FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 13, 2009
Contact: John Johnson or Andy Frushour
517.332.5046 or www.mhsaa.com

EAST LANSING, Mich. – May 13 – Eight student-athletes who will be juniors at their schools during the 2009-10 academic year have been selected to serve a two-year term on the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Student Advisory Council.

The Student Advisory Council is a 16-member group which provides feedback on issues impacting educational athletics from a student’s perspective, and is also involved in the operation of Association championship events and other programming.  Members of the Student Advisory Council serve for two years, beginning as juniors.  Eight new members are selected annually to serve on the SAC, with nominations made by MHSAA member schools.  The incoming juniors will join the group of eight seniors-to-be  appointed a year ago.

Selected to begin serving on the Student Advisory Council in 2009-10 are:  Alexa Bean, Livonia Clarenceville; Dustan Craig, Buchanan; Elizabeth Gupton, Lapeer West; Charles Hengesbach, Pewamo-Westphalia; Jay Miller, Ionia; Benjamin Olson, Troy; Amanda Smith, Bellevue; and Chloe Weaver, Climax-Scotts.

The Student Advisory Council will meet five times each school year.  In addition to assisting in the promotion of the educational value of interscholastic athletics, the council will discuss issues dealing with the 4 S’s of educational athletics: scholarship, sportsmanship, safety (including health and nutrition), and the sensible scope of athletic programs.  There will also be a fifth S discussed by the group -- student leadership.

The new additions to the SAC will join the Class of 2010 member who were selected a year ago:  Mackenzie Lawler, Okemos; Andrea McIntosh, Ann Arbor Greenhills; Elyse McKenna, Algonac; Ryan Moore, Central Lake; Taylor Schultz, Richland Gull Lake; Nicole Trevarthen, Iron Mountain; Alex Van Tiem, Detroit U-D Jesuit; and Daniel Yats, Clare. 

The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,600 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition.  No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools.  Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.