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.
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 15 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, opening 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 8 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.
After the regular season has concluded, a final championship tournament is held. During the championship, on Saturday the eight invited teams are split in half. The top 4 ranked teams are pooled together and compete for the top 4 seeds and similarly, the bottom 4 ranked teams are pooled together and compete for the bottom 4 seeds in the single elimination championship playoff on Sunday. At the end of the playoffs a season champion is crowned for each division.
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.
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 house leagues. Higher level players are forbidden from playing in T3. There is a 4 goal limit per player per game. This division is split into "A" and "B" classifications, with “A” players being closer to T2 talent and “B” players being closer to T4.
TIER IV is our lowest division. These players typically don’t attend many national tournaments. There is a 3 goal limit per player per game.
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. After running the league for a decade, Mike passed the torch to Karl Richardson, a player who attended the very first tournament, played in all ten seasons and assisted with the league’s formation in its early years. Today, MIHA has grown to thirteen events, throughout Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York and is home to roughly fifty teams.
