Armada's Fredette Receives NFHS Honor
January 16, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Longtime Armada tennis coach David Fredette has been named one of 23 National Coaches of the Year for 2018-19 by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NHFS) Coaches Association.
Fredette was selected first at the state level and then from among the eight sections that make up the NFHS – Michigan is part of Section 4 with Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin.
The following brief bio includes an excerpt from Fredette’s coaching philosophy, which nominees were asked to submit after being identified as candidates for the awards.
David Fredette began Armada’s tennis program in 1966 and coached the boys team through the 2018 season. He led more than half his teams over the years to the MHSAA Finals, and 17 to top-10 finishes at the championship meet – including four straight from 2009-12. He also was a major contributor during the early days of the Michigan High School Tennis Coaches Association, and began serving on its board in 1982. Four times he was selected MHSTeCA state Coach of the Year: in Class C-D in 1982, Class B in 1992, and as one of two selections in Division 4 in both 1998 and 2018. Fredette was inducted into the MHSTeCA Hall of Fame in 1988. Armada’s tennis courts are named for him.
Fredette played tennis at Dowagiac High School and then Benton Harbor Community College. He also coached basketball and football during his time at Armada.
“Athletics give students a chance to become student-athletes, which means athletics teach athletes discipline, a strong work ethic, and cooperation with others. Athletics teach athletes how to not only compete, but how to handle both winning and losing. … I know that students who play sports upon graduation are more prepared to face the challenges that life presents them. While I always expected my players to work hard, I wanted my athletes to enjoy the experiences on and off the courts. My former players tell me how much they enjoyed competing, but also how much fun they had on the trips we went on together, whether it was to play top competition across the state of Michigan or on the Florida trips I took my boys teams on over Easter vacation from 1989 through 2001 to practice and bond as a team. Athletes learn how to compete, but they also gain friendships that last a lifetime, if only in their memories.”
Four more Michigan coaches earned honors in Section 4. Brighton girls swimming & diving coach Jason Black led the Bulldogs to a Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals runner-up finish in Fall 2018, its best placing in program history. Dexter boys swimming & diving coach Michael McHugh was selected for the second-straight year as a Section 4 winner after leading his team to its fourth-straight Lower Peninsula Division 2 championship last winter. Battle Creek St. Philip volleyball coach Vicky Groat at one point guided the Tigers to nine Class D championships in 10 seasons from 2005-14 and is the sixth-winningest coach in MHSAA volleyball history with a record of 1,154-262-93. Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart co-coach Judy Hehs helped lead that program to its second-straight Lower Peninsula Division 4 championship this past fall, its sixth title in eight seasons, in her final tournament before retirement. She previously was named NFHS Coaches Association National Coach of the Year for girls tennis in 2016.
The NFHS has been recognizing coaches through an awards program since 1982. Winners of NFHS awards must be active coaches during the year for which they receive their award.
43 Percent of Athletes are Multi-Sport
August 19, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Nearly 43 percent of athletes at MHSAA member high schools continued to participate in two or more sports in 2018-19, according to the Multi-Sport Participation Survey, reinforcing similar data collected for the first time two years ago and providing a foundation for work by the MHSAA’s Multi-Sport Task Force as it prepares to continue efforts this fall to promote the multi-sport high school experience.
Early and intense sport specialization has become one of the most serious issues related to health and safety at all levels of youth sports, as overuse injuries and burnout among athletes have been tied to chronic injuries and health-related problems later in life. In early 2016, the MHSAA appointed the Task Force on Multi-Sport Participation as part of a continued effort to promote and protect participant health and address the issues leading to early sport specialization.
The multi-sport participation survey was created in 2018 to provide data on the prevalence of sport specialization at MHSAA member high schools. This year’s survey received responses from 82.9 percent of member high schools and measured how multi-sport participation exists at schools. The collection of survey results annually is expected to show how schools are succeeding in promoting a multi-sport high school experience, providing another tool as schools work to guide students toward a well-rounded interscholastic sports career.
From schools that responded to this year’s survey, 42.9 percent of students participated in athletics in 2018-19 – 46.3 percent of boys and 39.5 percent of girls. The overall participation number was up nearly half a percent from 2017-18 (42.5), with the boys percentage holding steady and the girls increasing nearly a full percent from a year ago. Class D schools – those with the smallest enrollments – again enjoyed the highest percentage of athletes among the entire student body, at 57.1 percent, followed by Class C (50.7), Class B (45.8) and Class A (39.4).
Of those athletes counted by responding schools, 43 percent participated in more than one sport – including 45.1 percent of boys and 40.4 percent of girls – with all three of those percentages nearly identical to those derived from the first survey a year ago. Class D again enjoyed the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes, 61.8 percent, followed by Class C (56.7), Class B (48.7) and Class A (35.4).
Similar results for overall sport participation and multi-sport participation relative to enrollment size were seen by further breaking down Class A into schools of fewer than 1,000 students, 1,000-1,500 students, 1,501-2,000 students and more than 2,000 students. Similarly to 2017-18 for both sport participation as a whole and multi-sport participation specifically, the smallest Class A schools continued to enjoy the highest percentages, while percentages then decreased for every larger size group of schools.
Also of note, the percentage of two-sport athletes at every school measure around one-third of athletes – from 29.2 percent at Class A schools to 35.7 at Class B, 37.2 at Class C and 35.6 at Class D. However the number of athletes participating in three sports decreased substantially relative to the increase in school enrollment, with 22.5 percent of Class D athletes playing three sports, 18.2 in Class C, 12.4 in Class B and 6.0 percent in Class A.
The MHSAA Task Force on Multi-Sport Participation will be meeting this fall to discuss creating a program to measure multi-sport participation at MHSAA member schools and to recognize “achievers” – that is, schools that surpass the norm given their enrollment and other factors that affect school sports participation.
For 2018-19, in Class A, Marquette posted the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes with 85.9 percent, up 3.3 percent from its top-ranking Class A percentage from 2017-18. Grand Rapids Northview also topped 80 percent multi-sport participation, with 83.1 percent of its athletes playing two or more sports. Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, Detroit East English and Gibraltar Carlson all saw multi-sport participation from at least 70 percent of their athletes.
In Class B, four schools again achieved at least 80 percent multi-sport participation – Coloma (87.2 percent), Gladstone (86.7), Flat Rock (83.2) and Dundee (80.2), while 10 schools had 70 percent or more athletes playing at least two sports.
Six Class C schools reported more than 80 percent of its athletes taking part in more than one sport – Schoolcraft (87.1), Mayville (86.2), Manton (85.3), Houghton Lake (84.9), Cass City (84.7) and Decatur (83.5) – and 12 schools total with 75 percent or more athletes participating in multiple sports. There were 14 Class D schools with multi-sport participation at 80.9 percent or higher, with Gaylord St. Mary (93.2), Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes (91.5) and Watersmeet (90.3) topping the survey not just for Class D but among all schools that responded.
The full summary report on the Multi-Sport Participation Survey is available on the “Health & Safety” page of the MHSAA Website.