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.
Petrick's Goals: 100 & Growing as New Boston Huron Continues Rise As Well
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 2, 2025
NEW BOSTON – Lately, New Boston Huron senior soccer player Ian Petrick has been immensely enjoying his newest bedroom decoration.
On his wall sits a soccer ball signed by teammates and his coaching staff commemorating a significant milestone he achieved Aug. 22 during a win over Flat Rock.
That’s when Petrick scored his 100th career varsity goal, and now the ball used to score that goal is something wonderful to stare at every day.
“It just kind of sits there,” he said. “It’s nice to look at it when I wake up in the morning to remind me of everything I’ve put in.”
Now with 118 goals for his career (and 30 this season), Patrick joined 43 other players in state history by getting to the 100-goal career mark.
“When it happened, it just meant everything to me,” he said. “All the training over the summer and work I had put in over the past four years at the high school level had really paid off in that moment.”
Petrick said he has played soccer since he was 3 years old, but for a majority of his career, preventing goals was more of his task.
He was a central defender for his club team until he was in seventh grade, when his coach decided to have him give the striker position a try.
Since then, scoring goals has become his passion on the field.
Petrick said there have been two main technical aspects of the striker/forward position he has tried to master since switching to the position.
One is knowing when to move without the ball, and what type of movements to make.
“When you see the midfielder pick their head up to send the ball, you start the run,” he said. “The runs can’t be just vertical. They’ve got to be diagonals, and they have to be overlaps.”
The other has been finishing in the box when he comes up on the goalkeeper with the ball.
“Finishing one-on-one with the keeper is huge,” he said. “I’ve trained on that so much. If you are running up the box from different sides of the field, you have to figure out where you need to shoot the ball. If you are coming from the left side, (the shot) has to be far post right side. If you’re coming from the right side, it’s got to be far post to the left. Sometimes it’s a chip over the keeper. It’s just all those different scenarios where the keeper comes out or the keeper stays in net. Making that final finishing touch to the shot is the most important thing.”
Huron head coach Matt Lividin said the way Petrick has contributed offensively of late has been one of his biggest transformations.
Lividin said during his underclassmen years, Petrick would score goals simply on his raw speed and strength. Now, he is becoming a more technically complete player who is scoring and generating more assists, something that should make him more attractive to college programs currently recruiting him.
“I think they have been kind of holding off to see if he’s more than just the speedster,” Lividin said. “To see if he’s someone they are looking for to add depth to their forward lines. This year, I think he’s trying to complete the full package to make sure the colleges are still interested in him.”
In addition to his individual accolades, Petrick has helped elevate the Huron program to heights not reached in a long time.
Last year, Huron (14-1-2) won its first District title in 18 years before falling to eventual Division 2 champion Warren De La Salle Collegiate in a Regional Semifinal.
With 12 seniors on this year’s roster back from last year’s team, Huron is understandably eyeing big things for when the MHSAA Tournament begins next week.
“That has meant everything to the school, to rejuvenate the soccer program,” said Petrick, who said he will run track in the spring, hoping to specialize in the 200-meter dash.
If Huron can win it all in the coming weeks, a Finals championship medal would be a nice display partner for that 100-goal ball in Petrick’s room.
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) New Boston Huron’s Ian Petrick celebrates scoring a goal this season against Grosse Ile. (Middle) Petrick reached 100 career goals this August. (Photos courtesy of the Petrick family.)