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Rivaling for a Cause

January 25, 2013

It’s impossible to include all the perspective we gain from every “Battle of the Fans” visit. 

But this anecdote, although it didn't make Tuesday’s story about our Frankenmuth trip, tells of another great example for what student cheering sections can accomplish.

Frankenmuth and Millington are heated rivals, to say the least, separated by 13 miles and made more competitive by plenty of championship-deciding matchups over the years.

But for their boys basketball game Jan. 10 at Frankenmuth, student section leaders from both schools almost completely on their own set up the game as a cancer awareness night, complete with Frankenmuth students in black shirts and Millington’s wearing pink.

The idea was the brainchild of a of Frankenmuth section leader, who then received help from a local bank and contacted Millington to get the ball rolling.

Battle of the Fans has shown us the obvious – these student sections need strong leaders – but also the special things they can accomplish with additional initiative.

“Never Forgotten”

Two more rivals, Fennville and Saugatuck, met late last month for their second “Never Forgotten” boys and girls basketball games with proceeds going to the Wes Leonard Heart Team for the purchase of AEDs.

Players wore jerseys with names on the backs of friends and family members who had died, and those jerseys were then given to family members after the games. Officials Ace Cover, Chris Dennie and Kyle Bowen also donated their game checks to the Heart Team, as did the winner of that night’s 50-50 raffle.

Leonard died from sudden cardiac arrest after making the game-winning shot in a basketball game March 3, 2011. The two schools played their first “Never Forgotten” games last season.

More support for less specialization

I’m asked once a year at least about sport specialization – that is, athletes focusing on just one sport, often from an early age, and if it pays off some way down the road.

Most of my evidence to support my belief in the well-rounded athlete has been anecdotal, based on conversations with people at the high school and college levels over the years. But a British study published this fall in the Journal of Sport Sciences by University of Birmingham researchers provides some interesting empirical findings.

The study of 1,006 people from the United Kingdom showed that those who participated in three sports at ages 11, 13 and 15 were “significantly more likely to compete at a national rather than club standard” between ages 16-18 than those who had practiced only one sport.

In other words, the study found that those who played more sports at earlier ages played at a higher level during their high school-age years, which seems to contradict the one-sport focus philosophy.

Click for more perspective on the study from Chris Kennedy, the Superintendent of Schools in West Vancouver, British Columbia.

PHOTO: The boys and girls teams for Fennville and Saugatuck pose together after their "Never Forgotten" games Dec. 21 at Fennville High. (Photo courtesy of Al LaShell.)

News 2023

Field Hockey Debut, Tennis Finals Change Among Most Notable as Fall Practices Set to Begin

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

August 8, 2025

The addition of girls field hockey as a sponsored postseason championship sport and a revised schedule for Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals are the most significant changes to fall sports as practices are set to begin Monday, Aug. 11, for an anticipated 100,000 high school athletes at Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools.

The fall season includes the most played sports for both boys and girls; 36,210 football players and 19,679 girls volleyball players competed during the Fall 2024 season. Teams in those sports will be joined by competitors in girls and boys cross country, field hockey, Lower Peninsula girls golf, boys soccer, Lower Peninsula girls swimming & diving, Upper Peninsula girls tennis and Lower Peninsula boys tennis in beginning practice next week. Competition begins Aug. 15 for cross country, field hockey, golf, soccer and tennis, Aug. 20 for swimming & diving and volleyball, and Aug. 28 for varsity football. 

Field hockey is one of two sports set to make its debut with MHSAA sponsorship during the 2025-26 school year; boys volleyball will play its first season with MHSAA sponsorship in the spring.

There are 37 varsity teams expected to play during the inaugural field hockey season. There will be one playoff division, with the first MHSAA Regionals in this sport beginning Oct. 8 and the first championship awarded Oct. 25.

To conclude their season, Lower Peninsula boys tennis teams will begin a pilot program showcasing Finals for all four divisions at the same location – Midland Tennis Center – over a two-week period. Division 4 will begin play with its two-day event Oct. 15-16, followed by Division 1 on Oct. 17-18, Division 2 on Oct. 22-23 and Division 3 played Oct. 24-25.

Also in Lower Peninsula boys tennis, and girls in the spring, a Finals qualification change will allow for teams that finish third at their Regionals to advance to the season-ending tournament as well, but only in postseason divisions where there are six Regionals – which will be all four boys divisions this fall.

The 11-Player Football Finals at Ford Field will be played this fall over a three-day period, with Division 8, 4, 6 and 2 games on Friday, Nov. 28, and Division 7, 3, 5 and 1 games played Sunday, Nov. 30, to accommodate Michigan State’s game against Maryland on Nov. 29 at Ford Field.

Two more changes affecting football playoffs will be noticeable this fall. For the first time, 8-Player Semifinals will be played at neutral sites; previously the team with the highest playoff-point average continued to host during that round. Also, teams that forfeit games will no longer receive playoff-point average strength-of-schedule bonus points from those opponents to which they forfeited.

A pair of changes in boys soccer this fall will address sportsmanship. The first allows game officials to take action against a team’s head coach in addition to any cautions or ejections issues to players and personnel in that team’s bench area – making the head coach more accountable for behavior on the sideline. The second change allows for only the team captain to speak with an official during the breaks between periods (halftime and during overtime), unless another coach, player, etc., is summoned by the official – with the penalty a yellow card to the offending individual.

A few more game-action rules changes will be quickly noticeable to participants and spectators.  

  •          In volleyball, multiple contacts by one player attempting to play the ball will now be allowed on second contact if the next contact is by a teammate on the same side of the net. 
  •         In swimming & diving, backstroke ledges will be permitted in pools that maintain a 6-foot water depth. If used in competition, identical ledges must be provided by the host team for all lanes, although individual swimmers are not required to use them. 
  •         Also in swimming & diving – during relay exchanges – second, third and fourth swimmers must have one foot stationary at the front edge of the deck. The remainder of their bodies may be in motion prior to the finish of the incoming swimmer.
  •          In football, when a forward fumble goes out of bounds, the ball will now be spotted where the fumble occurred instead of where the ball crossed the sideline.

The 2025 Fall campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls Tennis Finals during the week of Sept. 29 and wrapping up with the 11-Player Football Finals on Nov. 28 and 30. Here is a complete list of fall tournament dates: 

Cross Country 
U.P. Finals – Oct. 18 
L.P. Regionals – Oct. 24 or 25 
L.P. Finals – Nov. 1 

Field Hockey
Regionals – Oct. 8-21
Semifinals – Oct. 22 or 23
Final – Oct. 25

11-Player Football 
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26 
District Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1 
District Finals – Nov. 7 or 8 
Regional Finals – Nov. 14 or 15 
Semifinals – Nov. 22
Finals – Nov. 28 and 30 

8-Player Football 
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26 
Regional Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1 
Regional Finals – Nov. 7 or 8 
Semifinals – Nov. 15  
Finals – Nov. 22

L.P. Girls Golf 
Regionals – Oct. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11 
Finals – Oct. 17-18 

Boys Soccer 
Districts – Oct. 8-18 
Regionals – Oct. 21-25 
Semifinals – Oct. 29 
Finals – Nov. 1 

L.P. Girls Swimming & Diving 
Diving Regionals – Nov. 13
Swimming/Diving Finals – Nov. 21-22 

Tennis 
U.P. Girls Finals – Oct. 1, 2, 3, or 4 
L.P. Boys Regionals – Oct. 8, 9, 10, or 11 
L.P. Boys Finals – Oct. 15-16 (Division 4), Oct. 17-18 (Division 1), Oct 22-23 (Division 2), and Oct. 24-25 (Division 3) 

Girls Volleyball 
Districts – Nov. 3-8 
Regionals – Nov. 11 & 13 
Quarterfinals – Nov. 18 
Semifinals – Nov. 20-21 
Finals – Nov. 22 

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.