This Week In High School Sports: 3/19/21
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 26, 2021
This week's edition highlights a new all-time leading basketball scorer in the city of Battle Creek and celebrates this year's Women In Sports Leadership Award honoree, St. Ignace girls basketball coach Dorene Ingalls.
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.
Listen to this week's show by Clicking Here.
Past editions
March 19: Upper Peninsula Swimming & Diving Finals, Marysville hoops record - Listen
March 12: Record-setting wrestling pin, basketball buzzer beater - Listen
March 5: Basketball and hockey seeding, Elk Rapids high-scoring hoops family - Listen
Feb. 26: Skiing Finals review, newly-scheduled start of Spring sports - Listen
Feb. 19: 1,000-point basketball scorers, Skiing Finals preview - Listen
Feb. 12: Scholar-Athlete Awards, Winter contact sports return - Listen
Jan. 29: 11-Player Football Finals in review - Listen
Jan. 22: 8-Player Football, Girls Volleyball, Girls Swimming & Diving Finals in review - Listen
Jan. 15: Game-winning kicks, playing for mom - Listen
Jan. 8: Fall sports return, sacrificing for sportsmanship - Listen
Nov. 13: Cross Country champions, Soccer Finals in review, official selection - Listen
Nov. 6: University Liggett's William Cooksey, boys tennis four-time individual champions - Listen
Oct. 30: Upper Peninsula Cross Country Finals in review - Listen
Oct. 23: Lower Peninsula Girls Golf, Boys Tennis Finals in review - Listen
Oct. 16: Byron Center volleyball, girls golf aces - Listen
Oct. 9: Grand Rapids Union football, first 2020-21 champions - Listen
Oct. 2: East Lansing football, late Port Huron sportswriter Jim Whymer - Listen
Sept. 25: Sturgis football, soccer official Alexus Little - Listen
Sept. 18: COVID-19 review, this year's broadcast opportunities - Listen
Century of School Sports: MHSAA Work Guided by Representative Council
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 3, 2024
One of the most common misconceptions about the MHSAA over its 100-year history is that all decisions regarding school sports in Michigan are made by the staff in the East Lansing office.
The MHSAA truly is an organization built upon its membership, with its Representative Council the legislative body that has produced the rules and tournament schedules currently in place to provide structure in athletics for more than 750 high schools and hundreds more middle schools across the state.
The Representative Council is the 19-member legislative body of the MHSAA. All but five members are elected by member schools. Four members are appointed by the Council to facilitate representation of females and minorities, and the 19th position is occupied by the Superintendent of Public Instruction or designee.
The Council considers all proposals brought before it from MHSAA sport and other appointed committees that meet throughout the year, and also makes decisions on a variety of eligibility rules, postseason tournament and operational issues. The Council regularly considers 30 committee proposals during its Spring meeting alone, along with a handful of others during Fall and Winter meetings which otherwise are primarily opportunities for discussion of topics that may come up for action at a later date.
Eight representatives are elected across four regions – two apiece from the Northern Lower Peninsula, Southeastern Michigan, Southwestern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula – and also based on school enrollment, with one representative from each of those regions from the larger Class A and B-sized schools and one representative from each region from the smaller Class C and D-sized schools. There are also two statewide at-large positions, two representing junior high/middle schools, and elected representatives from Detroit Public Schools and private and parochial schools.
All Representative Council members must be representatives of a member school, as faculty or board of education members. Every Council candidate must have superintendent or principal approval in writing and be qualified for the position for which that person is running.
Elections take place every fall after names of candidates are submitted and published to the MHSAA Website by April 15 the preceding spring. Ballots are mailed to schools in September and must be postmarked no later than two weeks after they were sent by the MHSAA office. A Board of Canvassers appointed annually counts the ballots, which must be signed by the principal and superintendent of that member school (except for private and parochial schools, which require signature by the principal only).
Council members are selected by majority vote.
Terms for elected Council representatives are two years long. Appointed members also serve two-year terms and may not serve longer than two successive terms.
The Council meets three times annually. Council officers – president, vice president and secretary-treasurer – are elected during the Fall meeting for the full Council.
Five members of the Council also convene monthly during the school year to form the MHSAA’s Executive Committee, which reviews appeals of Handbook regulations by member schools. Those five include the three elected officers.
Previous "Century of School Sports" Spotlights
Nov. 26: Finals Provide Future Pros Early Ford Field Glory - Read
Nov. 19: Connection at Heart of Coaches Advancement Program - Read
Nov. 12: Good Sports are Winners Then, Now & Always - Read
Nov. 5: MHSAA's Home Sweet Home - Read
Oct. 29: MHSAA Summits Draw Thousands to Promote Sportsmanship - Read
Oct. 23: Cross Country Finals Among MHSAA's Longest Running - Read
Oct. 15: State's Storytellers Share Fall Memories - Read
Oct. 8: Guided by 4 S's of Educational Athletics - Read
Oct. 1: Michigan Sends 10 to National Hall of Fame - Read
Sept. 25: MHSAA Record Books Filled with 1000s of Achievements - Read
Sept. 18: Why Does the MHSAA Have These Rules? - Read
Sept. 10: Special Medals, Patches to Commemorate Special Year - Read
Sept. 4: Fall to Finish with 50th Football Championships - Read
Aug. 28: Let the Celebration Begin - Read
PHOTO The MHSAA Representative Council and Executive Director Mark Uyl (front row, far right) take a group photo during its Spring Meeting in May. (Photo by Jon Ross.)