MHSAA Announces Golf Finals Format
September 18, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Executive Committee of the Michigan High School Athletic Association has approved an adjusted format for this fall’s Lower Peninsula girls golf postseason to reduce the opportunity for spread of COVID-19 while still awarding championships to top teams and individuals in four divisions.
The Executive Committee – comprised of officers of the larger Representative Council – approved a one-season switch in postseason format that keeps the numbers of Regionals and Finals intact for this season. However, the size of the championship tournament fields will be reduced to fall in line with regular-season tournament reductions currently in place to limit the number of teams mixing per event. The Finals also will be played as one single 18-hole round, instead of the traditional two 18-hole rounds on back-to-back days, to eliminate teams needing to stay overnight.
The tournament will begin with six Regionals in each Division played between Oct. 5-10, with 10-13 teams at each Regional – falling in line with the traditional format and schedule while keeping the field for Regionals at 72 golfers or fewer. However, the top two teams and top two individuals not on a qualifying team will advance to the Finals in each Division – one fewer team and fewer individual than the traditional format, but necessary to keep the Finals fields also at 72 golfers.
The following week, all four Lower Peninsula Finals will be played at Michigan State University. On Friday, Oct. 16, Division 1 will play an 18-hole championship round at Forest Akers East and Division 2 will play at Forest Akers West. On Saturday, Oct. 17, Division 3 will play its Final at Forest Akers East and Division 4 will conclude at Forest Akers West.
Further details will be provided soon on the Girls Golf page of the MHSAA Website.
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.
Brush Up on the New Transfer Rule
July 18, 2019
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
Eligibility under the new “sport-specific” transfer rule begins this coming fall after circulating extensively for nearly one school year.
Unless one of the stated 15 exceptions is met, participation during the 2018-19 school year determines eligibility for 2019-20.
The new rule adopted by the Representative Council at its May 2018 meeting has found support among most audiences. A transfer student’s eligibility in 2019-20 is based upon that student’s participation from this past school year (2018-19). It will be paramount for administrators and coaches to have awareness of the sports a transfer student participated in during the previous school year.
The long-standing 15 Exceptions to immediate eligibility, such as a full and complete residential change or a student moving between divorced parents by completing of an Educational Transfer Form, did not change.
One might call the rule on the way out “The Fourth-Friday Transfer Rule.” Under this old rule, when a student enrolled at the new school determined his or her eligibility. Under the new Sport Specific Transfer rule, what a student played in the previous season determines eligibility.
The Council passed a more lenient rule on the one hand and more restrictive on the other. The more lenient aspect is a change that finds a transfer student ELIGIBLE in any sport in which he or she did not participate in a game or a scrimmage in the previous school year.
The more restrictive portion tends to discourage students who change schools for sports reasons. A transfer student who did play a sport in the previous season – and who does not meet one of the 15 Exceptions – is NOT ELIGIBLE in that sport for the next season. If a student changes schools in mid-season, the student would be ineligible for the rest of that season in that sport and the next season for that sport.
Participation under this and other rules means playing in an interscholastic game or scrimmage after starting the 9th grade at any high school. It does not mean practice, but entering an interscholastic game, meet or scrimmage in any way. It also may involve more than one sport, so a three-sport athlete who does not have a residential change and transfers would be ineligible in those sports during the next school year – but eligible for any other sport. It also means a student cut from a team – one who never entered a scrimmage or game – may transfer and play without delay for that new school’s team. It may also mean that a student who meets one of the stated exceptions such as a residential change but enrolls in a school other than her or his school of residence, would have eligibility in sports not played in the previous year.
The new rule will tend to discourage students from changing schools for sports because they would be ineligible in any sport they have played in school the previous season for that sport. It will increase participation for some students who were otherwise not eligible under the current rule.
It is always best to contact school athletic directors who can connect with the MHSAA to verify eligibility prior to enrollment.
If the student’s new school requests in writing, the MHSAA Executive Committee may approve a waiver that reduces the period of ineligibility to 90 scheduled school days at the new school if the change of schools was for compelling reasons demonstrated with outside documentation having nothing to do with sports, curriculum, finances, and school demographics. The Executives Committee also has authority to approve immediate eligibility.