MHSAA Suspends Fall, Winter Sports
November 15, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Michigan High School Athletic Association has suspended its Fall tournaments for girls volleyball, girls swimming & diving and football, and all winter practices and competitions scheduled to begin over the next three weeks per the emergency order to pause activity announced Sunday by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to limit the spread of COVID-19.
The volleyball and swimming & diving tournaments have one week remaining, with MHSAA Finals for both previously scheduled for Nov. 21. The 11 and 8-Player Football Playoffs also are nearing their conclusions, with the 8-player postseason two games from completion and 11-player down to its final three rounds.
Executive Director Mark Uyl:
“We understand the need for action, and we will explore all options to complete our Fall tournaments when restrictions are lifted. We will assess everything over the next three weeks relative to Fall and Winter sports and come up with a plan that keeps us connected to our goal, for months, of having three seasons that are played to their conclusions.”
Troy Athens' Winning Work Promotes Importance of Becoming MI HEARTSafe
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
July 22, 2022
Troy Athens, and more specifically its girls soccer team, has been selected as this year’s winner of the MI HEARTSafe School Video Contest promoting the importance of Michigan schools becoming an MI HEARTSafe school.
The Kimberly Anne Gillary Foundation partners with the MHSAA to promote cardiac awareness – and Athens’ student-produced video (above) earned the school $5,000.
Michigan has lost at least 81 students to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and related causes since 1999, according to data compiled by the Kimberly Anne Gillary Foundation. Randy and Sue Gillary lost their daughter Kimberly to a cardiac arrest in a high school water polo game in April of 2000. Randy and Sue Gillary founded the Kimberly Anne Gillary Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) charitable foundation within days of losing Kimberly. The mission of the Foundation is to donate automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to Michigan high schools and to advocate cardiac screening and testing of Michigan high school student athletes.
A major drive of the foundation is for every Michigan school to become an MI-HEARTSafe School. This is a designation given by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHSS) when a school has met the criteria to demonstrate it is prepared to respond to a cardiac emergency on school property. Schools receive a banner and other materials that can be displayed in the school to let those who attend and visit know that the school is an MI-HEARTSafe School.