Add, Subtract, Divide, Multiply: MHSAA Not Alone
July 25, 2017
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
This is the third part in a series on MHSAA tournament classification, past and present, that will be published over the next two weeks. This series originally ran in this spring's edition of MHSAA benchmarks.
As the MHSAA faces its most recent classification task with 8-Player Football, and opinions continue to swirl about as to the method, timeframe, location and other procedures, a look around the country provides plenty of company among state association brethren factoring variables into their own equations.
In the Pacific Northwest, the Oregon School Activities Association Football Playoffs are under public scrutiny as leadership ponders a five or six classification format beginning with the 2018-19 school year.
The OSAA has crowned six champions on the gridiron since 2006-07. Many of the state’s smaller schools would like to keep it that way, while larger schools lean toward a five-classification system, citing larger leagues, ease of travel and credibility to state championships as the advantages.
Still others would prefer more than six classes, pointing to safety issues and the opportunity to increase participation numbers as positives.
Moving southeast of Oregon, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association recently voted to hold serve on a classification proposal that was volleyed to the membership.
However, changes still could be forthcoming by as early as the 2018-19 season which would add a fifth classification in more populated southern Nevada while allowing northern schools to participate in four classifications. Such divisions could mean no state championship for the fifth class in southern Nevada.
Because of that, the NIAA wants equal numbers of schools in each classification on both ends of the state. Complicating the issue is the fact that the 24 largest schools in the state, by enrollment, are all in Clark County in Southern Nevada.
Across Nevada’s border into Arizona, charter schools are asking the Arizona Interscholastic Association to reconsider classification that was voted upon and approved in September 2015. That agreement called for the largest 33 percent of charter schools by enrollment to be placed in the state’s largest school classification, 3A, the middle 33 percent into 2A, and the smallest 33 percent into 1A.
Less than two years later the charter schools have had a change of heart and have asked to be considered the same as other Arizona public schools and be placed appropriately by enrollment beginning with the 2018-19 school year.
The situation in Arizona further illustrates how the public/private debate that all state associations have faced throughout existence now has the added dynamic of rapidly growing charter schools in today’s educational system, along with virtual school enrollment.
In the nation’s heartland, Nebraska has retooled its football classifications by using enrollment of boys students only in its schools rather than total enrollment. The Nebraska School Activities Association football-playing schools will kick off the 2018 season using this alignment.
Nebraska has three classes of 11-player football, with the smallest class divided in two, Class C-1 and C-2. The state also will have 8-player football for boys enrollments under 47, and the NSAA will sponsor a new 6-player tournament in 2018 for schools with 27 or fewer boys.
“This is a good proposal because some schools have a sizable imbalance between the number of boys and girls, and there’s a large gap (in enrollment) between the largest and smallest schools in Classes A and B,” NSAA executive director Jim Tenopir said. “I think this addresses both of those concerns.”
Swimmers in Georgia, meanwhile, will feel like they are moving with the current, rather than upstream in 2017-18, as the Georgia High School Association recently doubled the number of team championship events from two to four.
Swim enthusiasts can also count on longer days at the finals, as the top 30 finishers from the prelims will advance to the finals instead of 20, and all championship events will have three heats versus two.
Losses Can't Stop Pioneer from Winning 3rd-Straight Finals Championship
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
March 11, 2023
GRAND RAPIDS – Gabriel Sanchez-Burks didn't see the sense in wallowing over the past.
Instead, the Ann Arbor Pioneer senior swimmer considered it smarter to focus this season on what his team could still accomplish despite huge graduation losses from the program's last two Lower Peninsula Division 1 swimming & diving champions.
That's how Sanchez-Burks explains the Pioneers winning their third-straight Finals title Saturday at Calvin University.
"We lost a lot of good kids, but we stepped up," said Sanchez-Burks, named the Swimmer of the Meet by the Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association after winning two events while helping two relays to titles. "We encouraged the young guys to step up, and they did. It was definitely my most memorable moment; we had so many great successes."
Pioneer topped off its season by scoring 288 points to outdistance runner-up Holland West Ottawa's 177 points. Brighton was third at 156, Novi was fourth with 155 and Zeeland fifth at 147.
This championship came after Pioneer, which had only 10 swimmers on the roster, returned only three key contributors from last year's title-winning team. The team had 18 swimmers on the 2022 champion and 14 on the 2021 title winner. The four seniors on this year's team – Sanchez-Burks, Alec Lipham, Justin Su and Young Yun – never lost a dual, conference or Finals meet over the last three years.
"Every team is different; it's like your children. They have their own makeup, their own personality, their own way of doing things. It's just so rewarding," Pioneer coach Stef Kerska said. "When you're working with 14 or 15-year-old boys, you just try to get them to focus. It takes a special group."
Sanchez-Burks won the 50-yard freestyle (20.19) and the 100 free (45.25) while also helping the 200 free relay (1:33.73) and 200 medley relay (1:25.92) to first places. Pioneer won the meet's first race, the 200 free relay, and never trailed in the meet. Pioneer also won the 400 relay (3:07.96).
"They realize how special our environment and culture is," Kerska said of three-peating. "We remind them to enjoy every day, every practice, every conference meet, every state meet. I feel like they've learned that."
Rockford's Julian Cardenas was named diver of the meet after winning that event with a 474.35. After finishing second last year as a sophomore, he wound up unbeaten this season. He said the difference between finishing runner-up and winning a state title is miniscule.
"It's a fine-tuning. You (can lose) on the smallest of mistakes. It can be your mechanics, your style, where your hands are. I just try to stay relaxed," he said. “It’s all about repetition and doing things over and over again."
Zeeland's Owen Stevens was a double winner, taking the 200 individual medley (1:50.76) and 500 free (4:30.81). The sophomore, who was sixth in the 200 individual medley and fourth in the 500 a year ago, said considering the workload he's put in the last two years, he had hopes of winning a pair of events.
"Your goal is always to win," he said. "When the (seeds) sheet came out, I was seeded well. I've improved every day, put in the work. I worked on all four strokes, and it paid off. You just have to swim your own race and not focus on anyone else."
The other champions included Ryan Gurgel of Canton, who captured the 200 free (1:39.66) and 100 butterfly (49.00). He qualified for the Finals as a freshman and sophomore and was second in the 200 free a year ago.
"It was a goal of mine after coming up short last year," he said of winning a pair of titles. "Expectations can put a lot of pressure on yourself, but you have to live up to them. I think I swam well. I was proud of myself."
Olin Charnstrom of Oxford won the 100 backstroke (49.04), and Brighton's Luke Newcomb won the 100 breaststroke (55.34).
PHOTOS (Top) Ann Arbor Pioneer's Christopher Leuciuc and Detroit Catholic Central's Roshi Turner race in the 200 IM. (Middle) Rockford’s Julian Cardenas completes one of his dives on the way to winning his event. (Below) Zeeland’s Owen Stephens swims to a championship Saturday in the 200 individual medley. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene).