This Week in High School Sports: 1/26/18
January 26, 2018
This week’s show features Holland West Ottawa swimmer Derek Maas, passes out Game Balls to Kyle Hebner of Petoskey in ice hockey and Shine Strickland-Gills and Maddie Camp of Saginaw Hertiage in girls basketball, talks about a new wrestling rule in the "Be The Referee" segment and closes with a variety of notes from around the state.
The 5-minute program, powered by MI Student Aid, leads off each week with feature stories from around the state from the MHSAA’s Second Half or network affiliates. "Be The Referee," a 60-second look at the fine art of officiating, comes in the middle of the show and is followed by a closing MHSAA "Perspective."
Listen to this week's show by Clicking Here.
Past editions
January 19: Ewen-Trout Creek basketball star Jake Witt, Battle of the Fans VII semifinalists - Listen
January 12: 2018 Women In Sports Leadership conference, referees being driven from the game - Listen
January 5: Battle of the Fans VII, "JordanVille" featuring Fennville's Richie Jordan - Listen
December 22: Public Address Announcers Clinic, 2017's most memorable moments - Listen
December 15: Centreville girls basketball, shout-outs to a pair of long-time high school sports figures battling health issues - Listen
December 8: Muskegon quarterback La'Darius Jefferson, unnecessary high school football combines - Listen
December 1: Ottawa Lake Whiteford's MHSAA football title, technology bringing more coverage to MHSAA.tv - Listen
November 24: Central Lake's MHSAA football title, selling 8-player football to 11-player communities - Listen
November 17: Muskegon Reeths-Puffer's 1992 Class A champion football team, a full weekend of NFHS broadcasts - Listen
November 10: Lansing Catholic cross country runner Olivia Theis, 30 years of MHSAA Football Playoff memories - Listen
November 3: Traverse City West golfer Anika Dy, perps and vics in high school sports - Listen
October 27: Pinckney football's Marcus Ford, MHSAA's evolving record book - Listen
October 20: Retired Menominee football coach Ken Hofer and Farmington Hills Harrison football coach John Harrington - Listen
October 13: Sturgis girls golf, Homecomings and another sign of the apocalypse in youth sports - Listen
October 6: Portage Central soccer's Minh Le, college basketball’s shoe scandal - Listen
September 29: Lincoln Alcona soccer keeper Conner McCoy, sportsmanship on the soccer field and cross country course - Listen
September 22: Pontiac Notre Dame Prep's Maddy Chinn, the business that is youth sports - Listen
September 15: Helpful directions in cross country, why sportsmanship resonates - Listen
September 8: Watervliet quarterback Zach Pickens, "High School Football Night" in America - Listen
September 1: Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart girls cross country, correcting a report on the health of Michigan high school football - Listen
August 25: 2016-17 head injury report, return of official Steve Johnson - Listen
Lack of Officials Sounds Warning Again
September 21, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Officials prefer to stay out of the spotlight, but the avocation is at the center of important discussion again as something seemingly inevitable has taken place in the southeastern Lower Peninsula – recently scheduled football games had to be moved because of a lack of officials.
The Hillsdale Daily News’ James Gensterblum tackled the topic in a recent column – and we couldn’t have said it better ourselves:
“This crisis has been a long time coming, and we have no one but ourselves to blame. Fan behavior has never been perfect at high school sporting events, but in the last decade it’s hit an all-time low, and I could find numerous examples across the country to back up this assertion.
… Over the years, I’ve seen opinion pieces to parents appealing to their humanity and civility in order to get them to treat referees better. I’ve seen shame, I’ve seen bargaining, all sorts of rhetorical tactics, all of which seem to have failed. So let me try something a little different. Let me appeal to your love of sports and your investment in their continued survival.”
Check out Gensterblum’s work in its entirety at the Hillsdale Daily News.