O-K Red Tennis Rivals Team Up to Promote Mental Health Awareness
By
Jon Ross
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
October 7, 2022
The Ottawa-Kent Conference Red boys tennis championship was decided Saturday, but all eight teams also teamed up for something bigger.
All participants from league members Caledonia, East Kentwood, Grand Haven, Grandville, Hudsonville, Jenison, Rockford, and Holland West Ottawa warmed up together, wearing special “be nice.” shirts in their respective school colors.
The Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan provides the be nice. program, with its mission to promote mental health awareness and prevent suicide through education with a four-step action plan (Notice, Invite, Challenge, Empower). Additionally, be nice. provides mental health awareness training to all head coaches of MHSAA-sponsored sport teams.
“Over the past four years, coaches have received mental health and suicide prevention education by learning the be nice. action plan through annual rules meetings. Now these coaches are bringing it to their athletes and parents,” said Christy Buck, executive director of the Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan. “To see these coaches recognize the importance of having mental health discussions on their teams with their athletes gives me the chills. For the entire O-K Red, 140 coaches and athletes, to then take it a step further and bring awareness to their community is incredible. The information people received that day, without a doubt, started important conversations that will be life-changing for someone who was struggling, and that's what we're trying to do. The be nice. team program is simple, accessible, and it's going to save lives."
Leading up to the competition, every team had access to a be nice. team training that taught them to recognize the signs and symptoms of a mental illness and how to take action when they notice these changes. This program is a simple and effective way to empower coaches and athletes with a game plan for mental health concerns. Parents and spectators also were briefed on the be nice. action plan before the tournament began.
“Tennis is competitive and intense in the Red, but for the players and coaches, we see tennis as an extension of something bigger. It's about life, friendships, camaraderie, learning how to deal with adversity, learning how to lose, learning how to win, coming together as a family and creating collective goals,” said Rockford varsity tennis coach Tom Huizing. “Every day we try to live the be nice. way. Not only within our teams or within our conference, but within our lives outside of tennis.
“We've had many be nice. matches within the O-K Red, but now we wanted to set the standard as a conference and let everyone know that we are in this life together. We will notice, invite, challenge, and empower. All of us, not just one player or one coach or one team. Every player, every coach, every team. We want to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. So that's what we're doing on the biggest stage for our tennis conference. We are coming together at the O-K Red Conference finals and we are making a pact as an entire conference to be nice.”
Hudsonville and West Ottawa ended the season as co-champions of the O-K Red.
PHOTO The O-K Red brought together 140 athletes and coaches for its boys tennis championship tournament and also in an effort to bring awareness through the be nice. program. The entire group is pictured above, and the coaches below. (Photo courtesy of be nice.)
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Field Hockey Debut, Tennis Finals Change Among Most Notable as Fall Practices Set to Begin
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 8, 2025
The addition of girls field hockey as a sponsored postseason championship sport and a revised schedule for Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals are the most significant changes to fall sports as practices are set to begin Monday, Aug. 11, for an anticipated 100,000 high school athletes at Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools.
The fall season includes the most played sports for both boys and girls; 36,210 football players and 19,679 girls volleyball players competed during the Fall 2024 season. Teams in those sports will be joined by competitors in girls and boys cross country, field hockey, Lower Peninsula girls golf, boys soccer, Lower Peninsula girls swimming & diving, Upper Peninsula girls tennis and Lower Peninsula boys tennis in beginning practice next week. Competition begins Aug. 15 for cross country, field hockey, golf, soccer and tennis, Aug. 20 for swimming & diving and volleyball, and Aug. 28 for varsity football.
Field hockey is one of two sports set to make its debut with MHSAA sponsorship during the 2025-26 school year; boys volleyball will play its first season with MHSAA sponsorship in the spring.
There are 37 varsity teams expected to play during the inaugural field hockey season. There will be one playoff division, with the first MHSAA Regionals in this sport beginning Oct. 8 and the first championship awarded Oct. 25.
To conclude their season, Lower Peninsula boys tennis teams will begin a pilot program showcasing Finals for all four divisions at the same location – Midland Tennis Center – over a two-week period. Division 4 will begin play with its two-day event Oct. 15-16, followed by Division 1 on Oct. 17-18, Division 2 on Oct. 22-23 and Division 3 played Oct. 24-25.
Also in Lower Peninsula boys tennis, and girls in the spring, a Finals qualification change will allow for teams that finish third at their Regionals to advance to the season-ending tournament as well, but only in postseason divisions where there are six Regionals – which will be all four boys divisions this fall.
The 11-Player Football Finals at Ford Field will be played this fall over a three-day period, with Division 8, 4, 6 and 2 games on Friday, Nov. 28, and Division 7, 3, 5 and 1 games played Sunday, Nov. 30, to accommodate Michigan State’s game against Maryland on Nov. 29 at Ford Field.
Two more changes affecting football playoffs will be noticeable this fall. For the first time, 8-Player Semifinals will be played at neutral sites; previously the team with the highest playoff-point average continued to host during that round. Also, teams that forfeit games will no longer receive playoff-point average strength-of-schedule bonus points from those opponents to which they forfeited.
A pair of changes in boys soccer this fall will address sportsmanship. The first allows game officials to take action against a team’s head coach in addition to any cautions or ejections issues to players and personnel in that team’s bench area – making the head coach more accountable for behavior on the sideline. The second change allows for only the team captain to speak with an official during the breaks between periods (halftime and during overtime), unless another coach, player, etc., is summoned by the official – with the penalty a yellow card to the offending individual.
A few more game-action rules changes will be quickly noticeable to participants and spectators.
- In volleyball, multiple contacts by one player attempting to play the ball will now be allowed on second contact if the next contact is by a teammate on the same side of the net.
- In swimming & diving, backstroke ledges will be permitted in pools that maintain a 6-foot water depth. If used in competition, identical ledges must be provided by the host team for all lanes, although individual swimmers are not required to use them.
- Also in swimming & diving – during relay exchanges – second, third and fourth swimmers must have one foot stationary at the front edge of the deck. The remainder of their bodies may be in motion prior to the finish of the incoming swimmer.
- In football, when a forward fumble goes out of bounds, the ball will now be spotted where the fumble occurred instead of where the ball crossed the sideline.
The 2025 Fall campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls Tennis Finals during the week of Sept. 29 and wrapping up with the 11-Player Football Finals on Nov. 28 and 30. Here is a complete list of fall tournament dates:
Cross Country
U.P. Finals – Oct. 18
L.P. Regionals – Oct. 24 or 25
L.P. Finals – Nov. 1
Field Hockey
Regionals – Oct. 8-21
Semifinals – Oct. 22 or 23
Final – Oct. 25
11-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
District Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
District Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Regional Finals – Nov. 14 or 15
Semifinals – Nov. 22
Finals – Nov. 28 and 30
8-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
Regional Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
Regional Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Semifinals – Nov. 15
Finals – Nov. 22
L.P. Girls Golf
Regionals – Oct. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11
Finals – Oct. 17-18
Boys Soccer
Districts – Oct. 8-18
Regionals – Oct. 21-25
Semifinals – Oct. 29
Finals – Nov. 1
L.P. Girls Swimming & Diving
Diving Regionals – Nov. 13
Swimming/Diving Finals – Nov. 21-22
Tennis
U.P. Girls Finals – Oct. 1, 2, 3, or 4
L.P. Boys Regionals – Oct. 8, 9, 10, or 11
L.P. Boys Finals – Oct. 15-16 (Division 4), Oct. 17-18 (Division 1), Oct 22-23 (Division 2), and Oct. 24-25 (Division 3)
Girls Volleyball
Districts – Nov. 3-8
Regionals – Nov. 11 & 13
Quarterfinals – Nov. 18
Semifinals – Nov. 20-21
Finals – Nov. 22
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.