Rep Council Wrap-Up: Fall 2017
December 7, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
A change in format for the Michigan High School Athletic Association Baseball Tournament was among notable actions taken by the Representative Council during its annual Fall Meeting, Dec. 1 in East Lansing, in addition to MHSAA basketball schedule changes for 2018-19 announced in a previous release Dec. 4.
Beginning with the 2019 tournament, baseball will move from its current one-day Saturday Regional and Quarterfinal the following Tuesday to a two-day “Super Regional” format. The Super Regional will begin with a Regional Semifinal on the Wednesday following District Finals, followed by two Regional Finals at the same site on Saturday. The winners of those two Regional Finals will then meet that same Saturday in a Super Regional championship game, with Super Regional winners then moving on directly to MHSAA Semifinals the following Thursday and Friday.
Both Regional champions will continue to receive trophies. No trophy will be awarded for the Super Regional champion. The MHSAA Softball Tournament, which runs concurrently with baseball’s event, will continue with the traditional schedule of Saturday Regionals followed by Tuesday Quarterfinals and then Semifinals and Finals the final weekend of the season.
The change for baseball is intended to provide teams more opportunities to use their top pitchers in the most meaningful games of the season, and was proposed by the MHSAA Baseball Committee prior to the Representative Council’s May 2017 meeting. However, the proposal was tabled at that time to give MHSAA staff an opportunity to observe how a new pitch-count rule – mandated to begin with the 2017 season by the National Federation of State High School Associations – might figure into possible changes to the tournament schedule.
The Council also took action in 8-player football, following up its decisions at earlier 2017 meetings to add a second division of playoffs and play this past season’s Finals at the Superior Dome in Marquette.
The Council’s latest actions dealt with schools’ eligibility to compete in the postseason. The Council voted to continue using the maximum enrollment for a Class D school as the limit to participate in the MHSAA 8-Player Football Playoffs. However, the Council also approved an allowance for schools that sponsored 8-player with a Class D enrollment one year to remain eligible for the 8-Player Playoffs the next year even if the school’s enrollment rises above the Class D limit. That allowance lasts only one year; the school’s enrollment must fall back below the Class D limit after for it to remain eligible for the 8-player postseason.
Generally, the Council takes only a few actions during its Fall Meeting, with topics often introduced for additional consideration and actions during its meetings in winter and spring.
The Council began conversation on a possible MHSAA role providing assistance to schools for scheduling regular-season football games, a task often cited as among the most difficult for administrators and especially those whose programs are among the most successful. The Council considered approaches used in other states and two options of what could be done to assist MHSAA member schools. A trial run paper study will be conducted for scheduling 8-player football for the 2018 season, distributed to Class D 8-player schools in April. The study will consider an option where schools would be split into two equal divisions, then four regions per division, from which each school would then schedule seven of its nine games for the upcoming season while leaving the other two dates open to play schools from other regions, the other division or other states.
Following up its request of staff at the May meeting to conduct a review of the MHSAA transfer rule, the Council discussed possible revisions to the rule that would make it sport-specific. The changes would allow for immediate eligibility for a transfer student in sports he or she had not participated in at the high school level prior to the transfer – which is more lenient than the current rule – but also stipulate a one-year period of ineligibility in those sports the transfer student had played in at the high school level during the school year prior to transferring, which is a longer period of ineligibility than currently required. The possibility of a sport-specific transfer rule has been discussed at league meetings and athletic director in-service and MHSAA UPDATE meetings over the last six months and will continue to be discussed at multiple venues this winter including the League Leadership meeting and Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association conference, with a possible Council vote at its 2018 March or May meetings.
The Council as well continued its recent work on junior high/middle school athletics, examining survey results and other discussion on the possibility of allowing athletes in any sport except football to participate in a maximum of two non-school events during the school season in that sport, after tabling in May a Junior High/Middle School Committee recommendation to approve that proposal. The Council also discussed increasing the number of contests allowed each season and adding more MHSAA sponsored events at the junior high/middle school level, with action on all three topics possible in March or May.
In addition, the Council discussed the potential for beginning volleyball season two days earlier and also ending it seven days earlier, supported by 90 percent of athletic directors who responded to a survey on the topic but opposed by the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association; and continued an ongoing discussion of options for potentially seeding basketball at the District level. The Council also began discourse on the process for identifying potential athletic programs and additional student populations the MHSAA could serve during the decade ahead.
The Fall Meeting saw the addition of Justin Jennings, superintendent for Muskegon Public Schools, to the 19-person Council. He was appointed to a two-year term. Jennings fills the position formerly held by Cheri Meier, assistant superintendent for Okemos Public Schools, whose term ended. Also, Courtney Hawkins, athletic director at Flint Beecher High School, was re-appointed for a second two-year term.
The Council re-elected Scott Grimes, assistant superintendent of human services for Grand Haven Area Public Schools, as its president; and Vic Michaels, director of physical education and athletics for the Archdiocese of Detroit, as secretary-treasurer. Saginaw Heritage athletic director Pete Ryan was elected as vice president.
The Representative Council is the legislative body of the MHSAA. All but five members are elected by member schools. Four members are appointed by the Council to facilitate representation of females and minorities, and the 19th position is occupied by the Superintendent of Public Instruction or designee.
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.
From the Director: Back to School
August 7, 2020
By Mark Uyl
MHSAA Executive Director
Since March 12, our world has been anything but normal. These times have tested most everything in life, and as summer turns toward fall, we find ourselves still with far more questions than answers. It has been said that an abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.
Let me start with these abnormal times. I’ve had many conversations with administrators over the past month about the start of school and school sports. The one constant theme is these are anything but normal times. Many of these conversations have moved to the issue of schools starting the academic year virtually while considering whether or not to offer school sports opportunities this fall. Let me share the things that have been part of almost all conversations on this topic.
The loudest message I hear is kids are going to be playing sports this fall someplace. Period. If we believe that kids are going to take the fall off if school sports aren’t offered, we haven’t been paying much attention since May. Since that time, athletic activity has taken place in the club, travel, AAU and non-school space nearly every day. From first-hand experience, many of these events have implemented ZERO of the safety standards and protocols that businesses and schools have adopted for their plans of return. The non-school world generally has plowed ahead this summer with few-to-no rules, regulations, enforcement, oversight and accountability to anyone. If kids are going to be playing sports, our member schools are telling us that activity needs to be in the safest environment possible – which is with professional educators and trained coaches in our school sports world.
Schools are quick to point out that kids have been conditioning and training with school coaches in school-sponsored workouts most of the summer. We believe that the absence of virus outbreaks among our 749 high schools’ summer activities, involving thousands of kids, has been because schools have been following the return-to-activity plans. Districts have told us they can continue doing what they’ve been doing safely since June by following all COVID guidance and regulations we have put in place with government’s leadership and partnership.
Schools starting the year virtually are telling us they will use the lessons learned from the start of sports for when students return to campus later in the fall. School administrators have shared this view privately as this has become a highly-charged topic among various groups within our school communities. Sports allow schools to bring students back to campus in small, consistent and defined groups with the same adults working with those students each day. In school sports, there is little mixing of students from one sport with those students in another – making it much easier to monitor, track and trace kids when needed than if all students were in the buildings, hallways and classrooms all day. We hear from administrators that valuable lessons can be learned with athletics in August and September for a successful school start-up with students back on campus in October.
All of us share the fundamental belief that we must protect the health and safety of individuals first. This doesn’t include only COVID prevention measures, but also the mental health of teenage students and adults as well. In districts that are starting the school year online, they see athletics being the one shred of normalcy students, and staff members who choose to coach, will have during the fall. It’s a chance to safely interact with peers and get needed physical activity that hasn’t been happening for some kids since March. Health and safety has to include all facets of the individual, and more research is being shared each day about how mental health is becoming a critical issue. For many at-risk kids, sports is the one motivating factor to keep them in school and progressing toward graduation. Given the challenges of all online education for these at-risk kids, sports and the daily routine they bring perhaps would be more important for this group of students than ever before.
With no school sports, the affluent communities and families can navigate online learning during the day and then afford the non-school athletic opportunities that kids and families in less-affluent areas simply cannot. In many communities, school sports can provide opportunities and open doors that would not appear if kids become priced-out from participating and competing.
The past five months have been the most abnormal in a century. School sports being the one pathway back to school for students in our state – the one norm for this fall – run by professional educators who put kids first, would be an incredible boost to the physical and mental health of all of us. We believe that school sports can be done safely and smartly, and the MHSAA has developed plans that do just that. While the optics of sports taking place while waiting for in-person education is not what any of us prefer, we believe we must react to these abnormal times by thinking differently and looking at these unique times through a unique lens.
Trying to find one normal for our kids in these abnormal school days might just be the best thing we can do.