BY DAN STICKRADT
Communications Specialist | Web And Content Editor | Director of News |
Social Media Director | Interns and Freelance Coordinator
PH: (248) 884-1051
TW: @LocalSportsFans @MiSoccerNetwork
SHELBY TWP., Mich. – The Premier Media Group and Michigan Soccer Network has once again contracted with the Michigan High School Athletic Association to broadcast the audio-only for girls soccer finals in June 2024.
Previously, MSN conducted the audio-only broadcasts of the MHSAA boys soccer state finals on YouTube last November (2023) at Grand Ledge High School – the first time all four divisions were held at one site on the same day for boys soccer. Currently, all live streaming of MHSAA state finals and postseason events in 33 sanctioned sports are conducted through the NHFS Network, which is a monthly subscription network with the sole contractual rights to live stream MHSAA postseason events. There are nine fall sports, 13 winter sports and 11 spring sports in which MHSAA conducts a postseason tournament during the 2023-24 school year.
“This was a great opportunity for MSN do broadcast the audio only last fall in boys soccer and it’s a great opportunity to be able to do the audio-only again this spring in girls soccer,” said PMG/MSN Director of Broadcasting Jonathan Turner. “Last fall we got over 4,000 page views for the audio-only on our youTube channel.
“We look forward to working with the MHSAA this year and in the future,” added Turner.
The 2024 MHSAA girls soccer finals will take place June 14-15 at the DeMartin Soccer Complex on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing. Two girls soccer finals will be played on Friday (June 14) and two more state finals will take place on Saturday (June 15). Girls soccer will again join baseball and softball as part of the final weekend of the 2023-24 high school sports year concluding at side-by-side facilities at MSU.
Rochester Stoney Creek (Division 1), Grosse Pointe North (Division 2), Hudsonville Unity Christian (Division 3) and Kalamazoo Christian (Division 4) are the defending MHSAA state champions in girls soccer.
2024 SEASON ON DECK
Tryouts and preseason practices begin on Monday, March 11 for girls soccer with the first slate of official games set for March 20. There are currently 750 members schools of the MHSAA and over 400 member schools that sponsor girls soccer – 108 in Division 1, 112 in Division 2, 110 in Division 3 and 114 in Division 4 – which would bring the MHSAA up to one of its all-time highs for girls soccer programs. The MHSAA is expected to field teams 444 teams this spring.
All sports’ postseason tournaments are conducted with schools assigned to equal or nearly equal divisions, with lines dependent on how many schools participate in those respective sports.
For the first time since the 2006-07 school year, Upper Peninsula schools that are MHSAA members will be allowed to participate downstate in the MHSAA postseason tournament in girls soccer. From the fall of 2007 through June of 2023, U.P. schools were forced into its own U.P. Postseason tournament (boys soccer with two divisions and girls soccer with one division) due to a 2007 court ruling regarding to specific sports and the season they were ruled to compete in at that time. The court-order regarding boys soccer and girls soccer was reversed in August of 2023.
There are currently five Upper Peninsula schools that currently sponsor girls soccer – Marquette and Sault Ste Marie-Rudyard Unified in Division 2 and Houghton, Kingsford and Iron Mountain-Norway Unified in Division 3. Last fall in boys soccer, seven of the 14 schools from the Upper Peninsula that sponsor boys soccer entered the MHSAA postseason with both Marquette (Division 2) and Kingsford (Division 3) winning district championships and advancing to the Round of 16.
The MHSAA first began sponsoring postseason tournaments for girls soccer in the spring of 1983.
Classifications for Michigan High School Athletic Association elections and postseason tournaments for the 2024-25 school year will be announced in April with the breakdown of divisions in each sport forthcoming later this spring and summer. MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said schools may not subsequently lower their enrollment figure. However, if revised enrollment figures are higher and indicate that a school should be playing in a higher division, that school would be moved up.
Additionally, non-MHSAA members compete either as an independent with no postseason affiliation or compete in either the Michigan Association of Christian Schools, Michigan Christian Schools Athletic Association, Michigan Home School Sports Association or Association of Christian Schools International governing bodies sponsored postseason tournaments. None of the members of those associations currently hold a dual membership with the MHSAA. There are more than 20 members of those associations that sponsor girls soccer and more than 50 small schools from those associations that sponsor boys soccer in the fall.
Have a story suggestion for the Premier Media Group and the Michigan Soccer Network regarding club soccer, high school varsity, amateur soccer, collegiate soccer or professional soccer of teams or players with Michigan ties, contact Communications Specialist/Web and Content Editor/Director of News Dan Stickradt via email at stickradt@michigansoccernetwork.com, or call 248-884-1051. Dan Stickradt is a 31-year veteran of the Michigan Media circles and recently joined the staff full time in March of 2024. Want to schedule a broadcast game or live show, contact PMG/MSN Director of Broadcasting Jonathan Turner for availability and pricing at jonathan@michigansoccernetwork.com.
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