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.
Charlevoix Golf Playing to Add Championship to Awe-Inspiring Comeback
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
June 3, 2026
The final chapter in Bryce Boss’ high school golf career will be written this weekend at the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final at Michigan State’s Forest Akers West.
Boss will be playing in his third Final after leading Charlevoix to a Regional title last week. Now a senior, he will tee off with hopes of winning an individual and team championship.
“Bryce has a great chance this spring,” said coach Doug Drenth. “He's such a great leader for us and is doing such a great job. He's such a great example for Charlevoix. It’s pretty cool to see how far he's come.”
With Boss in the lineup, Charlevoix finished fourth at the 2023 Final. The Rayders finished sixth in 2024 current teammates Joe Gaffney, now a senior, and Maxwell Drenth, a junior, joining Boss in the lineup.
Charlevoix didn’t qualify for last season’s championship rounds, finishing eighth at the Regional. Gaffney and Drenth were unable to golf that day and missed the majority of last season after the team was part of a horrific car crash that April 27. The team was on its way to spend the night at Crystal Mountain, returning from the first day of a two-day tournament at Arcadia Bluffs. Coach Drenth was driving the team van.
Boss and now-junior Landen Whistler were able to come back from the crash and play in the Regional, along with seniors Jackson Crouse and Emmett Bergmann and now-senior Keane Helstrom.
“It’s more about the guys who really missed out last year, their recovery and their comeback,” Boss noted about this weekend’s opportunity. “Especially for guys like Coach, and for Joe, and for Maxwell, who really missed out last year on everything because of the accident, and now we're making a comeback as a team.”
And what a comeback it has been.
Boss endured scrapes, a concussion and bruised ribs in the crash. He and Whistler were able to return to school a few days after, but others, especially Coach Drenth and Gaffney, were not as they suffered near-fatal injuries.
So far, the comeback on the golf course has included Northern Shores Conference and Regional championships for the Rayders with Boss, Gaffney, Whistler and Max Drenth scoring in both. Boss was crowned conference and Regional champion while leading the Rayders back to the Final.
The team shot the lowest round in school history at the conference meet.
“Sometimes when you talk about hard things, you can gain some therapy,” acknowledged Drenth, now in his ninth season at the helm of the Rayders. “But I would say that we're all looking forward to moving on in life. I'm grateful that we're here, and we're looking forward to just being back to ‘normalish.’ I feel like we are looking at hope and what we can achieve. So I'm looking forward to moving on.”
Part of the moving on for the Rayders included adding Helstrom and freshman Blake Boss to the regular lineup.
As his final chapter is revealed this weekend, Boss believes even better Charlevoix golf teams will materialize after he graduates. Max Drenth, who was hospitalized more than a week after the crash, and Whistler will be among those back next year to carry on the program’s success.
“Maxwell and Landon are going to do awesome,” Boss said. “Blake just realized this year that golf is really a sport that he wants to do, so hopefully that'll lead him to practicing more and getting better. And then we have two or three incoming freshmen. I don't know if they'll be great their freshman year … (but) they'll end up being some of the better players Charlevoix has ever had.”
More than a year after the crash, Drenth – who also coaches the girls and boys cross country teams – continues to battle the physical side of recovery. He was hospitalized during the immediate aftermath for two months, undergoing multiple surgeries and physical therapy. He also journeyed to Florida for specialized physical therapy, with funds provided by the Charlevoix community through a GoFundMe effort that was part of a tremendous amount of support the program received.
“The biggest part of his recovery is the fact that he's always so positive and happy and hopeful about everything,” Boss said. “There was a lot of fear from everybody for him, but he truly believed he would recover and be back to almost normal, again. I think that optimism is what led him to recover so well.”
Still facing occasional hospital stays, Drenth was able to return to coaching both sports, missing only one meet this year. Matt Peterson and Emily Edwards, his assistant cross country coaches, and Bruce Beaudoin, his assistant golf coach, have played even bigger roles during Drenth’s recovery.
“I'm grateful for Matt and Emily, my two coaches that were there every day,” Drenth said. “And Bruce has such amazing knowledge of golf, which is so important. But more important than that, he's just so good with me and the boys.”
His cross country team made a major splash this past fall, winning the Lower Peninsula Division 3 championship. Hunter Eaton, a junior, won the individual title. Junior Ryder Hopkins and senior Matthew Solomon joined Eaton on the all-state team. Max Drenth wrapped up the team scoring recording his best career time at the Final.
“I truly believe that the success that we have had, both in golf and cross country, is directly related to the help of others,” said Drenth, whose golf and cross coaching career goes back to 1989. “Nothing great is ever accomplished alone!”
As such, Charlevoix knows success this weekend will be the result of success throughout the lineup.
“It's going to be really up in the air because it's kind of been all year for us,” Bryce Boss predicted. “If our (number) three and our four play good, we tend to shoot amazingly well.”
Drenth believes it will come down to the team performing up to its potential.
“I just hope and pray that they play to their ability,” Drenth said. “I know, if we do that, like the cross country team — they just ran to their abilities — we can play golf with anybody.”
While Drenth is coaching the Final, he’ll also be filled with gratitude and hope for the future.
“For my wife, Tricia, and our two boys, Oliver and Maxwell, this has changed their lives and I wouldn't be here without my family who came to the hospital every day … my brothers and their wives and families … and then the teams that came all the time,” Drenth said. “Whether it be my cross kids that have graduated or golfers that are still here, or whether they were in the hospital with me, and then the greater Charlevoix community – I mean, it's just unbelievable how much good has come out of something so bad.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. 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) Charlevoix’s Bryce Boss eyes a putt during last week’s Regional at Birchwood in Harbor Springs. (2) The Charlevoix golf team poses for a photo during a gathering July 17. (3) Drenth confers with one of his golfers during the Regional. (4) Drenth, back seat, rides in the Charlevoix Homecoming parade this past fall with wife Tricia in a vehicle driven by assistant cross country coach Matt Peterson. (Regional photos by Drew Kochanny/Petoskey News-Review. Family photos courtesy of Tricia Drenth.)