It appears that the Michigan Supreme Court will decide a case between the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) and the Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit, which refuses to play sports events from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday out of respect for the Jewish Sabbath.
The school claims the MHSAA discriminates against it by scheduling tournament games on Saturday.
The state appeals court last week ruled in favor of the school by claiming an Oakland County trial court had jurisdiction to grant an injunction that the academy requested. The court didn't use constitutional grounds to address the case.
The MHSAA revoked the academy's membership for the 2004-05 season because of a dispute over a baseball playoff game date. The academy sued the MHSAA, Southfield Christian and other schools in 2005.
“The court of appeals turned down the association's request to overturn the lower court's ruling,” MHSAA communications director John Johnson said. “Consistent with our history, we'll appeal anything we feel will harm the legitimate interests of hundreds of other membership schools. We have a very diverse membership. This is a situation that would really disrupt the academic and athletic schedules of thousands of students and create hardships for parents, students, adults, spectators, students, coaches, media and others if this were to happen, if the court says we have to rearrange our tournament schedule to accommodate one school.
“While we respect the academy for its strong belief, we desire that it fulfills its promise when it voluntarily joins the association every year by school board resolution to follow the rules as a requirement of membership. What's at issue here is is that we're asking them to respect the tournament schedules that the other 750 some odd schools have to play by.”
The Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit is still an MHSAA member.
Johnson said it's very likely the MHSAA will appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.
“In the meantime, we'll do what the court says, which is we'll create plans to accommodate the school in the event it would advance in the tournaments and it puts the Jewish Sabbath in play,” Johnson said.
Baseball
In early July, the University of Michigan landed one of the state's top baseball prospects who will be a senior for the 2010 high school diamond season.
Alex Lakatos from Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central has verbally accepted an offer to play baseball with the Michigan Wolverines starting with the 2011 campaign. Other schools interested in Lakatos reportedly were Central Michigan, Coastal Carolina, Central Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern and South Carolina.
Lakatos this summer is playing for the Grand Rapids Diamonds travel team. The select squad participated in the 200-team Perfect Game Wood Bat championships in Georgia in early July.
A 6-foot-2, 205-pound right-hander, Lakatos is hoping to both pitch and hit for the Wolverines.
As a junior, he was 8-2 in 12 games with a 1.65 ERA and 75 strikeouts in 55 innings. He batted .414 with 18 extra-base hits and seven home runs and 36 RBI in 34 games. He stole 13 bases. Lakatos is also an infielder.
As a sophomore at Forest Hills Central, Lakatos had a 4-1 pitching mark.
