MHSAA Fall Practices to Begin with Nearly 95,000 Athletes, Notable Rules Changes
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 5, 2022
Nearly 95,000 athletes statewide are anticipated to begin practices Monday, Aug. 8, kicking off the Fall 2022 season across nine sports for which the Michigan High School Athletic Association sponsors postseason tournaments.
Teams in girls and boys cross country, football, Lower Peninsula girls golf, boys soccer, Lower Peninsula girls swimming & diving, Upper Peninsula girls tennis and Lower Peninsula boys tennis, and girls volleyball may begin practice Monday. Competition begins Aug. 15 for golf and tennis, Aug. 17 for cross country, soccer, swimming & diving and volleyball, and Aug. 25 for varsity football. Football teams at all levels must have 12 days of preseason practice – over a period of 16 calendar days – before their first game.
The beginning of a school year always is accompanied by at least a handful of notable playing rules changes or adjustments regarding MHSAA Tournament competition. Among the most noteworthy this fall will be the addition of a “third half” rule in soccer, which will allow an athlete to play in a combined three halves across two matches and multiple levels (varsity, junior varsity, freshman) on the same day, any day of the week. This is similar to the fifth-quarter rules in football and basketball approved in recent years to help programs with low athlete numbers still have enough to continue fielding teams at multiple levels – generally with underclassmen playing on multiple teams to keep rosters filled.
There is also an enhanced penalty beginning this fall for violating the fifth-quarter or third-half rules: Violators must forfeit the contest during which the violation took place (either varsity or subvarsity), and that head coach in violation will be ineligible for the next day of competition.
The change to a playing rule most likely to be noticed by spectators comes in football, where intentional grounding has been adjusted to allow for a passer to throw an incomplete forward pass to conserve yardage – in essence, to throw the ball away to avoid being tackled for a loss, even when a receiver isn’t present near the pass’s destination – if the passer is outside the free-blocking zone, or “pocket,” and as long as the pass reaches the line of scrimmage or extension of the neutral zone beyond the sideline. This change makes the high school intentional grounding rule mirror those at the collegiate and professional levels, and was made to conserve the amount of contact by defensive players with passers.
A second football rule change also was made with safety in mind, as the chop block – which is illegal – was redefined to include any combination block by multiple teammates against the same opponent where one of the blocks is above the waist and the other is below the waist. Previously, the knee (instead of the waist) was the determining factor on a chop block. This change also is expected to assist officials in enforcing the rule because deciding if blocks occur above and below the waist is more straightforward than using the knee to decide if an infraction occurred.
Another football rule change will be noticeable during the MHSAA 11-Player Finals, as head coaches for the first time will be allowed one challenge per game, with the play in question then reviewed with video replay. The challenge will cost that team a timeout if the original outcome is confirmed. Coaches will be allowed to challenge the following: complete/incomplete passes, if a runner/receiver was in/out of bounds, a runner who is ruled not down, the forward progress spot as it relates to the yard to gain, which player first touched a kick, the recovery of a ball in/out of bounds, if a pass was forward or backward, and penalties for illegal forward pass, targeting or illegal helmet contact, and pass interference only as it relates to the pass being previously tipped. All potential scores and turnovers will remain automatically reviewed by replay booth officials.
Three more notable rules changes for fall sports also affect MHSAA Tournament competition.
There is a new qualification process for divers seeking to advance to Lower Peninsula Finals. In each of the three divisions, each Regional will be guaranteed 10 qualifiers for the Finals, with six more “floating” qualifier entries to be distributed to the Regionals that have one of the previous year’s top six returning Finals divers in their fields. If a team changes division from the previous season, any floating top-six spots are added to the six already allowed in the school’s new division.
In golf, the maximum number of strokes allowed per hole during MHSAA Tournament play has been reduced from 12 to 10. Also, teams will be allowed two school-approved coaches to be present and actively coaching during postseason rounds.
In tennis, the number of players who may be seeded at No. 1 singles was increased to seven if there are between 21-23 players in the field, and eight if the field includes 24 or more players at that flight. The No. 1 singles flight is the only flight that allows for individual qualifiers from Regional play, often making it larger than the other seven flights at the Finals.
The 2022 Fall campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls Tennis Finals during the week of Sept. 26 and wraps up with the 11-Player Football Finals on Nov. 25 and 26. Here is a complete list of fall tournament dates:
Cross Country
U.P. Finals – Oct. 22
L.P. Regionals – Oct. 28 or 29
L.P. Finals – Nov. 5
11-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 23
Pre-Districts – Oct. 28 or 29
District Finals – Nov. 4 or 5
Regional Finals – Nov. 11 or 12
Semifinals – Nov. 19
Finals – Nov. 25-26
8-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 23
Regional Semifinals – Oct. 28 or 29
Regional Finals – Nov. 4 or 5
Semifinals – Nov. 12
Finals – Nov. 18 or 19
L.P. Girls Golf
Regionals – Oct. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8
Finals – Oct. 14-15
Soccer
L.P. Boys Districts – Oct. 12-22
L.P. Boys Regionals – Oct. 25-29
L.P. Boys Semifinals – Nov. 2
L.P. Boys Finals – Nov. 5
L.P. Girls Swimming & Diving
Diving Regionals – Nov. 10
Swimming/Diving Finals – Nov. 18-19
Tennis
U.P. Girls Finals – Sept. 28, 29, 30 or Oct. 1
L.P. Boys Regionals – Oct. 5, 6, 7 or 8
L.P. Boys Finals – Oct. 13-15
Girls Volleyball
Districts – Oct. 31-Nov. 5
Regionals – Nov. 8 & 10
Quarterfinals – Nov. 15
Semifinals – Nov. 17-18
Finals – Nov. 19
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,400 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 Remembers Late Director Norris
February 12, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Jack Roberts always was astonished at the amount of detail his predecessor Vern Norris could recall about the people he’d met over many years contributing to high school athletics at the state and national levels.
When the Michigan High School Athletic Association executive director last spoke with his predecessor, Norris had been in contact with past counterparts from Kansas, Iowa and the National Federation – although Norris had retired from the MHSAA more than three decades ago.
“He was genuinely interested in people and their backgrounds and their families,” Roberts said. “He had good friends. He was good at being a friend, and colleague. I think he genuinely cared about relationships between people.”
And he built many over 23 years at the MHSAA office.
Norris, who led the MHSAA from the fall of 1978 through the summer of 1986, died early Monday morning in Lansing. He was 89.
Norris joined the MHSAA staff on July 15, 1963, as Assistant State Director of Athletics under longtime Executive Director Charles E. Forsythe and then-Associate Director Allen W. Bush. Norris was promoted to Associate Director when Bush was appointed Executive Director in 1968, then took over as Executive Director upon Bush’s retirement in 1978. Forsythe, Bush, Norris and Roberts are the only full-time executive directors to serve during the MHSAA’s 94-year history.
Norris brought to the MHSAA a wealth of experience having coached at Traverse City, Rockford and Hillsdale high schools. He served as Assistant Director of Placement at Western Michigan University for the five years prior to joining the MHSAA staff, and during that time Norris built a reputation as a highly-regarded game official in the Kalamazoo area – and worked as a referee during the 1963 MHSAA Class A Boys Basketball Final.
Norris served on a number of national rules-making bodies during his 23-year tenure with the MHSAA, and as president of the Executive Board of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) during the 1983-84 school year. But he was best known for his work with Michigan’s coaches and especially officials. An award bearing Norris’ name is presented by the MHSAA each spring to a veteran official who has been active in a local officials association, has mentored other officials, and has been involved in officials’ education. The award has been given since 1992 at the annual Officials’ Awards & Alumni Banquet, which was begun during Norris’ tenure in 1980.
“Vern was respected and admired widely by contest officials, and it was because of that that I asked the Representative Council to approve an award for leaders who were especially involved in mentoring and training officials,” said Roberts, who succeeded Norris in 1986. “A total of 26 officials have received the Norris Award, and more than 10,000 officials have been honored at our annual banquet recognizing a group of contributors especially close to his heart.”
Norris shepherded a number of key advances during his tenures both as associate and executive director. The early 1970s saw the addition of MHSAA tournament events in girls sports, and football playoffs were added in 1975. Membership also grew during his time with the association; the MHSAA had 682 member high schools at the start of 1963-64, and 713 when Norris stepped down.
During his time at the MHSAA, Norris also served as a member of the NFHS Basketball Rules Committee from 1978-82, on the NFHS Constitution Revision Committee in 1979 and as a member of the editorial staff of the NFHS Rules Committee from 1980-82.
He served on the NFHS Executive Board representing Michigan’s section of five Midwestern states during a four-year term that concluded with his year as president, and he also served as chairperson of the NFHS Telecommunications Committee in 1972.
After leaving the MHSAA, Norris served as Commissioner of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference from fall of 1987 through the close of the 1991-92 school year.
In retirement, Norris kept in touch with MHSAA staff. He and Roberts spoke every few months throughout the years. And, “he could not have been more gracious when he retired and I was hired. He gave me total support and just the right amount of advice,” Roberts added.
When Norris announced he was leaving the MHSAA early in 1986, then-Lansing State Journal Prep Editor Bob Gross wrote “his integrity is beyond question. He has never shown favoritism to a school, and he has never bent the rules. It’s always been strictly business, exactly what it should be. … That’s why I liked Vern Norris so much. He has always been fair.”
A graduate of Grand Rapids Godwin Heights High School, Norris earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from Western Michigan University and a master’s in school administration from the University of Michigan.
In addition to his MHSAA and NFHS work, Norris served as a football or basketball rules clinician in various states and multiple provinces of Canada, and served on amateur basketball’s rules-making body at the time – the National Basketball Committee of the United States and Canada – from 1972-76. He contributed during the late 1960s and 1970s on the National Alliance Basketball Advisory and National Alliance Football Rules committees. Norris also served on the United States Olympic Committee’s House of Delegates in 1985.
A Service of Coronation will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lansing, with family receiving friends from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. Thursday at Estes-Leadley Greater Lansing Chapel and at 10 a.m. Friday at the church.
PHOTOS: (Top) Then-Associate Director Vern Norris and Executive Director Al Bush hold up trophies to be awarded at the 1974 Boys Basketball Finals. (Middle) Bush, Charles E. Forsythe and Norris. (Below) Bush, current Executive Director Jack Roberts and Norris in 1988.