Rep Council Wrap-Up: Fall 2018
December 6, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The adoption of alterations to the Michigan High School Athletic Association fall calendar and approval of Calvin College as the continued host site for the Girls Basketball Finals were among actions taken by the MHSAA’s Representative Council during its Fall Meeting on Nov. 30 in East Lansing.
Generally, the Council takes only a few actions during its Fall Meeting, with topics often introduced for additional consideration and action during its meetings in winter and spring. However, with multiple topics requiring immediate attention this fall, the Council approved calendar and basketball recommendations in advance of circumstances that will affect both during the 2019-20 school year and beyond.
The calendar change will keep the length of fall seasons consistent in boys soccer, cross country, tennis and golf in years when Thanksgiving is “late” during the fourth full week of November. The Council approved a recommendation allowing those four sports in “short years” – for example, 2019 – to begin practice the 16th Monday before Thanksgiving (Monday, Aug. 12, 2019) and begin competition after three days of practice over four calendar days (Friday, Aug. 16, 2019). Because the start of practice in those sports annually is tied to Thanksgiving, but the Finals are not, those four fall sports faced shorter seasons by one week in 2019, 2024, 2025, etc.
The Council also approved continuing to conduct the Girls Basketball Semifinals and Finals for 2019-20 and 2020-21 at Van Noord Arena at Calvin College. The Girls Finals moved to Van Noord Arena in 2017-18 because of the unavailability of Michigan State University’s Breslin Center due to a conflict with the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament and an opportunity for Michigan State’s women’s team to host first and second-round games had it qualified and earned a top-16 overall seed. The same conflict is possible during Girls Basketball Finals traditional weekend in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Additionally, the Council discussed solutions for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, when Breslin may not be available during the traditional weekend of the MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals. The boys season for 2018-19 switched calendars with the girls season to avoid the same NCAA Tournament conflict; Breslin is the only building statewide that has made itself available for the Boys Basketball Finals and is large enough to accommodate the event. Only one other location offered to host the Girls Basketball Finals for 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Also affecting competition for 2019-20, the Council approved the continuation of an experiment begun in 2016-17 that allows cooperative programs in a series of sports – regardless of the student enrollment maximum – for two or more schools of the same public school district (and with the same governing board). Districts may form these co-ops in baseball, bowling, girls competitive cheer, cross country, golf, soccer, girls softball, tennis and wrestling. The experiment was designed to provide opportunities to participate in urban school districts where schools previously did not have enough athletes for team sponsorship on their own. Districts must show a demonstrated history of inadequate numbers of participants to be approved. These programs require the same two-year renewal process as other cooperative programs.
The Council also approved a change effective in spring 2020 that will allow spring sports teams, that have received MHSAA approval to travel out of state, to practice jointly and/or scrimmage (up to the season’s limit of four allowed scrimmages) with and against other approved MHSAA member schools. The Council reviewed survey data from the fall Update meetings and an online survey of membership that showed significant support for the allowance.
A number of other discussions focused on matters that could come before the Council for action at its Winter Meeting in March or Spring Meeting in May. In preparation for the Football Committee meeting in January, the Council discussed survey results concerning regular-season scheduling and the MHSAA Tournament for both 11 and 8-player football. The Council also reviewed possible benefits of adjusting MHSAA officials registration to include National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) membership and also other options for changing MHSAA registration prices to encourage more multi-sport officials. These officiating concepts will be presented to the MHSAA Audit and Finance Committee in February in advance of possible Council action in March or May.
The Council discussed creating an MHSAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee to provide input and guidance on such topics, and also heard feedback received during Update meetings on the MHSAA’s possible role in mental health initiatives. The Council heard an update on the communication and notice that has taken place regarding the new Sport-Specific Transfer Rule that goes into effect for 2019-20 based on the sports a student participated in during 2018-19. The Council also continued its 2018 March and May discussions concerning the boarding school student exception to the transfer rule, with staff reporting on a recent meeting with those boarding schools administrators.
Additionally, the Council heard an update on the “Presenting Sponsor” program whereby the MHSAA has provided support to junior high/middle school competitions in cross country and track & field over the last two years; in 2018-19, the MHSAA also is serving as presenting sponsor at events for junior high/middle school volleyball and basketball. Similarly, the MHSAA will serve this winter as a presenting sponsor of a Special Olympics Unified basketball invitational in February at Novi High School and at the Michigan High School Powerlifting Association Finals in March at Ionia High School. Both high school events will include fields filled with MHSAA member high schools and provide the Association with further opportunities to provide financial and messaging support for these student-focused activities.
The Fall Meeting saw the addition of Nicole Carter, principal of Novi High School, to the 19-person Council. She was appointed to a two-year term. Carter fills the position formerly held by Pat Watson, principal of West Bloomfield High School, whose term ended. Also, Vicky Groat, principal and athletic director at Battle Creek St. Philip High School, was reappointed for a second two-year term.
The Council reelected Scott Grimes, assistant superintendent of human services for Grand Haven Area Public Schools, as its president; Saginaw Heritage athletic director Pete Ryan as vice president and Vic Michaels, director of physical education and athletics for the Archdiocese of Detroit, as secretary-treasurer.
The Representative Council is the 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 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.
Spring Preliminary Concussion Data Announced
June 28, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Similar to information gathered after the first two seasons of the 2015-16 school year, the Michigan High School Athletic Association has found through collection of preliminary data that fewer than one percent of its more than 100,000 spring student-athletes experienced potential concussions during the season that concluded early this month.
The MHSAA this school year requested for the first time that member schools report possible concussions by their student-athletes during both practice and competition. As expected, the overall percentage of spring student-athletes with potential concussions was lower than for both fall and winter – as many spring sports involve only limited contact. A first set of preliminary data announced in December showed only two percent of more than 100,000 high school fall athletes experienced concussions during that first season of 2015-16. Preliminary data released in May for the winter also showed two percent of that season’s more than 70,000 student-athletes had experienced potential concussions as well.
As it did for the fall and winter, the MHSAA again received data from more than 99 percent of its member high schools at the end of the spring season. The average number of possible spring concussions reported by member high schools through June 27, 2016, was 1.0 concussion per school – fewer than the averages per school reported for the fall (3.2) and winter (1.6) seasons. Just under 50 percent of reporting schools stated they had no concussions by athletes this spring.
However, six spring sports — including girls track & field — registered at least 20 possible concussions, and for the second consecutive season a girls sport reported the highest percentage. Following girls basketball in the winter, girls soccer revealed 53 percent of possible concussions reported this spring – despite only 12 percent of spring student-athletes participating in that sport. Softball, also with roughly 12 percent of spring student-athletes, followed with 19 percent of possible concussions reported. Boys lacrosse, with 11 percent of possible concussions, ranked third-highest overall and highest among boys sports this spring. Roughly five percent of spring student-athletes play boys lacrosse.
Girls soccer has produced 58 percent more potential concussions than boys soccer did during the fall, despite seven percent fewer student-athletes playing girls soccer. Boys lacrosse, meanwhile, had nearly three times as many possible concussions as girls lacrosse – with only 48 percent more participants.
Schools also are required to designate if potential concussions occurred during competition or practice and at which level – varsity, junior varsity or freshman – and this spring those designations provided additional compelling data. In girls lacrosse, 63 percent of possible concussions occurred at the varsity level, while softball saw its most at the junior varsity level and baseball saw as many at the varsity level as the junior varsity and freshman levels combined.
“The preliminary data we were able to collect this spring again shows, and especially with girls soccer, why we must work for solutions to limit head injuries in all sports and not focus solely on sports that are most publicized,” MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts said. “As we now move toward solidifying our research from this school year, we expect to learn even more about which factors contribute most to the sustaining of concussions at the high school level, and what our administrators, coaches, rule-makers and others might be able to do to make our games even safer and healthier for our student-athletes.”
Data collected by the MHSAA remains preliminary, in part, because results noted include pending reports that have not been verified. After completion of these follow-up reports, the final number of concussions that actually occurred this past season and during the fall and winter may be lower than the preliminary numbers being reported at this time.
The data analyzed to date is for high schools only, although middle schools also have the opportunity to report possible concussions. A full breakdown of the data including concussions by gender, sport, team level (varsity through junior high) and setting (practice or event) will be reported at the end of this summer.
The reporting of possible concussions is part of a three-pronged advance by the MHSAA in concussion care begun during the 2015-16 school year which is producing data related to the frequency and severity of head injuries. The MHSAA in fall 2015 launched the largest ever state high school association sideline concussion testing pilot program, with 62 schools taking part by using one of two screening tests designed to detect concussions. One of the objectives of the pilot was to increase awareness of concussions and improve sideline detection; and preliminary results have indicated that the average number of possible concussions reported by pilot schools exceeds the average reported by schools outside the pilot group.
Of 15 schools reporting the most possible concussions this spring, six are part of the MHSAA’s pilot sideline detection programs. Those programs – King-Devick Test and XLNTbrain Sport – utilize technology to provide on-site testing of athletes who have sustained possible concussions, with results of those examinations then compared against baseline tests taken by athletes previously. Schools participating in the pilot programs for the 2016-17 school year received training at the MHSAA office in East Lansing on June 16 and 17.
The MHSAA also is the first state association to provide all participants at every member high school and junior high/middle school with insurance intended to pay accident medical expense benefits – covering deductibles and co-pays left unpaid by other policies – resulting from head injuries sustained during school practices or competitions and at no cost to either schools or families. The program has produced additional data about the frequency and severity of head injuries. As of June 27, only 144 claims had been made on the insurance policy designed to assist in payment for concussion care. Fifty-one of the claims are for football, 39 are for basketball (girls and boys combined) and 14 are for boys soccer.
Schools report possible concussions online via the MHSAA Website. Reports are then examined by members of the MHSAA staff, who follow up with school administrators as those student-athletes continue to receive care and eventually return to play. Student privacy is protected.
Previously, the MHSAA also was among the first state associations to adopt a return-to-play protocol that keeps an athlete out of activity until at least the next day after a suspected concussion, and allows that athlete to return to play only after he or she has been cleared for activity by a doctor (M.D. or D.O.), physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner. The follow-up reports schools are providing the MHSAA reveal that the majority of students are being withheld from activity for a week or longer following the reported concussion. This will be discussed in more detail when the MHSAA releases a more comprehensive review that covers the entire school year.
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.
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