Pontiac has a new Boys Basketball Coach.

Written Monday May 12th at 1:16 PM

Pontiac will have a new boys basketball coach next winter.

The Phoenix have named Dion Harris their new head coach confirmed by the D-Zone. Harris is the third coach in three years in Pontiac. He takes over for DeQuan Washington who stepped down coaching the program.

Harris played at Michigan from 2003-2007 and was Michigan Mr. Basketball in 2003 for Detroit Redford.

Harris new team has a ton of questions despite having JJ Claudio and Jaiden Price coming back. Program strength will be something to watch with the Phoenix. Pontiac will be in the Blue with Troy, Troy Athens, Seaholm, Bloomfield Hills, and Royal Oak. The district for the Phoenix will be announced by the MHSAA in June.

It will be really interesting to see how the transition period comes for Pontiac and for Harris. We'll see what happens.

Stay tuned to OAA Now for the latest on this developing story. 

Here is the tweet from D-Zone (Stu Carrolton) confirming the move.

https://x.com/TheDZoneBBall/status/1921972327694119106

Adams will have a new Girls Basketball Coach next winter.

Written Saturday May 10th at 12:28 AM

Adams will have a new girls basketball coach next winter.

Highlanders Coach Joe Malburg will not be returning as Girls Varsity Basketball Coach. The Rochester Community Schools Zip Recruiter website confirmed the news. The job was posted on May 6th 2025 which the application is on the bottom of this column.

Malburg took over for Shay Lewis who is at Schoolcraft College in 2020. He went 28-53 in his four years with the program. Malburg has had a ton of success with smaller schools prior to coming to Adams.

The Highlanders overcame a ton of injuries winning 10 games but they were shocked falling 37-33 to Romeo in the district first round after the Bulldogs lost two key players to injuries in that game last season. Adams has Faith Zoldus, Jordan Jarrell, Layla Tomezak, Regan Moore, Alyssa Stephens, Nora Camaj, and Nadia Heppner coming back for the new coach.

Adams has program strength which will help the new coach but there will be a transition period which has to happen during the season. They will be in the Blue with Southfield Arts and Tech, Harper Woods, Troy, Troy Athens, and Ferndale next season. The district has not been released as of yet but it is likely the Highlanders could see their arch rivals Rochester and Stoney Creek in their district.

It will be really interesting to see how Adams approaches this going forward.

Stay tuned to OAA Now for the latest on this developing story. 

Adams Coaching Application from Zip Recruiter.

https://www.ziprecruiter.com/c/Rochester-Community-Schools/Job/Adams-High-School-Varsity-Girls-Basketball-Head-Coach-(2308)/-in-Rochester-Hills,MI?jid=b0d34f6ddd8b8136

MHSAA making some changes.

Written Friday May 9th at 7:21 AM

The MHSAA Representative Council has made some changes effective next school year.

Here are some of the noticeable rule changes.

In Girls Wrestling, district and regional championships will be awarded after State Champions were awarded last season for the first time.

Tennis will have a pilot program with all four lower peninsula finals to be played at the Midland Tennis Center in Midland. 

In football the team that forfeits the game will not get the bonus points if they forfeit the game. Also eight man football gets to play their semifinal games on turf at a neutral site. The top seed previously got to host the game.

Boys Volleyball becomes an official sport with the state semifinals and finals played at the Kellogg Center in Battle Creek on June 5th-6th which will have two divisions based on enrollment. They also approved a Co-Op with teams with less than 3,500 students.

For a team to declare a scrimmage, the win-loss record can not be altered. One rule must be altered to be declared a scrimmage like in basketball it can't be eight minute quarters. 

Baseball players can play on the same day with a 38 game limit still applying to students.

Volleyball players can play no more than 18 sets per day.

Bowling can play no more than eight games on a school day (Monday-Thursday)

Transfers

The MHSAA updated its transfer rule regarding the specific sport transfer regulation to the full and complete move exception that allows a student to gain immediate eligibility.

The first change is it increases the number of school days to 180 for a student who changes residences and must compete at that new school before returning to a previous school district and having potential athletic eligibility. If the student decides to move back to their previous school district before the 180 days then they could lose their athletic eligibility in all sports unless it it agreed upon between the two schools and the MHSAA. 

The second change increases the amount of time to an athletes former residence must be signed into a long term or lease agreement to a minimum of one year (12 months.)

 

Middle School/Junior High 

The Representative Council approved a change to allow middle school/junior high school teams to begin practice on the first day of classes if it's before the first available first allowed practice day before the 14th Monday before Thanksgiving. Ninth grade football may begin practice on the same day as the Junior Varsity and Varsity if the ninth grade team is comprised only of ninth grade students who have been approved for eligibility advancement. 

Also middle school/junior high students will be eligible for high school competition due to their high school's small enrollment but they will be subject to the high school transfer rules. In the OAA, none of these schools would be eligible with most of the league at over 450 kids.

I will talk more about this on Tuesday's podcast.

Stay tuned to OAA Now for the latest on this developing story.

 

MHSAA Representative Council.

https://www.mhsaa.com/topics/mhsaa-news/council-approves-tennis-finals-pilot-program-girls-wrestling-titles-districts