SN 8.7.2021 FINAL

Page 16/The Sun and News, Saturday, August 7, 2021

Changes will add to C.C. Finals,

alter football playoff qualification

Teams participating in all
nine sports for which the
Michigan High School
Athletic Association
(MHSAA) sponsors postsea-
son tournaments – featuring
more than 100,000 student
athletes statewide – will be
allowed to begin practice
Monday, Aug. 9, and with a
plan to return to traditional
schedules and MHSAA
Tournament formats after
COVID-19 resulted in vari-
ous adjustments for the Fall
2020 season.
There are handful of key
changes to MHSAA postsea-
son tournaments this fall. A
couple key ones include a
new way for football teams
to qualify for the state play-
offs and an increase in the
number of runners who will
qualify for the cross country
championships.
Postseason competition in
cross country, football, golf,
tennis and swimming & div-
ing will revert to their cus-
tomary formats this season,
with all fall sports scheduled
based on their traditional cal-
endars other than beginning
practice with a common start
date for the first time. At the
time of this release (Aug. 6,
2021), there are no COVID-
19-related state-ordered
restrictions regarding school
sports, for either athletes or
spectators, from either the
MHSAA or the Michigan
Department of Health &

Human Services (MDHHS).

County health departments

and local school districts

may institute restrictions for

venues in their areas, and

teams traveling to those

schools and venues must fol-

low local mandates.

Cross country will provide

an opportunity for more indi-

vidual Finals qualifiers this

season, as a minimum of

seven individual qualifiers

will advance from each

Regional race. Previously,

runners on teams that did not

qualify as a whole could still

advance to the Finals if they

finished among the top 15

individuals at a Regional –

but at some Regionals run-

ners from the team qualifiers

filled the great majority of

those top 15 finishes. The

seven individual qualifiers

from each Regional this sea-

son will be the first seven

finishers from teams that do

not qualify as a whole, even

if they finish outside of the

top 15.

In football, there will be

the full implementation of

the “enhanced strength-of-

schedule” format for select-

ing the 256-team field for the

11-Player Football Playoffs.

The new format eliminates

automatic qualification

based on win total and bases

it solely on playoff-point

average, which also is deter-

mined differently in that it

now awards teams more for

playing tougher schedules.

Teams winning five games

during an eight-game sched-

ule or six during a nine-game

schedule are no longer guar-

anteed of making the state

tournament.

The new playoff-point for-

mula was used in 2020 to

seed teams at the District and

Regional levels, but its use

for qualification was put on

hold as COVID-19 caused a

one-season switch in playoff

format that allowed all teams

to qualify last fall.

Another football change

continues the focus on mini-

mizing injury risk, address-

ing blocking below the waste

in the free-blocking zone

(the rectangular area extend-

ing laterally four yards to

either side of the snap and

three behind the line of

scrimmage). The new rule

states a below-the-waste

block in the free-blocking

zone must occur as an imme-

diate, initial action following

the snap, instead of the pre-

vious rule which allowed an

offensive lineman to delay

and block below the waste as

long as the ball was still in

the zone.

For lower peninsula girls’

golf, teams will be required

to use the scoring platform

iWanamaker also for the reg-

ular season, just as they were

required to do so for MHSAA

Tournament competition

during the 2020-21 school

year. The scoring platform is

made available through the

MHSAA Golf app, which

was created and is operated

by iWanamaker and allows

golfers, coaches and fans to

chart scoring in real time.

In tennis, if a seeded play-

er withdraws on the day of

an MHSAA Regional or

Final, all seeded players

below that withdrawing

player (including the provi-

sional seed in that flight) will

move up and be placed on

the proper line for that new

seed. (Non-seeded players

drawn into the bracket will

not be moved.)

For most of the MHSAA’s

modern history, football

teams had begun practice

Monday of the first week of

the preseason, followed by

the rest of fall teams two

days later. A 2019 rule

change allowed a few more

sports to begin on Monday,

dependent on their Finals

dates that fall. The common

start date for all fall practices

this season and annually

moving forward was

approved by the MHSAA

Representative Council at its

Spring Meeting in May and

allows all teams to begin the

16th Monday before

Thanksgiving.

Football teams still must

have 12 days of preseason

practice at all levels before

their first game, over a peri-

od of 16 calendar days before

the first kickoff, with the first

varsity games this fall sched-

uled for Aug. 26 and the

weekend of Aug. 27-28.

Competition this fall may

begin Aug. 16 for golf and

tennis teams and Aug. 18 in

cross country, soccer, volley-

ball and swimming & diving.

Welcome Nicole Block, MSN, FNP-C

Accepting new neurology patients at the Orthopedics & Pain Center

Nicole Block, MSN, FNP-C is a board-certified nurse practitioner. She

earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Grand Valley State University

in Allendale, MI in the Frederik Meijer Honors College. She then earned

her master’s degree in nursing from Michigan State University. She is a

member of the Michigan Council of Nurse Practitioners, the Michigan

Nurses’ Association and the American Nurses’ Association.

Nicole will be working with patients experiencing headaches, unexplained

numbness, dizziness, seizures and movement disorders, helping to provide

assessment of symptoms and testing referrals as clinically indicated.

Visit findadoctor.spectrumhealth.org or contact the clinic at

616.267.7104 to schedule an appointment with Nicole Block, MSN, FNP-C.

Nicole Block, MSN, FNP-C

Specializing in general neurology

Spectrum Health Pennock

Orthopedic & Pain Center

840 Cook Road

Hastings, MI 49058

269.945.

The MHSAA is changing how individuals like

Thornapple Kellogg’s Jessica Durkee (pictured at the

2020 Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals) qualify for

the state cross country finals this fall. The top three

teams and top seven individual finishers at regionals not

on those top three teams will qualify for the 2021 Finals.

In recent seasons, the top three teams and top 15

finishers regardless of team affiliation earned spots in

the finals.