Did you see that?
April 30, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
It's only the end of April. But a number of Michigan's contenders already are in championship form.
Check out our best of results, news and notes from the week that was April 23-28.
Boys Track
What a toss: Walled Lake Central junior Cullen Prena tossed the discus an incredible 187 feet, seven inches, to win the event at the Oxford Invitational by nearly 36 feet. In fact, the toss would've won every MHSAA Final dating back to 2003. Earlier in the week he broke the Oakland County record as well. He also won the shot put at Oxford. (Oakland Press)
Girls Track
South still on top: Reigning MHSAA Division 1 champion Grosse Pointe South earned a strong early win at the Michigan State Spartan Invitational ahead of a field that included annual powers Rockford and Williamston and a strong DeWitt team. Bay City Western won the boys meet. (Playmakers.com)
Baseball
Flint Final set: Goodrich’s Bob Foreback and Davison’s Timm Rye will bring more than 1,000 victories worth of experience into this season’s Greater Flint Area Baseball Tournament championship game when their teams face off on Memorial Day. The two will meet after emerging from the field this weekend. (Flint Journal)
How do you score that: Most telling lines from the Kalamazoo Gazette’s story about Comstock turning a triple play and three double plays in one game came from Comstock coach Rich Bailey: “We have not played particularly good defense. In fact, our defense has been a problem. The skill is there; the execution hasn’t been.” (Kalamazoo Gazette)
Girls Soccer
Poll position: Rochester Adams continued to affect the Division 1 rankings while moving up itself. Adams likely helped to knock rival Rochester out of this week’s honorable mentions with a 2-0 win Thursday. The Friday before, Adams downed then top-ranked Troy 4-1. The Highlanders have opened 7-0 and are ranked No. 3 in Division 1. (Oakland Press)
Boys Basketball
Flint Powers coach moves on: Tim Herman led the Flint Powers Catholic boys basketball program only seven seasons, but they were seven of the Chargers’ most memorable. Herman resigned his post last week after more than 100 wins and the team’s only MHSAA championship, in Class B in 2009. (Flint Journal)
Football
Michigan's finest take next step: At least nine former MHSAA athletes were drafted by NFL teams (by my count) over seven rounds Thursday through Saturday. They were:
- DE Nick Perry (Detroit Martin Luther King/University of Southern California) Green Bay, first round
- DT Mike Martin (Detroit Catholic Central/University of Michigan) Tennessee, third round
- QB Kirk Cousins (Holland Christian/Michigan State University) Washington, fourth round
- WR Keshawn Martin (Westland John Glenn/Michigan State University) Houston, fourth round
- CB Chris Greenwood (Detroit Martin Luther King/Albion College) Detroit, fifth round
- S Trenton Robinson (Bay City Central/Michigan State) San Francisco, sixth round
- LB Audie Cole (Monroe/North Carolina State University) Minnesota, seventh round
- RB Edwin Baker (Oak Park/Michigan State University) San Diego, seventh round
- K John Potter (Grand Haven/Western Michigan University) New York Jets, seventh round
Editor's note: Did we miss something? Comment below and tell us about it. Is there an event coming up that we should make sure to note? Comment or e-mail [email protected].
Class D Schools Set Multi-Sport Participation Record, Overall Rate Remains Steady
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 22, 2026
The MHSAA's eighth Multi-Sport Participation Survey, conducted last spring for the 2025-26 school year, showed just more than 45 percent of athletes at member high schools participated in more than one sport – for the most part consistent with past findings although the state’s smallest schools posted a record high rate of athletes playing more than one sport.
The annual Multi-Sport Participation Survey was inspired by the MHSAA’s Task Force on Multi-Sport Participation, which was appointed in 2016 to study early and intense sport specialization – a serious issue related to health and safety at all levels of youth sports – and to promote multi-sport participation as a way to help stave off overuse injuries and burnout among athletes that have been tied to chronic injuries and health-related problems later in life.
The 2025-26 Multi-Sport Participation Survey received responses from 73.8 percent of member high schools and showed 45.3 percent of athletes at those MHSAA member high schools participating in two or more sports, an almost identical percentage as in 2024-25. For 2025-26, 47.5 percent of male athletes and 42.6 percent of female athletes played multiple sports, again percentages nearly identical to the previous school year. The percentage of multi-sport athletes remains inversely proportional to schools’ enrollments, as Class D schools – the state's smallest – again enjoyed the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes at 64.2 percent, followed by Class C schools (59.5), Class B (49.0) and Class A (38.4).
Results for Class A, B and C schools have remained consistent over the lifetime of the multi-sport participation survey, showing small increases over the years but not overwhelming changes. However, Class D multi-sport participation reached a high in 2025-26, with that 64.2 percent of athletes participating in at least two sports an increase of 6.1 percent since 2017-18. During that time, Class A multi-sport participation is up 3.0 percent, Class B is up 2.3 and Class C is up 4.3.
Battle Creek Harper Creek and Grand Rapids Northview have appeared among the top 10 percent of their respective Classes (A/B/C/D) for multi-sport participation seven of the eight years the survey has been conducted. Three more schools have appeared among the top 10 percent of their respective Classes six of the eight years – Decatur, Detroit Cody and Warren Michigan Collegiate – while East Grand Rapids, Lake Leelanau St. Mary, Manton and Parma Western have appeared among the top 10 percent of their Classes five times apiece.
In Class A, Harper Creek (73.2 percent) posted the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes for 2025-26, followed by Saginaw United (72.7), Harper Woods (72.1) and Macomb L’Anse Creuse North (65.9) also reporting at least 65 percent of athletes playing multiple sports.
Detroit Denby led Class B schools at 83.6 percent of athletes playing more than one sport, followed by Warren Michigan Collegiate (83.3), Ecorse (78.1), Detroit Osborn (75.6), Dearborn Heights Robichaud (76.2) and Flint Hamady (76.1) all topping 75 percent. In Class C, Detroit Community reported all 72 of its athletes played multiple sports during the 2025-26 school year, followed by Galesburg-Augusta (82.7 percent), Kingston (82.1), Niles Brandywine (80.7) and Martin (80.4) reaching 80 percent.
Watersmeet also reported all 27 of its athletes were multi-sport participants, followed in Class D by Lake Leelanau St. Mary (95.5 percent), Carney-Nadeau (94.8), Onekama (92.5) and Atlanta (90.9) reaching 90 percent.
The full summary report on the Multi-Sport Participation Survey is available on the “Multi-Sports Benefits” page.