Catch These New Rules as Fall Kicks Off
August 7, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The first practices of 2014-15 begin next week for approximately 110,000 student-athletes taking part in eight sports in which the Michigan High School Athletic Association sponsors postseason tournaments, with nearly 41,000 football players practicing under a new policy in that sport aimed at continuing to improve player safety.
The new practice policy was proposed by a Football Task Force made up of coaches, administrators and MHSAA staff which met during 2012 and 2013, and approved by the MHSAA’s Representative Council at its Winter Meeting on March 21.
The modifications are meant to promote heat acclimatization and limit helmet-to-helmet contact during practices. They include:
- During the first week of practice, only helmets are allowed the first two days, only shoulder pads may be added on the third and fourth days, and full pads may not be worn until the fifth day of team practice.
- Before the first regular-season game, schools may not schedule more than one “collision” practice in a day. A collision practice is defined as one in which there is live, game-speed, player-versus-player contact in pads involving any number of players.
- After the first regular-season game, teams may conduct no more than two collision practice days in any week, Monday through Sunday.
- No single football practice may exceed three hours, and the total practice time for days with multiple practice sessions may not exceed five hours. Neither strength/weight training activities nor video/classroom sessions are considered practice for the purposes of the three or five-hour limits.
Previously, schools were required to conduct at least three days of practice without pads before beginning contact. The change to four days for gradual addition of pads was added to assist athletes in acclimating to being physically active in hot weather. Guidelines reducing the amount of collision practice go hand in hand with rules changes that have been made to reduce helmet-to-helmet contact in game situations. The policies in detail can be found on the Football page of the MHSAA Website.
“We think these new policies, with respect to the number of collision practices there can be before the first game, and after the first game, really are where 85 to 90 percent of our coaches already were,” said John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. “This new policy sends a signal to that 10 to 15 percent to get on board with the rest of us to make football just as safe as it can possibly be.”
Practice in football must begin on August 11 for all schools wishing to begin regular-season games the weekend of August 28-30. Schools must have 12 days of preseason practice at all levels before their first game, and those 12 days of practice may not occur before 16 calendar days.
Practice sessions for all other sports begin on Wednesday (August 13). In golf and tennis, competition may commence no earlier than after three separate days of team practice, and not before seven calendar days. The first day competition may take place in golf and tennis is August 20. In all other fall sports, contests can take place after seven days of practice for the team and not before nine calendar days. The first day competition may take place in cross country, tennis, soccer, swimming and diving, and volleyball is August 22.
Only one football date precedes Labor Day, and most varsity games will take place on Thursday, August 28, that week. Subvarsity competition may begin on Wednesday, August 27. In Week 1, 255 games will be played on Thursday, 53 contests will be played on Friday, and five games will be played on Saturday.
Continuing the focus on player safety, a number of rules changes were made in football for 2014:
- Rules were added restricting targeting of opponent and illegal helmet contact with defenseless players, with both resulting in 15-yard penalties. Targeting is defined as taking aim at an opponent with the helmet, forearm, hand, fist, elbow or shoulder to initiate contact above the shoulders and with an intent beyond making a legal tackle or block, or playing the ball. A defenseless player can be considered one no longer involved in a play, a runner whose progress has been stopped, a player focused on receiving a kick or a receiver who has given up on an errant pass, or a player already on the ground.
- Illegal contact to a quarterback now will be considered roughing the passer, and the offense will receive an automatic first down in addition to the previous 15 yards from the penalty.
- On kickoffs, the kicking team must have at least four players on either side of the kicker, and no kicking team players except for the kicker may line up more than five yards behind the free-kick line. These changes were made to improve safety by balancing the kicking formation and shortening the potential run-up by kicking team players heading down the field to tackle the ball carrier.
A number of significant rules changes will go into effect for other fall sports:
- In cross country, the ban on wearing jewelry has been lifted (and also for track and field in the spring). The National Federation of State High School Associations deemed the ban unnecessary in these two sports because there is little risk of injury with minimal contact between competitors. Elimination of the rule will allow officials to further focus on the competition.
- In soccer, Michigan has adopted the National Federation rule stating home teams must wear solid white jerseys and socks, with visiting teams in dark jerseys and socks (dark defined as any color contrasting white). Also, officials may now wear green and blue shirts in addition to red and black as alternates to the primary yellow shirt with black pinstripes.
- Also for soccer, both field players and goalkeepers must now leave the field when injured and the referee has stopped the clock. Previously, an injured goalkeeper was not required to leave the game when the referee stopped the clock; going forward, the keeper must be replaced.
- In swimming and diving, one change affects the beginning of races and another impacts a specific event. The use of starter’s pistols is now prohibited; starters must use an alternative sounding device to start races. Additionally, in the backstroke, a swimmer may not submerge his or her entire body after the start except for during turns. The swimmer must remain on or above the water surface on the finish, eliminating the abuse of submerging well before touching the wall. This change also applies to the finish of the backstroke leg of the individual medley.
The 2014 Fall campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls Tennis Finals the week of Sept. 29, and wraps up with the 11-Player Football Playoff Finals on Nov. 28-29. 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
11-Player Football:
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
Pre-Districts – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
District Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Regional Finals – Nov. 14 or 15
Semifinals – Nov. 22
Finals – Nov. 28-29
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. 21
L.P. Girls Golf:
Regionals – Oct. 8 or 9 or 10 or 11
Finals – Oct. 17-18
Soccer:
Boys L.P. Districts – Oct. 13-18
Boys L.P. Regionals – Oct. 21-25
Boys L.P. Semifinals – Oct. 29
Boys L.P. 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 or 2 or 3 or 4
L.P. Boys Regionals – Oct. 9 or 10 or 11
L.P. Finals – Oct. 17-18
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.
New Field Next Step in Glen Lake Surge
August 31, 2017
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
MAPLE CITY – With school about to begin, Glen Lake will be hosting perhaps its biggest event of the school year tonight.
Perennial power Traverse City St. Francis heads up to Leelanau County to take on the Lakers in a Week 2 football showdown.
Glen Lake, a 42-20 winner over Kingsley in last week’s season opener, is coming off an 11-3 campaign that ended in the MHSAA Division 6 Final at Ford Field. The Lakers lost the title game to Jackson Lumen Christi 26-14.
St. Francis, a 21-7 victor over Marquette last weekend, finished 11-1 a year ago, losing to eventual Division 7 champion Pewamo-Westphalia 17-14 in the Regional Finals.
“Anytime you play St. Francis – it doesn’t matter if you play them on the beach – it’s a big game,” Lakers coach Jerry Angers said.
The two teams will not be playing in the sand tonight. They’ll be playing on Glen Lake’s new synthetic field, which workers put the finishing touches on to meet a down-to-the-wire deadline this week.
The field is the latest positive for the Glen Lake program.
The school board considered installing a new natural grass field, but opted for the artificial turf because of its “usability.”
“Once you accept the premise that the football field needed to be replaced, it wasn’t that much of a leap to go to artificial turf (over natural grass) given how much more we can use it,” superintendent Sander Scott said. “Usability – that was the determining factor.”
The field will be used by other sports teams as well as physical education classes.
“That’s the beauty of it,” athletic director Jennifer Johnston added. “Our entire student body and community can reap the benefits of having a field like that.”
The school board approved spending nearly $850,000 on the surface, but Scott said “it’s looking like it’s going to come in well below that.”
Scott said officials put added emphasis on drainage, an issue that’s plagued Traverse City’s Thirlby Field.
“We’re aware of the challenges Thirlby Field has had (with its synthetic surface), so we really made sure we did not duplicate whatever mistake that was done there,” he said. “We probably overbuilt for drainage.”
The field is not the only new enhancement fans will notice tonight. Officials “beefed up” the wireless network at the field and brought back the berms on the home side for those who prefer lawn seating to bleachers.
The upgrades add to the momentum that’s building in the athletic program. Glen Lake was named the Traverse City Record-Eagle’s School of Year in 2016-17 after the football team reached the MHSAA Finals and the girls basketball team the Semifinals. In addition, Nichole Cox won a third consecutive individual MHSAA Finals golf championship.
“We’re on an upswing,” Angers said. “Everybody is upbeat.
“I know we savored it (last year’s football tournament run). Hopefully, it will fuel us this year – and in years to come.”
Johnston said her message to fall coaches was “keep doing what you’re doing because it’s working.”
“We have a vision and that’s to work hard to improve every day with pride, class and integrity,” she added.
It’s that motto that the school emphasized in ads that ran in the Record-Eagle fall sports tab and in the Leelanau Enterprise.
“We wanted to promote and brand our athletic department,” Johnston said.
Still, Johnston noted, the school has goals other than winning for its student athletes.
“We want to prepare our students to be successful in the real world and contribute to society in a positive way,” she said. “We have high expectations on the playing field, but it starts in the classroom.”
Speaking of the classroom, Glen Lake is on a roll there, too. The school conducted a search this summer for two secondary math teachers with proven records of increasing student achievement. The school even offered a signing bonus. Forty-six teachers applied, compared to 14 for a similar position at another local high school.
Glen Lake ended up hiring two teachers with more than 20 years of experience.
“The one thing we do that distinguishes us from other schools,” Scott said, “is that we will give teachers credit for all their years. When I was part of other districts, the highest they typically go is six years. If you’re a teacher with 20-plus years, you’re not going to take a huge pay cut to move. We wanted to eliminate that (obstacle). We just posted an elementary opening and had 153 applicants.”
For Johnston, she had another reason to celebrate the 2016-17 sports season. Her father, Roy, who coaches basketball at Beaverton, became the state’s all-time winningest coach in that sport last winter.
“I was really excited for him,” she said. “He’s definitely stood the test of time. He’ll be the first to tell you that you’re not put in that position, to reach a milestone like that, without a lot of good players and without the support of a great community and school. To me, the entire Beaverton community earned that accolade.”
When Glen Lake was making its run to Ford Field last fall, Johnston was quick to mention to Angers that he should enjoy every minute of it.
“I said, ‘Jerry, you have to realize my dad’s been coaching 46 years and the furthest he’s made it is to the Semifinals,” she said. “You never know. (The Finals are) quite an accomplishment. Enjoy it to the fullest.”
One game into the new season, Angers already is raving about the support his team is receiving from the student body and community.
“The crowd we had at Kingsley was unbelievable,” he said. “And I expect it will continue to grow.”
Especially with St. Francis coming to town tonight.
But for all the good cheer, Glen Lake is also without a familiar face this season. Paul Christiansen stepped down as girls golf coach after last season, ending a coaching career that started at the school in 1973.
“I texted him after our coaches meeting in August,” Johnston said. “I said, ‘It was sure weird not having you at that coaches meeting.’ He texted me back and said, ‘Trust me, it was sure weird not being there.’”
When Christiansen started in the fall of 1973, he was an assistant varsity football coach and boys JV basketball coach. By the next year, he had become the head football and boys varsity track coach, in addition to coaching JV basketball for his close friend Don Miller.
“After the second year, our superintendent said three (coaching jobs) is too many, especially with two as a head coach at the varsity level,” Christiansen recalled. “He said, ‘I don’t care which ones you do, but pick two. I think you’ll be better off.’”
Christiansen gave up football. But he later picked up a third sport again when he coached girls middle school basketball. He would end up coaching boys JV basketball for 25 years and boys and girls varsity track 20 years apiece. In all, he coached 92 sports seasons at Glen Lake.
“It’s an odd feeling after 44 years,” Christiansen said. “It’s like, ‘Whoa!’ But it was time to move on.”
Christiansen went out on a high note after Cox became just the third girl in MHSAA history to win three consecutive individual golf titles. She’s now at Bowling Green University.
“I didn’t script it that way, but if you were to script it, going out with an individual or team championship would be the way,” he said.
Glen Lake had just three golfers last season, not enough to compete as a team. The school dropped the sport this season.
“For Glen Lake to allow us to keep competing (last season), even though we didn’t have a full complement of players to count as a team score, I was really thankful for that,” Christiansen said. “And Nichole was especially thankful.”
Cox’s title was part of a “wave of success” that highlighted the last school year.
But this is a new year. New teams. New challenges.
Angers, for one, is hoping to keep that momentum rolling, although he lost some talented players to graduation, including eight defensive starters.
“The key is you want to retool (not rebuild) every year and I think that’s where we are right now with the program,” he said.
St. Francis will be a good test.
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Maple City Glen Lake quarterback Cade Peterson prepares to take a snap last season. (Middle top) A drone's view of the new artificial turf field at Glen Lake, set to debut Friday. (Middle below) Peterson breaks through a hole following a block by teammate Max Guilbeau (43). (Below) Recently retired coach Paul Christiansen. (Photos courtesy of Greg Guilbeau [action] Scott Jozwiak [drone] and Don Miller [Christiansen].)