Rep Council Wrap-up: Winter 2014
March 24, 2014
The addition of a training requirement for first-time high school varsity coaches and football practice policy changes focused on player safety highlighted actions taken by the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association during its annual Winter Meeting on March 21 in East Lansing.
Raising expectations for coaches’ preparedness is one of four current thrusts of the MHSAA’s ongoing focus on health and safety issues in school sports. The Council voted to require every individual hired for the first time as a varsity head coach at an MHSAA member high school after July 31, 2016 to have completed the MHSAA’s Coaches Advancement Program (CAP) Level 1 or Level 2. CAP is a six-level MHSAA-administered educational regimen that aids coaches in their growth and development as they advance in the field of educational athletics.
This is the third action the Council has approved over the last year to enhance the preparation of coaches with respect to health and safety issues. The first action, adopted in May 2013, requires all assistant and subvarsity coaches at the high school level to complete the same rules and risk minimization meeting requirement as high school varsity head coaches beginning with the 2014-15 school year. The second, adopted during the Fall Meeting in December, requires all varsity high school head coaches have a current CPR certification beginning with the 2015-16 school year.
By adopting a series of football changes, the Council also advanced a thrust toward revising practice policies and game rules to improve player safety in all sports. The practice policy changes were proposed by a Football Task Force made up of coaches, administrators and MHSAA staff which met throughout 2013. The following were approved by the Council:
- During the first week of practice of the season, only helmets are allowed the first two days, only shoulder pads may be added on the third and fourth days, and full pads may not be worn until the fifth day of team practice.
- Before the first regular-season game, schools may not schedule more than one “collision” practice in a day. A collision practice is defined as one in which there is live, game-speed, player-versus-player contact in pads involving any number of players.
- After the first regular-season game, teams may conduct no more than two collision practice days in any week, Monday through Sunday.
- No single football practice may exceed three hours, and the total practice time for days with multiple practice sessions may not exceed five hours. Neither strength/weight training activities nor video/classroom sessions are considered practice for the purposes of the three or five-hour limits.
Additional details and explanations of the new football practice policies are found on the Football page of the MHSAA Website.
The Council also approved a series of proposals regarding the eligibility of international students, who by an estimate from the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel (CSIET) numbered more than 3,800 in Michigan in 2012. The Representative Council approved a change to a portion of the MHSAA’s transfer regulation to refer to international students, not merely “foreign exchange” students, and also approved a proposal that would grant an international student athletic eligibility at an MHSAA school only if that student is placed through an Approved International Student Program accepted for listing by CSIET or approved by the MHSAA.
Those international students placed through an Approved International Student Program would be 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.
Continuing its examination of athletics at the junior high/middle school level, the Council also approved changes to allow for longer competitions in two sports. The length of quarters in basketball may be increased from six minutes to a maximum of eight minutes, and the length of quarters in football may be increased from eight minutes to a maximum of 10 minutes.
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.
Scholar-Athlete Finalists Announced
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 25, 2013
The 120 finalists for the Michigan High School Athletic Association's Scholar-Athlete Award for the 2012-13 school year have been announced.
The program, which has been recognizing student-athletes since the 1989-90 school year, will honor 32 individuals from MHSAA member schools who participate in at least one sport in which the Association sponsors a postseason tournament. Farm Bureau Insurance underwrites the Scholar-Athlete Award, and will present a $1,000 scholarship to each recipient. Since the beginning of the program, 576 scholarships have been awarded.
Scholarships will be presented proportionately by school classification, with 12 scholarships to be awarded to Class A student-athletes, six female and six male; eight scholarships will be awarded to Class B student-athletes, four female and four male; six scholarships will be awarded to Class C student-athletes, three female and three male; and four scholarships will be awarded to Class D student-athletes, two female and two male. In addition, there also will be two at-large honorees which also are part of the general judging process, may come from any classification, and are designated by their school at the time of entry.
Every MHSAA member high school could submit as many applications as there are scholarships available in its classification, and could have more than one finalist. Saline has five finalists this year, while Kalamazoo Hackett and Muskegon Mona Shores have three. Eleven schools each had two finalists: Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard, Comstock Park, Grosse Ile, Hillsdale Academy, Macomb Dakota, Okemos, Oxford, Portland, Rock Mid-Peninsula and Sand Creek.
Multiple-sport participation remains the norm among applicants. The average sport participation rate of the finalists is 2.48, while the average of the application pool was 2.16 – both within a tenth of last year’s rates in those categories. There are 59 three-plus sport participants in the finalist field, and all but one of the 28 sports in which the MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments are represented.
Of 409 schools which submitted applicants, 54 submitted the maximum allowed. This year, 1,675 applications were received. All will be presented with certificates commemorating their achievement. Additional Scholar-Athlete information, including a complete list of scholarship nominees, can be found on the MHSAA Website.
The applications were judged by a 66-member committee of school coaches, counselors, faculty members, administrators and board members from MHSAA member schools. Selection of the 32 scholarship recipients will take place in early February. Class C and D scholarship recipients will be announced on February 5; Class B scholarship recipients will be announced on February 12, and Class A scholarship recipients will be announced on February 19. All announcements will be made on the MHSAA Website.
To honor the 32 Scholar-Athlete Award recipients, a ceremony will take place during halftime of the Class C Boys Basketball Final, March 23, at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing.
To be eligible for the award, students must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 (on a 4.0 scale), and previously have won a varsity letter in at least one sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament. Students also were asked to respond to a series of short essay questions, submit two letters of recommendation and submit a 500-word essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.
Farm Bureau Insurance, one of Michigan's major insurers, has a statewide force of more than 400 agents serving more than 380,000 Michigan policyholders. Besides providing life, home, auto, farm, business and retirement insurance, the company also sponsors life-saving, real-time Doppler weather tracking systems in several Michigan communities.
2012-13 Scholar-Athlete Award Finalists
BOYS CLASS A
Marcus William Barnett, St Clair Shores Lake Shore
Connor James Bos, Holland
Andrew Camp, Midland Dow
Bryan Condra, Hartland
Jarrod Eaton, St. Johns
Tristan Eggenberger, Okemos
Alex Fauer, Macomb Dakota
Thomas Greidanus, Grand Rapids Christian
Kalvis Hornburg, Traverse City Central
Reed Hrynewich, Muskegon Mona Shores
Austin Jones, Bay City Central
Tyler Scott Kemerer, Saginaw Heritage
Anthony Lamus, Saline
Jacob J. Presto, Orchard Lake St Mary's
Charles Robert Proctor, Bay City Western
David Read, Midland Dow
Harrison Schurr, Jenison
Jeremy Simon, Richland Gull Lake
Jonathan Sollish, Berkley
Thomas Spicuzza, Oxford
Jason Vander Horst, Milford
Kevin W. Walsh, Detroit Catholic Central
Pierce Watson, Lowell
Adam Whitener, Saline
GIRLS CLASS A
Kristy Allen, East Grand Rapids
Casie Ammerman, Ann Arbor Huron
Jacqueline Burke, Troy
Francesca Ciaramitaro, Grosse Pointe North
Lara Fawaz, Dearborn
Kayla Giese, Macomb Dakota
Morgan Alexandria Gilliam, North Farmington
Kristin Nicole Green, Saline
Sarah Gutknecht, Farmington
Kelly Hall, Saline
Hailey Hrynewich, Muskegon Mona Shores
Jessica Kalbfleisch, Traverse City West
Jillian Klein, Muskegon Mona Shores
Brooke Kovacic, Oxford
Teresa LaForest, St. Joseph
Elizabeth Michno, Macomb L'Anse Creuse North
Kelly Raterink, Zeeland East
Roxanne Raven, Okemos
Kerigan Riley, Livonia Churchill
Haley Schaafsma, Riverview
Carley Serowoky, Waterford Kettering
Kendall Tamler, Birmingham Seaholm
Reinie Thomas, Portage Central
Lindsay Walter, Saline
BOYS CLASS B
Michael Azzopardi, Detroit Country Day
Michael Broderick, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep
Brice Brown, Ionia
Michael Chickeral, Flat Rock
Thomas D. Finch, Otsego
Alec Robert Fisher, Battle Creek Harper Creek
Mark Gibson, Freeland
Patrick Gifford, Haslett
Andrew Hammond, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Eastern
Michael Heinrich, Ludington
Luke James Hurst, Ovid-Elsie
Matthew Liu, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood
Adam Olszewski, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard
Scott Parkinson, Grayling
Keeton Thayer Ross, Grosse Ile
Ryan Schall, Comstock Park
GIRLS CLASS B
Brittany Beeler, Spring Lake
Ashley M. Carney, Jackson Northwest
Kelsi Caywood, Sturgis
Amanda Ciancio, Comstock Park
Morgan Kathleen Cinader, Goodrich
Mary Emington, Cadillac
Hannah C. Engle, Adrian
Nicole L. Green, Portland
Haley June Obetts, Wayland Union
Molly Oren, Hamilton
Catherine Polgar, Grosse Ile
Emily Quinn, Portland
Florence Ann Sobell, Croswell-Lexington
Anjali Sood, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard
Megan Taylor, Houghton Lake
Shelby Walsh, Livonia Ladywood
BOYS CLASS C
Brian Christopher Aldrich, Kalamazoo Hackett
Jesse Anderson, Union City
Kenner Broullire, Manistique
Jesse Corbat, Breckenridge
Parker Eldred, Blanchard Montabella
Ashwin Fujii, Ann Arbor Greenhills
Zachary A. Kerr, Saugatuck
Connor Lockman, Royal Oak Shrine Catholic
Mike O'Brien, Maple City-Glen Lake
Elliott Rains, Sand Creek
Quinton Rice, Marcellus
Luke Schaffner, Clinton
GIRLS CLASS C
Alyssa R. Briolat, Ubly
Kara Craig, Schoolcraft
Lindsey Dopheide, Lawton
Margaret Elizabeth Durbin, Boyne City
Macayla Geiner, Hart
Natalie Perry, Sand Creek
Theresa Pickell, Reese
Abigail Radomsky, Kalamazoo Hackett
Kylei Ratkowski, Bronson
Faith Schroeder, Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary
Grace Smith, Kalamazoo Hackett
Nicole Winter, Watervliet
BOYS CLASS D
Charles Barchett, Watervliet Grace Christian
Charles A. Blood, Hillsdale Academy
Brett Branstrom, Rock-Mid Peninsula
Matthew R. Katz, Tekonsha
Alexander G. Knight, Lake Linden-Hubbell
Francisco Jay Noyola, Lansing Christian
Joseph Samuel Paquette, Munising
Hunter Selby, Genesee Christian
GIRLS CLASS D
Anna Marie Couture, Posen
Sarah Cullip, St. Ignace
Erica LeClaire, Dollar Bay
Elyse Kathleen Lisznyai, Hillsdale Academy
Elena Victoria Luce, Mason County Eastern
Christina Smith, Gaylord St. Mary
Kari L. Steenwyk, Ellsworth
Krysta M. VanDamme, Rock-Mid Peninsula