Uyl to Serve as MHSAA's Next Executive Director
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
May 8, 2018
Mark Uyl's impact on educational athletics has stretched from his hometown across this state and our country as a teacher, coach, administrator and one of the nation's most respected voices in sport officiating.
The Caledonia native and assistant director for the Michigan High School Athletic Association over the last 14 years is now charged with leading the Association as it continues in the work he has championed for two decades.
Uyl, 44, has been selected as the next executive director of the MHSAA by its Representative Council. He will succeed retiring Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts in August. Roberts, who has served as executive director since the fall of 1986, announced his retirement April 24.
Uyl joined the MHSAA staff in January 2004 and coordinates the Association’s nearly 10,000 officials in addition to serving as director of baseball and administrator of the MHSAA’s catastrophic and concussion care insurance plans. He also has served as director of cross country and wrestling during his tenure.
As assistant director, Uyl was instrumental as the MHSAA became the first state high school athletics association to offer concussion care insurance, which provides gap coverage to assist in covering costs for athletes who are injured while participating in MHSAA-sponsored sports. As an official himself, Uyl has worked to build a stronger relationship with those working high school events that has included an increase in training and support. As a sport director, Uyl has sought to create the best experiences for Michigan high school teams, including with the move of the MHSAA Baseball and Softball Finals to Michigan State University in 2014.
“The foundation built here by Jack Roberts over the last 32 years is the strongest in the country, and I’m honored to have the opportunity to lead our staff in building on that foundation,” Uyl said. “There will be many ways we’ll continue to protect the same values of educational athletics, while also looking for new ways and new opportunities to best serve the students and our member schools in Michigan.”
In addition to his full-time MHSAA duties, Uyl has officiated collegiate baseball since 1997 and is regarded as one of the best at that level. In addition to umpiring major conference baseball all over the United States, Uyl was part of the crews for the 2014 and 2017 College World Series. He also officiated college football for 12 years with several NCAA postseason assignments, and did serve as coordinator of officials for the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association. He was registered with the MHSAA for at least three sports beginning in 1992 and worked the Baseball Finals in 1999.
Additionally, Uyl served on the board of directors of the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) from 2012-15 and as its chairperson during his final year. Currently, he serves as the high school representative on the Officiating Development Alliance (ODA), which consists of the supervisors of officials for the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, CFL, MLS and NCAA Division I sports.
The Council made its decision at the conclusion of its annual Spring Meeting on May 7 in Gaylord. Uyl will become only the fifth full-time executive in the MHSAA’s 94-year history, following Charles E. Forsythe (1931-42, 1945-68), Allen W. Bush (1968-78), Vern L. Norris (1978-86) and Roberts.
“Mark has spent the past 14 years as a highly effective assistant director for the MHSAA,” said Representative Council President Scott Grimes, who serves as Assistant Superintendent of Human Services for Grand Haven Area Public Schools. “He is a proven leader in the organization committed to providing outstanding service to both internal and external constituents. The positive relationships he has fostered with school administrators will help make this a very smooth transition.”
Prior to his time at the MHSAA, Uyl first taught and coached and then served as athletic director and assistant principal at Middleville-Thornapple Kellogg High School, the latter from 2001-03. Before becoming an administrator there, Uyl served as athletic director at Caledonia High School in 2000-01.
During his tenure as an assistant director at the MHSAA, Uyl also served a four-year term on the Baseball Committee for the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
“Mark was the obvious choice to become the next executive director of the MHSAA,” Roberts said. “Mark has the proper student-focused perspective of educational athletics, excellent person-to-person communications skills and a deep practical understanding of what is happening day to day in school sports in our state and nationally.”
Uyl graduated from Caledonia High School in 1992, and from Calvin College in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in history and physical education. He later received a master’s in educational leadership from Grand Valley State University. At Calvin, Uyl was a four-year starter on the baseball team, earning all-conference honors twice and serving as team captain.
Uyl resides in DeWitt with his wife Marcy, an accomplished educator and coach who has served as a high school varsity basketball coach since 1994. They have three children: Jackson (17), Grant (15) and Madison (11).
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.
PHOTOS: (Top) MHSAA Assistant Director Mark Uyl provides pointers to football officials during a summer clinic in 2011. (Middle) Uyl speaks at the NASO officiating summit in 2013 in Grand Rapids.
Changes Accompany Start of Fall Practice
August 8, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
An assortment of game rules, preseason policy and postseason tournament changes will greet more than 100,000 high school student-athletes as 2019-20 Fall practices begin next week for nine sports for which the MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments.
The most immediately noticeable adjustment will allow boys soccer, girls and boys cross country, boys tennis and girls golf teams to begin practice Monday, Aug. 12, along with football teams across the state.
Football practice traditionally begins before the rest of fall sports, by rule on the 16th Monday before Thanksgiving. However, a change approved by the MHSAA Representative Council will allow sports with MHSAA Finals tied to a specific weekend every fall – for example, Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals always are the first weekend in November – the opportunity to begin practice on that 16th Monday as well, which will keep those teams from losing about a week of practice and competition during “late” Thanksgiving years when the holiday is during the fourth full week of November. Volleyball and Lower Peninsula girls swimming & diving – which, like football, have Finals tied to Thanksgiving – are not affected by the lateness of the holiday and will begin practice Wednesday, Aug. 14, keeping with their traditional starts.
Football teams must have 12 days of preseason practice at all levels before their first game, over a period of 16 calendar days before the first kickoff, with the first games this falls scheduled for the weekend of Aug. 29-31. Competition this fall may begin Aug. 16 for cross country, golf, soccer and tennis and Aug. 23 for volleyball and swimming & diving.
The most publicized change in MHSAA policy this fall likely will be the addition of limited seeding for Lower Peninsula Boys Soccer District play, using a Michigan Power Ratings (MPR) formula that debuted to assist in Boys Lacrosse Regional seeding this past spring and will be utilized as well for Districts in girls and boys basketball this winter and girls soccer beginning in 2020. The MPR formula ranks teams based on success and strength of schedule, with the top two teams in each District then placed on opposite sides of the bracket on the draw date for that sport. For boys soccer this fall, all games reported to the MHSAA through Sept. 28 will be used for MPR, with brackets announced Sept. 29. For more information on MPR and the boys soccer selection process, go to the MHSAA Website’s Boys Soccer page and see the information under “Tracking the Tournament."
Football remains the most played sport among MHSAA member school student-athletes and will introduce this season a series of in-game and practice-related changes. To improve pace of play, all varsity games will be played with a 40-second play clock that begins after the conclusion of the previous play except when there is an exception (penalty, timeout, etc.). In those circumstances, a 25-second clock will start with the referee’s ready-to-play whistle. Also beginning this football season, at the MHSAA Finals level, instant replay will be used to review all scoring plays and turnovers or potential scoring plays and turnovers (that is, when an official’s decision may have prevented or awarded a score or turnover). Replay review will be automatic in these situations.
The other notable rules changes in football continue a focus on safety. Tripping a ball carrier – that is, intentionally using the lower leg or foot to obstruct a runner below the knees – now will result in a 15-yard penalty. The definition of a horse-collar tackle also has been expanded to include grabbing of the name plate area on the back of the jersey (along with the inside of the neck area of the jersey or shoulder pads) to bring a runner to the ground. Horse-collar tackling also is penalized with a 15-yard personal foul.
Also beginning this season, the amount of practice “collision” contact will be defined in minutes instead of allowed days. Teams will be allowed no more than six hours of full-pads collision contact per week during the preseason and no more than 30 minutes of collision contact during a week of in-season (after games begin) practice. “Collision” is defined as contact at game speed, with the execution of full tackles at a competitive pace, taking players to the ground. Although “collision” contact will be limited, “thud” contact will be unlimited. “Thud” is not considered collision contact and defined as full speed but above the waist only, with no player taken to the ground and no winner or loser.
All fall sports face at least minor rules changes this season, and a few of the other most noticeable in-game adjustments will come in girls golf, volleyball, girls swimming & diving and boys soccer.
• In golf, athletes will be allowed to use cell phones in four situations – to call a coach or tournament administrator for a health and safety issue, for use in inputting scores for live scoring or other scoring applications, to contact a rules official with questions, and for use as a distance-measuring device.
• Also in golf, a new rule sets the maximum allowable score per hole at 12 strokes.
• In volleyball, attempted serves that make contact with a backboard or other support device hanging from the ceiling over the serving area now will be illegal serves instead of faults (which previously allowed the server another attempt). Also, when a ball in play strikes the cables or diagonal poles used to retract baskets or similar apparatus to the ceiling, the game official will stop play and determine if the ball was playable -- if it is ruled playable before making contact with the apparatus, there will be a replay; if the ball is deemed to have not been playable, it will be ruled out of bounds.
• Also in volleyball, a change regarding uniforms will make the libero more recognizable. A libero’s uniform top must clearly contrast with those of the rest of her teammates by using another predominant color. The libero’s uniform may be trimmed with the predominant color of her non-libero teammates’ uniforms, and vice versa. Also regarding volleyball uniforms, “00” may no longer be used as a jersey number, only numbers 0-99 to eliminate confusion.
• In swimming, the definition of a legal finish has changed to include a competitor touching any part of the finish end of the lane, not just the touch pad. In diving, the degree of difficulty was adjusted for back and reverse somersaults to provide consistency with difficulty of other dives.
• The game clock will stop in boys soccer beginning this fall when the team leading the game makes a substitution during the final five minutes of the second period of regulation or second part of overtime. This stoppage aims to prevent the team in the lead from using substitutions as a way to run time off the clock.
The 2019 Fall campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls Tennis Finals during the first week of October and wraps up with the 11-Player Football Finals on Nov. 29 and 30. Here is a complete list of fall tournament dates:
Cross Country
U.P. Finals – Oct. 19
L.P. Regionals – Oct. 25 or 26
L.P. Finals – Nov. 2
11-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 27
Pre-Districts – Nov. 1 or 2
District Finals – Nov. 8 or 9
Regional Finals – Nov. 15 or 16
Semifinals – Nov. 23
Finals – Nov. 29-30
8-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 27
Regional Semifinals – Nov. 1 or 2
Regional Finals – Nov. 8 or 9
Semifinals – Nov. 16
Finals – Nov. 23
L.P. Girls Golf
Regionals – Oct. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12
Finals – Oct. 18-19
Soccer
Boys L.P. Districts – Oct. 9-11 & 14-19
Boys L.P. Regionals – Oct. 22-26
Boys L.P. Semifinals – Oct. 30
Boys L.P. Finals – Nov. 2
L.P. Girls Swimming & Diving
Diving Regionals – Nov.14
Swimming/Diving Finals – Nov. 22-23
Tennis
U.P. Girls Finals – Oct. 2, 3, 4 or 5
L.P. Boys Regionals – Oct. 10, 11 or 12
L.P. Finals – Oct. 18-19
Girls Volleyball
Districts – Nov. 4-9
Regionals – Nov. 12 &14
Quarterfinals – Nov. 19
Semifinals – Nov. 21-22
Finals – Nov. 23
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.