EAST LANSING — Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen MacDonald dismissed as “frivolous” a suit against the Michigan High School Athletic Association last Tuesday in East Lansing declaring to null and void the 2008-09 membership resolutions already submitted by its member schools and ordered the party to cover all MHSAA’s attorney fees.

Robert Davis, founder of the Amateur Athletic Association of Michigan filed the suit against the MHSAA July 1. Davis accused the MHSAA of misinforming member schools about whether they may legally join other athletic associations.

Davis had set a goal of July 1 to enlist 100 schools for postseason AAAM tournaments — which would require the schools to leave the MHSAA. The MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments for 28 high school sports. Davis established the rival association to the MHSAA back in February of this year and is currently on the board of education in the Highland Park school district.

The reason for Judge McDonald’s decision is primarily because the MHSAA Membership Resolution that dates all the way back to the 1970s is a voluntary agreement approved and submitted to the MHSAA by the school boards of member senior, junior high and middle schools. The agreement allows for the schools to be eligible for MHSAA postseason tournaments, but nowhere in the document does it say that schools cannot join other associations for athletic competition.

The MHSAA’s not-for-profit corporation is a voluntary membership that is made up of over 1,600 public and private schools and also was the first association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from its schools.

The MHSAA tournaments attract approximately 1.6 million spectators each year and because of its well-known presence for success throughout the state, Davis and the AAAM may find it difficult to lure any schools away from the MHSAA. — J.D.

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