Michigan Steady In National Participation Figures
September 14, 2012
For the fourth straight year, Michigan ranked seventh nationally in high school sports participation, according to statistics for the 2011-12 school year released recently by the National Federation of State High School Associations. That level of participation continued to best Michigan’s national ranking for total number of residents of high school age.
Michigan’s participation ranking was based on a number of 308,080, with 131,346 girls and 176,734 boys taking part, and included sports in which the Michigan High School Athletic Association does not conduct postseason tournaments. The totals count students once for each sport in which he or she participates, meaning students who are multiple-sport athletes are counted more than once.
Michigan girls participation fell one spot to seventh nationally after two straight years at sixth, while the boys participation figure again ranked sixth. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures from 2011, Michigan continues to rank eighth in both females and males of ages 14 through 17. Girls participation also ranked seventh in 2008-09.
Three sports moved up in their rankings, while seven fell – but none more than one spot. Total, Michigan ranked eighth or higher nationally in participation in 24 of the 28 sports in which the MHSAA conducts a postseason tournament (not counting separately 8-player football).
Girls basketball and golf both rose in 2011-12, basketball to sixth and golf to fifth. Girls tennis held steady in third place, with participation in bowling, volleyball and skiing again ranked fourth. Softball and track and field remained seventh, soccer and swimming and diving both stayed at eighth, and lacrosse stayed at 12th nationally. Girls cross country, gymnastics and competitive cheer all fell one spot – cross country to seventh, cheer to fifth and gymnastics to 12th.
Nine boys sports remained in the same spots nationally, and one – wrestling – moved up one spot, to fifth. Boys bowling stayed constant at third, as did skiing and ice hockey in fourth, 11-player football and tennis in fifth, track and field and golf in sixth, baseball in seventh and cross country in ninth in their respective sport rankings. Boys Basketball fell one spot to sixth, with boys lacrosse falling one to eighth and boys soccer and swimming and diving both moving down one spot to ninth on those lists. Last school year also was the third the MHSAA has had 8-player football, and Michigan ranked 14th of 16 states for participation in that spot.
National participation in high school sports in 2011-12 set a new record again with 7,692,520 students taking part. While boys participation nationally fell 9,419 students from 2010-11, girls participation rose 33,984 students for a record total of 3,207,533.
Six Members Elected to MHSAA Representative Council
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 23, 2025
Elections were completed recently to fill positions on the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s legislative body, its Representative Council, with six members receiving re-election from their respective constituencies and two new members also selected to join the Council beginning with its Fall meeting this December.
Five of the six re-elected members ran unopposed. Jay Alexander, executive director of athletics for Detroit Public Schools, was re-elected to continue representing DPS. Camden-Frontier superintendent Chris Adams was re-elected to continue representing Class C and D schools in the southeastern section of the Lower Peninsula, and Gobles athletic director/director of operations Chris Miller was re-elected to continue representing Class C and D schools in the southwestern section. Kingsford athletic director Chris Hartman was re-elected to continue representing Class A and B schools in the Upper Peninsula, and Boyne City principal Adam Stefanski was re-elected to continue serving junior high/middle schools.
Winning re-election by a majority vote was Mt. Morris athletic director Jeff Kline, who will continue serving as a statewide representative. All six were elected to serve two-year terms.
Additionally, Richland Gull Lake athletic director Karyn Furlong has been selected to serve the second year of the two-year term representing Class A and B schools in the southwestern section of the Lower Peninsula, taking the place of recently-retired Portage Northern athletic director Chris Riker. Ellsworth Public Schools superintendent Aaron Gaffney was selected to serve the second year of the term representing Class C and D schools in the northern section of the Lower Peninsula, previously represented by past Harbor Springs athletic director Anna Novak, who left that district for another position in education.
The Representative Council is the 19-member legislative body of the MHSAA. All but five members are elected by member schools. Four members are appointed by the Council to facilitate representation of females and minorities, and the 19th position is occupied by the Superintendent of Public Instruction or designee. The Council meets three times annually. Five members of the Council convene monthly during the school year to form the MHSAA’s Executive Committee, which reviews appeals of Handbook regulations by member schools.
Additional elections took place to select representatives to the Upper Peninsula Athletic Committee. Menominee assistant principal/athletic director Sam Larson was re-elected to continue representing Class C schools, and Paradise-Whitefish Township Schools superintendent Vincent Gross was re-elected to continue representing Class D schools. Both of those elections were uncontested. Houghton athletic director Rob Fay was elected by majority vote to represent Class A-B schools.
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.