Rep Council Wrap-up: Spring 2013
May 20, 2013
A change in the transfer regulation and the addition of safety training for assistant and subvarsity coaches were among the most significant actions approved by the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association during its annual Spring Meeting, May 5-6, in Gaylord.
The Spring meeting of the 19-member legislative body of the Association’s more than 1,500 member schools is generally the busiest of its three sessions each year. The Council considered 40 committee proposals and also dealt with a variety of eligibility rule, postseason tournament and operational issues.
The most significant change to the MHSAA body of regulations concerns students who transfer between schools for reasons related to athletics. Effective for the 2014-15 school year, a transfer student will be ineligible for 180 school days if he or she has partaken in an activity during the previous 12 months that demonstrates the transfer is related to athletics. Offending activities may include practicing, competing or training with a member of the new school’s coaching staff including during summer activities or non-school sports seasons like for AAU basketball. Attending an open gym at the new school or being coached by a current or incoming coach while the athlete still attended his or her former high school also would be considered an offending activity.
Currently, a school that loses a student for athletics-related reasons must report this to the MHSAA for that student to incur the 180-day transfer penalty. This is no longer necessary if the above activities are verified. The rule change beginning with the 2014-15 school year will consider a student’s activity taken place during the previous 12 months. Transfers may still qualify for one of 15 exemptions that allow for immediate eligibility.
The Council also approved another step in the MHSAA’s ongoing focus on health and safety issues. Also beginning with the 2014-15 school year, all assistant and subvarsity coaches at the high school level must complete the same MHSAA rules meeting required of varsity head coaches or, alternatively, one of the free online sports safety courses posted on or linked from the MHSAA Website that is designated as fulfilling this requirement.
Here is a summary of other actions taken at the Spring Representative Council Meeting which, unless noted, will take effect during the 2013-14 school year:
Handbook/Administrative Matters
• In cases of serious injury or extended illness, including concussion or suspected concussion and symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest, students must be re-examined by a physician (MD or DO) and provide a written release from that physician before returning to practice or competition. The clearance may not be on the same date on which an athlete was removed from activity. The emphases on sudden cardiac arrest and practice are new.
• A first-time 9th grader whose first 9-12 enrollment is in a non-traditional school or program may retain eligibility at a traditional school if that student registered at the traditional school before enrolling in the non-traditional school or program.
• A faculty member may supervise a school’s team or individual competitors in cases when the head coach is unable to do so for failure to complete the annual rules meeting requirement. Previously, only an administrator was allowed to take over that supervisory role when the head coach was not allowed to be present for this reason.
• When students in grades 9 through 12 are involved, high school administrators including athletic directors may not sponsor or support out-of-season programs or perform out-of-season functions which the school itself is prohibited from sponsoring or supporting – even if the administrator is not acting as affiliated with the school. Booster clubs, alumni groups, parent organizations and other groups that exist because of the school currently are governed by the same regulation for grades 7 through 12.
• Coaches in bowling and golf may be present at a non-school facility for those respective sports when more than three of their district’s students (grades 7-12) are present, even if the coach is not employed by the facility, as long as the coach is not directly coaching or teaching more than three players and the presence of more than three students is coincidental and not prearranged by the coach.
• Beginning in 2014-15, the maximum length for all junior high/middle school sports seasons will be 13 weeks. Also, the earliest start date for junior high/middle school fall sports, beginning this fall (2013), is the 14th Monday before Thanksgiving.
Sports Matters
• In Baseball and Softball, teams and individuals will be limited to 38 contests beginning with the 2014 season. Currently, teams may participate in a combination of 56 dates and contests.
• In Competitive Cheer, additional policies and penalties were adopted to assure teams utilize the correct number of competitors in all three rounds of competition.
• In Golf, devices that measures distance may be utilized in MHSAA tournaments beginning this fall. This does not, however, include smart phones. Also, beginning in 2014, the spring Lower Peninsula boys tournament will begin and end one week earlier than is scheduled for the current season.
• In Soccer, a National Federation (NFHS) rule was adopted for MHSAA play requiring a team to play short-handed (11 vs. 10) after a player receives a second yellow card. Currently, a player is ejected after the second yellow card, but his or her team is allowed to substitute another player to take the ejected player’s place on the field. The 10-minute sit-out period after receiving a first yellow card was eliminated.
• In Volleyball, beginning with the 2014 season, the royal blue, gray and white ball is required for all high school-level regular-season and MHSAA postseason matches.
The Council also reviewed reports on membership, with 758 senior high schools and 751 junior high/middle schools in 2012-13; eligibility advancement applications, which totaled 15 for the year; the use of Educational Transfer Forms, which remained stable this year; school violations, which remained significantly below recent average; attendance at athletic director and coaches in-service workshops; officials’ registrations; rules meeting attendance; and officials reports submitted for the past three sports seasons. The Association’s $9.9 million budget for the 2013-14 school year also was approved.
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.
Legacy Speaks for Allen's Service
January 31, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Randy Allen was a face seen and a voice heard by thousands during the first two decades of his career in athletics, when he worked as a TV sports anchor and radio play-by-play personality.
But it’s fair to assume his son Dean has watched his dad at work more than anyone over the latter’s most recent 20-plus years serving high school athletic associations, including the last 13 as an assistant director at the MHSAA.
Dean Allen, now an assistant athletic director at Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, remembers many trophy presentations over the years and how his dad would step back and make sure the tournament manager or athletic director was the one handing the hardware to those who deserved the spotlight.
Randy Allen embraced a behind-the-scenes role after joining the high school association side in 1992. And as he retired from the MHSAA on Friday, it was no doubt the athletic directors, officials and coaches who worked with him behind the scenes over the last 13 years who most appreciated his many contributions to making his seasons run smoothly.
“The biggest smile you’d see on him was when the tournament was over and the kids were out there tackling each other, the excitement, the smiles on their faces when they get their medals and raise the trophy,” Dean Allen said. “For him, that’s most worth it. To see it run well, and when it’s over, seeing the kids and the community and parents and coaches, celebrating the successes they’ve had. Seeing the smiles on kids’ faces is really what it’s all about.”
Randy Allen’s name surely isn’t as recognizable to sports fans in Michigan as it was during the 1970s and 80s in Wisconsin.
That was by design.
Allen set that tone almost immediately at his first meeting as a member of the MHSAA staff – during the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association annual summer retreat.
“I remember telling them how glad I was to be here, and how much I looked forward to serving the membership. I just felt that was our main focus here, was to serve schools,” Allen said. “I’ve kept that thought in mind day in and day out.”
Allen knew only a handful of Michiganders when he joined the MHSAA staff. But he knew the job – and was ready for the challenges of fulfilling an aspiration while gaining knowledge of his new home on the fly.
His roots in high school athletics already dug deep.
Allen officiated baseball and softball for 25 years and also some of both at the college level. He also worked as a TV sports anchor at multiple stations near Madison, Wis., for 15 years while radio broadcasting high school football, basketball, baseball and hockey games on three networks and University of Wisconsin hockey games during the era of legendary coach Bob Johnson.
Allen went on to work in various other media roles as a producer, director and station manager, and broadcasted and produced Wisconsin high school tournament games – which led in part to his joining the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association staff as communications director in 1992.
In 2000, Allen became a seven-state regional director for iHigh.com. But an opportunity at the MHSAA two years later allowed him to pursue a goal going back to his days at the WIAA.
“I had always hoped I would get a chance to manage a sport in a state association,” Allen said. “When I came here, I went to heaven. I got to manage sports, and they were sports I knew like the back of my hand.”
Allen joined the MHSAA staff as assistant director in charge of baseball, softball, hockey and team wrestling. But that was just a start; Allen later traded in baseball and team wrestling for golf and played a leading role in the addition of bowling, which he has directed since its inception.
Allen also coordinated the junior high/middle school and MHSAA awards committees and served as staff liaison to the MIAAA, among other duties.
“Randy has been a perfect fit for his major sport responsibilities here,” MHSAA executive director Jack Roberts said. “He is a very hard worker, and he is very well liked by the coaches, officials and administrators he has served so well.”
It was during a trip to visit potential Hockey Finals sites roughly a decade ago that Roberts first brought up to Allen the possibility of bowling becoming the next MHSAA tournament addition – and the question of who on staff could run it. Roberts asked if Allen had experience in the sport.
Allen had an uncle in the bowling business and had been rolling since he was 4. “Bowling has been in my DNA since I was (a child),” Allen said. “I speak their language.”
He directed the MHSAA’s first Bowling Finals in 2004. Participation in the sport has continued to grow to 6,700 students in 2012-13.
Bowling also played a big part in making Allen something of an ambassador for the MHSAA, in that he reached out to an entire group of sports people who had not been in MHSAA conversations before.
He played a similar key role in serving others who also often work under the radar, providing training to the athletic department secretaries and middle school athletic directors during MIAAA conferences. And his experience in multiple states allowed him to provide a valuable and varied perspective.
“He always was willing to talk to someone – answer an MHSAA rules or regulation question, provide a quick fix to a school/league issue, give an anecdote to make a bad day better with a smile,” said Bear Lake athletic director Karen Leinaar, who also serves on the MHSAA Representative Council and is assistant to the executive director of the MIAAA. “And he always was a welcoming voice on the phone. No question, no person was ever a bother. He always took time and provided some type of direction.”
He’ll continue to do so.
Allen will begin Monday as commissioner of the Capital Area Activities Conference, the 27-school league that includes most of the biggest in the Lansing and Jackson areas.
“My entire life has been school sports. Not college sports, not professional sports. School sports,” Allen said. “It was my passion, what I was comfortable with as an official; I coached a little bit, I played a little bit (and) as a broadcaster.”
PHOTO: Retired MHSAA assistant director Randy Allen (left), with official Dan Dicristofaro, managed his final Hockey Finals in 2013.