The MHSAA is introducing girls field hockey as part of the 2025-26 school year. Field hockey's ties to Michigan date to the late 1930s.
Girl's volleyball, golf, cross country and swimming have been a part of the Michigan High School Athletic Association's fall sports catalog for nearly 20 years. This year, field hockey is joining the ranks.
For the first time since the 2004-05 school year, the MHSAA will introduce two new sponsored sports: girls field hockey and boys volleyball. Field hockey is officially underway, while volleyball will debut in the spring.
Field hockey's ties to Michigan date to the late 1930s and was played in high schools across southeast Michigan during the 1970s and into the 1980s, according to USA Field Hockey. But economic challenges during the 1990s and 2000s and lack of support led programs to cut the sport.
Over the past 25 years, field hockey has experienced a resurgence. Organizations including USA Field Hockey, Great Lakes Regional Field Hockey and the Michigan High School Field Hockey League have worked to bring the sport to players at earlier ages.
Joy Hook, assistant varsity coach for Dexter, said the MHSSA's sponsorship is a good sign.
"I think it is a huge thing for field hockey, especially because when I first started playing field hockey, it was a smaller sport, not as many girls played," Hook said.
"And so being a part of MHSAA and just being recognized to be a sport that is like, 'Oh, enough people play. We want to recognize, we want to support it more,' is huge for field hockey in Michigan."
Field hockey 101
Field hockey shares elements of ice hockey and soccer. Each team consists of 11 players that move into the opposing team’s territory to score. The sport is played on a turf field measuring 60 yards wide and 100 yards long.
Players use only right-handed sticks, for safety reasons, and the sport demands high levels of stamina. Keely Tamer, president of the Michigan Field Hockey Coaches Association and coach at Dexter High School, said a midfielder in field hockey typically runs 4½ miles in a 60-minute game.
From MHSFHL to MHSAA
The Michigan High School Field Hockey League — previously known as the Michigan High School Field Hockey Association — started organizing teams in the state in 1984, according to the MHSAA. Tamer has been involved with the organization since 2015.
Tamer said there were only 13-15 teams in the early 2000s as the sport began its resurgence.
Today, she said, there are 37 programs that give students at 45 schools across Michigan a chance to play the sport.
In 2009, two Ann-Arbor-based-programs began providing opportunities to play field hockey at the club level, Tamer said, allowing earlier access to the sport. As those programs began to see success, programs such as Great Lakes Field Hockey began to develop programs within various communities.
"So you're starting to see communities teach it down just for the purpose of having a strong community program," Tamer said. "And so all of those things combined, I think, have created opportunity."
MHSAA field hockey state playoff structure
While things will mostly stay the same for the teams playing field hockey this year, there will be a few changes under the MHSAA's guidance.
"I think the tournament structure is going to be the largest change, especially going from two divisions to one division," Paige Winne, the MHSAA's lead administrator for field hockey, said.
To draw up the regional tournament that could have up to 36 teams, the top four teams in the state will be determined Oct. 3, based on the Michigan Power Ratings. They then will be placed in four separate regionals with no geographic consideration. All other teams will be assigned to one of the four regionals based on geography, mirroring the placement process used in other MHSAA sports.
Potential first-round games, if there are nine seeds in a region, start Oct. 8. Regional quarterfinals begin Oct. 13.
Winne said the field hockey committee unanimously voted on the change to playoff structure.
"They felt it was the best way to establish a strong foundation for the sport and for it to grow," she said.
Here's the playoff schedule, per the MHSAA:
- Oct. 8-11: Regional first round (only necessary if a regional includes more than eight teams.)
- Oct. 13-18: Regional quarterfinals and semifinals.
- Oct. 20: Regional final.
- Oct. 22: MHSAA semifinals.
- Oct. 25: MHAA final.
Inaugural expectations as MHSAA-sanctioned sport
Dexter has won five field hockey championships since the program debuted in 2010. Hook said the Dreadnaughts have what it takes to win the inaugural title as the lone state champion.
"We have a great team," Hook said. "The seniors, I would say, is the best senior class in the league. And I would put them up against anybody."
There are 10 seniors on the team, six of whom have been played varsity since they were freshman, Tamer said.
Audrey Owen-Smith, a 16 year-old-senior, said field hockey provided her the opportunity to commit to Columbia in the prestigious Ivy League, and hopes more girls will try out the sport.
"I think even just playing in high school, you have so many great opportunities and so many lessons to be learned," she said, "but then also being able to transition to the club and the travel landscape and possibly going to play in college, if that's what you're looking to do."
MHSAA communication director Geoff Kimmerly hopes the addition of the sport will prompt more athletes to play more than one sport.
"I think that's kind of the hope, instead of taking participants from volleyball or cross country or other fall sports," he said. "We might get someone who only plays lacrosse or only play soccer in the spring, and maybe that person will do a second sport in the fall, because there is such a tie in potentially."
Eric Guzmán covers youth sports culture at the Free Press as a corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support this work.
Contact Eric Guzmán: [email protected]; 313-222-1850. Follow him on X: @EricGuzman90.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan high school field hockey enters Year 1 of MHSAA support
Category: General Sports
