Young to Lead BCAM's Next Generation
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
November 30, 2018
PLYMOUTH – The Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan recently celebrated its 42nd year – and starting Jan. 1, BCAM will welcome just its fourth executive director.
Tom Hursey, 74, will step down as executive director and hand the gavel over to Dan Young, Hursey’s assistant since 2010.
Young, 50, has been on the BCAM Board of Directors since 1999 and a BCAM member since 1994. He was a boys varsity head coach for 15 years spread over three schools and most recently coached the girls program at Salem (2016-18). He also coaches the boys and girls golf teams at Plymouth.
BCAM got its start in the early 1970s when Hursey, then the boys varsity head coach at Midland High; Ron Vondette, then the boys varsity coach at Carrollton; and other coaches in the Midland-Saginaw area formed the Mid-Michigan Basketball Coaches Association. Hursey and Vondette quickly learned that coaches throughout the state were interested in forming an association, and in 1976 the Michigan High School Basketball Coaches Association was formed. Seven years later, the name changed to what it is known as today – BCAM.
The goal of BCAM and its members is simple – to improve and help the sport grow at all levels.
But the challenges Young faces are quite different from those Hursey confronted when he became executive director in 1997. College recruiting has intensified over the past 20 years, and student-athletes transferring from one high school to another also has become more of a concern for BCAM and the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
In addition, Young said there are other topics his association is currently addressing.
“The buzz right now is seeding,” Young said. “And there’s a committee looking at adding two more games to the season, over the holidays (teams are currently limited to 20 regular season games). Tom and I will meet with (a representative from) the MHSAA to discuss the June camps.”
Though just in its preliminary stages, BCAM, in cooperation with the MHSAA, is seriously considering sponsoring a one-day camp for the top players in the state regardless of class. This is in response to the recommendations made last April by a commission led by Condoleezza Rice, the former U.S. Secretary of State, to aid college coaches in the recruitment of student-athletes. Simply put, the NCAA is attempting to limit how much influence AAU basketball has on the recruitment of high school students, and thereby allow high school coaches to have more influence over their players.
These camps, like the MHSAA/BCAM-sponsored Reaching Higher, allow a large number of players, often more than 100, to receive coaching from high school coaches with college coaches in the gym to evaluate. These also feature speakers who address topics such as entrance tests and what it takes to succeed at the next level, academically and athletically.
Young said the next version could be a two-day event, but he does have some concerns.
“We don’t want to disrupt team camps,” he said. “We’d like to run it with the culture of a team camp. It’s still in its early stages, but I think we’d like to get the top 100 or so players, those that are Division I type of players, and have coaches like (Michigan State coach) Tom Izzo, (Michigan coach) John Beilein, Greg Kampe from Oakland and others be there. Maybe it’ll lasts eight hours. Maybe six. We’d have guest speakers, too.
“It’s possible we’d only invite 60 or 70. We’d take the seniors being recruited by Division I schools, as well as the juniors and sophomores.”
The camp discussion is an example of why the transition is sure to be a smooth one. Hursey and Young are of one mind on the vast majority of issues BCAM faces. Though a generation apart, they see eye-to-eye on matters of importance. They discuss which battles should be fought and those they should avoid.
In many ways the transition is similar to that which took place within the MHSAA recently with Mark Uyl taking over for Jack Roberts as executive director. Uyl, 25 years Roberts’ junior, has stated that Roberts has left a legacy, and that he hopes to follow up on that legacy.
“Now that Mark Uyl has taken over, like Dan, a new generation has taken over,” Hursey said.
Hursey and Young are hoping seeding will be introduced within the boys and girls tournaments in the next year or two.
On the subject of transfers, Hursey and Young support the new rule instituted by the MHSAA, which states, in part, that a student who transfers will be ineligible for one full school year at the new school in any sports she or he participated in the previous year at the former school (but eligible immediately in all other sports).
Another concern with regard to transfers is the increasing numbers of top-level players leaving the state and enrolling at prep schools, like Findley Prep in Nevada and others. The most recent top player is Mark “Rocket” Watts who left Old Redford Academy in Detroit and is now enrolled at Spire Academy in Ohio. Watts was considered one of the top candidates for the Mr. Basketball Award, sponsored by BCAM.
Beyond educating players and coaches, and possibly parents, Hursey and Young say there’s little they can do from preventing parents from taking their child out of state.
“It’s a sign of the times,” Hursey said. “Dan and I met with Izzo and we talked for two hours about this. Izzo opened our eyes about it. Take the Old Redford (student). They offer him a beautiful dorm to live in, three square meals and the chance to travel around the country. How are we supposed to compete with that? Izzo said they’re playing 30-to-40 games but that only 10 or so are against the best teams. Those are the ones you see on TV.
“There are a lot of positives for staying with your high school. There’s a lot to be said about high school sports being played at a certain level. And there’s nothing like a Friday night basketball game played in front of 2,000 fans and the place rocking. We just have to keep with what we’re doing. We have to educate the coaches. Some of these fly-by-night operations don’t concentrate on the academic part of school. Yeah, we might lose some of our best players, but there are a lot of good players in this state and there still is great basketball being played. This is not just happening in Michigan. We met with the National (High School) Basketball Coaches Association. It’s a problem throughout the country. How can we compete with millionaires?”
Young said BCAM will continue to do what it does best, and that’s to serve coaches throughout the state and promote and help to improve the game through its many clinics and camps. The website, www.bcam.org, has been improved and updated recently, and provides members and nonmembers alike valuable information.
Tom Markowski is a correspondent for the State Champs! Sports Network and previously directed its web coverage. He also covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Incoming BCAM executive director Dan Young speaks during an event. (Middle) Young and longtime BCAM executive director Tom Hursey, far right, with University of Michigan men’s basketball coach John Beilein. (Photos courtesy of Dan Young.)
Thankful for Lifesavers Who Rushed to His Aid, Sanders Aims to Officiate Again
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
January 14, 2025
Doug Sanders sat quietly thinking about how to best describe what he went through the day after Thanksgiving at Monroe Jefferson High School.
Finally, he just said it.
“Basically, I died twice,” he said, almost apologetically.
Sanders, 56, was officiating a boys varsity basketball game between Petersburg-Summerfield and Jefferson when he collapsed. First responders who were in attendance quickly got to Sanders and began performing life-saving procedures.
Responders performed chest compressions. Twice they used a defibrillator to shock him. He regained consciousness once only to inform the responders they were hurting his chest, then his heart stopped again.
When he left Jefferson that night on a stretcher, he was alert.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my 24 years coaching,” Summerfield coach Phil Schiffler said. “I’ve seen gruesome things, compound fractures and things, but never someone pass like that, especially someone who was an official, in charge of the game.
“Thank God for the first responders there that night.”
Petersburg residents Matt LaRocca and Aaron Myshock were the first to assist Sanders on the court. Others helped as well, including Summerfield athletic director Kelly Kalb, former Summerfield athlete Brendan Dafoe, a nurse; and Angela Prush, who works at Monroe County Community College as a clinical educator in the respiratory therapy program. Jefferson athletic director Alyssa Eppler helped on the scene as well.
“There was no hesitation,” Kalb said. “As soon as Doug went down, Matt and Aaron took off to the court and got to Doug. Everyone played a role. It was a great collaboration."
Kalb said the MHSAA this year implemented a new policy requiring schools to have an Emergency Action Plan in the event of this very type of emergency. That plan, she said, definitely helped both schools as they responded.
“We lost him a couple of times,” she said. “It was scary.”
Sanders knew something was wrong during the game. Moments before falling to the floor he called over one of his officiating partners, Steve Rechsteiner, and said something was wrong. He asked him to get him some water and said he felt light-headed.
“I said, ‘Help me,’” Sanders said. Moments later, he went to the floor.
As responders attended to Sanders, officials from both schools cleared the gymnasium of spectators and players, and the game was called. Players and fans left the gymnasium that night unsure of the events that had just unfolded in front of them.
“It’s amazing how it all happened,” said Sanders, who has been a registered MHSAA official for more than 30 years. “If I would have been driving or anywhere else when it happened, I may not be here today to talk about it.”
Sanders has had a history of heart problems, and those run in his family. About four years ago, he had open-heart surgery. Officiating another game a few nights before the incident at Jefferson, he had collapsed during a timeout. He was under doctor’s care but felt well enough to return to the court after enjoying Thanksgiving with his family.
The game between Summerfield and Jefferson went into the fourth quarter. That’s when Sanders began to feel something was wrong.
“I am so blessed and grateful to be where the right people were with me,” Sanders said. “I had the right people there at the right time.”
After being transported to a nearby hospital in Monroe, he was sent to another in Toledo. He spent several days in the hospital undergoing heart tests and procedures. He went home for recovery and recently started attending basketball games in the area again.
“People have been so nice through all of this,” he said. “I’ve gotten messages and cards and calls and texts from people all over the place, people I don’t even know. A lot of the officials that I’ve worked with have reached out to me. It’s really a close-knit group.”
Thankfully, his heart is improving.
Sanders is a 1987 graduate of Ottawa Lake Whiteford. He got his start as a referee for youth basketball at Whiteford Elementary School. Then-athletic director John Flynn encouraged him to get his MHSAA registration, and helped him get it. Soon after, Flynn was assigning him middle school games.
Over the years, Sanders began umpiring baseball and added refereeing football a few years ago.
He loves sports and being close to the game.
“That’s why I do it,” he said. “I wanted to be a basketball official because I enjoy working with the student-athletes. I like the exercise, especially during the wintertime. Outside it’s snowy and wet, and this was a way to get out and do something.”
He’s busiest during basketball season where he is assigned as many as four or five games a week. In 2022, he officiated a boys Semifinal game at the Breslin Center. He rarely slows down or takes nights off.
Since the incident, Sanders has been going through a series of tests on his heart and has had an ICD – or implantable cardioverter defibrillator – installed in his chest. An elementary school teacher in Toledo, he expects to return to work soon.
He’s met some of the first responders who helped save him that night at Jefferson but still isn’t sure just how many people played a role. He’s grateful the district had a defibrillator nearby – and especially that people were there who knew how to use it.
Schiffler said people just sprang into action, like they were trained to do.
“I was shook. I’m not going to lie,” he said. “The people who were trained in that knew just what to do.”
LaRocca and Myshock were there watching their sons play on the Summerfield team. Dafoe, who played sports at Summerfield and with Sanders as his referee and umpire on a number of occasions, has a brother on the varsity team.
Sanders is tentatively scheduled to referee a game at Adrian Lenawee Christian on Monday, Jan. 20. He can’t wait to shake the rust off, put on the striped shirt and blow his whistle. He knows there will be eyes on him throughout the game.
“I’ve had so many people tell me, ‘Take the rest of the winter off, don’t come back too early,’” Sanders said. “I want to get back out there. Something tells me in my heart and soul that I’m ready. I had my stress test, and I did well. Am I ready? I want to say yes. I think so. Only time will tell.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) MHSAA official Doug Sanders monitors the action during a 2022 Division 4 Semifinal between Wyoming Tri-unity Christian and Genesee Christian. (Middle) Bradley is in uniform for a baseball game. (Below) Bradley makes a call behind the plate during a Monroe County Fair youth softball tournament game at least a decade ago. (Middle photo courtesy of Doug Sanders. Below photo by Kim Brent, courtesy of the Monroe News.)