Leland's Glass Childress Selected as 11th Michigan Inductee Into NFHS Hall of Fame
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 9, 2026
More than two decades have passed since Alisha Glass took her final swing at a volleyball in a Leland High School uniform, and yet her accomplishments for her small-town school in Northern Michigan remain among the most notable in that sport’s history not just statewide, but at the national level.
Glass, now Alisha Glass Childress – who went on to star on three Penn State national championship teams and help the U.S. national team to a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics – will have her record-setting high school career enshrined this summer as one of 12 honorees announced today as this year’s inductees into the National High School Hall of Fame by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
Childress will be inducted as part of the 43rd Hall of Fame class at a ceremony during the NFHS summer meeting June 29 in Salt Lake City. The rest of the class is made up of four more athletes, three coaches, two game officials, one former state association administrator and one former fine arts educator. Childress was nominated by the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
She will become the Hall of Fame’s 11th inductee from Michigan, joining the MHSAA’s first full-time Executive Director Charles E. Forsythe (inducted 1983), River Rouge boys basketball coach Lofton Greene (1986), Warren Regina athletic director, softball and basketball coach Diane Laffey (2000), Fennville basketball and baseball standout Richie Jordan (2001), Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett boys and girls tennis coach Bob Wood (2005), Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook hockey standout Jim Johnson (2007), Owosso football, basketball and baseball all-stater Brad Van Pelt (2011); Vermontville Maple Valley baseball national record holder Ken Beardslee (2016), retired MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts (2022) and Dearborn Heights Robichaud football, basketball and track & field star Tyrone Wheatley (2024).
“My high school career at Leland, surrounded by such an amazing support system and community, was the essential first chapter of my story. It cultivated the grit and the fundamental love for the game that allowed me to reach the highest levels of athletics,” Childress said. “I’m proud of every medal and trophy, but I’m just as proud of the roots I planted back in high school that made them all possible.”
Childress graduated from Leland in 2006 with national high school career records of 3,584 kills, 680 blocks and 937 aces, and 296 aces for one season as a junior. Her aces records still stand, her career kills record stood until broken in 2024 by Shelby’s Navea Gauthier, and she remains third on the career blocks list. Glass continues to hold MHSAA records for single-season and career aces and also for her 48 kills in Leland’s 2005-06 Class D Final win over Battle Creek St. Philip. Childress also led Leland to a Class D runner-up finish in 2004-05 and the Semifinals in 2003-04. (All three tournament runs took place while girls volleyball was still played during the winter season before moving to the fall to begin the 2007-08 school year).
Childress earned the Miss Volleyball Award and Gatorade Player of the Year Award for Michigan as a senior, and her name is listed 19 times throughout the MHSAA girls volleyball record book. She also made Michigan's Class D all-state first team on the basketball court as both a junior and senior, averaging 18 points and 11 rebounds per game as a junior and 16 points, 10 rebounds and 3.7 blocked shots per game as a senior while leading her basketball team to Class D Quarterfinals both of those seasons.
“As our staff researched our first 50 years of female sports for our ‘Title IX at 50’ celebration during the 2021-22 school year, they told stories of several standouts who went on to collegiate, Olympic and professional stardom – and Alisha Glass stands out even among the greats,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “Taking into account everything she accomplished individually and with her teams, and not just in volleyball but basketball as well, it’s a strong argument that Alisha Glass continues to set the bar as not only our state’s best female athlete all-time, but arguably the most accomplished volleyball player in national high school history. We are thrilled that she will be inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame.”
Also during high school, Childress played on the 2004 and 2005 USA youth national volleyball teams and helped the 2004 team to the North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORECA) championship, and was named Best Server at that event. After high school, she started all four seasons at national power Penn State and set the Nittany Lions to three straight NCAA championships, being named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-America first team twice and second team once.
Childress continued her career professionally and internationally, playing professionally in the United States and Puerto Rico, Italy, Turkey, Poland and Brazil and being named USA Volleyball Indoor Female Athlete of the Year for both 2013 and 2014. She led the U.S. national team to bronze at 2016 Olympics and was named Best Setter of the tournament, after being selected as an alternate for the 2012 Olympic team.
Most recently, Childress played for the Pro Volleyball Federation's Vegas Thrill in 2024 and 2025 and played in the league's first All-Star Match last season. She’s currently the head coach of the San Diego Mojo of Major League Volleyball and last summer also completed her first season as a coach with Athletes Unlimited. She previously served as an assistant coach with the Stanford University women’s volleyball program from 2019-21 – including during the team’s run to the Division I national title in 2019 – and also served as an assistant for the gold medal-winning U.S. national team during the 2018 Pan American Cup.
Childress is the daughter of Laurie Glass, who retired from coaching Leland after the 2023 season and ranks seventh in MHSAA girls volleyball coaching history for victories with a career record of 1,259-410-124. Glass led Leland to three Class D championships and five runner-up finishes. Childress’ grandfather Larry Glass ranks on the MHSAA girls basketball coaching victory list with a 388-110 record and led Leland to three straight Class D titles from 1980-82. He also coached the Northwestern University men’s basketball team for six seasons.
Additionally, Childress is married to past Stanford basketball star Josh Childress, who went on to play eight seasons in the NBA and several more overseas. They have three daughters, Maya, Mina and Amara.
The National High School Hall of Fame was started in 1982 by the NFHS. The 12 individuals were chosen after a two-level selection process involving a screening committee composed of active high school state association administrators, coaches and officials, and a final selection committee composed of coaches, former athletes, state association officials, media representatives and educational leaders. Nominations were made through NFHS member associations. Also chosen for this class were athletes Joe Carter (Oklahoma), Jordan Larson (Nebraska), Krissy Wendell-Pohl (Minnesota) and Patrick Willis (Tennessee); sport coaches Jan Barker (Texas), David Gentry (North Carolina) and Flo Valdez (New Mexico); game officials Burney Jenkins (Kentucky) and Mary Lou Thimas (Massachusetts), former state association administrator Steve Savarese (Alabama) and former fine arts educator Craig Ihnen (Iowa).
For more on this year’s Hall of Fame class, visit the NFHS Website.
Flynn Continuing to Prove Unique Among State's Best, All-Time Mercy Greats
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 3, 2024
FARMINGTON HILLS — It’s easy to roll one’s eyes when saying the Farmington Hills Mercy volleyball program has a unique talent in senior setter Campbell Flynn – because, well, Mercy is a traditional powerhouse that ALWAYS seems to have great players.
But even for an accomplished program like Mercy, it will be nearly impossible to see another player like Flynn come through its halls anytime soon, if ever.
Yes, it’s not often that a player is a member of the under-19 and under-21 U.S. national teams, committed to national powerhouse Nebraska and was named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior after helping lead her to the Division 1 championship.
But several tangible and intangible attributes make her truly exceptional.
For starters, she is a 6-foot-3 setter, which isn’t common. In high school – and maybe even for many college programs – that height would definitely qualify her as an outside hitter.
“Setters are usually a little smaller,” Flynn said. “I always wanted to be a setter, even when I was little. I knew I was going to be pretty tall, but I didn’t know I’d be this tall. I thought I was going to be around 5-10. I just knew I always wanted to be a setter.”
Mercy head coach Loretta Vogel said that height is noticeable before Flynn even touches the ball.
“She’s deceptively fast,” she said. “She’s 6-4 and she just moves. She just floats over the floor.”
In addition to her height, Flynn is a rarity among setters in that she’s also left-handed.
“It helps (the team) with hitting over on two and dumping,” Flynn said. “That’s definitely an advantage.”
Being tall and left-handed probably wouldn’t matter as much by themselves. But add the IQ and feel for the game that Campbell has developed since starting to play volleyball at age 5 — and subsequently at an elite national level — and it’s easy to see why she is so acclaimed.
“She has a great touch on the ball,” Vogel said. “Sort of like a quarterback and they know how to release it and do everything with the ball. Campbell is like that version for us in comparison. She understands the game very well. She’s very capable of reading the block and being able to give the ball to individuals who are open. Just that sense of the game helps tremendously.”
In winning the Gatorade award as a junior, Flynn accumulated 533 assists, 137 digs and 124 kills even though she missed 15 matches.
For those who were surprised that Mercy won the Division 1 title last year despite entering the playoffs unranked, consider the run coincided with Flynn becoming fully healthy.
She missed a good portion of last year’s regular season with a minor illness, but once she got healthy and was her dominant self, the Marlins never looked back.
“We just got so much momentum and we played so much as a team at the end of the season,” Flynn said. “It was just carrying us through all the games. We weren’t afraid, and we were pretty confident even though we were underdogs.”
This fall, Flynn is still hungry for more despite already seemingly accomplishing it all in high school volleyball, and with that scholarship to Nebraska in tow.
There might be a Miss Volleyball Award to win now that she’s a senior, and she’s still motivated to bring more team success to Mercy.
“I love my team this year,” she said. “Obviously, we are not the underdogs this season, but I feel we have a lot to prove. I’m really excited to prove to everyone that we can win another state title.”
Whether or not that happens in November, it won’t change the fact that when this season is over, even a powerhouse like Mercy will have a nearly impossible task to replace Flynn.
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Campbell Flynn (28) sets Farmington Hills Mercy’s attack during last season’s Division 1 championship win over Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern. (Middle) Flynn and her teammates enjoy a moment during their Semifinal win over Clarkston.