Hoops, Hockey Prep for Playoff Changes
December 12, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The introduction of limited seeding at the District level for girls and boys basketball, and a shift in the postseason schedule for ice hockey, are among changes that will be noticed most this season by those who compete in and follow the 12 winter sports for which the Michigan High School Athletic Association sponsors postseason tournaments.
Girls basketball’s first games tipped off Dec. 2, followed by boys basketball openers Dec. 9. This winter, for the first time, the top two teams in every basketball District will be seeded and placed on the opposite sides of their bracket, making the District Final the earliest round they could play each other. Those top-seeded teams will be determined using the Michigan Power Ratings (MPR) computer formula based on regular-season results against other MHSAA Tournament-eligible teams and opponents’ strength of schedule. (Games against out-of-state or non-MHSAA opponents will not count in the MPR formula.)
The MHSAA will draw all brackets 15 days before the start of District play. After the top seeds are determined and separated to opposite sides of the bracket, the draw process will place the remaining teams on the bracket based on a randomly-selected order determined earlier in the season. MPR also was used to similarly seed Districts for boys soccer for the first time this past fall and in the spring for boys lacrosse.
Also undergoing a change this winter, the MHSAA Ice Hockey Tournament will be played over three weeks rather than two as in previous seasons. The traditional dates for the start of the regular season and Finals will remain the same, as will the total number of regular-season games allowed. However, the MHSAA Tournament will begin on the third Monday before the Finals instead of two weeks before, and the extended postseason schedule places the maximum of six games that may be played from the start of Regionals through Finals over 20 days instead of the previous 13.
While those changes will affect tournament structures, a handful of others affecting daily competition will be particularly noticeable as well this winter:
• As with Lower Peninsula girls swimming & diving season in the fall, a pair of changes for LP boys and Upper Peninsula girls will take effect this winter. For swimmers, the definition of a legal finish has changed to include a competitor touching any part of the finish end of the lane, not just the touch pad. In diving, the degree of difficulty was adjusted for back and reverse somersaults to provide consistency with difficulty of other dives.
• In hockey, the allowed stick length for a non-goaltender has been extended to 65 inches with a blade no more than 12.5 inches long and between 2-3 inches high. The allowances for a goaltender’s stick also were adjusted – the widened portion up to 28 inches from the heel and to 3.5 inches in width, with a blade at maximum 15.5 inches in length. These changes were made to accommodate the greater average height of today’s athletes.
• In girls competitive cheer, non-braced static inversions will be allowed only with the following stipulations: the original base or spotter maintains constant contact with the flyer, prior to the static inverted position the flyer must originate from below shoulder level, and the inversion must dismount to the cheering surface, cradle, any waist-level position or a non-inverted stunt at shoulder level. Also, twists from inversions and inversions released to extended level are illegal.
• A new rule in wrestling will allow for additional time to evaluate head and neck injuries. If an injury occurs involving the head, neck, cervical column and/or nervous system and an appropriate health care professional is present, that caregiver may request the traditional 90 seconds of injury time be extended up to a maximum of five minutes to evaluate the injury. Before that time expires, the wrestler must be ready and able to continue the match or it will be defaulted.
• Also for wrestling, a new criteria has been added to the tie-breaking system used when a dual meet finishes in a tied score. The new sixth criteria “f” states that the team giving up the fewest forfeits during a match shall be declared the winner.
The 2019-20 Winter campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with Girls & Boys Skiing Regionals on Feb. 10, and wraps up with the Boys Basketball Finals on March 28. Here is a complete list of winter tournament dates:
Girls Basketball
Districts – March 2, 4 & 6
Regionals – March 10 & 12
Quarterfinals – March 17
Semifinals – March 19-20
Finals – March 21
Boys Basketball
Districts – March 9, 11 & 13
Regionals – March 16 & 18
Quarterfinals – March 24
Semifinals – March 26-27
Finals – March 28
Girls & Boys Bowling
Team Regionals – Feb. 28
Singles Regionals – Feb. 29
Team Finals – March 6
Singles Finals – March 7
Girls Competitive Cheer
Districts – Feb. 21-22
Regionals – Feb. 29
Finals: March 6-7
Girls Gymnastics
Regionals – March 7
Team Finals – March 13
Individual Finals – March 14
Ice Hockey
Regionals – Feb. 24-March 4
Quarterfinals – March 7
Semifinals – March 12-13
Finals – March 14
Girls and Boys Skiing
Regionals – Feb. 10-14
Finals – Feb. 24
Girls & Boys Swimming & Diving
U.P. Girls & Boys Finals – Feb. 15
L.P. Boys Diving Qualification Meets – March 5
L.P. Boys Finals – March 13-14
Wrestling
Team Districts – Feb. 12-13
Individual Districts – Feb. 15
Team Regionals – Feb. 19
Individual Regionals – Feb. 22
Team Quarterfinals – Feb. 28
Team Semifinals & Finals – Feb. 29
Individual Finals – March 6-7
Multi-Sport Participation Holds Steady in 2023-24, Continuing Increases Found Over Entirety of Study
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 16, 2025
The MHSAA’s sixth Multi-Sport Participation Survey, conducted last spring for the 2023-24 school year, showed for the third-consecutive year that nearly 45 percent of athletes at member high schools participated in more than one sport, while the entirety of the study continues to show that percentages of multi-sport athletes for all four Classes (A-B-C-D) have grown during the six years this topic has been studied in this way.
Early and intense sport specialization has become one of the most serious issues related to health and safety at all levels of youth sports, as overuse injuries and burnout among athletes have been tied to chronic injuries and health-related problems later in life. In early 2016, the MHSAA appointed a Task Force on Multi-Sport Participation as part of a continued effort to promote and protect participant health and address the issues leading to early sport specialization. The annual Multi-Sport Participation Survey was among results of the task force’s work.
The 2023-24 Multi-Sport Participation Survey received responses from 63.7 percent of member high schools and showed 44.8 percent of athletes at those MHSAA member high schools participating in two or more sports, a tenth of a percent increase from survey results in 2022-23 and half a percent increase from two years prior.
For 2023-24, 47.6 percent of male athletes and 41.4 percent of female athletes played multiple sports. Class D has enjoyed the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes over all six years of surveys, this time at 63.1 percent, followed by Class C (59.4), Class B (48.0) and Class A (38.2).
Over the six years of this survey, data also has shown slight increases in multi-sport participation in all four classes. Class A has risen from 35.9 percent in 2017-18 to 38.2 in 2023-24. Class B has risen from 46.7 to 48.0, Class C from 55.2 to 59.4 and Class D from 58.1 to 63.1 over those six years.
The MHSAA Task Force also recommended measuring multi-sport participation in MHSAA member schools to recognize “achievers” – that is, schools that surpass the norm given their enrollment and other factors that affect school sports participation.
Battle Creek Harper Creek, Detroit Cody and Grand Rapids Northview have appeared among the top 10 percent of their respective Classes five of the six years the survey has been conducted. Five more schools have appeared among the top 10 percent of their Classes four of the six years: Decatur, East Grand Rapids, Manton, Parma Western and Warren Michigan Collegiate.
In Class A, Macomb L’Anse Creuse North (94.7 percent) and Battle Creek Harper Creek (72.4) posted the highest percentages of multi-sport athletes for 2023-24, with Grand Rapids Northview (68.1), Berkley (65.0) and Kalamazoo Loy Norrix (64.3) also reporting reaching at least 60 percent. In Class B, four schools reached at least 65 percent multi-sport participation – Parma Western (78.0), Constantine (75.4), Clare (65.7) and Reed City (65.4).
Class C saw six schools reach 80 percent this past school year – Warren Michigan Collegiate (91.7 percent), Flint Beecher (91.3), LeRoy Pine River (89.5), Cass City (84.3), Decatur (83.3) and Manton (81.4). Four Class D schools responded at higher than 90 percent multi-sport participation – Gaylord St. Mary (92.9), Lake Leelanau St. Mary (91.7), Wyoming West Michigan Lutheran (90.9) and Deckerville (90.7) – followed by Marcellus Howardsville Christian (88.9), Morrice (86.8), Ewen-Trout Creek (85.7), Vestaburg (85.5) and Alanson (85.0).
Click for the full summary report on the Multi-Sport Participation Survey.