'Officiate Michigan Day’ to Draw 1,100
July 23, 2013
More than 1,100 Michigan High School Athletic Association officials are scheduled to attend “Officiate Michigan Day” on Saturday, July 27, at the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, where they will receive training from 40 of the best in the officiating field.
Officials representing the amateur, collegiate and professional ranks will speak and provide training during four instructional workshops throughout the day plus additional sessions mid-day and at the end of the afternoon. “Officiate Michigan Day” is the kickoff event to the National Association of Sports Officials’ (NASO) annual Sports Officiating Summit, which will follow July 28-30 in Grand Rapids.
MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts and Barry Mano, founder and president of NASO, will give the opening address. Four-time Super Bowl official Jerry Markbreit will speak to close the event. Four instructional sessions will focus on sport-specific training in officiating the following: baseball, basketball, competitive cheer, football, gymnastics, lacrosse, ice hockey, soccer, softball, track & field, volleyball and wrestling.
“We’re expecting this to be one of the largest gatherings of sports officials ever held in the United States,” said MHSAA assistant director Mark Uyl, who oversees the association’s officials program. “It will be a historic day of learning and training for our officials.”
Among scheduled clinicians are current National Basketball Association officials Joe Crawford and Bill Kennedy, NCAA National Coordinator of Volleyball Officials Joan Powell, National Hockey League Senior Vice President and Director of Officiating Terry Gregson and official Dan O’Halloran, and National Football League officials Perry Paganelli, Carl Paganelli, Jr., and Dino Paganelli. All three Paganellis have officiated Super Bowls, and O’Halloran is coming off working his fourth straight Stanley Cup Final. Crawford and Kennedy both officiated during the recent NBA Finals, and Powell also served as team leader of the U.S. women’s national volleyball team that won the silver medal at the 2008 Olympics.
“Officiate Michigan Day” is open to all officials, including those not registered with the MHSAA, and cost to attend is $35. It is recommended officials sign up online by 5 p.m. Thursday, July 25. Click to register for the conference or see the schedule and list of presenters and clinicians.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 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 approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.
Baseball's Record-Setting Spectatorship Headlines MHSAA's 2024-25 Attendance Report
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 12, 2025
An overall attendance record in baseball and several more all-time bests for specific rounds of other sports’ postseason tournaments kept attendance at Michigan High School Athletic Association events near 1.4 million spectators for the third-straight school year in 2024-25.
Total, MHSAA Tournament events drew 1,397,574 spectators at competitions for which admission is charged – which counts all MHSAA-sponsored sports except golf, skiing and tennis, as single tickets are not sold for those postseason events. The total of just under 1.4 million spectators is a decrease of 3.6 percent from 2023-24, but still the third-highest overall attendance over the last eight school years.
Attendance at girls events for 2024-25 was 453,320 fans, a 3.9-percent decrease from the 2023-24 record-setting total but the second-highest over the last eight years.
The boys attendance of 944,254 was 3.4 percent fewer than the previous year. However, baseball set an overall tournament record with 65,150 spectators, with records as well of 38,086 at the District level and 7,517 attending Quarterfinals. Every round of the baseball postseason saw an increase from the previous year.
Overall attendance totals for the ice hockey, team wrestling, gymnastics, boys soccer and girls swimming & diving postseason tournaments also were up from 2023-24. Ice hockey set records at its Semifinals (7,758 spectators) and Finals (7,857), boys soccer at the District level (18,219) and team wrestling also at its Finals (11,604).
Football remains the most-attended MHSAA Tournament sport and drew 361,139 spectators for its playoff series – a decrease of just above a half-percent from the previous year but with the highest Finals turnout (44,535) since 2019-20. Boys basketball attendance remained second across all seasons at 251,668 spectators, followed by girls basketball at 145,313 and girls volleyball at 110,927.
Track & field (41,418 spectators) and softball (47,763) posted their second-highest attendances on record after setting records during the 2023-24 school year.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 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.