Contact: John Johnson or Geoff Kimmerly
517.332.5046 or [email protected]

EAST LANSING, Mich. – July 10 – The annual Reaching Higher showcases of Michigan’s top high school basketball players will return for the sixth year beginning Wednesday, July 16, with the boys event and followed by the state’s top girls prospects taking the floor July 23. The event this year also has a new home, Milford High School in Highland Township.

More than 200 athletes with aspirations to play at the college level will train and scrimmage under the tutelage of high school coaches from across the state and in front of college coaches expected to represent all three NCAA divisions, the NAIA and junior college levels. Coaches from 40 college basketball programs, including 13 from Division I schools, attended the 2013 Reaching Higher events.

An educational effort by the Michigan High School Athletic Association and the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan, the Reaching Higher experience includes classroom sessions for student-athletes and their parents as well as on-court drills and scrimmaging. The events aim to give athletes a vision of what it takes to become a college basketball player and also succeed in college life.

Participants in the program were selected by a committee of BCAM members. The process began in December when local high school coaches submitted nominations to the selection committee. Participants were chosen in February.

A complete list of expected attendees can be found on the “Reaching Higher” page of the MHSAA Website (http://www.mhsaa.com/sports/girlsbasketball/reachinghigher.aspx). The boys event begins at 3:30 p.m. on July 16, with scrimmages running from 5:45 to 8:40 p.m. The girls event begins at noon on July 23, with scrimmages from 2 to 5 p.m.

The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 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 more than 1.4 million spectators each year.

-0-