ORCHARD LAKE — Athletic directors in the Catholic High School League’s Central Division have had to go to great lengths, even distances, to assemble a schedule for this winter’s boys and girls basketball campaigns.
The basketball season as defined by the Michigan High School Athletic Association runs for three months already under way since Nov. 25 and winds up no later than Feb. 27, when boys state playoffs commence, and March 7 for the girls.
The athletic directors will also play the role of a travel agent to get their teams to where they have to go to play. MHSAA’s Representative Council at its spring meeting in 2023 made the task a bit easier by rescinding a 300-mile restriction, which allows teams from Michigan to compete against teams from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario no matter how many miles it might take to get there.
For purposes of this report, we’re dealing with the games teams play beyond the boundaries of the Detroit metropolitan area composed of Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair, Livingston, Washtenaw and Wayne counties.
Most of the long distance travel will occur in the boys Central Division, composed of both long-established schools in Metro Detroit, as well as five schools from Toledo and Jackson Lumen Christi, who were welcomed into the CHSL in 2023. The trips between Metro Detroit and Toledo are more or less an hour long, a bit longer for the journey to and from Jackson.
The boys Central is made up of Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice, University of Detroit Jesuit, Novi Detroit Catholic Central, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Prep, Warren De La Salle Collegiate, and three schools from Toledo — Central Catholic boys, St. Francis de Sales and St. John Jesuit.
Each school plays seven league games and three games in a division tournament. The challenge facing athletic directors is finding up to a dozen opponents to have a full 22-game schedule permitted by the MHSAA.
U of D Jesuit is the only school playing its entire 17-game (10 at home) schedule in the Metro area.
Brother Rice is playing three of its 19 games (eight at home) outside the Metro area: versus Flint New Standard Academy in North Fenton (Genesee County), the Mike Turner Classic at Albion College (Calhoun County), and 160 miles west for a showcase in East Kentwood in the Grand Rapids area.
Of its 18-game schedule, De La Salle (five at home) is playing two games in the Saginaw area and one in a showcase event at East Kentwood to play Rockford.
Detroit Catholic Central (19 games, 7 home) has contests scheduled in Saginaw, 140 miles to Hudsonville near Grand Rapids, Grand Blanc, Flint and Okemos — and nearly 300 miles to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to play Wayne High School.
The Shamrocks will play back-to-back travel games. On Dec. 13, they will be at Toledo CC for a 7 p.m. game, then the next night in Hudsonville.
St. Mary’s Prep (16 games, five at home) is scheduled to travel 400 miles to Hammond, Indiana, on New Year’s Day, to play Indianapolis Cathedral High School. The Eaglets are also scheduled to play games in East Kentwood (to play East Lansing) and at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids (to play Grand Rapids Northview).
In addition, the MHSAA Council ruled that schools may compete against teams from anywhere in the United States as long as those competitions take place in Michigan or in one of those five contiguous states or Ontario.
One athletic director quipped, “That means we could play a team from Georgia in Ohio.”
St. Mary’s, the defending state Division 1 champion, has already played a Florida high school and is scheduled to play another one.
On a frigid 30-degree Saturday evening a couple of weeks ago, the Villages Charter High School from Florida (where it was 62 degrees, chilly by Florida standards) opened the Eaglets’ season in a packed humid Dombrowski Fieldhouse.
The Buffalos won the game, 65-60, in spite of OLSM’s Trey McKenney scoring 32 points, to snap the Eaglets’ 24-game win streak.
On Thursday, Jan. 9, the IMG Academy based in Bradenton, Florida, will meet the Eaglets in a game to be played at Oakland University.
Some 10 teams make up the girls Central Division: Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard, Bloomfield Hills Marian, Dearborn Divine Child, Farmington Hills Mercy. Jackson Lumen Christi, St. Mary’s Prep, Toledo CC girls, Toledo Notre Dame Academy, Toledo St. Ursula and Warren Regina.
Lumen Christi girls are making a 300-mile, nearly four-hour trip to Lake Leelanau St. Mary on Dec 27. Otherwise, the girls teams are sticking pretty much at home or close to it.
The Ohio schools in the CHSL are playing under the auspices of the Ohio State High School Athletic Association.
CC, U of D Jesuit lead Central Division
In the opening 10 days of the 2024-25 basketball season, Catholic Central is one of a handful of squads that have a perfect record. The Shamrocks are 4-0 overall, 1-0 in the Central Division by virtue of a 71-59 decision against De La Salle.
U of D Jesuit, 3-0 overall, shares the league lead by its 58-44 win over Brother Rice (3-1; 0-1).
Clarkston Everest Collegiate and Allen Park Cabrini are each 3-0, and Ann Arbor Greenhills and Toledo St. Francis de Sales are 2-0.
Three teams are 2-0 among the girls squads: Lumen Christi, Wixom St. Catherine of Siena and Everest.
Contact Don Horkey at [email protected].
