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New Legacies

September 30, 2015

For nearly two dozen years, the MHSAA has conducted its “Legacy” program through which high school students are welcomed into high school sports officiating and mentored by approved MHSAA officials. This has given these students a jump start in officiating and in life. For example ...

  • Zach Kemp and Aaron Wieber, both honored as legacy officials in 1992, are now NCAA officials in football and basketball, respectively.
  • Brent Sorg, 1993, is now the soccer coach at Williamston High School and a former MLS soccer official.
  • Dan Carmichael, also 1993, has worked MHSAA Finals in both basketball and football.
  • Bill Parker, 1994, has umpired both Minor League baseball and MHSAA Baseball Finals.
  • Carmen Kennedy, also 1994, is principal at St. Clair Shores South Lake High School and serves on the MHSAA Representative Council.
  • Matt McDermott, 1995, has officiated MHSAA Finals in both football and basketball, and has been a longtime NCAA basketball official.
  • Ryan Negoshian, also 1995, has officiated MHSAA Softball Finals.
  • Jeremy Valentine, 1998, has worked the MHSAA Football Finals and an NCAA Division II National Championship game.
  • Jon Studley, 1999, is now athletic director at Caro High School.
  • Nathan Taylor, 2000, has worked MHSAA Finals in both football and basketball.
  • Sara Tisdale, also 2000, worked MHSAA Finals in volleyball and she’s now a college lacrosse coach.

That’s just a dozen examples from the Legacy program’s first decade, making a difference in Michigan schools and sports. Adding to the pleasure of living in Michigan and loving school sports.

Attending to Football

November 29, 2013

The interscholastic football season comes to an end this weekend with the MHSAA Finals at Ford Field, but the most talked about sport in high schools today will continue to make headlines for many months into the future.

Some of the headlines will introduce topics that are merely footnotes compared to what is really most important, that being the efforts to keep school-sponsored football the safest and sanest brand of football in America.

At the center of these efforts has been a task force appointed by the MHSAA to work throughout 2013 to advance these two objectives:  “To promote the value of interscholastic football and to probe for ways to make the sport safer in Michigan.”

The tangible results of the task force’s four meetings are these:

    • A proposal to the MHSAA Representative Council to revise football practice policies to improve acclimatization of players and to reduce head trauma. The proposal goes to the Representative Council Dec. 6 for discussion, then to the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association and MHSAA Football Committee in January and to the MHSAA League/Conference meeting in February, before returning to the Representative Council for action on March 22.

    • Three proposals to the NFHS Football Rules Committee to modify playing rules to promote player safety.

    • A variety of print, online and broadcast promotions on behalf of the value of interscholastic football and its safety record and to encourage healthier out-of-season activities by students in all sports.

MHSAA research informs us that participation in 11- or 8-player football in member high schools this fall was down 3.0 percent compared to 2012, and down 7.63 percent since the 2008 season. The biggest reasons cited by those surveyed are, in declining order, safety issues, declining enrollment, athletes playing other school or non-school sports, cultural changes and pay-to-participate.

It is important to note that participation is not declining everywhere, not even everywhere where enrollments are down and participation fees are up. It is important to note also that some other sports are in much greater decline than football in terms of high school participation.

It is difficult for me to imagine my life without football as a part of it. It’s difficult to imagine schools and communities without football. I very much doubt that the absence of football would have improved my life or the schools and communities I’ve been a part of. It’s a sport that needs our attention, not its extinction.