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.)
Rate of MHSAA High Schools Charging Participation Fees Falls to Lowest in 22 Years
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 5, 2026
The annual Michigan High School Athletic Association participation fee survey completed for the 2025-26 school year continued to confirm the positive direction that has emerged this decade as the rate of member high schools charging student-athletes to play sports fell to its lowest in more than two decades.
Of the 703 MHSAA member schools (93 percent of membership) which responded to the most recent survey, only 38 percent (270 schools) charged participation fees in 2025-26 – a drop of two percent from the year prior and the lowest percentage since 34.5 percent of member schools reported charging a fee for the 2004-05 school year. Over the two decades between, the rate of high schools charging participation fees reached a high of 57 percent in 2013-14. Rates consistently have measured in the low 40s after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The MHSAA began conducting the participation fee survey with the 2003-04 school year. For the purposes of the survey, a participation fee is anything $20 or more regardless of what the school called the charge – registration fee, athletic fee, etc.
All four school-size classifications also saw rate decreases, with Class A schools leading the way with 46 percent charging fees – which was still a reduction of seven percent from 2024-25. Class B was down slightly to 39 percent charging for participation, while Class C schools were down six points to 28 percent charging and Class D schools were down four points also to 28 percent.
A standardized fee for each team on which a student-athlete participates – regardless of the number of teams – has remained the norm over the history of the MHSAA’s survey, and for the second-straight year 43 percent of schools charging a fee did so in this way during 2025-26. That was followed by 33 percent of responding schools charging a one-time standardized fee and 13 percent assessing fees based on tiers of the number of sports a student-athlete plays (for example, charging a larger fee for the first team and less for additional sports).
For 2025-26, the median maximum amount a school charged per student-athlete for the school year was $150, and the median annual maximum charged per family was $350. For schools charging student-athletes a one-time fee to cover all sports played, the median was $125. For schools charging a fee per sport, the median was $80 for each team.
The survey for 2025-26 and surveys from previous years can be found on the Pay-To-Play Survey page (direct link to this year’s results).
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 1.3 million spectators each year.