Rep Council Wrap-up: Spring 2014
May 15, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
More tools to assist administrators in managing student transfers, including stiffer penalties for students switching schools for athletic-related reasons and for adults influencing those decisions, highlighted actions taken by the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association during its annual Spring Meeting, May 4-5, in Gaylord.
The Spring Meeting of the 19-member legislative body of the Association’s more than 1,500 member schools is generally the busiest of its three sessions each year. The Council considered 17 committee proposals and also dealt with a variety of eligibility rule, postseason tournament and operational issues.
The Council built on changes to the MHSAA transfer regulation adopted at its 2013 Spring Meeting that increased the period of ineligibility to 180 days for a student making an athletic-related transfer, detailing more activities – centered on athletes following their non-school coach to a new school – that would lead automatically to the longer period of ineligibility even if not reported by the school losing the student.
Most notably, the maximum penalty of ineligibility for students and suspension for coaches partaking in undue influence was increased from up to one year to up to four years.
When a transfer is the result of parents’ divorce, or follows a student’s 18th birthday or enrollment as a residential student in a bona fide boarding school, school administrators will be required to attest on the MHSAA’s Educational Transfer Form that the transfer is not significantly related to or motivated by athletics.
These changes to the transfer regulation go into effect for the 2014-15 school year and come in addition to changes adopted at the Council’s Winter Meeting in March, addressing the increase of international students enrolling in MHSAA member schools outside traditional foreign exchange programs.
Beginning this fall, international students on either F-1 or J-1 visas, in order to be immediately eligible for athletics, must meet a residential exception or have been placed in a school through an Approved International Student Program (accepted for listing by the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel {CSIET} and approved by the MHSAA). International students placed through an Approved International Student Program will be immediately eligible for a maximum of the first two consecutive semesters or three consecutive trimesters at any secondary school in the United States, after which the student is ineligible for interscholastic athletic competition at any MHSAA member school for the next academic year. International students who do not meet one of the residency exceptions recognized by the MHSAA or are not enrolled through an Approved International Student Program may become eligible to participate at the subvarsity level only. Incoming freshman international students no longer will be automatically eligible.
Here is a summary of other actions taken by the Representative Council at the Spring Meeting which will take effect during the 2014-15 school year:
- In cases of serious injury or extended illness, including concussion or suspected concussion and symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest, students may be re-examined not only by a physician (MD or DO) but also a physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner. All may provide the written release necessary for an athlete to return to practice or competition. Previously, only physicians held that authority.
- Students who have completed their 12th-grade season in a sport may participate in one all-star contest in that sport, subject to specific conditions, without losing their remaining interscholastic eligibility in other sports. However, participation in a prohibited or second all-star event in that same sport will result in a loss of eligibility in all sports for up to one year
- Illinois was added to adjacent states Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin, and Ontario, that do not fall under the mileage limitation for interstate competition. MHSAA member schools are not allowed to compete in any interstate meet, contest or scrimmage which involves travel of more than 600 highway miles round-trip for any participating team, unless those teams are only from Michigan and one or more of these contiguous states/provinces.
Sport Matters
- In baseball and softball, school uniforms may be worn by graduated seniors (with no remaining eligibility) who are selected to participate in all-star games conducted directly by the Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association and Michigan High School Softball Coaches Association.
- In football, during subvarsity contests, the clock will start on the official’s ready-to-play signal rather than the snap following a change of possession.
- In girls lacrosse, a student or team is allowed to participate in a multi-team tournament in which the total allowable playing time for any team is no more than 150 running minutes (current total is 120 minutes) with no more than 25-minute running-time halves. This event will count as one of 18 regular-season contests.
- In girls and boys swimming and diving, dates of the Lower Peninsula Diving Regionals have been moved from Tuesday of the week of Finals meets to Thursday prior to Finals weeks.
Operations
- Ticket price increases from $7 to $8 were adopted for the following sports and MHSAA Tournament rounds: Baseball and Softball Semifinals and Finals, Bowling Finals (Team on Friday and Singles on Saturday), Girls Competitive Cheer (Friday and Saturday sessions), Girls Gymnastics Finals (Team on Friday and Individual on Saturday), Boys and Girls Lacrosse Finals, Boys and Girls Soccer Finals, Boys and Girls Track & Field Finals, Team Wrestling Semifinals and Finals and Girls Volleyball Finals. The cost of the three-session Team Wrestling Tournament pass was increased from $15 to $18, and ticket costs for three Ice Hockey rounds also were increased – Quarterfinals tickets from $5 to $6, Semifinals tickets from $6 to $8 and Finals tickets from $7 to $10, with the Semifinal and Final 6-session passes increased from $25 to $35. However, the 2014-15 school year will mark the 12th consecutive with no increases in MHSAA Regional tournament ticket prices for football and boys and girls basketball and the 11th consecutive year without increases at the District level of those tournaments. Tickets for both levels of all three sports will remain $5.
The Council also reviewed reports on membership, with 752 senior high schools and 725 junior high/middle schools in 2013-14; eligibility advancement applications, which totaled 14 for the year; the use of Educational Transfer Forms, which dropped 20 percent this year; school violations, attendance at athletic director and coaches in-service workshops, officials’ registrations, rules meetings attendance and officials reports submitted for the past three sports seasons. The Association’s $10.1 million budget for the 2014-15 school year also was approved.
The Representative Council is the 19-member 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.
Jacques to Receive Forsythe Award for Local Leadership, Peninsula & Statewide Service
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
February 1, 2024
Serving as athletic director at Michigan’s northernmost high school, Calumet’s Sean Jacques has impacted student-athletes not only in his community, but across the Upper Peninsula and all the way to the state’s southern borders as a member of the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Representative Council. To recognize his far-reaching contributions across several leadership roles, Jacques has been selected as the 2024 honoree for the MHSAA’s Charles E. Forsythe Lifetime Achievement Award.
The annual award is in its 47th year and named after former MHSAA Executive Director Charles E. Forsythe, the Association's first full-time and longest-serving chief executive. Forsythe Award recipients are selected each year by the MHSAA Representative Council, based on an individual's outstanding contributions to the interscholastic athletics community at the local, regional and statewide levels. Jacques will be honored during the MHSAA Girls Basketball Finals on March 23 at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.
A 1985 graduate of Calumet, Jacques taught for one year at Lansing Everett before returning to his alma mater in 1992, when he began teaching primarily technology and metal shop until becoming the athletic director and an assistant principal in 2008. He served in those administrative roles through the end of the 2021-22 school year and currently is an instructor for the Calumet-Laurium-Keweenaw school district’s Upper Peninsula Virtual Academy.
During his tenure as athletic director, Calumet added junior varsity hockey, junior varsity and varsity softball, and varsity baseball, bowling and gymnastics teams. He led facility upgrades including the addition of a turf football field, new locker rooms and an additional gymnasium, creating a home not only for Copper Kings athletes and coaches but for those from all over the northern UP as Calumet is a frequent host of MHSAA District and Regional events plus Coaching Advancement Program (CAP) sessions.
Also under his direction, Calumet became the first Upper Peninsula school to join the MHSAA School Broadcast Program, and he created the high school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2016, Calumet became the only Upper Peninsula school to earn the prestigious Michigan Exemplary Athletic Program honor from the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA).
“When I became athletic director, my goal was number one, we were going to run a classy program. We were going to do it right. We weren’t going to be lazy about anything, not take the easy road. I wanted to do right for the kids, the school district and the community,” Jacques said. “We went after a lot of different things. It’s very cliché, but we really did try to put kids first. Every decision we made, we always tried to make decisions with that in mind – what’s best for the kids – and worked hard to be innovative and try to run a quality, classy program.”
His impact hardly has been contained to the Keweenaw Peninsula. He served as president of both the Keweenaw Area Athletic Directors group and Upper Peninsula Athletic Directors Association from 2014-22, in addition to serving as commissioner for the Western Peninsula Athletic Conference from 2012-22 and the Great Lakes Hockey Conference from 2009-22. He began his tenure on the Upper Peninsula Athletic Committee in 2014, when he also was first elected to the MHSAA Representative Council as the delegate for Class C and D schools in the Upper Peninsula. He is serving on the MHSAA’s Audit and Finance Committee currently, and will conclude his tenure on Council in December.
Jacques also served as an MIAAA regional representative for more than a decade and was named Regional Athletic Director of the Year by the MIAAA in 2013 and 2016. The Upper Peninsula Athletic Directors Association named him its Upper Peninsula Athletic Director of the Year in 2019.
Jacques also currently is among eight mentors to new athletic administrators across the state as part of the MHSAA’s first-year AD Connection Program. In this role, Jacques directly works with 16 recently-hired athletic directors as they navigate the job’s many and various responsibilities.
“Sean Jacques brings knowledge of so many aspects of school sports, not only the work done day-to-day as an athletic director but as an innovator who developed an athletic department recognized and respected across the state,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “His community, the Upper Peninsula and Michigan as a whole continue to benefit from his dedication and leadership – and we’re fortunate he’s sharing that expertise with the next generation of athletic directors as part of our mentorship program.”
Jacques has contributed nearly as significantly on the field of play. He has been an MHSAA registered official for 35 years, in hockey for the entirety and adding track & field in 1994-95 and cross country in 2009-10. He officiated at the MHSAA Hockey Finals in 2016 and has served as a board member for the Copper Country Hockey Officials Association, including as its scheduler for 14 years. He has 40 years as a registered official with USA Hockey, serving as officiating supervisor for the Michigan Amateur Hockey Association (MAHA) for 20 years and as Michigan’s referee-in-chief from 2006-15, and he was a member of USA Hockey’s national instructor staff from 1997-2019. An accomplished college official as well, he worked in that capacity for more than 25 seasons, including 15 at the Division I level in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) and Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA).
His time at Calumet has included stepping into many more roles to help provide student-athletes with the fullest possible experience. He served as public address announcer for football for 16 seasons and Calumet hockey for more than a decade. He also lent his voice to radio broadcasts for Calumet volleyball and coached freshman football at the school for two seasons.
Jacques has served on the boards for the Calumet Hockey Association, Calumet All-Sports Booster Club and Calumet High School Band Parents Club, the latter two as treasurer. He remains president of the Hall of Fame board.
“I’m a Calumet grad, and when you’re the athletic director at the school you’re from, I think it’s something a little bit different,” Jacques said. “You bleed the school colors and put that extra effort in because it’s home.”
Jacques played football as a student at Calumet and served as the hockey team’s student equipment manager as a senior. He earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial education in 1989 from Northern Michigan University, and then a master’s in educational administration from NMU in 2000. He received his certified master athletic administrator (CMAA) designation in 2020 from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) – becoming the only Upper Peninsula athletic director to achieve that accomplishment.
Jacques also has served his community as a volunteer firefighter since 1991 and as assistant fire chief since 1998.
Past recipients
1978 - Brick Fowler, Port Huron; Paul Smarks, Warren
1979 - Earl Messner, Reed City; Howard Beatty, Saginaw
1980 - Max Carey, Freesoil
1981 - Steven Sluka, Grand Haven; Samuel Madden, Detroit
1982 - Ernest Buckholz, Mt. Clemens; T. Arthur Treloar, Petoskey
1983 - Leroy Dues, Detroit; Richard Maher, Sturgis
1984 - William Hart, Marquette; Donald Stamats, Caro
1985 - John Cotton, Farmington; Robert James, Warren
1986 - William Robinson, Detroit; Irving Soderland, Norway
1987 - Jack Streidl, Plainwell; Wayne Hellenga, Decatur
1988 - Jack Johnson, Dearborn; Alan Williams, North Adams
1989 - Walter Bazylewicz, Berkley; Dennis Kiley, Jackson
1990 - Webster Morrison, Pickford; Herbert Quade, Benton Harbor
1991 - Clifford Buckmaster, Petoskey; Donald Domke, Northville
1992 - William Maskill, Kalamazoo; Thomas G. McShannock, Muskegon
1993 - Roy A. Allen Jr., Detroit; John Duncan, Cedarville
1994 - Kermit Ambrose, Royal Oak
1995 - Bob Perry, Lowell
1996 - Charles H. Jones, Royal Oak
1997 - Michael A. Foster, Richland; Robert G. Grimes, Battle Creek
1998 - Lofton C. Greene, River Rouge; Joseph J. Todey, Essexville
1999 - Bernie Larson, Battle Creek
2000 - Blake Hagman, Kalamazoo; Jerry Cvengros, Escanaba
2001 - Norm Johnson, Bangor; George Lovich, Canton
2002 - John Fundukian, Novi
2003 - Ken Semelsberger, Port Huron
2004 - Marco Marcet, Frankenmuth
2005 - Jim Feldkamp, Troy
2006 - Dan McShannock, Midland; Dail Prucka, Monroe
2007 - Keith Eldred, Williamston; Tom Hickman, Spring Lake
2008 - Jamie Gent, Haslett; William Newkirk, Sanford Meridian
2009 - Paul Ellinger, Cheboygan
2010 - Rudy Godefroidt, Hemlock; Mike Boyd, Waterford
2011 - Eric C. Federico, Trenton
2012 - Bill Mick, Midland
2013 - Jim Gilmore, Tecumseh; Dave Hutton, Grandville
2014 - Dan Flynn, Escanaba
2015 - Hugh Matson, Saginaw
2016 - Gary Hice, Petoskey; Gina Mazzolini, Lansing
2017 - Chuck Nurek, Rochester Hills
2018 - Gary Ellis, Allegan
2019 - Jim Derocher, Negaunee; Fredrick J. Smith, Stevensville
2020 - Michael Garvey, Lawton
2021 - Leroy Hackley Jr., Byron Center; Patti Tibaldi, Traverse City
2022 - Bruce Horsch, Houghton
2023 - Karen Leinaar, Frankfort
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.
PHOTO Calumet athletic director Sean Jacques, second from left, presents the Class C girls basketball championship trophy to Copper Kings coach Jeff Twardzik in 2015.