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.
TC West Making Homes Away from Home to Lead Tie-Filled Big North Standings
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
May 5, 2023
Almost as many Big North Conference girls soccer games have resulted in ties as wins so far this weather-challenged spring.
And, tonight, Petoskey and Traverse City West will play a snow day makeup game that could be the equalizer between wins and ties.
There really is lots of excitement, however, in the Big North. There are two new coaches, Ed Fantozzi at West, and Gregg Supiran at Alpena. Supiran, a longtime assistant at Alpena, succeeded Tim Storch, who is among the winningest coaches in Michigan boys and girls soccer history.
And, hopefully in the fall when the boys take the pitch, West will have its new complex ready for play. If not, the girls team should open it next spring.
West leads the conference at 3-0-1. The tie was at the hands of Gaylord, now 1-1-2. Petoskey enters tonight at 1-0-3. Traverse City Central is 2-1-1. Alpena is 1-2-1 and Cadillac is 1-5-0.
West is coming off a 2-0 win over Cadillac at one of its temporary “home” fields, at the Trojan Athletic Complex. The complex, home of Traverse City Central, opened three years ago after the district’s successful $107-million bond campaign that funded construction. The same bond is funding improvements at West.
West has played most of its home games at Trojans’ complex including a 2-0 win over its rival earlier this spring. A rematch, with Central officially the home team, is scheduled for next week.
Other home games for West, as was the same for the boys last fall, have been played at Keystone County Park, home of Traverse Bay Area Youth Soccer.
The win for West over Central put the Titans in the driver’s seat to repeat as conference champs. Cadillac finished second last year as West’s final-game victory over Petoskey clinched a sixth-straight league title. The Northmen could have garnered a share of the title with a win in that finale. Fantozzi took over the helm from Savanna Wojtanowski, a former West and professional soccer goalkeeper.
Sophomore Gwen Allore picked up her third shutout of the season in the win over Cadillac. Fantozzi notes a strong rotating back line has significantly helped the clean sheet total. Sophomore Dillyn Mohr leads the defense and has kicked in three goals pushing up from the back. The other strong defenders are Jenna Rawlin, Sadie Wares, Ahna Campbell, Abbie Carmien and Beatrice Rooks.
Avery Plummer, a freshman, leads the team in scoring so far with seven goals and two assists. Senior Onalee Gustafson has three goals and two assists. Sophomore Raegan LaCross has three goals.
Fantozzi also credits the “super technical skills” of his midfielders Lila Warren and Mia Dungan, both juniors, and seniors Alessia Plombo and Gustafson, for the Titans’ early-season success.
In addition to the Gaylord tie, West was also tied by Elk Rapids, a strong Division 3 contender. The Elks are 11-0-1 going into their match tonight at Cadillac.
The Titans’ lone loss this year was at the hands of Division 1 No. 6 Troy Athens, 5-0.
Fantozzi already is looking to put the early games behind the team and focus on a deep postseason run he became accustomed to in his last coaching stint at Boyne City.
He led Boyne City to a 2021 Division 3 Final appearance. The Ramblers won three Lake Michigan Conference titles, two Districts, two Regionals and appeared in the Semifinals twice during his five years at Boyne. Fantozzi also won two Lake Michigan Conference titles over five seasons at Harbor Springs.
Fantozzi returned to the sidelines last spring as a volunteer assistant at TC Central. It rekindled the passion he’s had since his playing days at Eastern Michigan University.
“I realized there was more to give,” Fantozzi said of his return. “We have a talented group of girls.
“The potential to go far in both the postseason and regular season is there,” Fantozzi added. “They definitely have the ability – it is there.”
Getting the team to gel in his first year is key, Fantozzi said.
“With these girls, the power to believe – which is amazing what it can do – is just getting started,” he said. “You are only going to see them get better.
“You can lose every conference game and still win a state championship … a District championship,” he continued. “My main goal is to play some attractive exciting soccer.”
West’s girls will return to their school field next spring. The boys may get back on a new pitch this fall. The current field is getting a makeover, and a turf practice and playing field is being installed inside the school’s track. Revamped softball and baseball fields with new dugouts and lights also are underway at West.
Central, too, is getting a turf surface within its track, located on the school’s property. The Trojan Athletic Complex is located offsite on what is commonly known as the U.S. Coast Guard base.
The Titans have plenty of questions to answer with their play.
“Do we want to go all the way to the states? Absolutely,” Fantozzi said. “Do we want to finish at the top of the BNC? Yes we do.
“But I am not going to cry if we don’t.”
West and Central will compete in Division 1 postseason play. Alpena, Gaylord, Cadillac and Petoskey will play in Division 2.
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) Traverse City West coach Ed Fantozzi talks things over with Raegan LaCross during a game this season. (Middle) Onalee Gustafson (7) moves the ball upfield as the Titans play at Keystone County Park. (Below) Fantozzi huddles with his team at Trojan Athletic Complex, home of neighbor Traverse City Central. (Photos by Tina Rawlin.)