'Yard Squad' Enjoys Unexpected Response
May 20, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The task itself was a simple one, and the reasons for doing it simple at first.
An elderly woman called Colon High School – on the advice of her daughter, who teaches in the Upper Peninsula – looking for a student group that might be interested in assisting with some yard work.
Sophomore Andrew Smolarz, meanwhile, always is looking for community service hours to go toward membership in his school’s Varsity Club and National Honor Society chapter.
So he and four track & field teammates volunteered and spent a few hours picking up sticks, raking around her house and cleaning up brush. But they never anticipated the response.
“After the first time we did it, the reaction we got from people – it was more than just doing work for them,” Smolarz said. “When she saw us, the first lady said we’d restored her faith in the youth in the community. She got pretty teary-eyed, so it meant a lot to us, and she wanted a hug from all of us too.”
Since, Smolarz and his “Yard Squad” – sophomores Isaiah Fellers and Andy Stoll and freshmen Philip Alva and Austin Stoll – have taken their cleaning talents to two more homes, with three more and a restaurant also on the schedule.
Colon’s Yard Squad is a recipient of an inaugural MHSAA/Lake Trust Credit Union “Community Service Award” recognizing contributions by Michigan’s high school student-athletes away from the field. The Yard Squad will receive $1,000, which will go toward Colon’s athletic department and equipment for the track & field and baseball teams. Six honorees total are receiving awards this spring; Second Half will feature one a day this week.
While there are a multitude of ways to serve one’s community – over the next few days we will feature some incredibly impressive campaigns to raise money, awareness and donate goods to those in need – Colon’s Yard Squad found a way to help that students at any school can replicate, and to the same unexpected benefits.
That first call ended up on the ear of Colon athletic director Paige Smolarz – also Andrew’s mother and the school’s boys track & field coach – and when she offered the opportunity, these five underclassmen stepped up. It’s not that they don’t have other things going on; all five are dual sport athletes also playing baseball or golf, so clean-ups so far have come on Sundays adding up to about 15 hours total by each student with many more yet to be worked this spring.
Among others they’ve helped were a second elderly woman and her disabled husband, and a young couple where the wife is fighting cancer and the husband is working long shifts to support the family.
The village of Colon, tucked south of Kalamazoo and north of Sturgis, has roughly 1,200 residents, and word quickly gets around. The first woman helped by the Yard Squad told her friends, and there was some Facebook buzz as well. Smolarz said he and the “squad” are just a bunch of friends (and the Stolls are cousins) having fun working together to do something good.
“People think so much more of the little things you do for them than I actually thought (they would),” Andrew Smolarz said. “I just thought we’d go clean up, say thanks, and leave. But they thought so much more over it.
“It’s gotten a lot more fun in my opinion. The reaction is really cool to see on people’s faces. People just can’t believe we’d come out and do that for them.”
The Community Service Awards are sponsored by the Michigan High School Athletic Association and Lake Trust Credit Union to recognize student-athletes' efforts to improve the lives of others in their communities. In addition to the $1,000 award, the Lake Trust Foundation is awarding an additional $500 to each honoree, to be donated to a non-profit, 501 (c)(3) organization of the awardee’s choice.
PHOTO: Colon High School's "Yard Squad" from left: Isaiah Fellers, Andy Stoll, Andrew Smolarz, Phillip Alva and Austin Stoll. (Photo courtesy of the Colon athletic department.)
MHSAA Sports Participation Continues Upward Trend for 3rd-Straight Year
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 6, 2024
Participation in Michigan High School Athletic Association-sponsored sports rose for the third-straight school year in 2023-24 – this time by nearly one percent – and continued to do so despite another 2-percent decrease in school enrollment among the MHSAA’s 754 member high schools.
A total of 270,664 participants were counted across the 28 sports for which the MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments – a 0.97-percent increase from 2022-23 and despite a 1.8-percent decrease in MHSAA member school enrollment. Boys participation rose 1.1 percent to 158,260, despite a 1.8 percent decrease in boys enrollment. Girls participation rose 0.7 percent to 112,377, while girls enrollment dipped 1.9 percent from the previous school year.
MHSAA participation totals count students once for each sport in which they participate, meaning students who are multiple-sport athletes are counted more than once. The boys participation total for 2023-24 was its highest since 2018-19, predating the sharp decrease brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020-21 school year.
Only 11 sports saw increases in participation during 2023-24 – compared to 18 sports that reported increases between 2021-22 and 2022-23. However, two sports set participation records this past school year. Girls golf reported 3,936 athletes, an increase of 6.2 percent from the previous year and that sport’s most since 2002-03. Girls lacrosse broke its record set in 2019-20 with 3,245 athletes, up nine-tenths of a percent from the previous year.
Wrestling reported the largest increase in participation for the second-straight school year, this time by 12.8 percent with 11,814 athletes – and the rise again mostly attributable to the rapid growth in girls participation in the sport, which jumped another 39 percent with 1,216 wrestlers this past season. Girls tennis enjoyed the next largest participation jump, increasing 9.1 percent with 8,911 athletes, that sport’s most since 2018-19.
Both girls and boys track & field increased for the third-straight year, girls by 5.2 percent to 17,325 competitors and boys 2.9 percent to 23,888. Boys lacrosse (up 3.9 percent to 5,236 athletes) and boys golf (up 3.3 percent to 7,222) also joined their girls counterparts in those sports in trending upward.
Boys soccer (up 5.1 percent to 13,953 athletes), girls competitive cheer (3.9 percent to 6,172) and football (11 and 8-player combined – 0.5 percent to 35,174) also showed increases. Football remains the most-played sport statewide with more than 11,000 more athletes than the next highest, boys track & field, and the 2023-24 football participation total was that sport’s highest since 2018-19. Boys basketball (20,199 participants), girls volleyball (19,119) and girls track & field ranked third through fifth, respectively, among the state’s most-played sports this past school year.
Although 17 sports saw lower participation in 2023-24 than the previous year, five experienced decreases smaller than the overall 1.8-percent loss in enrollment at member schools – boys ice hockey (-0.03 percent with just one fewer participant than in 2022-23), girls soccer (-0.3 percent), girls volleyball (-0.8 percent), boys tennis (-1.2 percent), boys cross country (-1.3 percent) and girls softball (-1.5 percent). Girls cross country just missed that line with only a 1.9-percent decrease from the previous year.
The participation figures are gathered annually from MHSAA member schools to submit to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) for compiling of its national participation survey. Results of Michigan surveys from the 2000-01 school year to present may be viewed on the Sports Participation Listing page of MHSAA.com.
The following chart shows participation figures for the 2023-24 school year from MHSAA member schools for sports in which the Association sponsors a postseason tournament:
|
BOYS |
|
GIRLS |
||
|
Sport |
Schools (A) |
Participants |
Schools (A) |
Participants (B) |
|
Baseball |
664/11 |
16,294 |
- |
-/15 |
|
Basketball |
730/3 |
20,193 |
722 |
13,113/6 |
|
Bowling |
431/0 |
4,292 |
425 |
2,767 |
|
Competitive Cheer |
- |
- |
348 |
6,172 |
|
Cross Country |
676/0 |
7,886 |
672 |
6,729 |
|
Football - 11 player |
509/78 |
32,431 |
- |
-/143 |
|
8-player |
120/16 |
2,583 |
- |
-/17 |
|
Golf |
549/41 |
7,135 |
389 |
3,936/87 |
|
Gymnastics |
- |
- |
104 |
529 |
|
Ice Hockey |
326/10 |
3,117 |
- |
-/11 |
|
Lacrosse |
187/13 |
5,210 |
132 |
3,245/26 |
|
Skiing |
135/0 |
822 |
133 |
786 |
|
Soccer |
495/15 |
13,903 |
490 |
11,829/50 |
|
Softball |
- |
- |
645 |
11,544 |
|
Swimming & Diving |
282/17 |
3,990 |
287 |
4,726/48 |
|
Tennis |
305/15 |
5,918 |
335 |
8,911/27 |
|
Track & Field |
692/0 |
23,888 |
694 |
17,325 |
|
Volleyball |
- |
- |
719 |
19,119 |
|
Wrestling |
511/288 |
10,598 |
-/1,216 |
(A) The first number is the number of schools reporting sponsorship on the Sports Participation Survey, including primary and secondary schools in cooperative programs as of May 15, 2024. The second number indicates the number of schools that had girls playing on teams consisting primarily of boys.
(B) The second number indicates the number of additional girls playing on teams consisting primarily of boys and entered in boys competition.