Girls' sports seasons will never be the same for Michigan high schools, colleges, and universities. Michigan is the only state in the country where high school girls play basketball in the fall and volleyball in the winter, as opposed to the seasons traditionally used by colleges and universities.
This "untraditional" season caused a lawsuit in which two mothers took the Michigan High School Athletic Association to court, and on June 27, the sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Michigan ruled that scheduling of high school girls' sports seasons was unconstitutional.
Diane Madsen and Jay Roberts-Eveland, the original plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit, sued because they felt that the nontraditional sports season discriminated against female athletes on the basis of gender.
According to the Detroit News , Madsen and Roberts-Eveland sued the MHSAA because their daughters were unable to receive athletic scholarships to Michigan universities due to the non-traditional sport seasons, which made it difficult for Division I schools to recruit.
The ruling, which puts Michigan sports seasons on the same tract as every other state in the United States, has affected both Michigan high schools and colleges in positive and negative ways.
For Division I schools, like Michigan State University and the University of Michigan, the ruling will make it easier for coaches to recruit high school girls. For smaller schools like Hillsdale College in Division II, however, the ruling makes recruitment more difficult.
Christopher Gravel, head volleyball coach and lecturer in physical education at Hillsdale College, said that the reason for changing the seasons is wrong and unjust, and that recruitment for volleyball will be much harder for Division II schools.
"I think for recruiting purposes, it is a disadvantage if high school volleyball is the same as ours. We had the opportunity to go to volleyball tournaments, but now we are going to miss out," Gravel said. "There will be a better set schedule, but we won't be able to see some athletes in Michigan."
Senior Heidi Scott, a volleyball player, said she agrees that the court decision was bad for smaller schools in Division II and III.
"In general, I think it was a bad decision. The whole point is that girls have a hard time getting into college because of the seasons, and that's not true," Scott said. "Division II and III don't have the money to send people and recruitment officers out. Hillsdale coaches do the recruiting, which allows for better options for the girls being recruited."
Scott also said that she didn't see the seasons as sexist because colleges that want athletes to compete on their teams will recruit players regardless of the seasons.
"I don't see it as sexist just because we're opposite. I don't see it as an unfair advantage. It's not going to keep you from getting recruited," Scott said.
Lorin Cartwright, assistant principal and athletic director of Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Mich., said the ruling had everything to do with sexism.
"I think that they would try to tell you it's founded by seasons, but the judge found that women were in the disadvantage season," Cartwright said.
Claudette Charney, head women's basketball coach and lecturer in physical education for Hillsdale, also said she disagrees with the ruling.
Charney said with the new seasons, colleges will miss out on girls who tend to be late-bloomers-girls who become good players their senior year, and tend to be overlooked by recruitment officers.
"Now we're going to be seeing girls play during their and our season. We're going to miss out on late bloomers," Charney said. "Also, the scheduling is going to be a mess. I don't think that when this lawsuit started, they thought about that."
"The new seasons will make recruiting so important-we can't afford to not see recruits," Charney said. "It's going to be a big push junior year-what about girls who prosper their senior year-we don't have the staff to accommodate it. We are going to miss out on a lot of girls, and we are going to have to make decisions earlier."
Sophomore Jessie Miller, who plays basketball for Hillsdale, said she agrees that having high school basketball in the fall made it easier for college coaches to recruit
"It is easier for our coach to recruit when we are not in full season. She can choose whatever high school games she wants to go to and she will know that the games will never fall on our game days." Miller said. "When the seasons are together, let's face it, more people are going to go watch the boys and become 'burned' out with basketball."
As far as high schools are concerned, the decision to make girls' sports seasons more traditional will be costly. Scheduling gym time with eight basketball teams-both boys and girls, will affect practice time and games.
"We're going to have to do something differently," Cartwright said. "We're thinking of adding two additional baskets to the basketball court, and we may have to cut two teams. We have eight teams, and we would cut lower tiered players. Each of the teams would get only two practice hours a day."
"A lot of Michigan high school coaches coach both girls and boys basketball. Now it will be harder to find coaches [and the] same with the referees. They will probably decide to ref the boys," Miller said. "Gym time will be limited."
According to Peter Beck, assistant principal and athletic director of Hillsdale High School, the decision to change the sports seasons should never been decided in court.
"The MHSAA said that they wanted to move the girls' seasons because they can't compete with the boys' season. This should not have been a court decision. If someone is worthy of an athletic scholarship, they will get that scholarship," Beck said.
As far as getting the scholarship, Scott said that the nontraditional season doesn't affect the player's ability to receive athletic scholarships to colleges or universities.
"I don't think it affects a player coming in just for the fact that you're going to be playing year round anyway," Scott said.
Gravel also said that the season players competed in had little to do with how well they played on the college level.
"I don't think what season they play in has any affect on how they play," Gravel said. "Some [Hillsdale College players] had a hard time in January. They have a hard time with the length of the season."
Cartwright, though she knows that adjusting to the new season will be expensive, said that overall, she agrees with the decision to change Michigan's sports season.
"When this originally started, I didn't like the idea because I thought it would affect the girls," Cartwright said. "If I'm a senior in high school, I've been recruited my junior year, and they're going to offer me the opportunity in the fall. They would assign the schedule before they even see me play."
Cartwright said that although the rest of the United States is accustomed to the regular, collegiate seasons, it will be hard for Michigan schools to adjust after nearly half a century of nontraditional sports seasons.
"There are 49 states that can run these programs the way they are-we have to trust the numbers," Cartwright said of the future of Michigan sports seasons. "We are talking 30 to 40 years of the same season. Change is difficult."