National Federation from 1973-80 and came to the MHSAA in the fall of 1986 from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which he served as executive vice president.
Assistant Director Mark Uyl was chosen by the Representative Council in May to succeed Roberts as MHSAA executive director.
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.
MHSAA Fall Practices to Begin with Common Start Date, Return of Traditional Schedules & Formats
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 6, 2021
Teams participating in all nine sports for which the Michigan High School Athletic Association sponsors postseason tournaments – featuring more than 100,000 student athletes statewide – will be allowed to begin practice Monday, Aug. 9, and with a return to traditional schedules and MHSAA Tournament formats after COVID-19 resulted in various adjustments for the Fall 2020 season.
Postseason competition in cross country, football, golf, tennis and swimming & diving will revert to their customary formats this season, with all fall sports scheduled based on their traditional calendars other than beginning practice with a common start date for the first time. At the time of this release, there are no COVID-19-related state-ordered restrictions regarding school sports, for either athletes or spectators, from either the MHSAA or the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services (MDHHS). County health departments and local school districts may institute restrictions for venues in their areas, and teams traveling to those schools and venues must follow local mandates.
For most of the MHSAA’s modern history, football teams had begun practice Monday of the first week of the preseason, followed by the rest of fall teams two days later. A 2019 rule change allowed a few more sports to begin on Monday, dependent on their Finals dates that fall. The common start date for all fall practices this season and annually moving forward was approved by the MHSAA Representative Council at its Spring Meeting in May and allows all teams to begin the 16th Monday before Thanksgiving.
Football teams still must have 12 days of preseason practice at all levels before their first game, over a period of 16 calendar days before the first kickoff, with the first varsity games this fall scheduled for Aug. 26 and the weekend of Aug. 27-28. Competition this fall may begin Aug. 16 for golf and tennis teams and Aug. 18 in cross country, soccer, volleyball and swimming & diving.
One of the most anticipated sport-related changes for Fall 2021 is the full implementation of the “enhanced strength-of-schedule” format for selecting the 256-team field for the 11-Player Football Playoffs. The new format eliminates automatic qualification based on win total and bases it solely on playoff-point average, which also is determined differently in that it now awards teams more for playing tougher schedules. (Click for a more detailed comparison of the previous and new formats.)
The new playoff-point formula was used in 2020 to seed teams at the District and Regional levels, but its use for qualification was put on hold as COVID-19 caused a one-season switch in playoff format that allowed all teams to qualify.
Additional rules changes in cross country, football, golf and tennis will be most noticeable this fall:
• Cross Country will provide an opportunity for more individual Finals qualifiers this season, as a minimum of seven individual qualifiers will advance from each Regional race. Previously, runners on teams that did not qualify as a whole could still advance to the Finals if they finished among the top 15 individuals at a Regional – but at some Regionals runners from the team qualifiers filled the great majority of those top 15 finishes. The seven individual qualifiers from each Regional this season will be the first seven finishers from teams that do not qualify as a whole, even if they finish outside of the top 15.
• Another football change continues the focus on minimizing injury risk, addressing blocking below the waist in the free-blocking zone (the rectangular area extending laterally four yards to either side of the snap and three behind the line of scrimmage). The new rule states a below-the-waist block in the free-blocking zone must occur as an immediate, initial action following the snap, instead of the previous rule which allowed an offensive lineman to delay and block below the waist as long as the ball was still in the zone.
• For Lower Peninsula girls golf, teams will be required to use the scoring platform iWanamaker also for the regular season, just as they were required to do so for MHSAA Tournament competition during the 2020-21 school year. The scoring platform is made available through the MHSAA Golf app, which was created and is operated by iWanamaker and allows golfers, coaches and fans to chart scoring in real time.
• In tennis, if a seeded player withdraws on the day of an MHSAA Regional or Final, all seeded players below that withdrawing player (including the provisional seed in that flight) will move up and be placed on the proper line for that new seed. (Non-seeded players drawn into the bracket will not be moved.)
The 2021 Fall campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls Tennis Finals during the final week of September and wraps up with the 11-Player Football Finals on Nov. 26 and 27. Here is a complete list of fall tournament dates:
Cross Country
U.P. Finals – Oct. 23
L.P. Regionals – Oct. 29 or 30
L.P. Finals – Nov. 6
11-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 24
Pre-Districts – Oct. 29 or 30
District Finals – Nov. 5 or 6
Regional Finals – Nov. 12 or 13
Semifinals – Nov. 20
Finals – Nov. 26-27
8-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 24
Regional Semifinals – Oct. 29 or 30
Regional Finals – Nov. 5 or 6
Semifinals – Nov. 13
Finals – Nov. 19 or 20
L.P. Girls Golf
Regionals – Oct. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9
Finals – Oct. 15-16
Soccer
Boys L.P. Districts – Oct. 13-23
Boys L.P. Regionals – Oct. 26-30
Boys L.P. Semifinals – Nov. 3 Boys
L.P. Finals – Nov. 6
L.P. Girls Swimming & Diving
Diving Regionals – Nov. 11
Swimming/Diving Finals – Nov. 19-20
Tennis
U.P. Girls Finals – Sept. 29, 30, Oct. 1, or 2
L.P. Boys Regionals – Oct. 6, 7, 8 or 9
L.P. Finals – Oct. 14-16
Girls Volleyball
Districts – Nov. 1-6
Regionals – Nov. 9 &11
Quarterfinals – Nov. 16
Semifinals – Nov. 18-19
Finals – Nov. 20
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.