Detroit — The success of the Catholic High School League is hard to miss; the proof is in the banners that decorate the rafters of the member schools’ gymnasiums.

During the 2014-15 school year, CHSL teams won 18 state titles, the most of any conference.

Since 1926, the CHSL has served as a platform for creating and teaching young Catholic men and women values through sport, molding them into disciples of Christ.

“We strive to make good people,” said Vic Michaels, Catholic High School League director. “We have the off-the-field factor, which we think is an advantage and can attribute to our success. Parents don’t regret sending their kids to Catholic schools. The work we do off the field is just as important as the work we do on the field.”

Upholding Catholic traditions and codes of conduct goes beyond the field, according to Michaels, who added CHSL schools recently donated more than 31,000 pounds of clothing in one week to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s “Champions of Charity” drive.

“Students are taught how to act outside the classroom,” Michaels said. “We’re here to make good people. You hear it all the time in business, ‘I want to surround myself with good people,’ that’s what Catholic schools are about.”

Nationally speaking, questions regarding safety and concussion-prevention protocol raised in connection with high school sports have been addressed by local schools. As the deaths of young athletes from around the country linked to head injuries have led some parents to question the safety of interscholastic sports, Michaels assures parents and players the MHSAA is ahead in the curve in concussion prevention and treatment.

“There has never been a safer time to play high school sports,” Michaels said. “We have more knowledge, educated coaches and officials, better equipment and more attention is being paid to concussions than ever before.”

This year, the MHSAA is requiring all of its schools to report head injuries — the first association in the nation to do so — and has created “concussion insurance,” by which the MHSAA will cover medical costs for head-related injuries.

To date, only six concussion insurance claims have been filed, said Michaels, which he attributes to coaches teaching proper techniques.

The league has boasted some of the most well-known coaches in the state — including Brother Rice’s Al Fracassa, Catholic Central’s Tom Mach and Warren Regina’s Diane Laffey.

“We’ve got a great nucleus of coaches and administrators round the Catholic League,” Michaels said. “The Catholic League is the most competitive league around, and that’s where good coaches want to be.”

“When you look at a school like Brother Rice and its facilities, they play on a small football field for practice, and don’t have as nice facilities as other schools in Birmingham Public Schools. But people go there because of the personnel at the school.”

Aside from the success and coaching staff, the values instilled in athletes also drive parents and schools to the Catholic League. Three non-Catholic schools — Macomb Lutheran North, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood and Bloomfield Frankel Jewish Academy — compete in the CHSL, which Michaels attributes to the other schools in the league and how they conduct themselves.

“People want to be a part or near the Catholic faith when they see how our athletes act on the field,” Michaels said. “We have a Lutheran, Jewish and private school in the league. We’re not exclusive, but we want to show off our Catholic faith; that speaks to how good our league is that they would want to join.”

Michaels said realignment is always on the radar for the CHSL, but he would also like to see the CHSL play more Catholic schools outside southeast Michigan. Recent calls to create separate state championships for public and private schools will not come to fruition, he said.

“The idea of a private school championship isn’t feasible, nor is it practical,” Michaels said. “The last time a poll was taken by the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, the governing body of athletic directors in the state, more than 70 percent were against the idea. It would hurt private and public schools.”

With school of choice in Michigan, public and private schools both don’t have to restrict themselves to geographic boundaries when attracting students, Michaels noted.

“Every school is a school of choice — public and private,” Michaels said. “So it has really gotten rid of the argument. There is nothing stopping a public school recruiting students outside its own district or even the county, you see it all the time.”

But aside from the state championship banners, legendary coaches and off-the-field work, the CHSL’s main focus is still on creating young disciples.

“Interscholastic sports allow for an opportunity share our faith in regards to sportsmanship, in how our athletes conduct themselves on and off the field,” said Mike Evoy, CHSL associate athletic director. “We strive to have our athletes work within the community, seeing their opponents as children of God and not ‘the enemy.’ That’s why the Catholic League is different and why you see so much success.”