This Week In High School Sports: 11/16/21

By Jon Ross
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties

November 16, 2021

This edition concludes a review of the Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals, awards Game Balls to high achievers in volleyball and football, and sets the scene for another busy weekend of championships in volleyball, girls swimming & diving and 8-player football.MI Student Aid

The 5-minute program each week includes feature stories from around the state from the MHSAA’s Second Half or network affiliates, along with "Be The Referee," a 60-second look at the fine art of officiating.

"This Week in High School Sports" is powered by MI Student Aid, a part of the Office of Postsecondary Financial Planning located within the Michigan Department of Treasury.

Listen to this week's show by Clicking Here.

Previous editions

Nov. 9: Lower Peninsula Cross Country, Boys Soccer Finals review Listen
Nov. 2: Title IX at 50 celebration, Fall championship broadcasts Listen
Oct. 27: Upper Peninsula Cross Country Finals review, soccer/volleyball playoff update Listen
Oct. 20: Lower Peninsula Girls Golf & Boys Tennis Finals review Listen
Oct. 13: Middle school/junior high cross country Regionals, football playoff selection Listen
Oct. 6: Upper Peninsula girls tennis champions, football broadcast update Listen
Sept. 29: Girls swimming & diving "Meet of Champions," Schoolcraft's star kicker  Listen
Sept. 22:
Spartan Invitational "elite" races, John U. Bacon's "Let Them Lead"  Listen
Sept. 15:
Volleyball powers face off, Tiger Teusink's tennis legacy Listen
Sept. 8:
Fall sports rules changes, Adrian Lenawee Christian inspiration – Listen
Sept. 1: 
Boys soccer seeding process, Beaver Island athletics – Listen
Aug. 25:
 Return of Fall sports, “enhanced strength-of-schedule” football playoff format – Listen

Youth Sports: 'Focus on the End User'

August 24, 2018

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

As we at the MHSAA work toward promoting the benefits of a multi-sport experience at the high school level, we – with our Multi-Sport Task Force – realize these messages will be most valuable when they reach parents of children at the youth levels.

Below is an 18-minute TEDx talk by Travis Dorsch, a former kicker and punter at Purdue University and with multiple NFL teams who went on to receive his doctorate from Purdue and currently serves as an assistant professor at Utah State. He has conducted significant study on children’s youth sport participation and its impacts particularly on family relationships. 

In this talk, he speaks on proper expectations for young athletes and how financial costs of youth sports have twisted those expectations.

Dorsch will speak at the 6th Annual Kristen Marie Gould Endowed Lecture on Sport for Children and Youth on Sept. 6 at Michigan State University. He will be lecturing on “From Sandlot to Stadium: What We Know, What We Don't, and Best Practices for Parent Involvement in Youth Sport.”