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.
Success Comes with Stories as Portage Central Surges Toward Postseason
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
May 21, 2025
PORTAGE — The urge to play varsity soccer was so strong for Allison “Ricky” Rearick that as a sophomore she agreed to become an obstacle while opponents tried to boot balls past her into the net.
A defender all her life, the Portage Central senior had to completely change her game to become a goalkeeper, using her hands instead of her head to advance the ball.
She also had a problem trying not to duck when the ball came blitzing at her.
“That was my biggest problem coming in,” she laughed.
Three years later, Rearick is an old hand in net for Portage Central, allowing just 11 goals over 14 games this spring while leading the Mustangs to a 12-3 record. She has seven shutouts.
As Portage Central readies for its Division 1 District opener Tuesday against Mattawan at Kalamazoo Loy Norrix, Rearick's story is among those that have made this a special season.
Her comfort in net was not always the case.
“We were just joking with her the other day,” coach Tim Halloran said. “Her first game was against Hudsonville, at Hudsonville, the No. 1 team in the state at the time.
“She had been training for six or seven days. Right before the game, she went to my assistant, Ashleigh Garrod, and said ‘Can I practice punting the ball? I don’t know how to punt the ball,’ which is a big part of the game.”
That’s when the team’s goalkeeper coach, Brad Conway, stepped in.
"He helped me my whole sophomore year,” Rearick said. “When we got to Districts and Regional time, I was starting to feel pretty comfortable.”
Halloran said he knew Rearick would be able to handle the new position.
“Through her freshman year she played defense,” he said. “She’s tall (5-foot-9) and she played basketball, so she can use her hands.”
Rearick said the transition from defense to goalkeeper was easier because “after basketball, I knew how to catch a ball, which was good. The jumping aspect of basketball also helped.”
It all came together in that first game at Hudsonville, a 2-1 Portage Central win.
“I was so nervous, probably the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life,” she said. “I was so scared. I was still very nervous the next couple games, but it was so much fun.”
Even more fun was being named all-state honorable mention her junior year after giving up just eight goals all season.
As she winds down her senior campaign, Rearick said, “This group of girls, playing with them has been amazing. I’ve actually learned to enjoy the position.
"It’s a lot of pressure at times, but when you have a big game you’re able to help your team with a big save. It feels amazing.”
Senior teammate Kaeli Mason appreciates having her buddy in goal.
“Ricky’s just amazing,” Mason said. “She saves us so much. She’s an overall great person, so it’s great to have her back there.
“We all talk a lot on the field. Communication is a big part of defense on the field.”
Building a family bond
Portage Central certainly appreciates that back-line bond. Mason has had to work her way back into soccer shape after breaking her leg and missing all of last season.
She played in two scrimmages last spring but knew something wasn’t right.
“Maxing in my weightlifting class and tryouts were the same week,” Mason said. “I think it was just overload.
“I limped and had to keep going back to the doctor until they finally figured it out with an MRI.”
Mason was anxious to get back on the pitch.
“It was a struggle, but going through all our preseason stuff and playing travel helped me get back (into shape), and working out on my own,” she said.
Mason also had her soccer-playing family to support her, including her mom, Tami Mason, who is a 1993 Portage Central grad.
The senior said her mother encouraged her not only to play, but also to make the team a family.
Tami Mason was also a defender in her day, “although they called it stopper back then,” she said, noting that team pictures still line the halls at the school.
“It’s kind of funny because all my kids have gone there and they say, ‘Oh, there’s Mom,’” she laughed.
Looking back at her high school days, Tami Mason said soccer was the highlight.
“The camaraderie with all my teammates, they were like family,” she said. “It was such a high going out on that field, knowing you had to do whatever you could to win those games and do your best.
“It was literally my favorite part of school. I’m still pretty close to a lot of the kids I grew up playing with. I still have a photo album with all the clippings from back in the day.”
One part of this year’s Mustangs team is a throwback to Mason’s era.
“It’s funny because (this year’s team) calls themselves the P.C. Bad Boys," she said. “Back in the day, there’s a cop song “Bad Boys” so we used to walk out on the field back then with a jambox on our shoulders playing that.
“It’s so funny to see that now they have T-shirts and refer to themselves as that. I’m like, that started back in the day with us. It’s kinds of surreal.”
In a quirky twist, Halloran also coached Tami Mason, although it was on a travel team, not at Portage Central.
Reality check
While Kaeli Mason worked her way back to the team after rehabilitating her broken leg, Halloran has returned from a scare that was much more serious.
Doctors discovered he had kidney cancer in August 2021.
“They took the whole kidney, so I am cancer-free on the inside and I have skin cancer on the outside from 30-some odd years of being out in the sun,” he said. “Luckily, I didn’t have to do any radiation or chemo. It was just learning to live with one organ fewer than I had.”
That also changed his perspective on life.
“I got married (in December, 2021, to Tammy Dykema-Halloran) and I think I’ve taken a step back,” he said. “We were together for 12 years and we said, ‘Hey, cancer is something we’re not going to mess with.’
“You don’t know what’s going to happen. So we got married, and it’s been a very calming influence. I’m still very passionate about being out here and I love doing this, but I’m sure I took it way too seriously in other points in my career and lost a lot of sleep and a lot of hair and have a lot of gray hair from worrying about stuff.”
***
Besides Rearick and Mason, Halloran has five other seniors on the team: Lauren Tooley, Anna Pellegrini, Kyra Gardner, Katie McLaughlin and Madison Cutler.
Juniors are Sophia Sanborn, Janelle Yao, Claire Pierce, Delaney O’Reilly, Ella Bish and Maya Moulton. Sophomores are Ally Areaux, Kaitlyn Lam, Lily Dimick, Addison Giebel, Lily Grueter, Jenna Dietzel, Jillian Mills, and Claire VanderRoest; and the two freshmen are McKinley O’Reilly and Marley Righter.
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Portage Central keeper Allison Rearick, far right, prepares to launch the ball during a game against Kalamazoo Loy Norrix. (2) Rearick considers her options with a teammate and opponent in front of her. (3) At left, Kaeli Mason plays this season and walks arm-in-arm with her mother Tami, also holding the trophy at far right during her playing days. (4) Portage Central coach Tim Halloran. (Rearick photo by Jim Cottrell. Mason photos courtesy of Tami Mason. Halloran photo by Pam Shebest.)