The Midwest Inline Hockey Association (MIHA) is a newly designed league which was built to attract highly talented and intermediate level inline hockey players from across the Midwest region.
The MIHA community has skilled hockey players from many walks of life; from fire fighters, construction workers, mechanics and bartenders, to students, lawyers, dentists and accountants. If you love inline hockey, then MIHA is the home for you.
Divisions
TIER I is considered equivalent to NARCH/TOHRS/SW – pro/gold
TIER II is considered equivalent to NARCH/TORHS/SW – silver/bronze
TIER III is considered equivalent to Bronze/Copper divisions. Higher level players are kept out of T3. There is a 4 goal limit per player per game.
TIER IV These players typically don’t attend many national tournaments. There is a 3 goal limit per player per game.
TIER V is our lowest division. This division is for recreational players only. There is a 3 goal limit per player per game.
Season Format
During the preseason, returning teams are placed into a draft where they select a maximum of 4 tournaments to compete in, from roughly 20 weekend tournaments across the Midwest. Teams have the option to play in fewer than 4 tournaments, but most teams choose to play all four. The draft is composed of multiple rounds and each team is awarded one tournament pick per round. The order in which teams get to select their tournaments is based on seniority. Afterwards, any openings in the schedule are offered to new teams. New teams can sign up to play in a tournament at any time during the regular season however, openings are extremely limited.
Each individual tournament schedule is composed of round robin games on Saturday and a single elimination playoff on Sunday. Teams play two round robin games and are seeded into the single elimination playoff bracket based on their record during round robin. Multiple skill divisions are offered at each tournament.
Throughout the course of a team’s 4 tournament season schedule they earn points for each game they play in (3 points for a win, 2 points for an OT loss and 1 point for a regulation loss). At the end of the regular season teams are ranked by points and the top 12 teams are invited to a championship weekend event.
The regular season is very fluid as it doesn’t contain a fixed number of games or opponents. Teams simply play in tournaments, earning points for each game. A team could face a new opponent at any time.
MIHA’s structure is second to none, it’s very flexible in that it allows teams the option to play in a single tournament or the full season while providing an entire experience to both.
Regular Season Tournament Schedule Format
Tournament structure is typically dictated by registration and, as a result, the skill divisions available at each tournament varies. At each event, round robin games will be played on Saturday and single elimination playoff games take place on Sunday. When able, round robin games will use result-based match ups, divisions will be split into multiple pools and split brackets will be used for elimination. Tournaments that use a split bracket for elimination will have an ‘A’ and ‘B’ championship for each division. For a detailed breakdown of schedule and bracket structure click here
Championships
After the regular season has concluded, a final championship tournament is held. During the championship, if all twelve invited teams attend, the divisions are split in half. The top 6 ranked teams are pooled together and compete for the 'A' Championship and the teams ranked 7th - 12th are pooled together and compete the 'B' championship. If less than twelve teams attend championships then the tournament format will vary.
History
MIHA was founded by Mike Staple in 2010 and at that time, there were very few options for competitive inline hockey that adults could play on a regular basis. Mike set out to create a league that was organized and inexpensive with relatively limited travel. The first MIHA season had four events, three in Michigan and one in Indiana, with nine teams. Over the course of 10 years Mike developed the league’s current format. A focus was placed on the player’s experience; game times where kept convenient, ringers where discouraged and intermediate level players were encouraged to play. In 2020 Mike stepped down and Karl Richardson became the next league director, a player who attended the very first tournament, played in the first ten seasons and assisted with the league’s formation in its early years. Today, MIHA has grown to twenty events, throughout Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York and is home to roughly sixty five teams.
