New Math: Division & Multiplication Problems
July 25, 2017
By Jack Roberts
MHSAA Executive Director
This is the second part in a series on MHSAA tournament classification, past and present, that will be published over the next two weeks. This series originally ran in this spring's edition of MHSAA benchmarks.
High school tournament classifications went viral before there was social media and most of us knew what “viral” meant.
Much as a virus infects computers today or has created epidemics of disease around the world for centuries, high school tournament classification – once introduced – tends to spread uncontrollably. Once started, it tends to keep expanding and rarely contracts.
While we are still some distance from providing every team a trophy as a result of expanding high school tournament classification across the country, there is criticism nevertheless that we are headed in that direction – a philosophy which is supposed to exist only in local youth sports for our youngest children.
Michigan could be blamed for all this. Michigan is generally accepted as the first state to provide different classifications for season-ending tournaments for different sized schools. It started a century ago. Today, every state has various classifications for its tournaments in most if not all sports. And it is a bit ironic that Michigan – creator of the classification chaos – more than most other states has kept the number of tournament classes or divisions under control.
Yes, there is evidence that tournament classifications have expanded over the years in Michigan, especially with the relatively recent introduction of tournaments in football and the late 1990s’ move from classes to divisions in most MHSAA tournaments. But the MHSAA Representative Council has held true to its word when it expanded the playoffs for football from four classes to eight divisions: this is needed because of unique factors of football, factors that exist in no other sport; and all other sports should be capped at a maximum of four classes or divisions.
Kentucky is the preeminent defender of single-class basketball. All of its 276 high schools compete for the single state championship for each gender. In Indiana, there are still open wounds from its move in 1998 from one to four classes for its 400 schools in basketball.
Multi-class tournaments have tended to increase the number of non-public school champions, which some states are trying to lower through enrollment “multipliers,” and also tend to increase the number of repeat champions, which some states are trying to affect with “success factors” which lift smaller schools into classifications for larger schools if they take home too many trophies.
While there is considerable evidence that state tournaments do as much bad as good for educational athletics, state associations persist in providing postseason tournaments because, on balance, the experiences are supposed to be good for student-athletes. And once we reach that conclusion it is just a small leap to believe that if the tournaments are good for a few, they must be better for more – which leads to creating more and more tournament classifications. One becomes two classes, then three, then four and so forth.
While the argument is that more classifications or divisions provides more students with opportunities to compete and win, it is undeniable that the experience changes as the number of tournament classifications expands. It is not possible for state associations to provide the same level of support when tournament classifications expand to multiple venues playing simultaneously. For example, there is less audio and video broadcast potential at each venue, and less media coverage to each venue. Focus is diluted and fans diminished at each championship.
No one can argue reasonably that today's two-day MHSAA Football Finals of eight championship games has the same pizazz as the one-day, four-games event conducted prior to 1990.
In some states the number of divisions has grown so much that it is difficult to see much difference between the many season-ending state championship games and a regular-season event in the same sport.
It is a balancing act. And Michigan has been studying that balance longer than any other state, and charting a steadier course than most.
Addition by Division
The shift to Divisions for MHSAA Tournament play in numerous sports has added up to a greater number of champions for teams and individuals across the state. Following are the sports currently employing a divisional format, and the procedures for determining enrollment and classification.
In 23 statewide or Lower Peninsula tournaments, schools which sponsor the sport are currently divided into nearly equal divisions. They are:
- Baseball - 4 Divisions
- Boys Bowling - 4 Divisions
- Girls Bowling - 4 Divisions
- Girls Competitive Cheer - 4 Divisions
- LP Boys Cross Country - 4 Divisions
- LP Girls Cross Country - 4 Divisions
- LP Boys Golf - 4 Divisions
- LP Girls Golf - 4 Divisions
- Ice Hockey - 3 Divisions
- Boys Lacrosse - 2 Divisions
- Girls Lacrosse - 2 Divisions
- Boys Skiing - 2 Divisions
- Girls Skiing - 2 Divisions
- LP Boys Soccer - 4 Divisions LP
- Girls Soccer - 4 Divisions
- Girls Softball - 4 Divisions
- LP Boys Swimming & Diving - 3 Divisions
- LP Girls Swimming & Diving - 3 Divisions
- LP Boys Tennis - 4 Divisions
- LP Girls Tennis - 4 Divisions
- LP Boys Track & Field - 4 Divisions
- LP Girls Track & Field - 4 Divisions
- Wrestling - 4 Divisions
Lists of schools for each division of these 23 tournaments are posted on MHSAA.com approximately April 1. Listings of schools in Upper Peninsula tournaments for their sports are also posted on MHSAA.com. The lists are based on school memberships and sports sponsorships in effect or anticipated for the following school year, as known to the MHSAA office as of a date in early March.
In football, the 256 schools which qualify for MHSAA 11-player playoffs are placed in eight equal divisions annually on Selection Sunday. Beginning in 2017, the 8-player divisions will be determined in a like manner on Selection Sunday as well, with 32 qualifying schools placed in two divisions.
Schools have the option to play in any higher division in one or more sports for a minimum of two years.
The deadlines for "opt-ups" are as follows:
- Applications for fall sports must be submitted by April 15
- Applications for winter sports must be submitted by Aug. 15
- Applications for spring sports must be submitted by Oct. 15
Subsequent to the date of these postings for these tournaments, no school will have its division raised or lowered by schools opening or closing, schools adding or dropping sports, schools exercising the option to play in a higher division, or approval or dissolution of cooperative programs.
When the same sport is conducted for boys and girls in the same season (e.g., track & field and cross country), the gender that has the most sponsoring schools controls the division breaks for both genders.
Dawson Dives Into New Sport, Quickly Rises in Ranks Among State's Best Off Diving Board
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
February 24, 2026
PORTAGE – Little did Von Dawson know that getting in trouble for doing backflips in the hallway as a freshman would lead him down a path he never imagined.
“After he got in trouble a couple of times for that, I said, ‘Hey, do you want to try diving?’” said Portage Central dive coach Madeline Woods.
That was a sport the current junior never considered.
It wasn’t until school principal Eric Alburtus noticed Dawson doing backflips on the field after a football game that diving was mentioned again.
"I remember exactly that night,” Alburtus said. “Von did this beautiful flip, and I hustled to him and said, ‘I don’t know who you are yet, but you’ve got to become a diver.’
“I can’t take credit for the amazing athlete and diver Von is but I’m very, very happy that I played a teeny, tiny piece of him doing amazing work around here. He’s such a great kid.’
Dawson knew nothing about diving.
“In middle school, I really didn’t know that diving was a thing,” he said. “I knew they had a swimming program, but where I was, it wasn’t really posted as much.”
He decided to try it – and saying he took to it like the cliché “duck to water” is an understatement.
“Von had never stepped foot on a diving board before, then made it to the state meet his freshman year,” Woods said. “It was a pretty fun turnaround. He’s an incredibly athletic kid.”
His freshman year Dawson finished 29th at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Swimming & Diving Finals.
“Just being there as a freshman who had never dove before was impressive,” Woods said.
He took another step last winter as a sophomore, finishing eighth at the Finals. This season, his top reported 6-dive score ranks eighth statewide and sixth among Division 2 athletes, and his top 11-dive score is 14th statewide and seventh in his division.
Starting from scratch
Dawson was full of confidence from the first day of practice.
“The first week I got a list of dives, and I learned fairly quickly,” he said. “(Woods) explained a dive to me and I was like. ‘I can do that. I want to try it.’ She’d either let me or I’d bother her enough until she let me do it.”
Woods said Dawson is always trying to push the limits.
“With Von, we hit the ground running.” she said. “The first two seasons was me telling him ‘No’ a lot.
“Can I try this? No, not yet, Can I try that? No, not yet. Then he would wear me down and he’d do the (dive) and it would usually be one excellent one and he’d bomb the next one.”
Dawson said he was even more fearless back then but when it came to Regionals, the nerves started to show.
“Regionals are so much more stressful than state meet because you have to qualify,” he said. "States is you’re already there, you’re ready. It’s two days you’re with your friends on the swim team, you’re hanging out at a hotel. It’s pretty awesome.”
During his sophomore season, Dawson honed his skills and earned all-state status.
“From freshman year to sophomore year, I did a really good job on my kickouts especially,” he said. “I think that’s what got me to eighth. I was a little more polished.”
This season, Woods said she banished the word “No.”
“We’re going to do all the big dives, anything you want to try, we’re up for it,” she said. “Now he has the base, now he has the skills, we’re going to do it and it’s been really, really fun.”
Dawson has done some of the biggest dives Woods has ever coached: “He has the highest degree of difficulty of any diver I’ve ever coached and he’s only a junior, which is pretty awesome.”
Continuing to climb
Besides being an elite athlete, Woods said Dawson is an incredibly personable person.
“Other coaches will come up to me to say how much they enjoy chatting with him,” she said. “At some of the bigger meets, there are divers who remember him from previous years. He’s really, really, friendly, a great sport and highly competitive.”
But to get where he is today, Dawson overcame some obstacles early in life.
“I was in foster care for eight years of my life,” he said. “I kinda hopped around different places. Group homes, this place, that place.”
He was adopted at age 13.
“They had two of my siblings and I went to live with them for two years before they adopted me,” he said. “They come to watch me all the time. I have about eight foster siblings and they’re my biggest fans, always cheering for me.”
Dawson has expanded his water skills by playing water polo in the fall.
“I make the joke that he collects fall sports like Pokémon cards,” Woods said. “He did cross country his first year, football his second year and water polo this year. I’ve been the lucky one that he’s kept, diving all three years. He also does track.”
Dawson has already reached one goal this season – topping his coach’s personal-best record. Woods was a four-year all-Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association diver at Kalamazoo College and competed in the NCAA Division III Championships her senior year.
Woods said she challenged him this year.
“His highest score going into junior year was something in the 260s,” she said. “My personal best from my college years on 3-meter, which is easier to get a higher score on, was 282.
"So I challenged him in the first couple meets to beat my PR (personal record). I think he did it in our third meet. Our next goal was to break 300 and two weeks he got 299.9 and last week he got 306.9, a point less than the pool record at Loy Norrix.”
Using scores from his school meets, Dawson already has qualified for the AAU Nationals next summer.
His immediate goal is to qualify for the MHSAA LPD2 Finals to be competed March 13-14 at Eastern Michigan University along with fellow Mustang divers, junior Ryley Berns and sophomores Greyden Trevino and Drew Chenery.
“Diving is a hard sport and not for everyone,” Woods said of Dawson, “but when you find someone who is willing to do some crazy things and throw his body through the air and spin and flip and twist for fun, that’s usually a pretty special person.”
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Portage Central’s Von Dawson begins a dive at his home pool. (Middle) From left: Dawson, Portage Central diving coach Madeline Woods and Portage Central principal Eric Alburtus. (Below) Dawson descends into the water during a dive. (Diving photos courtesy of Madeline Woods. Dawson and Woods headshots by Pam Shebest. Alburtus headshot courtesy of Portage Central High School.)