Winter Rules Changes Focus on Safety
December 6, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Seasons are underway for teams participating in 12 winter sports for which the Michigan High School Athletic Association sponsors postseason tournaments, with a continuing focus on safety highlighting rules changes taking effect with the first days of competition.
Beginning with ice hockey’s first games Nov. 14, six sports started play during the final weeks of November, while the rest will be underway by the end of this week; Wrestling on Dec. 7 and Boys and Girls Skiing on Dec. 10 will be the final winter sports to begin competition.
Basketball, wrestling and ice hockey are among sports with noticeable changes to enhance safety this winter. In basketball, a change has been made to further protect the free-throw shooter from being displaced immediately after attempting a shot. Players occupying marked free-throw lane spaces may enter the lane on the release of the ball but may not touch or cross the free-throw line extended, into the semicircle, until the ball is released and touches the ring or backboard. Other players not occupying marked lane spaces may not have either foot beyond the vertical plane of the free-throw line extended and the 3-point line which is farther from the basket until the ball touches the ring or until the free throw ends. Both are designed to keep the free-throw shooter free from contact and alone in the semicircle directly following the shot attempt.
Also in basketball, non-playing personnel including cheerleaders, media and school supervisors must remain outside the playing area during a timeout 30 seconds or shorter. Non-playing personnel also must remain throughout the game in the areas between the free-throw lines extended and sidelines, to provide a safer environment free of possible collisions for both playing and non-playing personnel.
Officials will be on the lookout in wrestling for a hold that could lead to a competitor being dropped to the mat after a lift without the ability to use his or her arms to break the fall because they are trapped as part of the hold. If a wrestler, from a standing position, is placed in a body lock with one or both arms trapped, the offensive wrestler is required to safely return that defensive wrestler to the mat through a variety of legal moves. Officials will stop the match if a lift is coming or imminent that would result in the defensive wrestler being unable to break his or her fall because of an arm trap.
Hockey contact to the head or neck area will be penalized with multiple levels of severity in 2016-17, depending on the extent and intent of that contact. If contact to the head or neck area is deemed to be direct – that is, with the initial force of the contact occurring to the neck or head area – that contact will be considered a flagrant foul and result in a major penalty or game disqualification. If the contact is deemed indirect – with the initial force of the contact beginning below the neck and progressing upward to the head or neck area – the result will be a minor penalty unless the indirect contact is deemed by officials to be flagrant, which again will result in a major or game disqualification.
Also of note in hockey, all players (excluding goaltenders) must now take a stationary position on all faceoffs before the puck is dropped. By eliminating motion prior to faceoffs, this rule change is designed to also eliminate any possible advantage gained by players previously working for better position.
The 2016-17 Winter campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls and Boys Swimming & Diving Finals on Feb. 18, and wraps up with the Boys Basketball Finals on March 25. Here is a complete list of winter tournament dates:
Boys Basketball
Districts – March 6, 8 & 10
Regionals – March 13 & 15
Quarterfinals – March 21
Semifinals – March 23-24
Finals – March 25
Girls Basketball
Districts – Feb. 27, March 1 & 3
Regionals – March 7 & 9
Quarterfinals – March 14
Semifinals – March 16-17
Finals – March 18
Girls & Boys Bowling
Team Regionals – Feb. 24
Singles Regionals – Feb. 25
Team Finals – March 3
Singles Finals – March 4
Girls Competitive Cheer
Districts – Feb. 17-18
Regionals – Feb. 25
Finals: March 3-4
Girls Gymnastics
Regionals – March 4
Team Finals – March 10
Individual Finals – March 11
Ice Hockey
Pre-Regionals – Feb. 27-March 3
Regional Finals – March 3-4
Quarterfinals – March 7-8
Semifinals – March 9-10
Finals – March 11
Girls & Boys Skiing
Regionals – Feb. 13-17
Finals – Feb. 27
Girls & Boys Swimming & Diving
U.P. Girls & Boys Finals – Feb. 18
L.P. Boys Diving Regionals – March 2
L.P. Boys Finals – March 10-11
Wrestling
Team Districts – Feb. 8-9
Individual Districts – Feb. 11
Team Regionals – Feb. 15
Individual Regionals – Feb. 18
Team Quarterfinals – Feb. 24
Team Semifinals & Finals – Feb. 25
Individual Finals – March 2-4
Scholar-Athlete Finalists Announced
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 22, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The 120 finalists for the Michigan High School Athletic Association's Scholar-Athlete Awards for the 2015-16 school year have been announced.
The program, celebrating its 27th anniversary, has recognized student-athletes since the 1989-90 school year and again this winter will honor 32 individuals from MHSAA member schools who participate in at least one sport in which the Association sponsors a postseason tournament.
Farm Bureau Insurance underwrites the Scholar-Athlete Awards and will present a $1,000 scholarship to each recipient. Since the beginning of the program, 672 scholarships have been awarded.
Scholarships will be presented proportionately by school classification, with 12 scholarships to be awarded to Class A student-athletes, six female and six male; eight scholarships will be awarded to Class B student-athletes, four female and four male; six scholarships will be awarded to Class C student-athletes, three female and three male; and four scholarships will be awarded to Class D student-athletes, two female and two male. In addition, the final two scholarships will be awarded at-large to minority recipients, regardless of school size.
Every MHSAA member high school could submit as many applications as there are scholarships available in its classification, and could have more than one finalist. East Grand Rapids has five finalists this year, Grosse Ile has four finalists and Birmingham Seaholm and Marquette each have three. Fourteen schools each have two finalists: Ann Arbor Pioneer, Bellaire, Bronson, Dearborn Edsel Ford, Farmington Hills Harrison, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, Grandville, Hudsonville, Laingsburg, Scottville Mason County Central, Onsted, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, Portland and White Cloud.
Multiple-sport participation remains the norm among applicants. The average sport participation rate of the finalists is 2.51, while the average of the application pool was 2.14. There are 62 three-plus sport participants in the finalists field, and all but one of the 28 sports in which the MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments are represented.
Of 374 schools which submitted applicants, 45 submitted the maximum allowed. This year, 1,425 applications were received. All applicants will be presented with certificates commemorating their achievement. Additional Scholar-Athlete information, including a complete list of scholarship nominees, can be found on the MHSAA Website.
The applications were judged by a 58-member committee of school coaches, counselors, faculty members, administrators and board members from MHSAA member schools. Selection of the 32 scholarship recipients will take place in early February. Class C and D scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 2; Class B scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 9, and Class A scholarship recipients will be announced Feb. 16. All announcements will be made on the MHSAA Website.
To honor the 32 Scholar-Athlete Award recipients, a ceremony will take place during halftime of the Class C Boys Basketball Final, March 26, at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing.
To be eligible for the award, students must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 (on a 4.0 scale), and previously have won a varsity letter in at least one sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament. Students also were asked to respond to a series of short essay questions, submit two letters of recommendation and a 500-word essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.
Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan was founded in 1949 by Michigan farmers who wanted an insurance company that worked as hard as they did. Those values still guide the company today and are a big reason why it is known as Michigan’s Insurance Company, dedicated to protecting the farms, families, and businesses of this great state. Farm Bureau Insurance agents across Michigan provide a full range of insurance services—life, home, auto, farm, business, retirement, Lake Estate®, and more—protecting nearly 500,000 Michigan policyholders.
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.
2015-16 Scholar-Athlete Award Finalists
BOYS CLASS A
Jack Eisentrout, Ann Arbor Pioneer
Nathan Lazor, Birmingham Groves
Zaven Dadian, Birmingham Seaholm
Jason Ren, Canton
Brendan Oosse, East Grand Rapids
Easton Schultz, East Grand Rapids
Jared Char, Farmington Hills Harrison
Charles R. Perkins Jr., Farmington Hills Harrison
Santino J. Guerra, Flint Kearsley
Garrett Farney, Grandville
Noah Andrew Weigle, Grandville
Jeremy Tervo, Hartland
Eric Mettetal, Howell
Riley Costen, Hudsonville
Daniel Karel, Hudsonville
Traver Parlato, Kalamazoo Loy Norrix
Kevin Hansen, Lake Orion
Alexander Oquist, Livonia Stevenson
Benjamin G. Cole, Marquette
Joseph Weber, Marquette
Kobe Burse, Muskegon Mona Shores
Drew Blakely, Richland Gull Lake
Kyle Jones, Swartz Creek
Lars Hornburg, Traverse City Central
GIRLS CLASS A
Clare Brush, Ann Arbor Pioneer
Catherine Markley, Birmingham Seaholm
Lauren McLeod, Birmingham Seaholm
Cameron Peek, Caledonia
Jaime Freas, Dearborn Edsel Ford
Sarah Hartshorn, Dearborn Edsel Ford
Mallak Taleb, Dearborn Heights Crestwood
Mackenzie Cole, East Grand Rapids
Marie Lachance, East Grand Rapids
Anna Laffrey, East Grand Rapids
Allia Marie McDowell, Farmington Hills Mercy
Brianna Costigan, Fenton
Ally Stapleton, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central
Catherine Stapleton, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central
Meredith Howe, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern
Erin Armbruster, Grosse Pointe North
Kelsey Emmanuel, Lowell
Kayla Dobies, Macomb Dakota
Lindsey Rudden, Marquette
Genevieve Soltesz, Mattawan
Olivia Arends, Mt. Pleasant
Mary Catherine McLaughlin, Northville
Ellen Wegener, Rochester
Jennifer Eaton, St. Johns
BOYS CLASS B
Geoffrey Richard Pisani, Big Rapids
Spencer Keoleian, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood
Nicolas Arons, Chelsea
Brendan Spangler, Coldwater
Evan Ciancio, Comstock Park
Ryan Mangulabnan, Dearborn Divine Child
Kyle Gavulic, Goodrich
Caleb E. Doane, Grant
Adam Kopp, Grosse Ile
Blake Willison, Grosse Ile
Justin Carlson, Hastings
Josef Philipp, Hillsdale
Austin Davis, Onsted
Austin Robert Thompson, Onsted
David Arnst, Ovid-Elsie
Trevor Trierweiler, Portland
GIRLS CLASS B
Erin Isola, Allegan
Greta Wilker, Belding
Lindsey Carlson, Charlotte
Keri Frahm, Frankenmuth
Kate Tobin, Grosse Ile
Katherine Williams, Grosse Ile
Alexis LaChappa, Harrison
Camryn A. Klein, Ionia
Fallon Gates, Manistee
Abigail Ufkes, Marshall
Paiton Plutchak, Menominee
Erica Lynn Schwegman, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep
Elizabeth Swartz, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep
Amanda Pohl, Portland
Claudia Raines, Saginaw Swan Valley
Brenna James, Sault Ste. Marie
BOYS CLASS C
Joseph Comstock, Addison
Quentin E. Millette, Ann Arbor Greenhills
Daniel R. McMichael, Bronson
Sawyer Cuthrell, Cass City
Anthony Hoholik, Manistique
Spencer Graham Knizacky, Mason County Central
Cameron Brayman, Montague
Broc Roberts, Petersburg-Summerfield
Trenden Peacock, Sand Creek
Dylan Marshall, St Ignace
Michael Klettner, Traverse City St. Francis
Bowman Seabrook, White Cloud
GIRLS CLASS C
Hannah Steffke, Beal City
Molly Lynch, Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart
Alexa Ratkowski, Bronson
Kelsey Engstrom, Charlevoix
Ellen Doyle, Gobles
Hanna Angst, Laingsburg
Julia Angst, Laingsburg
Bailee Kimbel, Manton
Jordyn Sanders, Mason County Central
Mallory Raven, Morley-Stanwood
Shelby Vincke, New Lothrop
Christiana M. Jones, White Cloud
BOYS CLASS D
Garrett Kraatz, Allen Park Inter-City Baptist
Joshua Robert Riggs, Brethren
Matthew Gratowski, DeTour
Gregory Scott Seppanen, Eben Junction Superior Central
Jayvin Wolfe, Fulton-Middleton
Nathaniel Jones, Muskegon Catholic Central
Daniel Good, Owendale-Gagetown
Benjamin Turner, Sterling Heights Parkway Christian
GIRLS CLASS D
Lindsay Lampman, Bellaire
Chloe Niepoth, Bellaire
Maria Stankewicz, Crystal Falls Forest Park
Abby Sutherland, Lake Linden-Hubbell
Elizabeth Munoz, Leland
Averi Rachelle Munro, Morrice
Natalie Frances Beaulieu, Newberry
Paige Blake, Ontonagon