The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Montana High School Association (MHSA) follows the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) recommendation. I visited with Brian Michelotti, Director of MHSA, and visited with him how the two associations work together.

This article will conclude a three-part series about the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). I am wrapping it up with a conversation with Brian Micheotti. “We, the MHSA, are a paid membership of the National Federation of State High School Associations. NFHS writes rules. They write rules for every sport, such as basketball, football, and wrestling. We follow all those rules as part of what the National Federation does. They also, as you know, right before COVID came out with the National federated NFHS network. Montana jumped full onboard with the National Federation network, which allowed us a large national platform to put all of our games on the network, varsity all the way down to the younger games through the special camera they have in each of our gyms. They provided cameras to all our schools so their content could be on the NFHS network. So, Big Sandy High School is a member of the MHSA. MHSA is a member of the NFHS. So, realistically, all of our 182 schools, including Big Sandy High School, are members of the NFHS as well because they’re members of the Montana High School Association. Let’s compare it to, you know, the Bobcats and the Grizzlies, who are in the Big Sky Conference. And they are part of the NCAA. The NFHS is the NCAA of High School Sports.”

I brought up all the new changes in basketball, fouls committed in the quarter, and the time clock. Do the schools have any representation of when those rules will be changed?

“Through the Montana High School Association, they do. So, for instance, let’s use football as a good example. Football is different. The football committee at the National Federation has 50 members who travel back to Indianapolis to review the rules. So Scott Wilson, our Associate Director at our office, oversees the sport of football across the state and is our liaison. He travels back there and contributes to the process of any future rule changes that happen in the sport of Montana and nationally. The basketball committee is smaller. The national committee is broken up into eight different sections. We are in Section Eight. Scott McDonald, who was in our office and is now from the state of Alaska, is the section eight member of the basketball committee from the national standpoint. He works through us when there are proposals to share our thoughts on these particular proposals. We provide input, and then they go to the National Committee and make those decisions.”

I know that Oklahoma, for instance, doesn’t have a time clock. So, I asked if the states don’t have to do what the national recommends. He answered, saying, “There’s a bit of a complicated process. The shot clock was put in by state association adoption. So, if a state decides to add a shot clock because it’s such a major issue, like a shot clock, they give us the option to determine whether we want to do this or not. At one of our annual meetings, the 182 schools in the state of Montana actually voted to put that shot clock in place because it was allowed by the National Federation. Every official you talked to, and every coach had some concerns about it. But after the season, everybody said that was a really good rule change.”

The rules that govern high school sports are either recommended or approved by the NFHS. Mel Bec, because she is the AD director, is responsible for making sure we follow the rules that govern us. Officials make sure the rules are followed during the game, which is another issue: Montana is very short of officials. If you love the sport, why not become one and make a little extra income?