Winter Rules Additions Focus on Safety
December 5, 2013
Rules promoting greater player safety and improved coach-player communication highlight the playing rules changes for the winter sports season now underway at Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools across the state.
The winter sports season involves eight different sports and approximately 70,000 student-athletes. Practices began as early as late October; and tournaments begin in mid-February, running through the end of March. Competition is already underway in Girls Basketball, Bowling in the Upper Peninsula, Girls Competitive Cheer, Girls Gymnastics, Ice Hockey, and Upper Peninsula Swimming & Diving. On Saturday (Dec. 7), competition begins for Bowling and Swimming in the Lower Peninsula, as well as Wrestling. The Boys Basketball season begins on Monday (Dec. 9), and Skiing events may begin on Dec. 14.
Ice Hockey has several rules changes promoting player safety. “Blind-side” hits, checks to an unsuspecting or vulnerable player, can now be penalized; and the rule prohibiting a player form pushing, charging, cross or body-checking an opponent from behind into the boards or goal frame has reinstated the discretion for the official to issue a game disqualification when flagrant. Another safety change stops play when the goalkeeper’s glove is displaced – expanding a rule where the displacement of the keeper’s mask or helmet stops play.
Additionally, an embellishment rule has been added to discourage players from taking dives to draw penalties and exaggerating the severity of the impact of a play in which a penalty is called. Finally, when the attacking team bats the puck directly on goal, it shall result in an immediate whistle and a resulting faceoff at the defensive zone faceoff spot of the offending team.
In Basketball and Wrestling, electronic devices may now be used on the bench or in the corner for coaching purposes – for example, to show plays or keep statistics. Devices may not be used to dispute officials’ calls.
The head coach in Basketball may enter the court without penalty when a fight may break out or has broken out to prevent the situation from escalating. Players and assistant coaches who leave the bench in such situations will continue to be assessed flagrant technical fouls and be disqualified from the contest.
In keeping with rules book language published a few years ago in football, the basketball rules have added a section which limits public address announcers’ action during play. PA announcers, during game action, are limited to announcing who scores baskets and commits fouls. Any other announcements during play, like time remaining, are inappropriate. General announcements during time outs are still allowed.
In Wrestling, forfeits are no longer considered as matches when considering the five-matches-in-one-day limit for competition.
Winter tournaments begin the first full week of February in wrestling. The first MHSAA Finals of the season are the Upper Peninsula Swimming & Diving Finals on February 15, and tournaments conclude with the Boys Basketball Semifinals & Finals, March 21-22.
MHSAA Announces 2021-22 School Year Classifications
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 5, 2021
Classifications for Michigan High School Athletic Association elections and postseason tournaments for the 2021-22 school year have been announced, with enrollment breaks for postseason tournaments posted to each sport’s page on the MHSAA Website.
Classifications for the upcoming school year are based on a second semester count date, which for MHSAA purposes was Feb. 10. The enrollment figure submitted for athletic classification purposes may be different from the count submitted for school aid purposes, as it does not include students ineligible for athletic competition because they reached their 19th birthday prior to September 1 of the current school year and will not include alternative education students if none are allowed athletic eligibility by the local school district.
All sports’ tournaments are conducted with schools assigned to equal or nearly equal divisions, with lines dependent on how many schools participate in those respective sports.
For 2021-22, there are 746 tournament-qualified member schools. Schools recently were notified of their classification, and sport-by-sport divisions were posted to the MHSAA Website today (April 5). MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said schools may not subsequently lower their enrollment figure. However, if revised enrollment figures are higher and indicate that a school should be playing in a higher division, that school would be moved up.
Only three MHSAA Finals champions awarded so far during the 2020-21 school year will be playing in different divisions in 2021-22. Grass Lake, which won the Division 4 boys bowling title in 2020, will be back in Division 4 for that sport next season after also winning the Division 3 championship this winter. The Okemos boys tennis team, fresh off a Lower Peninsula Division 1 championship, will return to Division 2 where it most recently won Finals titles in 2017 and 2018. Clinton last week claimed its second-straight Division 4 team wrestling championship and will be competing in Division 3 next season.
Visit the respective sport pages on the MHSAA Website to review the divisional alignments for all MHSAA-sponsored tournament sports.
Traditional classes (A, B, C, D) – formerly used to establish tournament classifications – are used only for MHSAA elections. To determine traditional classifications, after all counts are submitted, tournament-qualified member schools are ranked according to enrollment and then split as closely into quarters as possible. For 2021-22, there are 186 member schools in Class A and Class B and 187 member schools in Class C and Class D.
Effective with the 2021-22 school year, schools with 835 or more students are in Class A. The enrollment limits for Class B are 399-834, Class C is 189-398, and schools with enrollments of 188 and fewer are Class D. The break between Classes A and B increased four students from 2020-21, the break between Classes B and C increased seven students, and the break between Classes C and D also is seven students more than the 2020-21 school year.
The new classification breaks will see 13 schools move up in Class for 2021-22 while 24 schools will move down:
Moving Up from Class B to Class A
Coopersville
Moving Down from Class A to Class B
Bloomfield Hills Marian
Ionia
New Boston Huron
Moving Up from Class C to Class B
Detroit Jalen Rose Leadership Academy
Detroit Southeastern
Otisville LakeVille Memorial
Redford Westfield Prep
Watervliet
Moving Down from Class B to Class C
Blissfield
Brooklyn Columbia Central
Buchanan
Canton Prep
Dearborn Riverside Academy West
Detroit Voyageur Prep
Grayling
Southfield Bradford Academy
Tawas
Moving Up from Class D to Class C
Burton Madison Academy
Detroit Cornerstone Lincoln King Academy
International Academy of Flint
Lawrence
St. Helen Charlton Heston Academy
Warren Michigan Math & Science Academy
Westland Universal Learning Academy
Moving Down from Class C to Class D
Birmingham Roeper
Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart
Detroit International Academy
Eau Claire
Ironwood
Jackson Prep
Munising
New Buffalo
Norway
Petersburg Summerfield
Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary
Vestaburg
New Postseason Eligible Tournament Schools in 2021-22
Detroit Skills & Trade Prep
Hamtramck Oakland International Academy
Highland Park Sigma Academy for Leadership
Shepherd FlexTech
Enrollment Breaks by Classes – 2021-22
(Number of schools in parentheses)
Class A: 835 and above (186 schools)
Class B: 399 – 834 (186)
Class C: 189 – 398 (187)
Class D: 188 and below (187)
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.