'Prepapalooza' Kicks Off 3-Week Celebration

May 31, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Nearly 30,000 athletes will take part over the next six days in what will again be the busiest week of the MHSAA calendar, with teams in all nine spring sports competing for District, Regional or Finals championships at sites across both peninsulas.

The first Finals champions of this spring will be awarded Wednesday in Upper Peninsula boys tennis (UPDATE: both U.P. tennis Finals have been moved to Thursday due to rainy weather concerns), followed by six more in Upper Peninsula boys and girls golf Thursday. Four divisions of Lower Peninsula girls tennis start their two-day tournament Friday, and on Saturday, more than 7,000 athletes will join them competing in four Lower and three Upper Peninsula Track & Field Finals.

In addition, baseball, softball and girls soccer teams begin District action tonight, with most of those tournaments wrapping Saturday. Girls and boys lacrosse teams continue Regional play this week, and Lower Peninsula boys golf teams will play Regionals on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Second Half again will serve as your home for all MHSAA Finals coverage, with correspondents providing stories and photos, along with full results, from all of the Upper Peninsula Finals this week and then all 18 LP and UP Finals this weekend, Lacrosse and LP Golf Finals on June 14, and Baseball, Softball and Soccer Finals being played June 19-21.

Check back as well for video highlights from most competitions and sign up to watch all broadcast tournament action over the next three weeks for only $9.95 on MHSAA.tv. All schedules, lists of competitors and tournament brackets updated with scores real-time can be found on MHSAA.com. Keep connected as well with the MHSAA’s social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

PHOTO: The Unionville-Sebewaing softball team celebrates last season's Division 4 championship.

 

MHSAA 2024-25 School Year Classifications Announced, Division Lists Posted

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

April 5, 2024

Classifications for Michigan High School Athletic Association elections and postseason tournaments for the 2024-25 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. 14. 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 Sept. 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 2024-25, there are 753 tournament-qualified member schools. Schools recently were notified of their classification, and sport-by-sport divisions were posted to the MHSAA Website today (April 5). MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said a school may not subsequently lower its enrollment figure. However, if a revised enrollment figure is higher and indicates that a school should be playing in a higher division, that school would be moved up.

A pair of MHSAA Finals champions crowned during the first two seasons of this 2023-24 school year are set to move to new divisions for 2024-25. The Ishpeming girls basketball team will shift to Division 3 coming off its Division 4 title last month, while the Hudsonville Unity Christian boys soccer team is moving to Division 2 after winning Division 3 in the fall. The Detroit Old Redford boys basketball team finished Division 3 runner-up last month and will play in Division 2 next season, while this year’s Division 2 boys bowling runner-up Grand Rapids Northview is moving to Division 1 and the fall’s 11-player Division 8 football runner-up Ottawa Lake Whiteford will play in Division 7 this upcoming season.

Visit the respective sport pages on the MHSAA Website to review the divisional alignments for all MHSAA-sponsored tournament sports. Click the “SPORTS” menu on the home page to access the page for each sport, then the “Assignments” link on the selected sport page and then “DIVISION LIST” to see the 2024-25 division.

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 2024-25, there are 188 member schools in Class A, Class B and Class D, and 189 member schools in Class C.

Effective with the 2024-25 school year, schools with 793 or more students are in Class A. The enrollment limits for Class B are 378-792, Class C is 169-377, and schools with enrollments of 168 and fewer are Class D. The break between Classes A and B decreased 14 students from 2023-24, the break between Classes B and C decreased two students, and the break between Classes C and D is eight students fewer than for the 2023-24 school year.

The new classification breaks will see 26 schools move up in Class for 2024-25 while 19 schools will move down:

Moving Up from Class B to Class A
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood
Detroit East English
Detroit Martin Luther King
Detroit Mumford
Plainwell
Sault Ste. Marie
Wayland

Moving Down from Class A to Class B
Flint Southwestern
Fowlerville
Haslett
Owosso
Parma Western
Pontiac
Tecumseh

Moving Up from Class C to Class B
Clinton Township Clintondale
Erie Mason
Fennville
Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian
Grass Lake
Hamtramck Oakland International Academy
Michigan Center
Waterford Oakside Prep

Moving Down from Class B to Class C
Hartford
Kent City
Pinconning
Taylor Prep
Warren Michigan Collegiate

Moving Up from Class D to Class C
Ann Arbor Central
Breckenridge
Eau Claire
Fowler
Lansing Christian
Marine City Cardinal Mooney
Mayville
Norway
Southfield Manoogian
Taylor Trillium Academy
Three Oaks River Valley

Moving Down from Class C to Class D
Benton Harbor Countryside Academy
Coleman
Detroit Crockett Midtown Science & Medicine
New Buffalo
Saginaw Nouvel Catholic Central
Traverse City Greenspire
Ubly

New Postseason-Eligible Tournament Schools in 2024-25
Ann Arbor Christian
Burton St. Thomas More Academy
Traverse City Greenspire
Farmington Hills Aim
Plymouth Ivywood Classical Academy

Enrollment Breaks by Classes – 2024-25
(Number of schools in parentheses)
Class A: 793 and above (188 schools) 
Class B: 378 – 792 (188)
Class C: 169 – 377 (189)
Class D: 168 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.