Inman's 'Spirit' Recognized by NFHS
March 12, 2019
By John Gillis
Special from NFHS
Searra Inman, a student-athlete at Niles Brandywine High School, has been selected as the Section 4 recipient of the “National High School Spirit of Sport Award” by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
The National High School Spirit of Sport Award was created by the NFHS to recognize those individuals who exemplify the ideals of the spirit of sport that represent the core mission of education-based athletics.
A soccer and wrestling participant during her athletic career at Brandywine High School, Inman’s life changed forever during the summer between her junior and senior years.
At that time, she was diligently preparing for her senior wrestling season. With 75 career victories to her credit, she had two goals – to achieve 100 victories and to earn a four-year varsity wrestling plaque.
On July 9, 2018, Inman was involved in a motorcycle crash that left her with a displaced vertebral fracture that severed her spinal cord and resulted in her being paralyzed from the waist down.
Inman underwent surgical procedures at Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital. Surgeons in Indianapolis used her as a case study due to the fact that almost no one with such severe spinal cord injuries had reached the operating table alive. Her initial prognosis was that she would remain hospitalized into January 2019.
However, on Sept. 14, 2018, Inman led her school’s football team onto the field for its Week 4 game. Then, during Brandywine High School’s December 5th wrestling season opener with Bronson High School, Inman locked her wheelchair, crawled in uniform to the circle of the wrestling mat, and was awarded a forfeit win in the 103-pound weight class.
However, the best might have been saved for last when during a Feb. 12 Division 4 Regional match against Schoolcraft, Inman once again moved to the center of the mat, had her hand raised for another forfeit, and in the process, got victory No. 100 and accomplished her mission.
Click to read the Second Half report "In Her Fight, Inman Seeks to Provide Hope" published earlier this winter.
About the Award
The NFHS divides the nation into eight geographical sections. The states in Section 4 are Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa.
Nominations for this award were generated through NFHS member state associations and reviewed by the NFHS Spirit of Sport Award Selection Committee composed of state association staff members.
While the national winner will be recognized June 29 at the NFHS Summer Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, the section winners will be recognized within their respective states and will receive awards before the end of the current school year.
PHOTO: Searra Inman has her arm raised in victory during a match this season. (Photo courtesy of the Niles Brandywine wrestling program.)
Survey Shows Small but Steady Rise of Multi-Sport Participation at MHSAA High Schools
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 16, 2025
The Michigan High School Athletic Association’s seventh Multi-Sport Participation Survey, conducted last spring for the 2024-25 school year, showed small but continuing growth of multi-sport participation among athletes at member high schools.
The annual Multi-Sport Participation Survey was inspired by the MHSAA’s Task Force on Multi-Sport Participation, which was appointed in 2016 to study early and intense sport specialization – a serious issue related to health and safety at all levels of youth sports – and to promote multi-sport participation as a way to help stave off overuse injuries and burnout among athletes that have been tied to chronic injuries and health-related problems later in life.
The 2024-25 Multi-Sport Participation Survey received responses from 82.7 percent of member high schools and showed 45.4 percent of athletes at those MHSAA member high schools participating in two or more sports, an increase of six tenths of a percent from 2023-24. Multi-sport participation has shown increases every year of the study – and a combined increase of 2.6 percent since the first study after the 2017-18 school year.
For 2024-25, 47.8 percent of male athletes and 42.3 percent of female athletes played multiple sports. The percentage of multi-sport athletes remains inversely proportional to schools’ enrollments, as Class D schools again enjoyed the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes at 63.1 percent, followed by Class C schools (59.6), Class B (49.3) and Class A (38.5).
All four enrollment classifications also continued to show increasing multi-sport participation. Class A multi-sport participation increased three tenths of a percent from 2023-24 and is now up 2.6 percent from 2017-18 survey results. Class B increased 1.3 percent from the previous year and is also up 2.6 percent since 2017-18. Class C multi-sport participation grew two tenths of a percent over the previous year and sits 4.4 percent higher than the first study, and Class D multi-sport participation in 2024-25 remained the same as in 2023-24 and has grown five percent over the last seven 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.
Battle Creek Harper Creek, Detroit Cody and Grand Rapids Northview have appeared among the top 10 percent of their respective Classes six of the seven years the survey has been conducted. Four more schools have appeared among the top 10 percent of their Classes five of the seven years: Decatur, East Grand Rapids, Manton and Warren Michigan Collegiate. Detroit Douglass, Parma Western and Lake Leelanau St. Mary have appeared among the top 10 percent of their Classes four times apiece.
In Class A, Grand Rapids Northview (79.4 percent) posted the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes for 2024-25, followed by Macomb L’Anse Creuse North (70 percent), Detroit Cass Tech (61.4) and Sterling Heights Stevenson (60.7) also reporting at least 60 percent.
Warren Michigan Collegiate paced Class B schools with 91.3 percent of athletes playing multiple sports, followed by Tecumseh (77.7), Yale (76.6), Detroit Cody (71.4), Battle Creek Harper Creek (71.3) and Manistee (70.1). Class C saw six schools reach 80 percent for the second-straight school year, led by Jackson Lumen Christi (97.6 percent), Martin (89.7), Bad Axe (89.3), Cass City (88.6), Center Line Prep Academy (83.6) and Decatur (82.3).
Watervliet Grace Christian topped the Class D list at 93.8 percent of athletes participating in multiple sports. Next were Watersmeet (89.7), Lake Leelanau St. Mary (88.2), Detroit Douglass (87.8), Vestaburg (87.7) and Portland St. Patrick (87.3).
The full summary report on the Multi-Sport Participation Survey is available on the “Multi-Sports Benefits” page.