Representative Council Wrap-up: Fall Meeting
December 19, 2011
EAST LANSING – The appointment of its newest member and the adoption of four lacrosse regulations were among actions taken by the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association during its annual Fall Meeting, Dec. 2, in East Lansing.
Yale Public Schools athletic director Maureen E. Klocke was appointed to the 19-member council for a two-year term and brings with her more than 16 years experience as an athletic administrator.
She’s served in her current position since August 2005, and during her tenure has led in the hosting of MHSAA post-season tournaments for eight sports, including Regionals for girls basketball and volleyball. Previously, Klocke served as Capac’s athletic director for nine years and prior to that was interim athletic director for Memphis schools for seven months. She also coached basketball, volleyball and softball during her time at Memphis.
Also, Perry High School principal Paula Steele was re-appointed for a two-year term. Steele joined Perry’s district this summer after previously serving in the same position at East Lansing High School.
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.
Also at the Fall Meeting, the following Girls Lacrosse Committee recommendations were adopted for the 2012 season:
--A game interrupted by events beyond the control of authorities may be continued from that point of interruption either later that day or on another date. This alters a national women’s lacrosse rule stating an interrupted game must be played from the beginning if rescheduled for another date. A game continued over two days will count as just one date on those teams’ schedules, while it will count as two of the team’s scheduling dates if the game is played, interrupted, and then played from the beginning on another day.
--Teams may play two regulation games in one day, to not exceed 120 total minutes played. This is in addition to the current rule allowing three games in one day with not more than 20-minute halves. This addresses a preference by some teams to play two full games at a tournament instead of three shortened games.
--A student or coach disqualified for unsportsmanlike conducted must be withheld by her or his school for at least the next day of competition for that team, consistent with MHSAA rules for other sports. This alters the national women’s lacrosse rule stating those who are disqualified must be withheld from the next two games.
--The unruly actions of spectators will not result in a card being assessed to their team’s coach. The national rule does assess a card to the head coach as punishment for spectator misconduct.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 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 approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.
Survey Shows Multi-Sport Participation Holding Steady, Led by Consistent High Achievers
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 14, 2023
The MHSAA's fifth Multi-Sport Participation Survey, conducted this spring for the 2022-23 school year, showed for the second-consecutive year that 44 percent of athletes at member high schools participated in more than one sport, and with several schools retaining high rankings in their respective Classes for the percentage of their athletes playing multiple sports.
Early and intense sport specialization has become one of the most serious issues related to health and safety at all levels of youth sports, as overuse injuries and burnout among athletes have been tied to chronic injuries and health-related problems later in life.
This past year’s survey showed 44.7 percent of athletes at MHSAA member high schools participating in two or more sports, a slight increase from the 44.3 percent who were multi-sport athletes in 2021-22 – and 1.9 percent higher than the percentage measured with the first survey in 2017-18.
For 2022-23, 47.5 percent of male athletes and 41.2 percent of female athletes played multiple sports. Class D has enjoyed the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes over all five years of surveys, this time at 62.5 percent, followed by Class C (59.0), Class B (49.6) and Class A (36.9).
Similar results for overall sport participation and multi-sport participation relative to enrollment size were seen by further breaking down Class A into schools of fewer than 1,000 students, 1,000-1,500 students, 1,501-2,000 students and more than 2,000 students. For both sport participation as a whole and multi-sport participation specifically, the smallest Class A schools continued to enjoy the highest percentages, while percentages then decreased for every larger size group of schools. This has remained consistent over the last five surveys.
Since 2018-19, the survey also has shown a slight increase in three-sport athletes across all four Classes and overall with 12.6 percent of athletes at MHSAA member high schools playing at least that many in 2022-23.
In early 2016, the MHSAA appointed a Task Force on Multi-Sport Participation as part of a continued effort to promote and protect participant health and address the issues leading to early sport specialization. The annual Multi-Sport Participation Survey was among results of the task force’s work. The 2022-23 Multi-Sport Participation Survey received responses from 85.2 percent of member high schools, a few tenths more than in 2021-22 in setting a survey response record for the second-straight year. (No survey was conducted for 2019-20 as spring sports were canceled due to COVID-19.)
The MHSAA Task Force also recommended measuring multi-sport participation in MHSAA member schools to recognize “achievers” – that is, schools that surpass the norm given their enrollment and other factors that affect school sports participation.
Battle Creek Harper Creek, Detroit Cody and Grand Rapids Northview have appeared among the top 10 percent of their respective Classes four of the five years the survey has been conducted. Several more have appeared among the top 10 percent of their Classes three of the five years: Athens, Decatur, Detroit Douglass, East Grand Rapids, Gibraltar Carlson, Hamtramck, Hillsdale Academy, Holland Calvary, Kinross Maplewood Baptist, Livonia Franklin, Manton, Marquette, New Baltimore Anchor Bay, Ovid-Elsie, Parma Western, Warren Fitzgerald, Warren Lincoln and Warren Michigan Collegiate.
In Class A, Sterling Heights (85.7 percent) and Grand Rapids Union (84.0) posted the highest percentages of multi-sport athletes in 2022-23, with Livonia Franklin (73.1) and Battle Creek Harper Creek (71.3) also reaching 70 percent. In Class B, three schools achieved at least 80 percent multi-sport participation –Warren Michigan Collegiate (85.2), Detroit Cody (84.2) and Battle Creek Pennfield (81.5).
Class C saw eight schools reach 80 percent – Jackson Lumen Christi (92.5), Delton Kellogg (92.3), Decatur (86.2), Muskegon Western Michigan Christian (84.0), Indian River Inland Lakes (83.3), Detroit Crockett Midtown Science & Medicine (82.4), Martin (80.6) and LeRoy Pine River (80.0). Two Class D schools responded at higher than 90 percent multi-sport participation – Coldwater Pansophia Academy with 100 percent for the second-straight year and Carney-Nadeau (94.0) – followed by Brighton Livingston Christian (88.9), Carsonville-Port Sanilac (88.6) and Holland Calvary (87.0).
The full summary report on the Multi-Sport Participation Survey is available on the Multi-Sports Benefits page of MHSAA.com