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Presidents Converge on MHSAA Office

January 29, 2015

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Coaches serving over three seasons and in a variety of different sports can have a variety of perspectives when it comes to most topics, including MHSAA rules.

The Coaches Association Presidents Meeting, an annual event hosted Monday at the MHSAA office in East Lansing, allows an opportunity to gather that valuable input as our staff works through pressing issues at the start of each new year.

Presidents from high school coaches associations representing nearly all of our MHSAA-sponsored sports met in East Lansing for an inside look at some of our latest efforts and how that work could affect their sports and the coaches they serve. 

On the menu this time was an update on the MHSAA's drive to increase coaches health and safety training, followed by updates on recent research into how the association might better serve junior high and middle schools. 

The entrée was discussion on out-of-season coaching rules, and how or if they should be altered to allow high school coaches more contact with athletes during offseasons than currently allowed. 

This meeting allows for input on these topics, with the key, again, that the input comes from various sources who face differing circumstances but are all tied together under the umbrella of interscholastic athletics. Input from our coaches associations will be valuable as MHSAA staff and its Representative Council consider potential rules changes over the rest of this school year, and beyond. 

Anytime, Anywhere

July 28, 2014

The MHSAA’s Coaches Advancement Program (CAP) is like no other high school level coaches education program in the US.
In an online world, including many other ways here at the MHSAA, CAP still trades purposefully in face-to-face learning; and the MHSAA Is committed to delivering sessions “anytime, anywhere” – any time a school, district, league or coaches association will sign up 20 coaches, the MHSAA will deliver one or more of the six CAP levels the group requests.
About 60 percent of those who complete CAP Levels 1 through 5 do so as a part of their course work at one of seven colleges or universities in Michigan (Central Michigan University, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Lake Michigan Community College, Muskegon Community College, Northern Michigan University, Oakland County Community College and Western Michigan University).
The other 40 percent of those who complete CAP – and this will be a growing percentage – do so through sessions facilitated by a group of people who have committed many evenings and weekends to CAP’s “anytime, anywhere” approach to ongoing, adult education. During 2013-14, Jerry Haggerty, athletic director at Hamilton High School, led all presenters, teaching 25 sessions. Among other of the busiest presenters were Tony Moreno of Eastern Michigan University; retired athletic administrator Jim Feldkamp; Ken Mohney, athletic director at Mattawan; and Hally Yonko, athletic director at Ann Arbor-Gabriel Richard High School.
The leader of boundless energy and enthusiasm for CAP is MHSAA Assistant Director Kathy Vruggink Westdorp. In 2016-17, CAP Level 1 or 2 becomes a requirement for all persons hired for the first time at any MHSAA member school after July 31, 2016 as a high school varsity head coach. Kathy and a growing cadre of presenters are eagerly awaiting that challenge.
The team closed the 2013-14 school year by presenting eight levels of CAP at six different sites over six days, June 9-14, and then conducted CAP Levels 1, 2 and 3 on three consecutive days, June 19-21, at Clinton High School.