By Staff
EAST LANSING – Stiffer penalties for poor sportsmanship in ice hockey and soccer, the concept of game officials rating the sportsmanship of member schools, and a continued in-depth discussion of sports calendar issues were among items approved during the annual Spring Meeting of the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association, May 6-8, in Gaylord.
The Spring meeting of the 19-member legislative body of the Association's nearly 1,600 member schools is generally the busiest of its three sessions each year. The Council considered 62 committee proposals and also dealt with a variety of eligibility rule, post-season tournament and operational issues.
Effective in 2007-08, the penalties for player and coach game disqualifications in ice hockey will be at least double that of the minimums listed in the National Federation of State High School Associations Ice Hockey Rules Book, in an action taken by the Council to approve an Ice Hockey Committee proposal. The applicable Federation rule allows state associations to increase the number of subsequent games an individual must sit out after receiving a game disqualification. The base rule requires sitting out the remainder of that game, plus the next game after receiving a game disqualification; and progressively adds games with subsequent game disqualifications.
In Michigan, a game disqualification will now require an individual to sit the next two games after receiving the first game disqualification in a season; four games after receiving a second game disqualification; and the remainder of the season after receiving a third game disqualification. Coaches are already subject to MHSAA rules which prohibit them from coaching in the Association's post-season tournament in their sport after their second ejection in a season for unsportsmanlike behavior; and players are prohibited from post-season tournament play upon their third such disqualification.
The Soccer Committee recommendation to increase the penalty for a player, coach or bench member receiving a simultaneous yellow and red card from a suspension for the remainder of that contest to include a next day of competition suspension was also approved by the Representative Council.
The Council approved in concept, a plan to have game officials rate schools whose games they work on their sportsmanship. For years, schools have been required to rate all of the officials who work their contests, and this feedback is used to help evaluate officials for tournament assignments. This program would not commence before the 2008-09 school year, and the Council will look at details at its fall meeting.
"Sportsmanship continues to be one of the things that separates educational athletics from other levels of sports by other sponsors, and it requires constant attention so that programming can be developed or changed as circumstances arise," said John E. "Jack" Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. "The ice hockey community feels that the most flagrant forms of poor sportsmanship deserve even stronger penalties, and the soccer committee is putting its sport on notice that a yellow-red card combination deserves a more lengthy suspension.
Officials have been requesting the opportunity to evaluate schools for their sportsmanlike performance at contests, and as we develop that program, it will be with an eye towards continuing to promote the highest level of sportsmanship at our games."