This Week in High School Sports: 2/5/16

February 5, 2016

This edition of "This Week In High School Sports" features Lake Fenton wrestler Trent Hillger, who also played football and is a high-achieving student; passes out two Game Balls and says good-bye to a legendary coach.

This Week In High School Sports will lead each show with feature stories from around the state from the MHSAA’s Second Half or from network affiliated stories and interviews. "Be The Referee," a 60-second look at the fine art of officiating, highlights the middle of the show and is followed by a closing "Perspective." 

Listen to this week's show by Clicking Here.

Past editions
Jan. 29: Sturgis bowling teams, poor sportsmanship in professional football - Listen
Jan. 22: Holland record-setter Demetrius Lake, Michigan's original pitching ace - Listen
Jan. 15: Battle of the Fans V, new concussion threat in school sports - Listen
Jan. 8: Women in Sports Leadership conference, getting and giving respect - Listen
Dec. 25: Battle of the Fans V, taking a we over me attitude into 2016  - Listen
Dec. 18: MHSAA concussion reporting findings, record book submissions - Listen
Dec. 11: Constantine boys basketball, School Broadcast Program at Ford Field - Listen
Dec. 4: Highlights of 41st MHSAA Football Finals, River Rouge football - Listen
Nov. 27: Bronson volleyball, why we give thanks - Listen
Nov. 20:  Canton/Saline Football Regional Final, old football records - Listen
Nov. 13: Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals, why Districts are called Districts - Listen
Nov. 6: Powers North Central football, random act of sportsmanship - 
Listen
Oct. 30: Benton Harbor's football turnaround, Football Playoff memories - Listen
Oct. 23: Selection Sunday Primer, live online playoff games on FoxSportsDetroit.com and MHSAA.TV - Listen
Oct. 16: Leland volleyball and boys soccer thrive, basketball coach-official communication - Listen
Oct. 9: Kensington Lakes Activities Association football, local impacts of the MHSAA Football Playoffs - Listen
Oct. 2: High school teams giving back, parents' expectations for childen to go pro - Listen
Sept. 25: Otsego’s girls cross country team, MHSAA School Broadcast Program - Listen
Sept. 18: Constantine quarterback Matt Hasbrouck, day-to-day life for referees - Listen
Sept. 11: Mount Morris volleyball's Tabit twins, the truth about specialization - Listen
Sept. 4: Engadine/Brimley football, Good-bye to "a few good coaches" - Listen
Aug. 28: Ithaca football, MHSAA Health & Safety initiatives - 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