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New Football Practice Policies

March 25, 2014

Last Friday, the MHSAA Representative Council adopted the proposals of the Football Task Force revising practice policies that take effect this fall, helping Michigan schools keep pace with an advancing standard of care – a standard that is reducing head-to-head contact in football practice on every level and in every league.

Michigan’s Football Task Force proposal – the result of four meetings during 2013 and much research and work between them – reduces collision practices to one a day before the first game and to two per week after the first game.

A collision practice is one in which there is live, game-speed, player-vs-player contact in pads (not walk-throughs) involving any number of players. This includes practices with scrimmages, drills and simulation where action is live, game-speed, player-vs-player.

A non-collision practice may include players in protective gear. Blocking and tackling technique may be taught and practiced. However, full-speed contact is limited to players versus pads, shields, sleds or dummies.

The new policies also increase the acclimatization period at the start of fall practice from three days to four days – helmets only permitted on the first two days, helmets and shoulder pads only on the third and fourth days.

Click this link for the Complete policy and FAQs.

Moment: Johnson Follows Purple Wall

October 15, 2020

By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties

Brad Johnson saw the wall and was off to the races.

The star do-everything player for Schoolcraft had already scored one touchdown on the day in the 1988 Class D Football Final against Frankfort at the Pontiac Silverdome, and back in a punt return mode in the second quarter, he faked a reverse, saw the wall and he was gone.

An 87-yard punt return, the longest in state finals history by a good 25 yards.

“After making my fake, I looked up and there was a wall,” Johnson told the Detroit Free Press.  “All I had to do was outrun everybody.”

The play gave the Eagles a 21-7 lead at the time and broke the game wide open. Schoolcraft cruised to a 42-7 victory to finish the season at 13-0. 


PHOTO by Gary Shook.