This Week in High School Sports: 1/13/17

January 13, 2017

The latest edition of "This Week In High School Sports" leads with a feature on Alpena's efforts to teach athletes life skills, discusses a new free throw rule in its "Be The Referee" segment and finishes with an MHSAA Perspective on false promises behind costly events alleging to give athletes "college exposure."

The 5-minute program, powered by MI Student Aid, leads off each week with feature stories from around the state from the MHSAA’s Second Half or network affiliates. "Be The Referee," a 60-second look at the fine art of officiating, comes in the middle of the show; and is followed by a closing MHSAA "Perspective."

Listen to this week's show by Clicking Here

Past editions
Jan. 6: Retirement of Gary Thompkins’ basketball number at Jackson High School, stories told by high school letterwinners' jackets - Listen
Dec. 23: Battle of the Fans VI, gifts we all enjoy including some we may not immediately recognize - Listen
Dec. 16:
Williamston boys basketball, recognition for a longtime northern Michgian official - Listen
Dec. 9:
New baseball pitch limit, MHSAA rules relation to national championship events - Listen
Dec. 2:
Defense reigns in Division 4 Football Final, teaching class in both victory and defeat - Listen 
Nov. 25: Novi's repeat volleyball championship, giving thanks for schools' weather-related work - Listen
Nov. 18:
Pewamo-Westphalia football star Jared Smith, behind-the-scenes heroes - Listen
Nov. 11:
Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart girls cross country, Big Ten move to Friday night football Listen
Nov. 4:
Upper Peninsula 8-player football showdown, how high school sports in Michigan have it pretty good compared with other states - Listen
Oct. 28: Montrose School Broadcast Program athletes, Football Playoff excitement - Listen
Oct. 21: 
Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett boys tennis, Football Playoffs selection breakdown - Listen
Oct. 14: Sturgis girls golf, latest from "You've Got to be Kidding Me" file - Listen
Oct. 7:
Grand Ledge boys soccer, recent NFHS Hall of Fame selection Ken Beardslee of Vermontville - Listen
Sept. 30:
Grand Rapids South Christian boys soccer, Michigan teams supporting many worthy causes - Listen
Sept. 23:
Newberry football, downsides of national coverage of high school sports - Listen
Sept. 16: MHSAA study of concussions in high school sports during the 2015-16 school year - Listen
Sept. 9: Benton Harbor football, football rules differences between high school and college/pro levels - Listen 
Sept. 2: 
Fenton boys cross country, debuts of new football stadiums - Listen
Aug. 29:
 Haslett no-contact football practices, multi-sport participation and sportsmanship - Listen

Century of School Sports: Why Does the MHSAA Have These Rules?

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

September 18, 2024

MHSAA administrators are two trips into their annual seven-stop fall tour that has become a tradition during nearly half of the Association’s “Century of School Sports” – and this year, a focus has been on answering a key question at the heart of educational athletics since long before the MHSAA was formed during the 1924-25 school year.

The MHSAA’s Update meeting series is in its 47th year and includes half-day conferences in seven locations – generally in the Kalamazoo, Metro Detroit, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, northern Lower Peninsula and mid-Michigan areas, and at Northern Michigan University in Marquette. The six Lower Peninsula sessions begin with an athletic director in-service during which MHSAA assistant directors explain recent rules changes and discuss challenges our administrators face on a daily basis (with Upper Peninsula athletic directors participating in a similar in-service during the spring).

Those in-services are followed by a session with executive director Mark Uyl, who speaks to athletic directors, superintendents, principals and school board members on a variety of topics including the MHSAA’s current objectives and ideas for the future, while also reinforcing the longstanding values that remain the bedrock of our daily work.

And that leads to the question he’s presenting across the state this fall:

Why does the MHSAA have these rules?

Frankly, the answer goes back to the beginning of school sports in Michigan – all the way back to 1895, when the first MHSAA predecessor organization was formed.

The first MHSAA Representative Council president Lewis L. Forsythe explained in his book “Athletics in Michigan High Schools – The First Hundred Years” how regulations always have been necessary:

“Eligibility rules are a necessity in interscholastic competition. It was common acknowledgement of this fact that led to the first State inter-school organization in 1895. The rules at first were few, simple and liberal. But with the passing of the years they came to be more numerous, more complex, and more restrictive, again through common acknowledgment of desirability if not of necessity.”

That necessity – and the reasoning behind it – has not changed.

Two main points explain why rules are absolutely imperative for educational athletics to thrive.

► 1. Participation – through providing as many opportunities as possible for students to play – has been the mission of school sports since their start. Rules contribute to the value of participation.

If there are requirements for children to participate in athletics – for example, an academic standard or rules that dissuade students from switching schools every year – then school sports programs mean more to all involved.

If we raise the bar, raise the standards of eligibility and conduct, we raise the value of our school sports programs. If we lower the bar, we lower the value of being part of school sports – because without rules, contest results are meaningless, and the value of participating is diminished.

► 2. We have rules where the stakes are higher, and agreement is lower – because where the stakes are highest, there is the greatest tendency for some people to try to gain an unfair advantage, and the greatest need for rules to curb possible dishonest activity.

This statement goes to the heart of the history, rationale and application of MHSAA rules. Obviously and simply put, school sports mean a lot to those who take part, and that significance is high enough to stoke disagreement – and we need rules to govern those disagreements. We have the most rules for high school sports, where championships are at stake and the possibility of disagreement is greatest.

***

Finally – and perhaps providing the strongest reinforcement of the two points above – is this:

Schools choose to make MHSAA rules their own.

Quite literally, school districts vote annually to be part of the MHSAA – and confirming this voluntary membership comes with the requirement to follow all MHSAA rules.

When schools challenge our rules, they literally are seeking to break the rules they already have committed to uphold.

These rules, and this commitment, are the strength of our organization across 752 member high schools and several hundred more middle schools and junior high schools. They have been constructed on a century of precedents and after considerations by representatives of those same member schools – representatives those schools have voted to elect every school year during the MHSAA’s history.

Previous "Century of School Sports" Spotlights

Sept. 10: Special Medals, Patches to Commemorate Special Year - Read
Sept. 4:
Fall to Finish with 50th Football Championships - Read
Aug. 28:
Let the Celebration Begin - Read