Catholic High School League


The Catholic High School League is a school athletic conference based in Detroit, Michigan, led by director Victor Michaels. All member schools are also members 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 schools in the Detroit area. Most league schools are Catholic, but there are other religious denominations as well. Every school in the CHSL is a private school. In 2019, the CHSL council voted to rename the AB/ Division I/II championship to the Bishop division championship, and the CD/ Division III/IV championship to the Cardinal Division championship.

Member schools

Sports

At the high school level, the league supports sixteen girls sports and fourteen boys sports.
Girls Sports: basketball, bowling, cheerleading, cross -country, field hockey, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, pom-pon, ski, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and volleyball.
Boys Sports: baseball, basketball, bowling, cross-country, football, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, ski, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and wrestling.

Girls CHSL Divisions

Divisional alignments may vary from sport to sport, depending upon the number of schools participating in the sport and the enrollment of those participating schools. Listed below are typical divisional alignments for a common sport, in this case girls basketball.

Central Division

Divisional alignments may vary from sport to sport, depending upon the number of schools participating in the sport and the enrollment of those participating schools. Listed below are typical divisional alignments for a common sport, in this case boys basketball.

Central Division

Footnotes:
Monroe County
Catholic Central High School, Monroe, and St. Mary Academy, Monroe, became St. Mary Catholic Central High School in 1986 when the two schools merged.
Washtenaw County
Ann Arbor St. Thomas High School became Father Gabriel Richard High School in 1978.
Wayne County
Detroit Cristo Rey High School occupies the former Detroit Holy Redeemer High School building.
Our Lady of Mercy High School in Detroit moved to Farmington in 1965 and changed its name to Mercy High School that same year.
Redford St. Agatha High School became St. Katharine Drexel High School in 2003.
Redford Bishop Borgess High School closed in 2005 and became Redford Covenant High School which closed in 2009.

Accomplishments

Since its founding in 1926, CHSL member schools have won nearly 300 state titles.
Former Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice and Royal Oak Shrine head coach Al Fracassa holds the state record for all-time football coaching wins with 430 while Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes' former head coach Mike Boyd is third at 361 wins, and current Detroit Catholic Central head coach Tom Mach is fourth with 348 wins.
Current Warren Regina head coach Diane Laffey is the winningest coach in MHSAA softball history with 1,118 victories through the 2015 season. She also is the third winningest head coach in MHSAA girls basketball with 619 wins as of 2015.
In boys basketball, Orchard Lake St. Mary's is the state's second-winningest all-time program with 1,250 wins.
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood has the most ever boys ice hockey state championships with seventeen, and the most boys tennis state titles with eighteen. Cranbrook-Kingswood also has sixteen girls tennis state championships, the most ever in that sport in Michigan history.
Detroit St. Martin de Porres holds the record for the most state titles in boys track with fifteen.
Madison Heights Bishop Foley holds the most girls soccer state titles in Michigan history with twelve.
Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes has the most softball state championships in Michigan history with eight.
Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice has won all but one boys lacrosse state championships in Division 1 since the sport started having state championships in 2005.

Notable CHSL Alumni

Names of notable alumni are listed in descending order based on their respective year of high school graduation.
Girls' basketball championship facts:
Softball championship facts:
In 1926, Detroit Holy Redeemer and Detroit St. Leo faced each other in the first football game to determine the champion of the Detroit Parochial League. Holy Redeemer won that game 14-9.
The game has been played every year since 1926 under various names, with Detroit Catholic Central winning twenty-eight football league championship games, the most of any school in league history.
Starting in 1948, the league championship game was called "The Soup Bowl", as the Capuchin Soup kitchen became the benefactor of some of the proceeds from the game.
The Soup Bowl game was always played at University of Detroit Stadium.
After the affiliation with the Capuchins ended in 1967 the game was called the "Charity Bowl" and since 1971 the "Prep Bowl".
The Prep Bowl was played at the Pontiac Silverdome and, since 2002, at Ford Field. The Prep Bowl today also involves the Detroit Catholic Youth Organization for Catholic elementary schools as well as games within the high school divisions of the CHSL.
Prep Bowl facts:
Through 2015, the winningest high schools in Prep Bowl history, regardless of divisions, are:
For all Prep Bowl high school football game results, click here
Soup Bowl Fact:
Parochial League Football Championship Facts:
In 1947, the Detroit City League boys basketball champion and the Detroit Parochial League boys basketball champion met at Olympia Stadium in Detroit to play for the first time to determine who would wear the crown as the Detroit City Basketball Champions. The game between Detroit Miller High School and Detroit St. Joseph High School drew so much interest it sold out Olympia Stadium, with a capacity of 11,563 and in so doing established a state record for attendance at a high school basketball game.
This was the first of what would, in later years, become known as the Operation Friendship Championship pitting the best of the Detroit Public School League against the Catholic High School League.
At the end of the evening, the Detroit Miller Trojans defeated the Detroit St. Joseph Blue Jays 47-34 to claim the first ever Detroit City Basketball High School Championship.
Since that game, the Detroit Public School League champions and the Detroit Catholic High School League champions have met nearly every year to determine the Detroit City Champions. In later years, the game would become known as the Operation Friendship Championship. The game has been played at University of Detroit's Calihan Hall virtually every year, although Cobo Arena in Detroit has also hosted the basketball classic.
Operation Friendship facts:
The Goodfellow Game was an annual high school football game for the unofficial city of Detroit high school football championship. The game was played between the champions of the Detroit City League and the Detroit Parochial League. The Goodfellow Game was played every year from 1938 through 1967. The Goodfellow Game was always played at Briggs/Tiger Stadium.
The Goodfellow Game was played in a time before Michigan had a high school state championship playoff. As a result, the Goodfellow Game was considered one of the state's most prestigious high school football games of its time.
Goodfellow Game facts: