MHSAA Attendance Posts 5-Year High
October 6, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Michigan High School Athletic Association postseason events enjoyed a five-year high in attendance in 2015-16 as two sports saw record fan turnout.
Total attendance for 2015-16 was 1,483,724 fans, an increase of 6.8 percent over the previous year. Girls attendance was 461,419, less than a percent lower than the record set in 2014-15 but still the second largest overall girls turnout since data was first tracked in 1990-91. Boys attendance was 1,022,305 fans, a four-year high helped notably by an increased football crowd last fall. Attendance is kept for all sports except golf, skiing and tennis, for which admission typically is not charged.
The track & field and bowling tournaments, which include attendance for girls and boys events combined, set overall records. Track & field broke a 2011-12 record with 37,773 fans overall and a Regional record of 22,413, and bowling set an overall attendance record for the fifth straight season with 13,919 fans and a Regional record of 9,948.
Football attendance did rebound significantly after a snowy opening weekend in 2014 resulted in the lowest playoff attendance since the 256-team 11-player field was introduced in 1999. Overall football attendance jumped to a three-year high of 389,897, a 25.4 percent increase from the 2014 postseason and with increases seen at the Pre-District, District and Regional levels.
Ten more tournament series showed increases in total attendance over the 2014-15 school year: gymnastics (2.0 percent), softball (2.8 percent), baseball (0.5 percent), girls swimming & diving (12.7 percent), boys swimming & diving (14.6 percent), boys basketball (1.5 percent), girls and boys cross country (combined, 2.1 percent), boys soccer (2.4 percent), team wrestling and individual wrestling all saw increases in overall attendance from the previous school year. Volleyball fell just shy of equaling the previous year’s record, drawing 110,638 fans, a decrease of 293 from the 2014 season but still the second-most since records first were kept in 1990-91. Volleyball did, however, set attendance records at the Regional (26,445) and Semifinal (4,765) levels of the tournament.
Also of note:
• The Boys Basketball Finals draw of 47,407 was a five-year high and a 16.9 percent increase from 2014-15. The Girls Basketball Finals drew 22,301 fans, the most for a Semifinals/Finals weekend since 2004-05 and an increase of 12 percent over 2014-15. Girls basketball’s overall tournament attendance of 169,523 was a decrease of 1.2 percent from 2014-15, but still the second-highest attendance for the sport since 2005-06.
• Overall softball attendance increased for the third straight year to 44,515, the highest total since the record-setting spring of 1994-95.
• Boys Soccer Finals drew 4,906 fans, the most for that event since 2007-08.
• Coming off a record high in 2013-14 and then a sharp decrease the following year, the Ice Hockey Finals rebounded with 10,709 fans, a 7.9 percent increase from the winter before.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,400 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.
Finalists Announced for 2024-25 MHSAA/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Awards
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 21, 2025
The 120 finalists for the Michigan High School Athletic Association's Scholar-Athlete Awards for the 2024-25 school year, presented by Farm Bureau Insurance, have been announced.
The program, in its 36th year, has recognized student-athletes since the 1989-90 school year and again this winter will honor 32 individuals from MHSAA member schools who participate in at least one sport in which the Association sponsors a postseason tournament.
Farm Bureau Insurance underwrites the Scholar-Athlete Awards and will present a $2,000 scholarship to each recipient. Since the beginning of the program, 960 scholarships have been awarded.
Scholarships will be presented proportionately by school classification, with 12 scholarships to be awarded to Class A student-athletes, six female and six male; eight scholarships awarded to Class B student-athletes, four female and four male; six scholarships awarded to Class C student-athletes, three female and three male; and four scholarships awarded to Class D student-athletes, two female and two male. In addition, two scholarships will be awarded at-large to minority recipients, regardless of school size.
Every MHSAA member high school could submit as many applications as there are scholarships available in its classification and could have more than one finalist. Birmingham Seaholm has six finalists this year, while Munising and Whitehall have four, and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, Midland Dow and West Bloomfield each have three finalists. Eight schools have two finalists: Ann Arbor Greenhills, Ann Arbor Huron, Bloomfield Hills, Detroit Catholic Central, Grosse Pointe South, Kingsford, Olivet, and Saline.
Multiple-sport participation remains the norm among applicants. The average sport participation rate of the finalists is 2.88. There are 75 three-plus sport participants in the finalists field, and all but one of the 28 sports in which the MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments are represented.
Of 431 schools which submitted applicants, 25 submitted the maximum allowed. This year, 1,513 applications were received. All applicants will be presented with certificates commemorating their achievement. Additional Scholar-Athlete Award information, including a complete list of scholarship nominees, can be found on the Scholar-Athlete page.
The applications were judged by a 65-member committee of school coaches, counselors, faculty members, administrators and board members from MHSAA member schools. Selection of the 32 scholarship recipients will take place in early February. Class C and D scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 4, Class B scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 11 and Class A scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 18. All announcements will be made on the MHSAA Website.
To be eligible for the award, students must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.50 (on a 4.0 scale) and previously have won a varsity letter in at least one sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament. Students also were asked to respond to a series of short essay questions and submit two letters of recommendation and a 500-word essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.
Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan was founded in 1949 by Michigan farmers who wanted an insurance company that worked as hard as they did. Those values still guide the company today and are a big reason why it is known as Michigan’s Insurance Company, dedicated to protecting the farms, families, and businesses of this great state. Farm Bureau Insurance agents across Michigan provide a full range of insurance services—life, home, auto, farm, business, retirement, Lake Estate®, and more—protecting nearly 500,000 Michigan policyholders.
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.
2024-25 Scholar-Athlete Award Finalists
GIRLS CLASS A
Clara Freeth, Ann Arbor Huron
Katherine Ma, Ann Arbor Huron
Avery Allen, Birmingham Seaholm
Ella Gifford, Birmingham Seaholm
Grace Johnson-Sears, Birmingham Seaholm
Selina Lin, Birmingham Seaholm
Madeline Day, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood
Sophia Y. Tang, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood
Sydney Law, Byron Center
Nadine Fayad, Dearborn
Alaa Selman, Dearborn Heights Crestwood
Eleni Michos, Dexter
Grace Tykocki, Grand Blanc
Kylie Pung, Howell
Bomin Koo, Jenison
Kortney Osborn, Mason
Ayesha Middha, Midland Dow
Chikanma Okoisor, Midland Dow
Tara Creekmore, Plymouth
Katherine McLaughlin, Portage Central
Grace Roth, Saline
Madeline Bildeaux, Traverse City West
Carly Lyons, West Bloomfield
Natalie Weissman, West Bloomfield
BOYS CLASS A
Sean Wesolek, Bay City John Glenn
Milan Patel, Birmingham Seaholm
Carson J. Wright, Birmingham Seaholm
Noah Kaplan, Bloomfield Hills
Asher Langwell, Bloomfield Hills
Calvin Meeker, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood
Nicholas Leiter, Detroit Catholic Central
Peter Sanin, Detroit Catholic Central
Lucas Groulx, Flint Kearsley
Elijah Lipke, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central
Gruhith Yerramalli, Grosse Pointe North
Jack J. Lupo, Grosse Pointe South
James Michelotti, Grosse Pointe South
Joseph Spada, Kalamazoo Central
Andrew Creedon, Livonia Churchill
Nimai Patel, Midland Dow
Cameron McVittie, Northville
Nathan Beemer, Okemos
Drew F. Cady, Oxford
Hunter Easton, Saline
Auben Wesley, South Lyon
Owen Przybylski, Temperance Bedford
Asher Paul, Traverse City Central
Brady Scheidt, West Bloomfield
GIRLS CLASS B
Hannah Lee, Ann Arbor Greenhills
Eleana Zhuang, Ann Arbor Greenhills
Madison Cole, Battle Creek Pennfield
Addison Seemann, Freeland
Lauren Sundquist, Gladstone
Sierra Grooters, Hudsonville Unity Christian
Madelynn Kreider, Kingsford
Nadia Marie Grierson, Ludington
Anna Catherine Boggs, Monroe Jefferson
Marlee Plaxco, Negaunee
Hailey Dodd, Parma Western
Alaina Hanson, Reed City
Alexandrea Komarowski, St. Clair
Scarlet Maison, Standish-Sterling
Camille Kraai, Whitehall
Grace McDowell, Whitehall
BOYS CLASS B
Maxwell Volk, Chesaning
Alan Mrva, Corunna
Isaak E. Rubley, Dundee
Brayden Joslin, Durand
Brayden Bryan Lape, Grass Lake
Corbin Allen, Grayling
Oliver Costello, Haslett
Jayse Peterson, Hastings
Caden James VanHuis, Holland Christian
Gavin J. Trevillian, Kingsford
Nicholas Caldwell, North Branch
Benjamin Kelenske, Olivet
Blair Scott, Olivet
Owen T. Feldpausch, Owosso
Ryan Goodrich, Whitehall
Brady Tate, Whitehall
GIRLS CLASS C
Baylee Goddard, Alcona
Kaylee A. Kranz, Clinton
Kelcie Jo Pung, Fowler
Alexyn DuBois, Hanover-Horton
Grace Hayhurst, Harbor Springs
Allie Nowak, Johannesburg-Lewiston
Dayne Behning, Munising
Kate Mattson, Munising
Ashlyn Orr, New Lothrop
Tess Tillman, Royal Oak Shrine Catholic
Makayla Zelinko, St. Charles
BOYS CLASS C
Lucas Hall, Bark River-Harris
Owen Heath, Bridgman
Jason Zarate, Brighton Charyl Stockwell Prep
Matthew Mellendorf, Cass City
Korbyn Russell, East Jordan
Isaiah Kabban, Harbor Beach
Carson Kienitz, Munising
Trevor Nolan, Munising
Ian Weldon, Reese
Ben Denlinger, Roscommon
Wheatley Rodammer, Saginaw Valley Lutheran
Landon Pestrue, St. Louis
GIRLS CLASS D
Keira Jean Graham, Bessemer
Molly Coppens, Chesterfield Austin Catholic
Sarah Bradley, Clarkston Everest Collegiate
Ella Grace Gasperich, Crystal Falls Forest Park
Leah Durfee, Fife Lake Forest Area
Ella Knudsen, Leland
Mallory Rich, Muskegon Catholic Central
Kaitlyn Miros, Saginaw Nouvel
BOYS CLASS D
Seth Davis, Adrian Lenawee Christian
Owen Plum, Britton Deerfield
Joshua Gaunt, Dollar Bay
Dakota Malek, Fulton
Andrew Spiegel, Hillsdale Academy
Carter Kosinski, Kinde North Huron
Alex Tyndall, Mason County Eastern
Grady Pieratt, Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart