Awards Honor Those Lending a Hand
April 12, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Sports often make up a significant, although singular part of the lives of Michigan’s high school student-athletes and coaches.
Many also find ways to have significant impacts on the lives of others – and we’d like to tell the rest of our state how they’re making a difference.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association, together with Lake Trust Credit Union, will award this spring the inaugural Community Service Awards to recognize individuals and teams that have worked to benefit their communities.
Each winner will receive a $1,000 award to be applied toward an individual college scholarship, credited to a team’s account with its athletic department or even gifted to the group helped by our honoree.
Please help us get the word out. Encourage a student, coach or administrator to tell us about a completed or ongoing community service project. Any student, team or coach currently participating in interscholastic athletics at an MHSAA member high school can apply. Applications should be e-mailed both to the school’s athletic director and MHSAA’s Kurt Tiesman at [email protected].
The deadline for applications is May 1, and multiple winners will be selected and notified by May 12. Click for more information.
We hear and read about these contributions and successes throughout the school year. Thank you in advance for your help in allowing us to honor some of this great work in the community by those who also shine on the field.
PHOTO: Members of the Adrian boys track & field team help clean up after a tornado in Dexter in 2012.
2016-17 Officials Registration Underway
June 27, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half Editor
The Michigan High School Athletic Association is accepting registrations by mail and online for game officials for the 2016-17 school year.
The MHSAA annually receives registration by more than 10,000 officials, and had 10,043 during the 2015-16 school year. The highest total of officials registered for basketball, 4,265, with football, softball and baseball all with more than 2,000 registered officials during this school year.
For all new and returning officials, those who register online again will receive a $5 discount off their processing fees. A $15 fee is charged for each sport in which an official wishes to register, and the online processing fee is $35. Officials submitting registration forms by mail or on a walk-up basis will incur a $40 processing fee. Officials registered in 2015-16 will be assessed a late fee of $30 for registration after Aug. 1. The processing fee includes liability insurance coverage up to $1 million for officials while working contests involving MHSAA schools.
Online registration can be accessed by clicking “Officials” on the home page of the MHSAA Website. Forms also are available online that can be printed and submitted by traditional mail or hand delivery to the MHSAA Office. More information about officials registration may be obtained by contacting the MHSAA at 1661 Ramblewood Drive, East Lansing, MI, 48823, by phone at (517) 332-5046 or by e-mail at [email protected].
There is an officials' registration test for first-time officials and officials who were not registered during the past school year. The test consists of 45 questions derived from the MHSAA Officials Guidebook, which also is available on the Officials page of the MHSAA Website. Additional 50-question exams must be taken by those registering for football or basketball for the first time or those who were not registered for those sports during the previous school year. Manuals for both sports also are available on the Officials page. New officials also must complete the online MHSAA Principles of Officiating course, also available on the MHSAA Website.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,400 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.
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