Have questions about forming a team? Start here with the contact form or read below for all the details.
Are you new to MIHA or changed schools and your new school doesn’t have a team? Don’t worry, forming a new team is EASY! With the addition of the D division several years ago, you can even be a “Team of One” and still be competitive at District meets. Starting even a single-rider D Division team is a great way to start and create interest for others at your school. Even if you attend a Home School, Private School, Charter School, Parochial School, or an Alternative Educational Program you can form a team with MIHA. Please note, if you attend Home School, Private School, Charter School, Parochial School, or an Alternative Educational Program and your school does not currently have an MIHA Team you may join the Public School team that serves your area of residence. (Note: If two or more students from one Home School, Private School, Charter School, Parochial School, or an Alternative Educational Program join MIHA, they will be required to form their own team and will no longer be able to compete on the public school team).
Steps for Forming a Team:
- Check to see if your school has a team. You can do this several ways: 1) Check the Districts page to see if your school is listed. 2) Find your area’s District Chairperson to see if your school has a team. 3) Check with your school’s Athletic Director (Note: not all MIHA teams are directly affiliated with the school).
- If you have determined your School does not have a team or no longer has a team, contact your area’s District Chairperson and let them know you are interested in starting a new team.
- Find a coach. This person can be a parent, grand parent, friend, horse trainer, etc. The coach will need to register with the District Chairperson. You can find the Registration form here.
- Your new Coach will submit a request to start a team in writing to the Executive Board.
- Register your team and riders with the District at the District Team Registration Meeting. These registration meetings are held be each District before the start of the Junior High and High School Seasons. The team’s coach should reach out to the District Chairperson to find out the date of the meeting. All the documentation required for team and rider registration can be found here.
Junior High Teams Only:
Junior High has a special program that allows 2 teams to “Co-Op” to form a single logical team for the duration of the Junior High season. These rules do not apply to High School. This program is intended to grow the Junior High divisions and foster continued partition growth in the Junior High program.
Two or more schools may elect to form a cooperative program for the MIHA Junior Division, and show as one team, under the following conditions:
- One of the cooperating schools will be designated as primary, all of the other schools participating in the cooperative program will be considered secondary.
- The primary school may have any number of riders on the team formed under the cooperative program.
- A maximum of two riders from any one secondary school may participate in the cooperative program. If there are three or more riders from a single secondary school they will be required to form their own team and will not be permitted to participate in the cooperative program.
- All riders from the primary school and all secondary schools must participate on the same cooperative program team. Riders attending one school may not participate on different teams, except as noted in C above for private school and Schools of Choice students.
- The Coach of the primary school will inform the District Chairperson of their intent to form a cooperative program prior to spring Junior Division registration.
- The School Administration, from any of the cooperating teams recognized by their school as a school activity, club or sport, must approve of the cooperative program.
- The MIHA Junior Division Steering Committee approves each cooperative program.
For the sake of competition a Junior Division Districts with only one “A” Team has the option to split that team and show as two or more “B” Teams or two or more “C” Teams or a combination of “B” and “C” Teams with the approval of the District Chairperson or District Junior Division Coordinator.