Entries for 'benchmarks'

This year's MHSAA Ice Hockey Tournament attracted more than 40,000 spectators from the time the first pucks dropped Feb. 25, including a three-year high of more than 6,000 across 12 Quarterfinal sites.  More than 200 schools and 3,000 participants combined to make...

Next season’s three-week playoff format for the MHSAA Ice Hockey Tournament will fall more closely in line with similar postseasons for state associations around the country which sponsor the sport. According to 2017-18 National Federation of State High School As...

The Flint IMA had been to the MHSAA Ice Hockey Finals what Joe Louis Arena was to the Detroit Red Wings since it began hosting high school championships in the state in 1977. For parts of four decades, the facility set the scene for many memorable moments on ice for sc...

Tuesday, Feb. 26, was a particularly busy day on the ice as the 2019 MHSAA Ice Hockey Tournament reached just its second day around the state. On the slate that night were 27 Regional games, bringing the two-day total to 48 on the heels of Monday’s busy calendar.

Longtime coordinator of off-ice officials for the MHSAA Ice Hockey Finals Jim Gagleard often noticed it during his annual three days traversing the hallways and locker rooms beneath the stands at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth.  “You could see it in the p...

The pass was lofted high, and floating toward the end zone nearest the tunnel where teams enter the playing surface at Ford Field. As players from both teams converged, the intended receiver came away with the ball, clutching his prize and raising his arms in jubilant ...

The strength of the MHSAA decade after decade has been solid local school administration under the direction of insightful leaders at the state office in Lansing. New Executive Director Mark Uyl is prepared to build on that foundation while meeting challenges old and n...

What are sports really about today? And are today's parents missing the point? Time, money, effort and energy. All for what? Trophies, medals, first place, a college scholarship or that top-five draft pick and that multi-million dollar contract that come with it. Fortun...

MHSAA Student Advisory Council members were asked their opinions on several of the current issues facing the MHSAA Junior High/Middle School Committee and MHSAA Task Force on Multi-Sport Participation.

Promoting multi-sport participation, and doing so before students reach high school, is a documented MHSAA priority. We believe it’s good for students, schools and society. By encouraging participation but not specialization, balanced multi-sport participation pr...

There is no less opportunity to help student-athletes mature into positive people in one sport than another or on one day or night of the week compared to others. That is an unshakable truth of educational athletics. But that truth has not diminished the efforts of the...

A 32-second response by emergency medical technicians was the difference in life or death for 68-year-old Willie Watson, who was spared from becoming another victim of sudden cardiac arrest. Watson, a 38-year official for the MHSAA, collapsed in the tunnel near the off...

The stories are worthy of the silver screen. Long lost legends of lore, forgotten by most in the Lower Peninsula of the state of Michigan. Absurd anecdotes of basketball played behind glass, and out-of-bounds lines painted on walls. Tales of overlooked places like Trena...

Twenty years ago, Bloomington North High School won the Indiana High School Athletic Association boys basketball championship, defeating Delta 75-54 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. The date, March 22, 1997, is at the same time revered and disdained by traditionalists ...

As the MHSAA faces its most recent classification task with 8-Player Football, and opinions continue to swirl about as to the method, timeframe, location and other procedures, a look around the country provides plenty of company among state association brethren factorin...

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 classi...

The addition of a second division for 8-player football this fall and the end to traditional classes for volleyball and basketball after 2017-18 have created plenty of recent buzz. There is much to be decided to be sure; but as those in education are well aware, history...

During a school year in which much of the focus is on, and coming from, student-athletes in Michigan and around the country, what better stage is there on which to showcase the MHSAA Student Advisory Council? Click below for thoughts and opinions from various SAC membe...

Somewhere along the winding road in the long history of interscholastic athletics, gradual change has brought our product to a crossroads. Ultimately, how we got here no longer matters. It’s what we do next.

We close our “Through the Years” look at MHSAA tournaments with an event rooted in the earliest work of this association.