AP Wire Service

The Michigan High School Athletic Association went to court Monday, defending its practices against charges of bias toward male students.

Two Grand Rapids-area women are suing the association, alleging that the state's governing body for prep sports has established rules that discriminate against female athletes.

The suit also accuses the association of violating Title IX, a 1972 federal statute that prohibits the recipients of federal financial assistance from discriminating on the basis of gender.

At the center of the lawsuit, filed three years ago by Diane Madsen and Jaye Roberts-Eveland, is the scheduling of sports seasons for girls teams, particularly basketball and volleyball teams.

The Grand Rapids-area women say the MHSAA discriminates against female athletes by scheduling their sports seasons at different--and less advantageous--times of the year than when boys play. They want a judge to order the MHSAA to schedule the same boys and girls sports during the same seasons.

Madsen, the first person to testify at Monday's trial, said the different sports seasons, when combined with other slights, ``send out one message--of second-class-citizen status.''

Attorneys for the high school association, Carole Bos and William Azkoul, insisted that the group's 1,300 member schools set the sports seasons, and the association just follows the wishes of its members.

Plaintiffs' attorney Phil Cohan said the key to putting high school girls' teams on a level playing field with boys' teams--and with girls' teams in most other states--is realigning the girls' sports season.

Currently, 43 states hold volleyball in the fall and girl's basketball in the winter, same as the NCAA.

Michigan is one of only five states in which high school girls play basketball in the fall and volleyball in the winter.

By the 2003-04 school year, the other four states--Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Virginia--all will have reversed their seasons.

``I know that (the MHSAA is) absolutely out of alignment with the seasons,'' said Roberts-Eveland, the mother of four girls and a boy in the East Kentwood school district.

``The girls sports were slotted in wherever the boys weren't. They need to get out of the mindset that it's OK to do what's convenient,'' she said.

Jack Roberts, the MHSAA's executive director, says his organization does not discriminate against girls. The private, nonprofit corporation based in Lansing simply provides the framework for its 1,300 member schools to conduct state tournaments, he said.

The women want the MHSAA to schedule sports in the same seasons traditionally used by colleges and universities. In addition to basketball and volleyball, the seasons should be changed for golf, soccer, swimming and tennis, they say.

The lawsuit says the current lineup of seasons is detrimental to female athletes for several reasons, including:

· Opportunities for college athletic scholarships are limited because recruiters and scholarships are not as accessible.

· Interstate competition is

virtually nonexistent.

· Dates for athletes to sign national letters of intent for college scholarships occur before Michigan girls begin their senior seasons in volleyball and soccer.

· While boys basketball teams play Friday nights in the winter, girls play on Thursdays in the fall to accommodate boys football on Fridays.

· There is less national attention and recognition.