Task Force to Promote Multi-Sport Experience
January 14, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Noting growing concerns for the health risks to young people who specialize too early and narrowly on a single sport, the Michigan High School Athletic Association is creating a task force to work throughout 2016 on promoting the benefits of multi-sport participation.
The task force is expected to develop strategies and tactics for the MHSAA and its member schools to deliver to coaches, athletes and parents that will demonstrate the high risks and limited rewards of early and intense focus on a single sport. A January 2017 campaign launch is anticipated.
The task force will be small in number but consist of both administrators and coaches who represent the diversity of schools and communities in Michigan. Their discussions will be monitored by MHSAA communications staff, who will be designing tactics to implement the ideas and initiatives that the task force discusses.
“For years it seemed educators were alone in promoting the multi-sport experience as the best for young people,” MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts said. “Rather suddenly, these voices have been joined by high-profile coaches and athletes and supported by a growing body of research.
“Major college football coaches, members of the USA Women’s World Cup Soccer championship team, Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz, PGA golfer Jordan Spieth and others demonstrate to us that the multi-sport experience is the healthiest and happiest way to participate in youth sports.”
More than 40 national and international sports organizations have joined a movement called “Project Play” which advocates the multi-sport experience as the safer, healthier and happier sports participation journey. The task force also will benefit from its relationship with the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University and with Sparrow Health Systems.
“The risks of over-specialization in sports – that is, a focus too early and too intense on a single sport – are greater than all other youth sports health risks combined,” Roberts added. “They need at least as much attention as we’ve brought to reducing the risks of heat stroke, cardiac episodes and concussions.”
2022-23 School Year Classifications Announced
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 28, 2022
Classifications for Michigan High School Athletic Association elections and postseason tournaments for the 2022-23 school year have been announced, with enrollment breaks for postseason tournaments posted to each sport’s page on the MHSAA Website.
Classifications for the upcoming school year are based on a second semester count date, which for MHSAA purposes was Feb. 9. The enrollment figure submitted for athletic classification purposes may be different from the count submitted for school aid purposes, as it does not include students ineligible for athletic competition because they reached their 19th birthday prior to September 1 of the current school year and will not include alternative education students if none are allowed athletic eligibility by the local school district.
All sports’ tournaments are conducted with schools assigned to equal or nearly equal divisions, with lines dependent on how many schools participate in those respective sports.
For 2022-23, there are 750 tournament-qualified member schools. Schools recently were notified of their classification, and sport-by-sport divisions were posted to the MHSAA Website today (March 28). MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said schools may not subsequently lower their enrollment figure. However, if revised enrollment figures are higher and indicate that a school should be playing in a higher division, that school would be moved up.
Several MHSAA Finals champions awarded so far during the 2021-22 school year are assigned to different divisions for 2022-23. In 11-player football, Detroit Martin Luther King will move to Division 4 after winning Division 3 in the fall, with Hudson moving to Division 7 after winning Division 8 this past November. Muskegon Western Michigan Christian won the Lower Peninsula Division 4 girls cross country championship in the fall but will compete in LP Division 3 next season. Dearborn Divine Child’s girls golf team, winner of the LP Division 2 title in the fall, will move to LP Division 3 next season. The East Grand Rapids girls swimming & diving team will move back into LP Division 2 after winning LP Division 3 in the fall.
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s baseball, the reigning Division 2 champion but playing in Division 1 this upcoming season, will move back into Division 2 for 2023. Richmond softball, which won Division 3 last season and remains in that division for this spring, will move to Division 2 for 2023.
Visit the respective sport pages on the MHSAA Website at https://www.mhsaa.com/sports to review the divisional alignments for all MHSAA-sponsored tournament sports.
Traditional classes (A, B, C, D) – formerly used to establish tournament classifications – are used only for MHSAA elections. To determine traditional classifications, after all counts are submitted, tournament-qualified member schools are ranked according to enrollment and then split as closely into quarters as possible. For 2022-23, there are 187 member schools in Class A and Class C and 188 member schools in Class B and Class D.
Effective with the 2022-23 school year, schools with 814 or more students are in Class A. The enrollment limits for Class B are 388-813, Class C is 183-387, and schools with enrollments of 182 and fewer are Class D. The break between Classes A and B decreased 21 students from 2021-22, the break between Classes B and C decreased 11 students, and the break between Classes C and D is six students fewer than for the 2021-22 school year.
The new classification breaks will see 32 schools move up in Class for 2022-23 while 24 schools will move down:
Moving Up from Class B to Class A
Battle Creek Harper Creek
Cadillac
Detroit Henry Ford
New Boston Huron
Owosso
Plainwell
Sault Ste. Marie
Sparta
Spring Lake
Moving Down from Class A to Class B
Dearborn Divine Child
Detroit East English
Detroit Martin Luther King
Fowlerville
Garden City
Marysville
Pinckney
Moving Up from Class C to Class B
Adrian Madison
Blissfield
Brooklyn Columbia Central
Buchanan
Canton Prep
Clinton Township Clintondale
Dearborn Heights Star International
Detroit Voyageur College Prep
Elk Rapids
Grayling
Hart
Quincy
Sanford Meridian
Moving Down from Class B to Class C
Benzie Central
Coloma
Comstock
Detroit Communication Media Arts
Ecorse
Jonesville
Michigan Center
Otisville LakeVille Memorial
Shelby
Watervliet
Moving Up from Class D to Class C
Bellevue
Plymouth Christian Academy
Eau Claire
Fowler
Indian River Inland Lakes
Ironwood
Jackson Prep
Muskegon Heights Academy
New Buffalo
Ubly
Moving Down from Class C to Class D
Adrian Lenawee Christian
Breckenridge
Detroit Benjamin Carson Science & Medicine
Grand Traverse Academy
Lawrence
Rogers City
Warren Michigan Math & Science
New Postseason-Eligible Tournament Schools in 2022-23
Escanaba Holy Name Catholic
Farmington Hills Huda School
Center Line Prep
Battle Creek Academy
Enrollment Breaks by Classes – 2022-23
(Number of schools in parentheses)
Class A: 814 and above (187 schools)
Class B: 388 – 813 (188)
Class C: 183 – 387 (187)
Class D: 182 and below (188)
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.