Paying Tribute with Diamond Donation
May 14, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Rochester Adams and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood baseball players and coaches both had loved ones on their minds when they took the field at Comerica Park earlier this month.
And they paid tribute to those loved ones over their hearts and across the backs of their jerseys.
Together, the teams raised more than $3,500 for the Coaches vs. Cancer research initiative.
Instead of its usual brown and yellow, Adams wore jerseys of light blue with a green ribbon as the middle “A” in its name across the front in honor of those suffering with lymphoma, including 2011 graduate and former standout Matt Williams.
Cranbrook-Kingswood wore dark blue jerseys with a pink ribbon as the “A” in Cranbrook and with lime green writing on the back as the Cranes remembered longtime coach Jack Sanders, who died in 2012 after also battling lymphoma.
Sanders’ was among names adorning the backs of jerseys, along with other cancer victims the players and coaches knew.
Adams won the May 1 game, 18-3. Click to read more from the Oakland Press’ Keith Dunlap, who leading up to the game detailed both Williams’ fight and Sanders’ longtime contributions.
Net finder
Lake Fenton’s Jordan Newman will finish her high school soccer career later this spring as the top goal-scorer in MHSAA girls soccer history.
The Blue Devils’ senior forward broke the career record on April 28, scoring her 169th goal against Perry to pass the mark set by Newaygo’s Jaleen Dingledine from 2004-07. Newman also is a four-year varsity player.
Click to read more on her record run from the Flint Journal's Eric Woodyard.
5 K, 1 IP
The MHSAA doesn't keep a record for most strikeouts in an inning. But if it did, there’s a great chance Brighton’s Garrett Russell would top the list.
Against Ann Arbor Pioneer on April 5, Russell struck out five batters in an inning.
Yes, five.
Here’s how:
Russell struck out the first two batters of the inning swinging, leaving one out to get. He then struck out that third batter as well, but that batter reached first base because the third strike turned into a wild pitch.
The fourth batter of the inning was the only one to not strike out – he walked, putting runners on first and second base with two outs. Those runners advanced to second and third base, respectively, on a wild pitch thrown to the fifth batter of the inning.
That fifth batter then struck out swinging (which made it four strikeouts in the inning), but that third strike turned into a passed ball – and that batter ended up on first base, loading them for the sixth hitter of the inning.
But Russell found enough for one more K, striking out that sixth hitter swinging on a 2-2 pitch.
His line for the inning: 0 hits, 0 runs, 1 bases on balls, 5 strikeouts.
Brighton went on to sweep the doubleheader 12-4 and 11-1.
Family ties
Basketball clearly runs in a pair of families who have come through Corunna High School.
This winter, brothers M.J. and Mikhail Myles both scored their 1,000th career points – M.J., a senior, on Jan. 3 and Mikhail, a junior, in the team’s District Semifinal on March 5.
On Feb. 18, senior Payton Birchmeier became the fifth player in girls program history to score her 1,000th point – despite scoring only four points as a freshman before suffering a season-ending knee injury in her first high school game. She became the first Corunna girl to score 1,000 since her sister Megan finished accomplishing the feat in 2010.
Payton Birchmeier went on to play her final three seasons also on varsity, and M.J. Myles also was a four-year varsity player. Mykhail Myles has played three on varsity with next season still to play. The Myles' stepsister Klarissa Bell this winter finished an outstanding career at Michigan State University and won the Miss Basketball Award as a senior at East Lansing High School in 2010, and stepbrother Devlin Bell also was a Trojans standout.
PHOTOS: (Top) Rochester Adams players congratulate each other during their May 1 game at Comerica Park. (Middle) The Adams' first baseman and a Cranbrook-Kingswood base runner await the next pitch. (Photos courtesy of Rochester Adams baseball.)
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.