The Catholic High School League (CHSL) is a school athletic conference based in Detroit, Michigan. All of the schools are currently part of the Michigan High School Athletic Association, the governing body for Michigan scholastic sports. Unlike many similar leagues, the CHSL governs secondary, middle, and elementary sports for most of the parochial and private Catholic schools in the Detroit area. Some league schools are not Catholic, but other religious denominations. At the high school level, the league supports 13 boys and 14 girls sports:
Boys: baseball, basketball, bowling, cross-country, football, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and wrestling
Girls: basketball, bowling, cheerleading, cross-country, golf, ice hockey, field hockey, pom-pon, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and volleyball.
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CHSL member schools have won more than 250 state titles since its founding in 1921.[1]
Since the MHSAA started competing for statewide football championships in 1971, CHSL teams have won 36 state titles in all eight classes.[2] Of the top ten all-time winningest football programs, Detroit Catholic Central is eighth.[3] Current Birmingham Brother Rice head coach (and former Royal Oak Shrine head coach) Al Fracassa holds the state's record for all-time coaching wins with 389, while Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes' Mike Boyd is third at 339 and Catholic Central's Tom Mach fifth with 303.[4]
In basketball, Orchard Lake St. Mary's is the state's second-winningest all-time program with 1,250 wins.[5] The Eaglets have captured four MSHAA championships in boys basketball.[6]
In other sports, Madison Heights Bishop Foley holds the most girls' soccer titles in Michigan history, with 11.[7] and Catholic Central has captured nine hockey titles.[8]
The CHSL is divided into four divisions for most sports. The division names and structures vary from sport to sport, but there is almost always a "Central" division, which consists of largest, most competitive schools and consists mostly of single-sex high schools (with the exception of Divine Child High School, which is co-ed).
The divisional alignments for the other conference schools changes from sport-to-sport, depending on the level of talent for each school as well as geographic location within the Detroit area. A list of the other schools is as follows:
Cameron, T.C. (2009). Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0738560146.