After Leading Glen Lake Girls to Title, Bradford Brings Boys Into Final Week
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
March 15, 2024
Eight is Enough.
Or is it?
For Jason Bradford growing up on the farm of Arden and Lynn Bradford as one of their eight children, it probably was enough. Bradford’s upbringing may have been slightly similar to “Eight Is Enough,” a comedy-drama television series about a family with eight children that aired on ABC from March of 1977 to May of 1981.
But the show didn’t depict pick-up basketball being played in the barn like it was for Bradford and his siblings. And surely eight would not be enough Regional basketball championships for Jason Bradford, nor enough District titles either.
After leading Maple City Glen Lake to the Division 4 girls basketball championship last year, Bradford stepped down from coaching. At the time his teams had won five Regional and six District titles.
Now his teams have won six Regional and seven District championships. He took over Glen Lake’s boys program during the holiday break this winter as the Lakers were off to a 4-2 start. They finished the season 22-5.
It was the Lakers boys’ first 20-win campaign since the 2018-19 season, and they clinched their first Regional title since 2018.
Glen Lake went 19-5 last year losing to Traverse City St. Francis in the District Final. The season before that ended with a first-round loss to Elk Rapids and 15-6 record.
Bradford led his girls teams four times to the MHSAA Semifinals and almost got their a fifth time this year with the boys. Their run ended Tuesday with a tough loss in the Division 4 Quarterfinals to Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart, 63-51.
“We’re licking the wounds of that one,” he said. “We’ve got to remember to look at the big picture – they are young men becoming men.”
But Bradford already has turned his thoughts to next season and is making plans for summer basketball.
“Having the summer with them if it goes the way we want is going to be huge,” Bradford said. “There are a few things going through my head I can change or adjust.
“We want to continue to build on what our philosophy of what Glen Lake is and my philosophy of what Glen Lake is.”
The Lakers will graduate Cooper Bufalini, Gage Baker, Dylan Cundiff, Tyler Bixby and Jamie Blondia. But they’ll have their top two scorers back, sophomore Jacob Plamondon and junior Benji Allen. Plamondon kicked in almost 20 points per game and led the team in rebounding with more than 10 per contest. Allen averaged more than 11 points per game and led the team in assists.
Glen Lake finished second in the Northwest Conference behind Benzie Central, which was undefeated in league play. The Lakers knocked off league opponents Frankfort in the Division 4 District title match and Buckley in the Regional Semifinal.
The battles with Benzie for the conference title may have been the highlights of the season, Bradford noted. Those were Glen Lake’s only losses in league play, and a share of the title was within their grasp late in the second game with the Huskies.
The Lakers lost 60-51 on their home court in the first meeting but took Benzie to the limit in the rematch before falling, 41-39, on the road.
“We had a lot of great games and a lot of great memories,” Bradford said. “Going for conference it pretty much came down to the last few seconds with lead changes.
“We were up by one point with less than 30 second lefts, and that was the high point,” he continued. “We came up short, but we learned from that game.”
Also among highlights for Bradford this year was the chance to coach against his brother Nathan for the first time in their careers.
The Bradfords started coaching girls varsity basketball 16 years ago, but their teams were in different conferences at the time. Nathan coached the Onekama girls but moved to the boys program before Onekama and Glen Lake had a chance to compete against each other in the Northwest Conference.
The Bradford coaches often talk after their games and learn from one another. They have also seen their parents frequently in the bleachers as they rotate home game sites to see their grandchildren play and their sons coach.
When Onekama and Glen Lake played this year, eight Bradfords were on the rosters as players or coaches. Jason’s son Toby, a freshman, played on the Glen Lake junior varsity team, as Nathan’s son Carson played for the Portagers’ JV squad. The Onekama JV team is coached by another Bradford, Jason and Nathan’s brother Nick. And there were three more Bradfords on the varsity – Nathan’s son Caden and his cousins Luke and Arden.
Glen Lake won both varsity games, 38-36 at Onekama and 61-33 at home.
Jason and his wife Jackie have five children. Their youngest son, Drew, is now a sixth grader at Glen Lake. His oldest son, J.J., is at Michigan Tech and has begun officiating basketball after his senior season at Glen Lake cut short by the pandemic while the Lakers were preparing to play in a 2020 District Final. Daughters Maddie and Grace are playing basketball for Lake Superior State University.
Maddie and Grace were big parts of Glen Lake’s deep postseason runs with Jason as girls coach. With many games played on Saturdays and not conflicting with coaching, Jason, Jackie and the younger boys were able to travel to see the Upper Peninsula’s Lakers play regularly.
This season, the Glen Lake girls – under first-year head coach Brad Fosmore – went 16-8 and won Northwest Conference and District titles before losing a nail-biter, 45-42, to league rival Frankfort in the Regional Semifinal.
“Jason did a good job, and it felt good to carry on the tradition,” said Fosmore, who previously served as a Lakers JV coach. “We took it one game at a time.
“Jason worked hard to build a great girls program,” he continued. “It made it pretty simple because they had that winning tradition and kind of kept it rolling.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Jason Bradford, kneeling, coaches the Maple City Glen Lake boys varsity after taking over the program earlier this season. (Middle) Glen Lake’s Cooper Bufalini (11) pushes the ball upcourt during a 65-49 District Final win over Bellaire. (Below) The Lakers’ Jacob Plamondon (35) makes a strong move to the basket. (Top photo by RD Sports Photo/Rob DeForge, additional photos by Nicole Bixby.)
Dowagiac Superintendent Continues Connection to Hoops as MHSAA Game Official
By
Scott Hassinger
Special for MHSAA.com
January 8, 2025
DOWAGIAC – It was about three years ago that Greg Blomgren, a former high school boys basketball coach, realized he needed to find a niche that allowed him to stay connected with the game he grew up loving.
Blomgren, who took over as Dowagiac Community Schools' superintendent July 1, has found the perfect way to fill that void as a registered basketball official for the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
Now in his fourth season working varsity boys and girls games in the Southwestern Michigan area within a 45-mile radius of his home in Sister Lakes, Blomgren enjoys the opportunities officiating has provided him to help bridge the gap between coaches and game officials and continue improving the game of basketball.
“Having been a coach in the past, I am able to better understand things from the coaches' perspective, and that is an advantage for me. I really believe that all coaches should officiate and all officials should coach,” Blomgren said. “It brings about a better level of communication and understanding because you've experienced both sides.
“Back when I was coaching, I know I was sometimes tough on officials. My appreciation of officials grew though in my latter years of coaching. I just really enjoy being part of this game again.”
In January 2021, Blomgren contacted Kalamazoo Officials Association assigners Rob King and Chuck Rawsthorne regarding the process to become a registered MHSAA basketball official. The KOA is responsible for assignors for primarily the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference, Wolverine Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
After completing his training and necessary exams, Blomgren was assigned four games during his first week that January. He officiated mostly freshman and junior varsity contests in 2021 but was assigned one varsity girls game between Lawton and Vicksburg that season.
"I was really nervous calling my first varsity game, but it went pretty well," Blomgren recalled.
Blomgren steadily increased his officiating schedule to 35 games his second season, then 85-90 games during the 2023-24 campaign at various levels. Since taking the superintendent's job in Dowagiac, Blomgren has reduced his schedule for this season to around 55 games.
"I'm really thankful to Rob and Chuck. They have both done a great job working with me and finding a schedule that works with mostly varsity games that take place later in the evening," Blomgren said.
Blomgren is a 1991 graduate of Des Moines Lincoln High School (Iowa) where he played multiple sports, with a passion for basketball, at the largest school in the state.
He also grew up during the explosion era of the AAU basketball circuit. From age 11 through his high school years, Blomgren had the opportunity to compete on several Iowa state title teams in national tournaments.
"Those teams were a fun and rewarding experience. We went to nationals and faced some competitive teams, including the Michigan Super Friends, a team with future Michigan and NBA standouts Chris Webber and Jalen Rose," Blomgren said. “There were other star players on other teams from various states we faced like Grant Hill, Penny Hardaway, Eric Montross and Damon Bailey.”
After graduating high school, Blomgren attended the University of Nebraska-Kearney before transferring to Grandview College, an NAIA school, in Des Moines where he earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1996.
Upon moving to Milwaukee in 1997, Blomgren began substitute teaching and got into coaching basketball at the middle school level. He returned to school around that time and completed his teaching certification from Wisconsin University-Parkside.
Blomgren began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Kenosha St. Joseph (Wisconsin) followed by a similar job at nearby Wilmont High School. Shortly after those two stops, Blomgren landed his first head coaching job at Clear Lake High School in Iowa, where he spent two years.
Blomgren and his wife Angie, a Niles native and daughter of former Niles Brandywine band director Jay Crouch, moved to Michigan after Greg was hired as a science teacher and replaced Al Westendorp as Dowagiac's varsity boys basketball coach. Blomgren served as Dowagiac's boys coach from 2002-09 and spent three years as the head girls basketball coach as well.
Blomgren accepted the position of Dean of Students in St. Joseph, where he replaced Greg Schaffer as the Bears' varsity boys coach and served from 2009-16. Blomgren resigned after the 2015-16 campaign to concentrate on his administrative duties as the assistant high school principal before eventually taking over as the district's high school principal.
"Eventually I had to resign from coaching. There are too many evening activities that you have to be present at and supervise, so I stepped down," Blomgren said. "People don't understand the amount of time you must spend to do it right with practice planning, scouting, watching film and all the time you spend in the offseason trying to give the kids the best opportunity to compete. It’s more time spent than what you become accustomed to seeing from coaches on Tuesday and Friday nights. I don't think I'll ever return to coaching. Right now, it just doesn't fit my schedule."
Blomgren and his wife have three grown children – daughters Alyssa (24) and Avery (20) and 22-year old son Andy, along with one granddaughter Aria.
Blomgren is enjoying his new role as Dowagiac's superintendent and is pleased with the positive things that have taken place during his first few months leading the school district.
"The time we spent here a few years back when I was at Dowagiac helped us develop a lot of good relationships," Blomgren said. “There's a lot of pride that people take in small towns like ours. I knew the people here, and I believe they thought I was someone who could bring some of that culture back to the district. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to do that and make this a district everyone is proud to be a part of.”
The MHSAA has seen a decline in recent years in the number of registered game officials, due in part to poor sportsmanship particularly among adult spectators. But the organization has worked hard in recent years to change that, and participation is on the rise once again.
As an administrator and basketball official, Blomgren sees himself playing a major role in promoting good sportsmanship.
"Good sportsmanship in a school district depends on the leadership in the building. A good athletic director will make sportsmanship a top priority. He or she will make sure their school is going to represent themselves and the school district appropriately," Blomgren said. “If you do that it sets an expectation and tone with the parents, players and people in the community.
“Good sportsmanship is something I believe needs to constantly be improved upon in every district. The $7 you pay at the gate doesn't give you the right to say whatever you want after you walk into the gym. That isn't what high school athletics are about. When I was coaching in St. Joe and Dowagiac, it was always about how we conducted ourselves on the court rather than the number of wins or losses.”
Even in today's age of high technology, Blomgren believes high school athletes still desire to work hard and succeed as a team.
"Kids today want to be good, but they need to realize the time and effort you must put in to be successful," he said. “Schools that win consistently are the ones where everyone on the team shows up and puts in the work both during (the season) and in the offseason. The successful programs have good feeder programs with at least three or four good players in each class who have played a lot of games with one another. Those factors are what breeds success.”
Scott Hassinger is a contributing sportswriter for Leader Publications and previously served as the sports editor for the Three Rivers Commercial-News from 1994-2022. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph and Branch counties.
PHOTOS (Top) At left, Dowagiac superintendent Greg Blomgren addresses an audience during his first day in the position, July 1. At right, Blomgren officiates a girls basketball in December between host Cassopolis and White Pigeon. (Middle) Dowagiac assistant superintendent Michael Dunn, left, and Blomgren present Dowagiac Middle School science teacher Pat Lyle with a pin for 30 years of service. (Below) Blomgren, far right, is pictured with members of the Dowagiac Board of Education before the start of the 2024 Homecoming Parade. (Basketball photo by Scott Hassinger. All others provided by Dowagiac Community Schools.)