Fall Tournaments to Conclude in January
December 26, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The concluding rounds of Michigan High School Athletic Association postseason tournaments in football, girls volleyball and girls swimming & diving will be completed during January, as the MHSAA continues to follow all emergency orders from the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services (MDHHS).
Football teams may begin two days of outdoor, non-contact conditioning and drills, wearing helmets and shoulder pads with physical distancing, on Monday, Dec. 28, in advance of the first round of testing Dec. 30 as part of an MDHHS rapid testing pilot program. Schools will test players, coaches and other team personnel, with full-contact practice then allowed after a first round of negative results. The testing program will utilize BinaxNOW antigen tests that produce results within 15 minutes.
For football, 11-Player Regional Finals and 8-Player Semifinals will be played Saturday, Jan. 9. The 8-Player Finals and 11-Player Semifinals will be played Saturday, Jan. 16; and 11-Player Finals will be played during the weekend of Jan. 22-23.
The MDHHS’s current epidemic order – which paused activity beginning Nov. 18 – is set to expire Jan. 15, and if restrictions on non-contact sports are lifted then volleyball and swimming & diving could practice and compete at that time outside of the required rapid testing program. If the MDHHS epidemic order continues, volleyball and swimming & diving could begin practice, but those teams and individuals will have to follow all requirements of the MDHHS rapid testing pilot program to be eligible to participate. Specific plans and dates for volleyball and girls swimming & diving practice resumption and MHSAA tournaments will be finalized and shared with competing schools in early January.
Volleyball competition will restart with Quarterfinals, and Lower Peninsula girls swimming & diving has advanced to its Finals. The championship events in both sports would be completed no later than Jan. 30.
Several 1st-Time Winners Highlight 2025-26 MHSAA Parade of Champions
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
June 18, 2026
Three schools celebrated their first Michigan High School Athletic Association Finals championships in any sport during the 2025-26 school year as 39 teams total won first Finals titles in their respective sports.
Holland Calvary, in boys cross country, Durand in boys bowling and Walled Lake Northern in softball won their schools’ first Finals championships in any sport, as 88 schools total won at least one of the 132 MHSAA team titles awarded over the three seasons.
A total of 23 schools won two or more championships this school year, paced again by Marquette with eight earned in girls and boys cross country, boys golf, girls skiing, girls and boys swimming & diving, boys tennis and boys track & field. Detroit Country Day was next with seven Finals championships, followed by Detroit Catholic Central with six and Ann Arbor Pioneer with four.
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, Negaunee, Northville and Rockford all won three titles in 2025-26. Winning two were Birmingham Seaholm, Charlevoix, Farmington Hills Mercy, Flint Kearsley, Flint Powers Catholic, Grand Rapids West Catholic, Jackson Lumen Christi, Lake Linden-Hubbell, Lowell, Newberry, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, Pewamo-Westphalia, Ravenna, Rudyard and West Iron County.
A total of 48 champions were repeat winners from 2025-26. A total of 31 teams won championships for at least the third-straight season, while 22 teams extended title streaks to at least four consecutive seasons. The Lowell wrestling program owns the longest title streak at 13 seasons, followed by Dundee wrestling’s nine consecutive titles and runs of seven straight Finals victories by the Detroit Catholic Central ice hockey team and Marquette’s boys cross country and boys swimming & diving programs.
This school year saw the addition of field hockey and boys volleyball to the MHSAA’s postseason tournament offerings. Eighteen of the MHSAA's 30 team championship tournaments are unified, involving teams from the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, while separate competition to determine title winners in both peninsulas is conducted in remaining sports.
For a sport-by-sport listing of MHSAA champions for 2025-26, click here (PDF).
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 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.
PHOTO The Oak Park girls track & field team hoist their championship trophy and sign May 30 at Rockford High School. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)