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.
Carefelle Twins Bring 'High School Musical' to Life Starring on Field, Stage
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
May 27, 2025
It’s appropriate that seniors Ezra and Micah Carefelle played two of the lead roles in the Muskegon Mona Shores production of “High School Musical” this spring.
The show, in essence, is the story of their lives.
Ezra, the leading scorer on the red-hot Mona Shores boys lacrosse team and kicker on the football team, played the lead role of Troy Bolton.
Micah, an all-area receiver on the Sailors’ football team and star face-off man in lacrosse, played Chad Danforth, Troy’s best friend and sports teammate.
“Their lives are the actual script of High School Musical,” said Molly Lawton, the longtime director of the Mona Shores spring production. “It’s not often that you get two athletic guys who can sing and dance – and aren’t afraid to do it.”
Fear is not a word in the extensive vocabulary of the Carefelle boys, who are now playing a leading role for the Sailors’ lacrosse team, which is 17-3 and riding a 12-game winning streak heading into Wednesday’s 6 p.m. showdown at Rockford (14-2) for a Division 1 Regional championship. Rockford was seeded first and Mona Shores second in the bracket.
The Sailors actually lost their first two matches of the season, but a big reason for that was because the Carefelles did not play, as those games fell at the same time as “High School Musical” performances.
With the high-energy, highly-skilled Carefelle twins in the lineup, Shores has won 17 of its last 18 games.
“Other coaches often tell me that we out-worked them or out-toughed them, and it all starts with Ezra and Micah,” said first-year Shores boys lacrosse coach Adam Zarotney. “They are very skilled, but what sets them apart is that they always give 100-percent effort, 100 percent of the time.”
Keep your head in the game
Much like the musical, the Carefelles spent a good deal of this spring racing back-and-forth between lacrosse practices and theater rehearsals.
“There were a couple of rehearsals where we literally sprinted from lacrosse and were completely drenched in sweat,” Micah said.
And it worked the other way around, as well.
“I literally did my final audition for the play with my eye black on, because I had to get to lacrosse,” said Ezra with a laugh.
Ezra, who his coach said “has the ability to score from anywhere at any time against anybody,” leads the team with 66 goals and 44 assists for 110 points. Ezra is 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds, slightly smaller than his brother.
Micah does not have nearly as many points, with 20 goals and 19 assists for 39, but he makes his biggest contribution on face-offs. He has won 141 of his 237 face-offs (59 percent) on the season.
“When we need a goal, we have an offensive series where we just get out of their way and let them go,” said Zarotney, who is assisted by Curtis Pek and Chad Burton. “They can get to the middle of the field and do things that other kids can’t.”
While Zarotney would love for them to “leave it all on the field” (as coaches often say), Lawton wants her lead performers to save some of their boundless energy for the stage.
Lawton marveled at the way the twins were able to shift gears, immediately and seamlessly, and knock out their performances every time.
The biggest problem she had was that they looked too much alike on the stage. So, Ezra straightened his hair and Micah bleached his, added a little goatee and, voila, the twins became Troy and Chad.
“The word I would use to describe it is magical,” said Lawton, called the Carefelles two of the most polite gentlemen with whom she’s worked. “They are both very smart and memorized their lines long before I required it. The chemistry between them on stage is really something special.”
Beating the odds
Ezra and Micah both love their unique, Biblical names, which are fitting given the importance of faith to the Carefelle family.
Ezra means “helper,” while Micah means “like God,” and their mother, Tracy, insists that it was a miracle that the boys were born healthy.
Tracy and her husband, Adam, visited a specialist shortly after learning they were having twins. After the ultrasound, the doctor gave them sobering news: Because they were mono-amniotic (sharing the same “bag of waters”), he said there was only a 50-percent chance of survival.
Tracy started going for an ultrasound every week and expected to have to give birth very prematurely by C-section, until an amazing, incredible – perhaps miraculous – event was discovered during the 28-week ultrasound.
“That ultrasound showed that each of them was now in their own sac,” said Tracy. “The doctor told us he had never seen a membrane form that late in a pregnancy.”
As a result, Tracy was able to go nearly to full term, delivering Ezra (6 pounds, 8 ounces) and then Micah (6 pounds, 4 ounces) by natural birth. They are considered mirror-image twins, which helps explain why Micah is right-handed and Ezra is left-handed, and why their hair naturally parts on different sides of their heads.
Micah and Ezra also have an older sister, Lydia (a 2024 Mona Shores graduate), and three younger sisters – Chloe (eighth grade), Selah (seventh grade) and Ava (kindergarten).
The Carefelles developed their singing voices and acting abilities growing up in the church choir. Ezra actually sang the national anthem at most of the Sailors’ home lacrosse matches this season, running up to the press box to sing into the headset and then running back down the bleachers to start the game.
Both will attend Hope College next year. Micah will play football and major in exercise science, with a goal of working as a chiropractor or in physical therapy. Ezra will play lacrosse and major in secondary education, with plans to become a high school teacher and coach.
“Our faith really energizes us and gives us confidence in everything we do,” said Ezra, who carries a 3.98 GPA, while Micah is right behind at 3.89. “We have learned to rely on our faith to get us through hard times and struggles.”
Start of something new
Ezra is extremely competitive but admits he’s almost subdued compared to his brother.
Micah’s feistiness and intensity are great things most of the time, but sometimes get the better of him – which was the case during last week’s Regional Semifinal win over Hudsonville, when he was ejected after leaving the sideline to defend a teammate during a tense moment on the field. Because of the ejection, he also must miss Wednesday’s game against the Rams.
Zarotney points to his team’s depth and the fact many attackers have contributed to the team’s success, notably senior Conner Osterhart (a Hope College commit), junior Cullen Conrad and freshmen Jack Carlson and Payton Koziak.
The young defensive group also has improved steadily throughout the season, led by junior George Duggins and freshman Owen Terpstra.
But perhaps the hottest player on the team down the stretch has been senior goalie Ben Warren, who has saved 59 percent of shots on goal with a 79-percent clearing percentage.
“The whole team is playing with a lot of confidence right now,” said Zarotney. “These kids really play for each other. At the end of the day, I really think that separates us from other teams.”
If the Sailors prevail Wednesday, they will advance to Friday’s Division 1 Quarterfinals – which would be a great thing, but also create a big problem.
The Carefelles are scheduled to go on the choir’s season-ending trip to New York City this weekend, leaving Thursday night. While they were able to juggle lacrosse and theater all season, this weekend those two opportunities would be almost 800 miles apart.
“That would be a tough one,” Ezra admitted.
Historically, when you tell Ezra and Micah they can’t do something, they do it. So perhaps they will come up with something (i.e., fly out separately right after their lacrosse match and meet up with the choir group in NYC) to allow them to do both.
Sounds preposterous, but don’t put anything past the Carefelle boys.
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Micah Carefelle, left in his football jersey, and twin brother Ezra, right in his lacrosse jersey, pose for a photo at Sailor Stadium. (2) Ezra Carefelle, left, plays Troy Bolden, and Micah, right with dyed hair, plays Chad Danforth in the Mona Shores production of “High School Musical” in March. (3) Ezra Carefelle attacks during a recent lacrosse match. (4) Micah Carefelle hurdles a defender during a football game against Byron Center last fall. (Top photo by Joe Lane. Theater photo by Neeve Callaghan. Lacrosse/football action photos by Eric Sturr.)