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.
Benzie's 'Once-In-A-Lifetime' Champ Running Once More to Make History
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
November 4, 2022
When Benzie Central superstar Hunter Jones seeks his fourth straight MHSAA Finals cross country title Saturday, his race strategy will not change.
He plans to get the lead early, beat everybody in the first mile, pick up the pace in surges in the second mile and hang on with whatever he has left in the tank for the third mile.
And, perhaps as important, don’t get off course.
“I am kind of known as the guy that goes the wrong way,” Jones admitted with a laugh. “I’ve done it quite a few times.
“Now I have to make a conscious effort to walk the course before,” he continued. “You know I am always a little worried if there is no cart in the front to go in front of the race.”
Jones recalls almost following a cart off the course in one of his Finals. Luckily, he realized in time that the cart was leaving the course and he managed to avoid disqualification.
“The cart actually went off the trail to get out of my way, and I followed the cart,” he recalled. “I almost went off the course.
“I stayed in between the cones, and it probably cost me five seconds.”
He’ll be running the same course — Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn — that he’s dominated in winning Lower Peninsula Division 3 championships his first three years. And he’s coming off setting a course record at Remus Chippewa Hills, hosts of the Regional. That win finished a career Regional sweep for Jones, and he’ll be joined at the Finals by his entire team as the Huskies placed third.
The only year Benzie didn’t join Jones at the Finals was 2020 when the team was missing a top runner because of COVID-19. Dorian Olsen, Benzie’s number four runner, also will be appearing in his third Final as the only Huskies teammates to run with Jones all four years.
If Jones is successful in winning Saturday, he will become only the second Lower Peninsula runner to capture four Finals individual championships. The other was Ryan Shay of Central Lake from 1993-96. Shay went on to an All-America career at Notre Dame and ran professionally until his unexpected death in 2007 after he collapsed during the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in New York City.
Jones also has besting Jake Flynn’s three cross country Finals championships won for Benzie some 20 years ago on his mind as he seeks to become the first ever Michigan runner to win four with individual and team qualifiers competing in the same race. Shay won four championships during the era where separate Finals were run for team and individual qualifiers. Shay's championship as a freshman came in the individual qualifier race and his time would not have won the team race, but it's tough to say what might or what might not have happened had he been pushed by those he didn’t get the chance to run against.
Jones is well aware of the history, which also includes Brimley’s Austin Plotkin becoming just the second runner in state history to win four consecutive Finals titles when he finished his run at the Upper Peninsula Division 3 championship race in 2019.
“I would say it was a goal my freshman and sophomore year, and afterwards in became part of a plan,” Jones said of winning four titles. “It became a step in my bigger goals of going to nationals, getting All-American and national titles and stuff.
“I am on a good path,” he continued. “I feel like I have to keep improving and keep working hard.”
Jones will be going to Wake Forest next fall to join one of the elite Atlantic Coast Conference cross country programs. “We have a really good recruiting class for my years so all those guys will be pushing me,” Jones predicted.
Before that, he’ll also try to reach lofty goals for his senior track season including running a sub four-minute mile and going after the Benzie school record in the 400. Jones owns all of the long-distance school records at Benzie, and he’ll try to break those as well, setting the bar on those races even higher.
“Many before him set records that many thought may never be broken,” said Benzie coach Asa Kelly. “Hunter is different though.
“His current 5K PR (personal record) is 40 seconds faster than the previous record holder Jake Flynn, and he was a three-time state champion, Mr. Cross Country for the state of Michigan, and a Foot Locker All-American,” Kelly continued. “To put his legacy into perspective will take many years, and we still may never fully grasp the kind of runner Hunter Jones was.”
Benzie has a tradition of naming training groups after legendary runners, and team members fall into those based on ability level. Jones now has a group named after him. He is currently the solo member of that tier, and it may not ever change.
“Hunter has put himself in a separate class when it comes to the great Benzie runners,” Kelly said. “We have had so many tremendous runners come through this fine program.
“He is a once-in-a-lifetime athlete for a school like Benzie Central.”
Jones’ brother Rick and sister Sarah are among past standouts in Benzie’s rich track and cross country past. Hunter recalls watching his siblings compete, and also how he started running as a second grader and was winning races against fifth and sixth graders.
He hopes he’s had an impact on younger runners, especially the up-and-coming ones in Benzie’s middle school program. He’s looking forward to their futures as well.
“I feel like the people that are coming up now, like the middle schoolers and the freshman now, are going to be pretty good,” Jones said. “The younger kids definitely look up to me, and I try to do the right thing.”
Like many high school seniors, Jones has been surprised by how fast his high school days are vanishing.
“It’s gone by really fast,” Jones said. “I can’t believe it is almost four years already.
“I am sad that I am going to leave, but mostly excited that I get to go on and keep moving on to bigger things.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Benzie Central’s Hunter Jones (241) leads the pack during a race this fall. (Middle) Jones crosses the finish line first during last season’s Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Top photo courtesy of the Benzie Central boys cross country program; middle by RunMichigan.com.)