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.
Miss Soccer Winner Bosley Returns, Focused on More Goals to Accomplish
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
April 27, 2023
ROCHESTER HILLS – If there’s any spring sport athlete who could be somewhat excused for suffering from a case of “senioritis” right now, it is Stoney Creek senior soccer player Lilley Bosley.
After all, Bosley already has a college scholarship to the University of Michigan in tow, and she already has been named the winner of the Miss Soccer Award after earning it last year as a junior.
But as much as it seems like she could, there has been no mailing it in this spring. On the contrary, she is playing with the hunger and determination of an underclassmen trying to prove herself.
It’s not even May, and Bosley has 10 goals and two assists for the Cougars, who play in the brutally tough Oakland Activities Association Red and are ranked No. 3 in Division 1 in this week’s coaches association poll.
Bosley has been great her first three years of high school, but appears to be saving her best for last – which is a scary thing for opponents.
“She has become physically stronger and tactically more knowledgeable,” Stoney Creek head coach Bryan Mittelstadt said. “She is a true student of the game and wants to learn as much as possible. She is an avid soccer fan outside of playing and always is willing to share highlights from the night before or player information. She has been a real pleasure to talk the game of soccer with, as well as watching her grow into a leader on and off of the field.”
For Bosley, she has been motivated to excel this year for both her future and present situations in soccer.
She wants to make sure she is fit and in form when she gets to Ann Arbor in August, when the possibility of immediate playing time exists as part of a young Michigan team.
“If I work really hard this summer and during high school season, hopefully I can get to play there,” she said.
But Bosley also is determined to go 100 percent for Stoney Creek for multiple reasons, one being she simply loves playing for her school.
“It’s fun,” she said. “It’s a different atmosphere. You get to play with all of your friends from school, and all the families get to support you. It’s a fun time to represent your school and know everyone is rooting for you. To try and win a state championship where you can put it up in the school and everyone will see it.”
Bosley also is a strong candidate to win Gatorade State Player of the Year and become the first player since Laura Heyboer of Hudsonville Unity Christian in 2007 and 2008 to win the Miss Soccer Award two years in a row.
Winning it as a junior put her in rare company, and certainly came as a surprise.
“I didn’t even know I was up for consideration,” she said. “I knew it’s usually only a senior thing. I was super surprised.”
Bosley projects as a central defender in college and has played that position for much of her club career with the Liverpool Football Club, formerly known as Vardar.
For Stoney Creek though, she has played mostly midfield and forward.
“I was a forward when I was younger,” Bosley said. “My club team was winning 1-0 against some team. My coach decided to put me in center back for the last 20 minutes. I was never put back at forward. I’ll miss it for sure (in college); I love scoring. But you never know. I could sometimes get opportunities and move up (the field).”
Her final and most important motivation for going all out for Stoney Creek is the desire to lead the Cougars to their second Finals championship, joining the 2016 squad that earned the Division 1 title.
That championship team had special meaning for Bosley, not only because she attended a couple of the team’s games, but also because the only goal of that championship game was scored by Emily Solek, the sister of current teammate and friend Lily Solek.
Emily Solek died tragically in a 2020 car crash, and winning a title in her honor would be the perfect way to finish off a terrific high school career.
“That would be awesome to win it again, and hopefully do it for her,” Bosley said.
No doubt, don’t expect “senioritis” to strike Bosley anytime soon.
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) Stoney Creek's Lilley Bosley winds up during her team's May 2 game against Royal Oak. (Middle) Lilley Bosley holds up her Miss Soccer Award after receiving it last summer following her junior season. (Top photo by Chris Mudd/National Photo Scout; middle photo courtesy of the Bosley family.)