32 Thursday, July 4, 2024 BATTLE CREEK SHOPPER NEWS http://www.thebattlecreekshopper.com
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Boys’ Swimming & Diving Finals,
and the Girls’ Basketball Finals will
permanently conclude the winter
season during the third weekend of
March.
The Upper Peninsula Girls’ and
Boys’ Swimming & Diving Finals
will remain in mid-February.
With basketball seasons ending
earlier, basketball practices will be
able to begin five days earlier (on
a Wednesday) to keep tryouts/first
practice dates from falling during
Thanksgiving week.
More changes to MHSAA
Tournament competition will begin
in 2024-25.
The Council voted to add a team
championship for girls’ wrestling to
be awarded to the school with the
most success in the girls’ bracket
of the Individual Finals. A girls’
individual bracket was added for
the 2021-22 season, and the team
championship will be awarded based
on individual finishes similarly to
how boys’ team championships
were awarded before the dual format
Finals were created with the 1987-88
season.
Also for 2024-25, the Council
approved Basketball and Soccer
Committee recommendations to seed
the entire District tournaments in
those sports using Michigan Power
Ratings (MPR) data, which previ-
ously was used to seed only the top
two teams in each bracket for girls’
and boys’ basketball and girls’ and
boys’ soccer.
The Council also approved a
classification change in football
intended to protect the state’s small-
est schools sponsoring the 11-player
format. Continuing a conversation
from its Winter Meeting in March,
the Council approved a Football
Committee recommendation to cap
the enrollment of Division 8 schools
at 250 students, and then divide the
rest of the 11-player schools evenly
to determine the enrollment lines for
the other seven divisions.
As more small schools have
switched to 8-player, larger schools
have shifted into Division 8 for
11-player – and this change guar-
antees Division 8 schools will play
only similarly-small schools during
the postseason, taking effect with the
2025-26 school year.
To continue supporting schools
providing teams at multiple levels
despite low participation, the Council
voted to allow athletes in two moresports to compete on teams at two
levels on the same day.
The Council approved a Bowling
Committee recommendation allow-
ing bowlers to participate in subvar-
sity and varsity competition on the
same day, provided the events are
separate – bowlers may still be listed
on only one match roster and bowl
for one team during each event –
and also approved a Girls’ Lacrosse
Committee recommendation to allow
athletes to play in no more than five
quarters in one day, with overtime an
extension of the fourth quarter.
At multi-team girls’ lacrosse tour-
naments where both school teams are
playing, an athlete would be allowed
to play in as many halves or quarters
as what the school’s highest team
level that day is playing.
The Council bolstered the pen-
alty for inappropriate behavior
toward game officials, approving an
Officials Review Committee recom-
mendation modifying the penalty for
any coach or athlete who is ejected
for spitting at, hitting, slapping, kick-
ing, pushing or intentionally and/or
aggressively physically contacting a
game official at any time during that
competition or after being ejected.
The offending coach or athlete
shall be suspended from competition
for the next 14 calendar days and
must complete an online sportsman-
ship course. The offending coach
also will not be eligible to coach in
the MHSAA Tournament for that
sport during that season, nor be
allowed to be present at the site or
within sight, sound or communica-
tion of a tournament event for that
team.
Here is a summary of other notable
actions taken by the Representative
Council at the Spring Meeting,
which will take effect during the
2024-25 school year unless noted:
Regulations- The Council approved a change
to the athletic-related transfer (link)
rule stating that an athlete is ineli-
gible in all sports participated in
during the current or previous school
year if that student has transferred to
a school where a coach is employed
who previously was a school
employee or third-party contractor at
the athlete’s former school.
This change of language bolsters
the regulation to include links to a
coach at the new school who previ-
ously was employed in any way by
the previous school. - The Council approved a change
to the football practice and competi-
tion rule to state that a school may
not take part in an interscholastic
scrimmage with another school until
the Wednesday of the second week
of practice and only if the team has
conducted football practice on at
least seven separate previous days.
A joint practice with another school
is considered a scrimmage and may
not take place until those seven days
of practice have been completed.
Sports Medicine - The Council approved a Sports
Medicine Advisory Committee rec-
ommendation to require high schools
to attest by each season’s established
deadline that their high school sports
coaches have emergency action plans
specific to location which are posted,
dispersed, rehearsed, discussed and
documented within their practice
plans. - The Council also approved a
Committee recommendation requir-
ing MHSAA Tournament host sites
to have an AED (automated external
defibrillator) within visible distance
of the event.
Officials - The Council approved an
Officials Review Committee recom-
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