Welcome to the Second Half
January 27, 2012
More than 750 high schools are members of the Michigan High School Athletic Association. And every team in every community has a story.
“Second Half” is our place to tell them.
Combined with our parent site MHSAA.com, and our broadcast home MHSAA.tv, “Second Half” completes our picture of the best Michigan high school sports have to offer.
With MHSAA.com, “Second Half” is the home of a growing number of schedules, scores, league standings and tournament information for our sports – but also much more. Now, we’ll look to provide visitors with the stories behind the scores.
You’ll find the report of a rare feat or the achievement that rallied the town. Behind-the-scenes looks at what we do at the MHSAA and what goes into 28 Finals tournaments each school year. We tell the inspiring tales of overcoming large obstacles, and the simple ones of lessons learned just by being a part of school sports. They’re the kind of stories all of us can relate to and enjoy, no matter where we live and which teams we support.
Michigan is the 10th-largest state in the nation. There are more than 58,000 square miles of land, and by vehicle it’s 625 miles from Calumet High School near the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula to Bedford High on the southeastern border with Ohio. Nearly 10 million people live, work and play here. MHSAA tournament events alone attract 1.6 million spectators each year.
With “Second Half”, we aim to make our state a little smaller.
If you like something we’re doing, let us know. If you’d like to see something else, I’d love to hear about it. My contact information is at the right of this screen, and my e-mail address is [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you – and telling the entire state about the great things you’re doing.
--Geoff Kimmerly
Several 1st-Time Winners Highlight 2025-26 MHSAA Parade of Champions
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
June 18, 2026
Three schools celebrated their first Michigan High School Athletic Association Finals championships in any sport during the 2025-26 school year as 39 teams total won first Finals titles in their respective sports.
Holland Calvary, in boys cross country, Durand in boys bowling and Walled Lake Northern in softball won their schools’ first Finals championships in any sport, as 88 schools total won at least one of the 132 MHSAA team titles awarded over the three seasons.
A total of 23 schools won two or more championships this school year, paced again by Marquette with eight earned in girls and boys cross country, boys golf, girls skiing, girls and boys swimming & diving, boys tennis and boys track & field. Detroit Country Day was next with seven Finals championships, followed by Detroit Catholic Central with six and Ann Arbor Pioneer with four.
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, Negaunee, Northville and Rockford all won three titles in 2025-26. Winning two were Birmingham Seaholm, Charlevoix, Farmington Hills Mercy, Flint Kearsley, Flint Powers Catholic, Grand Rapids West Catholic, Jackson Lumen Christi, Lake Linden-Hubbell, Lowell, Newberry, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, Pewamo-Westphalia, Ravenna, Rudyard and West Iron County.
A total of 48 champions were repeat winners from 2025-26. A total of 31 teams won championships for at least the third-straight season, while 22 teams extended title streaks to at least four consecutive seasons. The Lowell wrestling program owns the longest title streak at 13 seasons, followed by Dundee wrestling’s nine consecutive titles and runs of seven straight Finals victories by the Detroit Catholic Central ice hockey team and Marquette’s boys cross country and boys swimming & diving programs.
This school year saw the addition of field hockey and boys volleyball to the MHSAA’s postseason tournament offerings. Eighteen of the MHSAA's 30 team championship tournaments are unified, involving teams from the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, while separate competition to determine title winners in both peninsulas is conducted in remaining sports.
For a sport-by-sport listing of MHSAA champions for 2025-26, click here (PDF).
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.
PHOTO The Oak Park girls track & field team hoist their championship trophy and sign May 30 at Rockford High School. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)