Contact:  John Johnson or Andy Frushour 
517.332.5046 or [email protected]
 

EAST LANSING, Mich.  – June 29 –  A record number 126 team champions were crowned in Michigan High School Athletic Association post-season tournaments during the 2009-10 school year.

Three additional title spots were created with the addition of a fourth division of play in the Lower Peninsula Girls Golf,  Girls Bowling and Boys Bowling tournaments; and one tournament – Lower Peninsula Girls Tennis – had co-champions in one division.  Of the 126 team champions in classes or divisions, there were seven schools winning their first MHSAA titles in any sport:  Melvindale ABT in Boys Basketball; Coloma in Girls Bowling: Allen Park and Rochester Hills Stoney Creek in Girls Competitive Cheer; Byron Center and Vassar in Boys Track & Field; and North Branch in Girls Volleyball.  In addition, there were 33 other teams which won tournament titles in a given sport for the first time.

Twenty of the 95 schools winning in 2009-10 took more than one crown, with three schools –Beal City, Bloomfield Hills Marian and Detroit Catholic Central -- each claiming at least two championships each in unified tournaments.  Catholic Central led the group with four such titles - winning in Bowling, Football, Ice Hockey and Team Dual Wrestling; while the other two schools each had two unified championships – Beal City in baseball and football; and Marian in Girls Volleyball and Girls Skiing.  Catholic Central won six total titles; Marian, Detroit Country Day and Marquette each had four; and East Grand Rapids and Saline each won three crowns. Sixteen of the MHSAA's 28 championship tournaments are unified, involving teams from the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, while separate competition to determine titlists in both Peninsulas is conducted in the other 12 sports.

Six schools ran seven consecutive championship streaks to four or more in a given sport, including:   Marquette in Girls Swimming & Divins (9), Hudsonville Unity Christian in Girls Soccer (6), Birmingham Brother Rice in Boys Lacrosse (6), Battle Creek St. Philip in Girls Volleyball (4), Kingsford and Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern in Girls Tennis (4), Marquette in Boys Swimming & Diving (4), and East Grand Rapids in Football (4).

A sport-by-sport listing of MHSAA champions for 2009-10 follows this text. 

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.

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MHSAA 2009-10 Parade of Champions

NOTES:  Those tournaments in which competition is conducted in separate Peninsulas will have their class/division designated as UP for Upper Peninsula; LP for Lower Peninsula.  Unified tournaments, involving schools from both peninsulas, will only list the letter/numeral of the class/division in which the competition was conducted.  Repeat champions from 2008-09 are in bold face.  The overall and consecutive title won figures are taken from the MHSAA Web site and a database compiled by Bill Khan of The Flint Journal.  Names of coaches are taken from program information kits submitted or from the list of coaches each school is responsible for maintaining in the MHSAA database. If you find some of the overall and consecutive titles in error because of consolidations, schools changing names, etc., please contact John Johnson at the MHSAA office.