AD Inducted to National Hall of Fame
May 7, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Winter gets hectic so quickly that we’re forced to save some intriguing items that come our way for a sunnier day – and that day is today.
Following are news, notes and a few key links collected over the last few months, including the national Hall of Fame induction of a longtime Michigan athletic director, local recognition for another and statewide acclaim for a group of students putting their video production equipment to good use benefiting all.
Ann Arbor AD Honored Nationally
Former Ann Arbor Huron athletic director Jane Bennett was among five inducted into the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Hall of Fame in December.
Bennett served 26 years as a teacher, coach, athletic director and assistant principal in Michigan before spending the last decade as a principal at two schools in Montana. She served as athletic director at Huron for 15 years through 2002-03. The NIAAA reported that during her final decade in that position, participation in athletics doubled.
Bennett, who received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, began her career at Huron in 1977 as varsity softball coach and became a math teacher and the co-director of athletics a year later. She coached the softball team 14 seasons before moving into the full-time athletic director position. Bennett was co-founder of the Michigan High School Softball Coaches Association and served as MHSSCA president from 1982-87.
Among other achievements at Huron, Bennett was a leader in a successful campaign to gain voter approval of a $60 million bond package, which included $20 million to improve and expand athletic facilities. She also developed curriculum for an annual varsity captains/head coaches leadership training program and composed handbooks/guidebooks for coaches, athletes and parents.
Bennett also was a valuable contributor to the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association and the NIAAA. She was president of the MIAAA in 1993-94 and a state conference speaker on several occasions. Bennett also served in various NIAAA leadership positions including on the committee that developed the Leadership Training Institute in 1996.
Bennett was named MIAAA Athletic Director of the Year in 1998 and received its State Award of Merit in 1997. She received the MHSAA’s Women in Sports Leadership Award in 1995 and was inducted into the MHSSCA Hall of Fame in 1995. Prior to her selection to the NIAAA Hall of Fame, Bennett was honored with the NIAAA Distinguished Service Award in 1998 and the NIAAA Thomas E. Frederick Award of Excellence in 2000. In 2005, she was inducted into the National Council of Secondary School Athletic Directors Hall of Fame, having served as its president in 2003 and been selected as its Athletic Director of the Year in 1998.
PSL's Ward: 'Pillar' of Detroit Athletics
Alvin Ward, the executive director of athletics for the Detroit Public School League and a member of the MHSAA Representative Council, received a 2014 Pillar in the Community Award in April from the Coast II Coast All-Stars, a Detroit-based pro basketball team that plays in the American Basketball Association.
Ward has served as a teacher, assistant principal and principal as well for Detroit Public Schools, and directs programs with a combined 500 coaches and 4,500 athletes.
Linked up
- This winter, the MHSAA Representative Council adopted a number of football practice rules changes aimed at improving player acclimatization at the start of fall and reducing head trauma and injuries. The Adrian Daily Telegram’s Doug Donnelly got responses from a number of coaches from that area of the state; click to find out why they feel these changes are important.
- Port Huron Times Herald writer Paul Costanzo let people know about our Student Advisory Council through the experience of Marlette’s Connor Thomas, one of our juniors and a great contributor this school year.
Power of Awareness
The Kimberly Anne Gillary Foundation works to educate Michigan schools on sudden cardiac arrest and train personnel in CPR and the use of an AED (automated external defibrillator). The video below teaches us again about the importance of awareness.
Saginaw Heritage was awarded $5,000 in April as the winner of the Gillary Foundation’s High School AED Contest. Students were asked to create a 3-minute video emphasizing the importance of Michigan high schools being adequately prepared to respond to a sudden cardiac arrest or related event on school property.
Randy and Sue Gillary created the foundation after their 15-year-old daughter Kimberly – an athlete at Troy Athens – died after suffering sudden cardiac arrest in 2000. The contest judges were Kimberly’s sisters Emily Kucinich, Jennifer Gregroy and Katie Gillary.
As of April 1, the Gillary Foundation had raised $1.2 million and donated 650 AEDs to schools – with three lives having been saved with donated AEDs. For more, click www.kimberlysgift.org.
Winning Team's 1st Finals Title Just Start of Frank's Impact on Oxford Girls Wrestling
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
January 23, 2026
OXFORD — When she was in sixth grade, Cheyenne Frank initially was excited when a friend invited her to a wrestling practice on the first day of the season, mainly because that friend wanted to have another girl with her on a team full of boys.
But upon showing up for that practice, there was a slight problem for Frank, who had never wrestled before.
“She never showed up for practice,” Frank said of her friend. “She kind of bailed on the first day.”
Fortunately, despite not knowing anybody in a room full of boys and having no clue what wrestling was all about, she forged on and stayed at the practice.
“I just stuck with it,” she said. “I had no one to talk to, and then I eventually got to know the coaches and my teammates and it became really fun.”
Ever since, Frank certainly has had a lot of fun wrestling.
Now a senior at Oxford, Frank has grown to become one of the state’s top female wrestlers, and a pioneer of sorts for a tradition-rich Oxford wrestling program.
“For girls, she is our breadwinner for Oxford wrestling,” Wildcats assistant coach Carl Barnes said.
Frank has more than 100 career wins and is the reigning MHSAA Individual Finals champion in the girls 120-pound weight class, finishing last year with a 26-0 record after being runner-up as a sophomore. The Oxford boys team over the years has typically been a highly-acclaimed program – the Wildcats won the Division 1 Team Finals title in 2011 – but Frank became the program’s first Individual Finals girls champion.
“It means a lot to me,” said Frank, whose career record against girls and boys opponents is 122-24, including 29-1 this season (24-0 against girls). “I really like to see that (the sport) is growing too.”
Speaking over the phone Sunday, Frank said she was set to fly Tuesday to Turkey in order to pursue a unique opportunity.
Her mother is originally from Turkey and has dual citizenship, so Frank said she is spending the rest of this month trying out for a spot on Turkey’s under-23 world championship team in the 53-kilometer weight class.
“There’s just more opportunity for me to go the Turkish route,” Frank said.
When she comes back from Turkey, Frank will look to end her high school career with another Finals title at 120 pounds before embarking on a college career at Northern Michigan.
“I think I’m better technically,” Frank said. “A lot of my snapdowns have gotten better. I’m working on a lot of different shots right now. My hand-fighting is pretty good, but I’m still just trying to work on it. I also think maturity comes into play. I’m getting older, so I feel stronger. I can feel my movements have more muscle behind it.”
Even more meaningful may be Frank’s impact on the program even after she wrestles her last match for Oxford, given her success has been an inspiration already for other girls at the school to wrestle.
“Last year, we had I think three girls,” Frank said. “This year, we have 12 girls on the team. After kind of advertising it, having some girls come out here, it’s been really cool to see. We’re a newer team, but it’s crazy how much they’ve progressed, and they’ve really been just trying and getting after it. We’ve had crazy growth and a lot of girls are still wanting to try and come out.”
Barnes said at a recent assembly dual, it was Frank’s idea to stand in front of the student body and promote the girls wrestling program.
“We actually got six additional girls to come out the next day,” Barnes said. “That wouldn’t have happened without her.”
As much fun as the championships and matches won have been, that will ultimately be the most lasting legacy Frank will leave behind in Oxford.
“We’ve been sending out a girls program (to tournaments) basically every weekend,” Barnes said. “That’s greatly due to Cheyenne Frank.”
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) Oxford’s Cheyenne Frank, left, wrestles Algonac’s Sky Langewicz during last season’s Individual Finals at Ford Field. (Middle) Frank holds up a banner celebrating her 100th victory after the championship win. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)