Parade of Champions 2013-14

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

June 18, 2014

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

A total of 99 schools won one or more of the 127 team Finals championships awarded by the Michigan High School Athletic Association during the 2013-14 school year – with six programs winning the first MHSAA team titles in any sport for their respective schools.

The Detroit Consortium boys basketball, Jonesville boys bowling, Croswell-Lexington girls bowling, Bark River-Harris girls golf, Farmington ice hockey and Ann Arbor Skyline boys soccer teams all brought home the first MHSAA team championships in their schools’ histories.

For the second straight school year, a total of 33 teams won their first MHSAA titles. A total of 40 champions were repeat winners from 2012-13 – and 25 of those won for at least the third straight season. The Birmingham Brother Rice boys lacrosse team has the longest title streak of 10 seasons, while the Battle Creek St. Philip volleyball team has won eight straight titles for the second-longest streak overall and longest among girls programs.

Marquette claimed the most championships, six, winning in Division 1 boys skiing, Upper Peninsula Division 1 boys cross country and girls cross country, Upper Peninsula boys swimming and diving and girls swimming and diving, and Upper Peninsula Division 1 girls track and field. Five schools won three titles apiece: Brother Rice, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood, Birmingham Seaholm, Detroit Country Day and East Grand Rapids.

Sixteen of the MHSAA's 28 championship tournaments are unified, involving teams from the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, while separate competition to determine titlists in both Peninsulas is conducted in remaining sports.

For a sport-by-sport listing of MHSAA champions for 2013-14 - Click Here (PDF)

PHOTO: The Battle Creek St. Philip volleyball team celebrates at Kellogg Arena after winning its eighth straight Class D championship in November. 

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.