Did you see that?
May 14, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
It's league championship time for many MHSAA teams, especially with tennis and track and field Regionals coming up later this week. And the week that was May 7-12 provided for a good share the first of many championship-level opportunities to shine.
Tennis
Streak stopper: The Fenton tennis team ended Holly's 29-season league title run by edging the Bronchos by a point in Tuesday’s Metro League championship tournament. The Flint Journal reported that Madison Ballard became the first Fenton No. 1 singles player to win a league championship in 24 seasons. (Tri-County Times)
Softball
On the rise: Division 1 No. 5 Portage Central swept top-ranked Mattawan -- putting Portage Central ahead by two games at the top of the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference West standings. (Kalamazoo Gazette)
Strike 75: Fennville’s Selena Beltran-Pena had strikeouts for 25 of 30 outs in two five-inning wins over Martin. Beltran-Pena threw a no-hitter in the opener and a one-hitter in the second game. (Holland Sentinel)
Tuned up: Saginaw Swan Valley beat three ranked Division 3 teams – No. 2 Saginaw Valley Lutheran, No. 4 Tawas and No. 7 Unionville-Sebewaing – as part of a round-robin brought on by a delay at the Hemlock Invitational that forced the tournament to break up into smaller groups of games. Swan Valley is ranked No. 3 in Division 2. (Saginaw News)
Track and Field
Down to the wire: Two of the state’s best boys and girls teams compete in the O-K Red, and Friday’s conference championship meet no doubt provided at least a partial preview of next month’s MHSAA Division 1 Finals. The top-ranked Rockford girls edged No. 2-ranked East Kentwood, while the top-ranked East Kentwood boys ran away from the No. 3 Rockford boys and the rest of the field to win that league title. (Grand Rapids Press)
Record Breaker: Jackson High’s Cierra Pryor won the 100 meters and also the long jump at Friday’s Siena Heights Invitational, with her jump of 19 feet, 1.5 inches breaking a 31-year-old school record. (Jackson Citizen-Patriot)
Just getting started: Richland Gull Lake freshman Kirsten Taylor also broke her school's long jump record, which had stood since 1978, with a leap of 18-5. (Kalamazoo Gazette)
Still undefeated: Norway’s Dani Gagne had won all 24 events in which she’d competed through Friday, including winning the 100, 200, 400 and long jump at the Norway Miners Co-Ed Meet. Her long jump of 17-0.5 broke her school record in that event set a year ago, and her 58.61 in the 400 broke another school record set during the early 1980s. (Iron Mountain Daily News)
Baseball
Best of the Best: Richland Gull Lake, ranked No. 3 in Division 2, beat top-ranked Grand Rapids Christian 10-4 in the championship game of its Best of the Best Invitational. Gull Lake also beat No. 5 St. Clair during the event. (Kalamazoo Gazette)
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].
MHSAA 2025-26 Attendance Figures Show Increases in 10 Sports, Nearly Offsetting Early Deficit
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 25, 2026
Increased attendance in 10 sports nearly made up for a likely Halloween-driven deficit during the first week of last season’s football playoffs as Michigan High School Athletic Association postseason tournament attendance approached 1.4 million spectators again for the 2025-26 school year.
Total, MHSAA Tournament events drew 1,381,218 spectators at competitions for which admission is charged – which counts all MHSAA-sponsored sports except golf, skiing and tennis, as single tickets are not sold for those postseason events. The total of just under 1.4 million spectators was a decrease of 16,356 tickets sold across all sports (1.2 percent) from 2024-25 – but notable increases in other sports helped make up for a year-to-year decrease of 37,617 tickets (29 percent) for the District Semifinal round of the MHSAA 11-Player Football Playoffs, which along with 8-Player Regional Semifinals coincided with Halloween in 2025.
The Boys Lacrosse Tournament saw record attendance during its Semifinals and overall with 18,067 tickets sold across all rounds – that total representing an 18-percent increase from the previous season. Girls Volleyball Tournament attendance approached its overall record, with 118,332 tickets sold an increase of 6.7 percent from the 2025 postseason and just 99 tickets shy of tying the record set during the 2019 season. Girls volleyball did set records at the District (78,307) and Regional (26,793) levels.
Girls attendance as a whole rebounded in 2025-26, up to 460,730 tickets sold, an increase of 1.6 percent over the previous year. Girls basketball (146,322), competitive cheer (29,491), lacrosse (5,573) and individual wrestling (5,539) all joined volleyball as showing attendance jumps. Overall attendance for cross country (girls and boys combined) also saw an increase (17,778), as did boys basketball (262,338), boys swimming & diving (5,831) and individual wrestling (47,903). The Individual Wrestling Finals, specifically, enjoyed their largest audience since 2016-17.
Football did receive good news, despite the lower attendance that first week and also slightly lower attendance year-to-year for the 11-Player District Finals. The Regional rounds of the playoffs, 11 and 8-player combined, saw their highest attendance (68,469) since the 2012 season, and despite 8-Player Regional Semifinals coinciding with Halloween. The Semifinals attendance (33,085) saw their highest attendance also since 2012, and Finals attendance (44,708) was its highest since 2019.
The MHSAA also sponsored postseasons for the first time for field hockey and boys volleyball, adding overall ticket sales of 2,084 and 8,158, respectively.
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.