Casting Lines for Future Tournaments
August 12, 2016
By Jack Roberts
MHSAA Executive Director
The MHSAA is best known to the public for the tournaments it conducts to conclude the fall, winter and spring seasons each school year.
These tournaments, the first and largest program of the MHSAA, have survived the Vietnam War, the Korean conflict and two World Wars. They have survived the technology bubble, the housing collapse, the energy crisis and the Great Depression.
MHSAA tournaments existed at the dawn of aviation and at the time of our nation’s lunar landing. Popes, presidents and governors have changed and changed again and again, and MHSAA tournaments roll on year after year.
But the sense of tradition and permanence and inevitability of MHSAA tournaments doesn’t dissuade us from asking questions about our tournaments, even some of the most basic questions. Here are two.
Question #1
I have long been and will always be an advocate for a Ryder Cup format for the MHSAA Golf Finals, and a team tennis approach to the MHSAA Tennis Finals; but 90 years of tradition is hard to overcome. Might this be a more exciting format? Could it be co-ed? Could it reverse the decline in boys tennis participation, and increase girls golf participation? Wouldn’t it be fun to try?
Periodically, the International Olympic Committee requires each of the designated Olympic sports to defend its status, to state its case why the sport should remain a part of the Olympic program. Then, after a series or votes that retain one sport at a time, the IOC drops the sport that makes the weakest case. It does so to make room for one of the previously unlisted sports that makes the best case for inclusion.
This would appear to keep the existing Olympic sports on their toes, and to keep the Olympic movement fresh and reflective of modern trends in sports.
While I would not enjoy the controversy, I can see the potential for some positive results if the MHSAA were to invoke the same policy for determining the 14 tournaments it will provide for girls and the 14 for boys.
This might cause us to consider more deeply what a high school sport should look like, or at least what an MHSAA tournament sport should stand for.
On the one hand, we might be inclined to drop tournaments for those sports that involve mostly non-faculty coaches and non-school venues, or require cooperative programs to generate enough participants to support a team, or resort almost entirely to non-school funding, or cater to individuals more than teams.
Or perhaps this process would cause policymakers to forget traditional thinking and ask: “In this day and age, should we shake off traditional notions of sport and consider more where modern kids are coming from?” That might mean fewer team sports and more individual sports, more “extreme” sports like snowboarding and skateboarding, and more lifetime sports, meaning not just golf and tennis and running sports, but also fishing and even shooting sports.
Currently, MHSAA policy states that the MHSAA will consider sponsorship of a tournament series for any sport which 64 member schools conduct on an interscholastic basis as a result of action by the governing boards of those schools.
Should the only question be how many schools sponsor a sport, or must an activity also have certain qualities and/or avoid certain “defects?” What should an MHSAA tournament sport look like and stand for?
Question #2
Bristling from criticism that his association is a money-grabbing exploiter of children, my counterpart in another state said, “If we were running our programs just to make money, we would do very many things very differently.” I knew exactly what he meant.
Because we care about the health and welfare of students, because we mean what we say that the athletic program needs to maximize the ways it enhances the school experience while minimizing academic conflicts, and because we try to model our claim that no sport is a minor sport when it comes to its potential to teach young people life lessons, we operate our programs in ways that make promoters, marketers and business entrepreneurs laugh, cry or cringe.
If money were the only object, we would seed and select sites to assure the teams that attracted the most spectators had the best chance to advance in our tournaments, regardless of the travel for any team or its fan base. If money were the only object, we would never schedule two tournaments to overlap and compete for public attention, much less tolerate three or four overlapping events. If money were the only object, we would allow signage like NASCAR events and promotions like minor league baseball games.
Those approaches to event sponsorship may not be all wrong; they’re just not all right for us. And we will live with the consequences of our belief system.
During a typical school year, more than 20 percent of the MHSAA’s 2,097 District, Regional and Final tournaments lose money. Not a single site in golf, skiing or tennis makes a single penny. In no sport did every District, Regional and Final site have revenue in excess of direct expenses.
In fact, in only three sports – boys and girls basketball and football – is revenue so much greater than direct expenses overall that it helps to pay for all the other tournaments in which the MHSAA invests.
That’s right: invests. When we present our budget to our board, we talk about the MHSAA’s investment in providing tournament opportunities in all those sports and all those places that cannot sustain the cost of those events on their own. How much is this investment worth to students, schools and society?
These two are core questions that require our focus far in advance of talk about scheduling, site selection, seeding and the myriad matters that too often hijack our time and attention.
Yeager Twins, Strong Senior Class have Nouvel on Track to Meet High Expectations
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
January 24, 2024
Donny Yeager and his Saginaw Nouvel Catholic Central boys basketball teammates certainly weren’t happy with their 0-3 start to this season, even if they weren’t at all worried about what it meant for their future.
But now, with the Panthers in the midst of a nine-game win streak, they’re even able to see the good in those early defeats.
“We knew coming into the season that the first three games were going to be really tough games, especially at the beginning of the season,” Yeager said of the opening stretch against Essexville Garber, Pewamo-Westphalia and Cass City. “So we knew there was nothing to worry about, and that we had the whole season ahead of us. We knew practices were going to get us ready for the next one. I definitely think we learned a lot about our group. We learned about the determination and perseverance that our guys bring to the table.”
That determination and perseverance have the Panthers back on track in what was expected to be a special season – and in many ways already has been – following a Regional Final berth a year ago.
Not only is Nouvel 9-3 ahead of its game Friday night against St. Louis, but MJ Yeager, Donny’s twin brother, set the school’s career scoring record earlier this month. Donny Yeager, meanwhile, is less than 30 points away from joining his brother in the school’s 1,000-point club.
“We have a lot of experience back,” said Nouvel coach Mike Kessler, who is in his ninth season in charge of the program. “We try not to look ahead, and we’re trying to take it one step at a time. And I think we had to have a lot of conversations with our guys about just relaxing. We know expectations might be high, but let’s do what we’ve done for years. We have a really hard-working group this year, and they needed to just trust themselves.”
A lot of those expectations came from the return of the Yeager twins, as both MJ – a four-year starter – and Donny – a three-year starter – are in their fourth year on the varsity. Classmate Preston Otter is also in his third year as a starter.
The Yeagers are both 5-foot-10 guards who can handle the ball and shoot from distance, while Otter is a 6-4 forward that Kessler called “a crazy good athlete.”
“Their work ethic is second to none; it really is,” Kessler said. “They’re everything you want from seniors. They exemplify what we want our program and our school to be about.”
In total, there are seven seniors on the roster, including also Anthony Carrasquillo, Tristen Elizalde, Matthew Hartwell and Brandon Murphy.
Being that senior-laden helped the team through that early bump in the road, Kessler said.
Having that experience also doesn’t hurt when it comes to adjusting to whatever style of play a game may take on. Behind its Big 3, Nouvel can certainly score, averaging 65.3 points per game on the season and 70 ppg during their win streak.
But Nouvel also can fall back on its defense those nights when shots aren’t going down, which the Panthers feel will be key to a potential postseason run in Division 4.
Kessler said a pair of wins during the streak – 69-60 against Imlay City on Dec. 29 and 73-31 against Standish-Sterling on Jan. 16 – showed his team’s versatility.
“Standish has been good in our conference for the last four to five years,” Kessler said. “We out-rebounded them and held them to only 31 points. I thought we were a gritty, tough team that night. The Imlay City game, we won with our skill. We were tough, too, but we spread them out and we hit 3s. We were able to guard their 6-7 wing with Tristen Elizalde – he’s 5-11. He’s tough as nails. He can guard any position on the floor.”
As it’s all coming together for the Panthers as a team, the individual milestones also are being reached.
MJ Yeager set the school scoring record in that game against Standish, passing the previous mark of 1,302 set by Nouvel legend Preston Murphy during the early 1990s. Murphy is currently on Nate Oats’ coaching staff at Alabama and played collegiately at Rhode Island.
“I actually know (Murphy),” Yeager said. “He came over to my house and I played basketball with his kid.
“(The record) was a great accomplishment and a great feeling. I’ve always been a competitor, so achieving stuff like that, it’s a good feeling.”
The record began to come into focus for Yeager when he crossed the 1,000-point threshold during his junior season.
One thing that’s stuck out to him in hitting both marks is the reaction of Donny. He said he can’t wait to experience something similar when Donny crosses 1,000 points, maybe as soon as Friday.
“I feel like that’s going to help both of us realize the hours we put in together every single day have paid off,” MJ Yeager said. “I heard him talking about how great of a brother it made him feel like, and I’m hoping I can feel that when he achieves it.”
Donny echoed that sentiment.
“Honestly, to see him achieve 1,000 last year and the school record this year, it was really rewarding for me, as well,” he said. “We’ve grown up together, and I want to see him do good in everything he does. It’s a blessing to be able to do this with him.”
When it comes to his own potential milestone, Donny said it would mean a lot to share that honor with his brother.
But he was quick to point out the credit goes beyond the Yeager household.
“I wouldn’t be able to do it without my supporting cast,” he said. “None of it would be possible without them. It’s really exciting. It shows what hard work and dedication can get you. And it’s good for all the young kids coming up to see that.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Nouvel Catholic Central senior guard MJ Yeager drives past a defender during a game against Cass City at the O'Neal Classic Tournament on Dec. 2 at Saginaw Valley State University. (Middle) Twin brother Donny Yeager drives past an Essexville Garber defender during his team’s Nov. 28 opener. (Below) Panthers senior Matthew Hartwell drives into the paint against Michigan Lutheran Seminary on Friday. (Photos by Michael Kolleth Photography.)