MHSAA Teams with Sparrow Health
February 16, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Providing information and best practices to players, parents, coaches and administrators on how best to minimize health risks is a key component of keeping student-athletes safe. The Michigan High School Athletic Association has teamed with Sparrow Health System of Lansing to better inform its member schools on such health and safety matters.
Sparrow, a member of the prestigious Mayo Clinic Care Network, is mid-Michigan’s premier healthcare organization with more than 10,000 caregivers. Sparrow’s Sports Medicine division offers programs for athletes at all levels and includes primary care physicians, orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists and athletic and performance trainers.
Sparrow will lend its expertise through the MHSAA Website and on-site at various MHSAA tournament events. Resources from Sparrow staff, including information on current health and safety topics and trends, will be accessible online through the Health & Safety page of the MHSAA Website.
Sparrow’s contributions also will be promoted through the MHSAA’s multiple social media platforms. “This partnership is one of the biggest steps we’ve ever taken to build the MHSAA’s capacity to address the almost daily questions we receive about student-athlete health and wellness, and to sort out and solve the biggest issues of school sports safety,” said John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA.
A key component to Sparrow’s addition to the MHSAA Website is an “Ask the Experts” feature that connects users directly to Sparrow’s Sports Medicine staff. Sparrow also will set up booths at various MHSAA tournaments where staff will be available to answer similar questions and discuss sports medicine-related issues.
“Sparrow is thrilled to partner with the MHSAA,” said Stella Cash, Sparrow vice president for development and strategic partnerships. “We have the region’s pre-eminent primary care physicians trained in sports medicine who specialize in the prevention and treatment of sports-related injuries.
Parents and coaches can turn to us for all health-related issues and trust we are focused on transforming care to keep their high school athletes fit, healthy and in the game.”
Sparrow Health System includes hospitals in Lansing, St. Johns, Ionia and Carson City as well as Physicians Health Plan, Sparrow Physicians Health Network, the Sparrow Medical Group and the Michigan Athletic Club. Sparrow also is affiliated with Michigan State University’s three human health colleges.
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.
Brush Up on the New Transfer Rule
July 18, 2019
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
Eligibility under the new “sport-specific” transfer rule begins this coming fall after circulating extensively for nearly one school year.
Unless one of the stated 15 exceptions is met, participation during the 2018-19 school year determines eligibility for 2019-20.
The new rule adopted by the Representative Council at its May 2018 meeting has found support among most audiences. A transfer student’s eligibility in 2019-20 is based upon that student’s participation from this past school year (2018-19). It will be paramount for administrators and coaches to have awareness of the sports a transfer student participated in during the previous school year.
The long-standing 15 Exceptions to immediate eligibility, such as a full and complete residential change or a student moving between divorced parents by completing of an Educational Transfer Form, did not change.
One might call the rule on the way out “The Fourth-Friday Transfer Rule.” Under this old rule, when a student enrolled at the new school determined his or her eligibility. Under the new Sport Specific Transfer rule, what a student played in the previous season determines eligibility.
The Council passed a more lenient rule on the one hand and more restrictive on the other. The more lenient aspect is a change that finds a transfer student ELIGIBLE in any sport in which he or she did not participate in a game or a scrimmage in the previous school year.
The more restrictive portion tends to discourage students who change schools for sports reasons. A transfer student who did play a sport in the previous season – and who does not meet one of the 15 Exceptions – is NOT ELIGIBLE in that sport for the next season. If a student changes schools in mid-season, the student would be ineligible for the rest of that season in that sport and the next season for that sport.
Participation under this and other rules means playing in an interscholastic game or scrimmage after starting the 9th grade at any high school. It does not mean practice, but entering an interscholastic game, meet or scrimmage in any way. It also may involve more than one sport, so a three-sport athlete who does not have a residential change and transfers would be ineligible in those sports during the next school year – but eligible for any other sport. It also means a student cut from a team – one who never entered a scrimmage or game – may transfer and play without delay for that new school’s team. It may also mean that a student who meets one of the stated exceptions such as a residential change but enrolls in a school other than her or his school of residence, would have eligibility in sports not played in the previous year.
The new rule will tend to discourage students from changing schools for sports because they would be ineligible in any sport they have played in school the previous season for that sport. It will increase participation for some students who were otherwise not eligible under the current rule.
It is always best to contact school athletic directors who can connect with the MHSAA to verify eligibility prior to enrollment.
If the student’s new school requests in writing, the MHSAA Executive Committee may approve a waiver that reduces the period of ineligibility to 90 scheduled school days at the new school if the change of schools was for compelling reasons demonstrated with outside documentation having nothing to do with sports, curriculum, finances, and school demographics. The Executives Committee also has authority to approve immediate eligibility.