SECTION 11—MAXIMUM NUMBER OF CONTESTS— BEGINNING OF PRACTICE—SCRIMMAGE SESSIONS
SECTION 11 (A)—A high school may have any number of teams in each sport, but only one team from that school may enter the MHSAA tournament for that sport each season. No team or individual is to exceed the following number of contests, games or days of competition in addition to the MHSAA meets or tournaments (1997):

SECTION 11 (B)—Each school team and all players are allowed a maximum of four scrimmages per season. Two of the four allowable scrimmages may be used prior to the first competition for that team in that sport. Varsity and nonvarsity scrimmages may be held at different sites and on different days. In wrestling, after Individual District Tournament competition, qualifiers may scrimmage qualifiers from other schools. In ice hockey, teams are allowed two pre-season scrimmage only. There are to be no scrimmages involving other teams once regular season ice hockey competition has begun. (1997)
SECTION 11 (C)—A scrimmage is defined as a practice session involving students from more than one school, organization or group and when prearranged or scheduled or directed by his/her coach or school representative. Whenever a scrimmage takes place as defined, it counts as a scrimmage for sports listed in this regulation or a day of competition if all allowable scrimmages have been used.
The above scrimmage definition is not intended to exclude an individual from playing or training or practicing on an informal basis, on his/her own time, and without instruction from his/her coach or school representatives. (1980)
SECTION 11 (D)—Practice may commence as follows:
Fall Sports— Football, Monday Aug. 7; Golf, Thursday, Aug. 10; All other sports, Monday the week of Aug. 15 (Aug. 14, 2000).
Winter Sports—Girls Gymnastics, Ice Hockey: Monday the week of Nov. 1 (Oct. 30, 2000).
Girls Competitive Cheer, U.P. Swimming & Diving: Three Mondays prior to Thanksgiving (Nov. 6, 2000)
Boys Basketball, Skiing, and Wrestling: Two Mondays prior to Thanksgiving (Nov. 13, 2000)
Girls Volleyball: Thursday prior to Thanksgiving (Nov. 16, 2000)
Lower Peninsula Boys Swimming & Diving: Monday the week of Thanksgiving (Nov. 20, 2000)
Spring Sports— The second Monday after March 1 for all sports (March 12, 2001)
SECTION 11 (E)—Contests may commence as follows:
Fall Sports— Boys Soccer: 11 days after first practice (Aug. 25, 2000)
L.P. Girls Swimming: 12 days after first practice (Aug. 26, 2000)
Girls Basketball: 14 days after first practice (Aug. 28, 2000)
Football: as described in Regulation II, Section 9(B)
Golf: (Aug. 14, 2000)
Other Fall Sports: any time after practice begins
Winter Sports— Girls Gymnastics: 19 days after first practice (Nov. 18, 2000)
Ice Hockey: Two Mondays before Thanksgiving (Nov. 13, 2000)
U.P. Swimming & Diving: Saturday preceding Thanksgiving (Nov. 18, 2000)
Girls Competitive Cheer: Monday of Thanksgiving week (Nov. 20, 2000)
Wrestling: Third Thursday after practice begins (Nov. 30, 2000).
L.P. Boys Swimming & Diving: 12 days after first practice (Dec. 2, 2000)
Boys Basketball: Monday the week after Girls Basketball Finals; (Dec. 4, 2000)
Skiing, Girls Volleyball: Third Saturday after Thanksgiving (Dec. 9, 2000)
Spring Sports— Girls Soccer: 11 days after first practice (March 23, 2001)
Golf: (March 15, 2001)
Other Spring Sports: any time after practice begins
SECTION 11 (F)—The last game of the regular season in Ice Hockey shall not be played after the last Saturday of February unless MHSAA tournament requirements specify an earlier date. (1997)
SECTION 11 (G)—
1. Sports activities out of season are permitted, provided the following conditions are met:
a. No use of school transportation.
b. No use of school owned and issued warm-ups and/or uniforms.
c. No payment with school district funds of entry fees for teams or individuals to camps or competition unless those funds were generated through school approved activities of booster clubs, school teams, student groups, and community, civic or service groups and are not provided to students on the basis of athletic ability or potential.
d. No mandatory practices, meetings, clinics, camps, scrimmages, conditioning progams or games.
e. Compliance with all applicable regulations and interpretations, including but not limited to:
1) Outside of the MHSAA defined season for a sport, a coach may coach in that sport a maximum of three students from the same school or cooperative program in grades 7 through 12 from Monday the week of August 15 through the last day of the school year for that school. No activities involving two or more 3-player teams are allowed during this time. This does not permit a coach to coach more than three students at one time in grades 7 through 12 if they come from more than one related school of the district (eg., three from the high school and three from a feeder middle school, or three from each of two or more middle schools that feed a single high school).
2) During the summer, informal football activities (with footballs, helmets and football shoes) may take place with a coach and a maximum of seven students, but no activities involving two or more teams are allowed.
Prior to August 1, coaches may participate at bona fide summer football skills camps where more than 7 students from their school district in grades 7 through 12 are participating. (Bona fide football camps are those sponsored by institutions or business enterprises including: colleges, individual schools or intermediate school districts, community school programs, etc.) The camps must be open to students from any school district, and are subject to equipment limitations of shoes and helmets.
Camps limited to students entering grades 9 through 12 must be promoted and advertised in public media to be open to students from more than one high school. Camps sponsored by a high school and limited to students entering grades 9 through 12 may not extend more than 10 days total.
3) During the summer prior to Monday the week of August 15, coaches of these team sports are limited to 15 days when they may coach in competition students of their school district in grades 7 through 12 if the teams (including substitutes) are represented by more than the following player limitations: Soccer (7), Basketball (3), Volleyball (3), Ice Hockey (3). In Football, a maximum of 7 players at one time may engage in organized competition with their school coach present for a maximum of 7 days.
4) From August 1 to Monday the week of August 15, coaches of fall season team sports are subject to the player limitations indicated in parentheses when coaching students of their school district in grades 7 through 12 in sport specific activities: Football (7), Boys Soccer (7), and Girls Basketball (3). There is to be no competition between school teams with their school coaches in these three sports during this period. (1994)
2. School-sponsored “open-gyms” or “after school” activities are permitted in the school district’s facilities out of season if they adhere to these principles:
a. Diversity of students—open to all students.
b. Diversity of activity—offer a variety of sports activities.
c. Student-conducted—students choose from offered activities. Any coach of a sport under MHSAA jurisdiction who is present shall not coach, instruct, critique, direct, or evaluate.
d. Recreational emphasis—not an organized program of instruction and/or competition.
3. School-sponsored “conditioning programs” are permitted out of season if they do not involve equipment which is specific to a sport conducted on an interscholastic basis. Examples of prohibited equipment include, but are not limited to, basketballs; volleyballs or nets; hockey sticks or pucks, track starting blocks, batons, shots, discusses, hurdles, or high jump and pole vault standards; football helmets, pads, footballs, or dummies; baseball/softball bats, balls or bases; wrestling mats; gymnastics apparatus; swimming starting blocks. Generic equipment such as cones, weights, jump ropes, and other fitness apparatuses are permitted.
4. The Michigan School for the Deaf girls basketball and girls volleyball teams may compete out of season only in the Central States Schools for the Deaf Association fall volleyball tournament and winter basketball tournament. These competitions will count against the 18 days of competition in volleyball and 20 games in basketball allowed for that school year. This participation will be allowed one time per sport per school year, and not more than seven calendar days may elapse from the start of practice to the completion of competition for the one time this tournament opportunity is provided each sport each school year.
SECTION 11 (H) — The following provisions are in effect for regular season athletic contests which are postponed by local management due to emergencies that might endanger participants, such as but not limited to, rain, darkness, tornadoes, light failure, etc., unless otherwise stated for that sport in the National Federation rule book:
1. If an athletic event is terminated due to the above mentioned reasons, it will count as a game/day of competition.
2. If that athletic event is to be continued from its point of suspension on another day, it will not count as an additional game/day of competition.
3. If that athletic event is to start over from the beginning, it is to count as an additional game/day competition.

INTERPRETATIONS—SECTION 11
186. Game or contest conditions usually involve league, tournament or organized play or when admission is charged.
187. MHSAA Tournament games or meets are not included in the maximum number of games, contests or days of competition allowed
188. Each game played in a county, league, or invitational basketball tournament must be counted in the allotted twenty games.
189. Scrimmages are for instruction more than competition. Schools may not charge admission (or accept cash donations), charge for parking or conduct raffles in lieu of admission, or publicize results of interscholastic scrimmages in any sport. Awards cannot be given and results may not count on won-loss records of the school. If a timing device is used, normal time shall be altered. The same competition may not be a game for one team and a scrimmage for another; if it is a game for one team, it is a game for both teams.
190. The girls teams are permitted four scrimmages per sport and the boys teams are permitted four scrimmages per sport. Each team within each sport is permitted the same option. The varsity team is permitted four scrimmages and the junior varsity is permitted four scrimmages. Each player may be involved in a maximum of four scrimmages. A student may not compete in four scrimmages for the varsity and four scrimmages for the junior varsity.
191. When a member school is not in session (not weekends but before school begins in August and during holiday vacation), up to three graduates of that school may be present at a practice and prepared to participate in it without their presence and participation counting as a scrimmage, regardless of the sport and the activities of the practice.
192. It is permissible and does not count as a scrimmage for two or more junior high/middle schools or high schools to designate the same person to coach their students in an individual sport or specific skill of a team sport provided there is no direct contact or competition between an athlete of one school against an athlete of another school (for example, to coach the pole vault, diving, uneven parallel bars, catching, serving, goal keeping or punting). It is permissible and does not count as a scrimmage for two or more schools to conduct practice sessions at the same facility at the same time provided there is no direct contact or competition between an athlete of one school against an athlete of another school.
193. Track practice, whether for indoor or outdoor track, may begin Monday the week after March 1.
194. When a member school has sponsored a competitive cheer team and one or more of the same student-athletes comprise any sideline and the competitive cheer squad; then that school may not enter a sideline cheerleading competition during the school year after the MHSAA competitive cheer season has ended.
195. Before the first day of practice for any sport season, voluntary informational meetings conducted by coaches are allowed, but coaches may not conduct tryouts, mandatory meetings or mandatory conditioning sessions prior to the first official practice date.
196. One day prior to the earliest allowable date of practice, schools may permit teams in any sport to assemble at a site other than the regular location of practice. School vehicles may be used.
197. The Representative Council is opposed to athletes being pressured directly or subtly into practicing or competing with their school teammates and/or for their school coaches outside of the school season. Blanket statewide policies to prohibit excessive school and school personnel involvement out of season are difficult to write and more difficult to enforce. Each individual school district has the authority to develop and enforce policies that fit the community’s resources and school-community relationship, and is encouraged to do so.
198. Booster clubs, alumni groups, parent organizations and other groups that exist because of the school may not sponsor or support out-of-season programs or perform out-of-season functions which the school itself is prohibited from doing. See Interpretations 115 and 116 for amateur status concerns related to students’ involvement in out-of-season activities with financial support from school-approved fund raisers.
199. A school-sponsored team, or group sponsored by the school which resembles the school’s team, is not permitted to practice or compete outside the MHSAA defined season for that sport. Activities out-of-season must meet the conditions of Section 11 (G), and non-school groups can sponsor activities which involve groups of athletes which are mainly or exclusively members of a school-team; but a school cannot sponsor practice or competition by its team out-of-season.
200. School buses, vans or other school vehicles shall not be used to transport a school’s students to athletic practice or competition outside the MHSAA defined season for that sport. It is not permissible to use school transportation even if the school is reimbursed by a non-school organization for the expenses of the school vehicle and driver.
201. A student may not wear school owned and issued uniforms or warm-ups to practice or compete out-of-season. To avoid allegations of violations, schools should advise students not to wear any apparel that names a particular school, even if not school-issued.
202. If a school offers an out-of-season sports program to all students but the coach cuts participants or conducts the program in such a way as to be attractive to and involve only those who have been or want to be members of the school’s competitive teams, it is a violation.
203. The regulation which permits a coach to coach a maximum of three students from the same school out-of-season during the school year does not allow two coaches to coach six students from the same school. No matter how many coaches are present, no more than three players from the same school may be involved out-of-season during the school year. Structured and scheduled rotations of more than one three-player group in different activities related to the sport throughout a facility is prohibited. (eg. hitting, throwing, running, lifting)
204. Out-of-season during the three-player limitation period, coaches should not coordinate, officiate at, or in other ways assist with non-school athletic events which involve more than three students from the same school in a sport they coach that is sponsored by that school in grades 7 through 12 in the district in which they coach. This applies to coaches on all levels (varsity, junior varsity, etc.), for either gender, whether paid or volunteeer.
205. When the junior high/middle school defined season for a sport or activity occurs at a time different from the high school’s season, coaches may be appointed by the district to coach, teach or supervise interscholastic or intramural programs at the junior high/middle school level without violating the three-player rule.
206. It is a violation of the three-player rule for a boy to practice with the girls basketball team of his school if it also has a boys basketball team. It is a violation of the three-player rule for a student who was a member of a school’s girls basketball team to practice with the boys basketball team during the same school year. (The same principles apply to all sports where the seasons for boys and girls are different times of the year.) Once the boys season starts after Monday of the week of November 15, it would be permissible to have the boys scrimmage with or against the girls until the end of the girls season.
207. A coach may not show films or video tapes out-of-season during the school year to more than three students from the same school if that coach provides any instruction during the showing.
208. Curriculum courses in a sport, sports or general conditioning are not prohibited by Section 11(G) if they are open to all students. (See Interpretation 176)
209. If a football game is stopped by officials under conditions outlined in Regulation II, Section 11 (H), the game may be rescheduled without reference to a student’s limitation of one football game being played within a five day period.

SECTION 13—“ALL-STAR” CONTESTS/NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
SECTION 13 (A)—No athletic director, coach, teacher, or administrator of a Michigan high school, and no athletic official registered with the Michigan High School Athletic Association, shall at any time during the school year for his or her school, assist either directly or indirectly with the coaching, management, direction, selection or transportation of players, promotion, or officiating of any “all-star” exhibition or similar contest, or of any contest that is or purports to be a national high school championship event or the qualification thereto, in any MHSAA tournament sponsored sport if any of the participants is enrolled in a MHSAA member high school at the time of the event. (1986)
SECTION 13 (B)—Any high school which uses an individual as a coach or manager of an interscholastic athletic team who has violated the provisions of Section A of this Regulation shall be subject to probation or suspension. (1947)
SECTION 13 (C)—Any individual who violates the provisions of Section A of this Regulation shall be ineligible for registration as an athletic official with the Michigan High School Athletic Association for a period of at least one year. (1947)

INTERPRETATIONS—SECTION 13
(See Interpretations #123-138)
210. The Michigan High School Athletic Association is opposed to all-star events and national championships and urges its member schools and their personnel and booster clubs to have no involvement with such events at any time. The meaning of Section 13(A) is to prohibit any involvement.

INTERPRETATION—SECTION 14
211. Approval for live telecasts of interscholastic contests in sports under MHSAA jurisdiction (and same-day tape delay telecasts before 11:30 p.m. Eastern time) may be granted to a school by the MHSAA Executive Director when the following conditions are met:
a. The telecast(s) is over a school-owned and operated or non-commercial community service station.
b. The telecast(s) is at least partially student-produced
c. There are no paid advertisements.
d. There are no rights fees paid to the school.
e. All other MHSAA member schools within the viewing area provide in advance their written statements of support for the telecast(s)

212. Member schools may prohibit filming and videotaping of practice sessions and intrasquad scrimmages.

INTERPRETATIONS—SECTION 15
213. Boys may not participate on a girls team in MHSAA sponsored meets and tournaments.
214. Only those teams playing in a sport during a current season will be eligible to enter the MHSAA meet or tournament in that sport. For example: Girls golf teams playing in the fall season will not be eligible to enter the Girls Regional Golf Tournament in the spring.
215. Only those teams authorized by the board of education and conducted by a school on an interscholastic basis are eligible for MHSAA tournaments, and only if they meet all tournament requirements and deadlines and the criteria of Regulation II, Section 15 (B). In football, the “four or more contests” may be at the subvarsity levels. Only varsity performances may be considered for seeding purposes of entries in individual sports.
216. The MHSAA will consider sponsoring tournament competition in a sport when at least 64 schools sponsor the sport for two consecutive years. Also the MHSAA will consider terminating sponsorship of tournament competition when less than 64 schools sponsor a sport for two consecutive years. The addition or deletion of MHSAA tournament competition in a sport will be at such time as deemed appropriate by the Representative Council.
217. Only those students whose names were not included on District, Regional, or State Tournament Entry Blanks are eligible to participate in reserve team basketball tournaments which are held after the opening date of any of the above MHSAA Tournaments. A school planning to participate in a reserve team basketball tournament should be certain that MHSAA Tournament Entry Blanks and Current Eligibility Lists do not include names of students it desires to use in such a reserve team tournament. A student who participates in a reserve team basketball tournament game after the first day of District competition in the MHSAA Basketball Tournament, may not compete in that MHSAA Basketball Tournament.
218. In the interest of fairness to all participants, if an injunction or restraining order is served or presented at an MHSAA tournament site and such purports to require the eligibility of or participation by a student or team which a school and/or the MHSAA has ruled to be ineligible under MHSAA regulations, the on-site tournament manager is to suspend the entire competition (team competition) or events in which that student is intending to participate (individual competition). If the meet or game has begun, it shall be completed.
219. As a result of Representative Council action of November 2, 1988, only those schools which submit their membership resolution by the Fourth Friday after Labor Day are permitted entry in MHSAA Tournaments for that school year.
220. If a student is omitted from the Master Eligibility List submitted with the MHSAA Tournament Entry Blank, but the school principal attests in writing that the student is eligible, has played on any level of a school team in that sport during the season and was omitted by clerical error from inclusion on the eligibility list submitted for the MHSAA tournament, that student’s name may be added.
NOTE: If a student is on a junior varsity eligibility list only and played only at the junior varsity level during the regular season, that student may be added to the varsity eligibility list before the date published in the respective sport General Information Bulletin; thereafter, the student may not be added.
Schools can avoid problems with tournament rosters by submitting one complete Master Eligibility List including names of eligible athletes from all levels of competition in that sport.
221. A. Individuals or teams which are defeated by an ineligible opponent or teams which allowed one or more ineligible students to participate do not advance in MHSAA tournaments.
B. If placements in MHSAA tournaments are vacated as a result of an individual being ineligible or a team allowing one or more ineligible students to participate, other individuals or teams neither advance to those placements nor receive awards for those places.