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.
'Iceman' Adds Singles Championship to Durand's History-Making Weekend
By
Jeff Bleiler
Special for MHSAA.com
February 28, 2026
JACKSON – The chant started as soon as Noah Wood’s name was announced as the Division 3 Individual Finals champion.
“He’s a freshman! He’s a freshman!”
It was not news to those who know the Durand High School bowler, but to those who simply witnessed his on-lane achievements this weekend without that context, the fact that he’s only a freshman was astonishing.
A day after helping lead his Railroaders to the Division 3 team championship — the first team Finals title in any sport in school history — Wood added another piece of hardware to the trophy case by taking advantage of the freshly oiled lanes at JAX 60 on Saturday during match play.
“It means a lot,” Wood said. “I definitely wasn’t expecting to get both, but it feels great that we did.”
Wood defeated Olivet senior Michael Fitzner in a two-game championship match, 442-398, with scores of 224 and 218 to Fitzner’s 183 and 215. That followed a 257-258 blitz in the semifinals by Wood, who after an up-and-down qualifying session welcomed the fresh oil for match play.
“It was a mentality,” he said. “It was making spares and then going up and striking when you could. It helps when you get to bowl on fresh, but it was a mentally.”
Wood qualified ninth with a six-game total of 1,229 that included a 267 start but also a 163 finish.
“He didn’t do the best in qualifying,” said coach Nick Wood, who is Noah’s father. “The transition was tough, but he just does what he does. He gets enough. He understands you can’t win it in qualifying, you can only lose it.
“When he got into match play, you put him on fresh lanes, he was like a train today.”
While he enjoyed early leads in his previous matches, Noah Wood found Fitzner tough to shake in the first half of the championship. The pair were tied through the sixth frame of the first game before Fitzner missed back-to-back 10-pins while Wood stayed clean for a 224 finish. An 8-10 split in the ninth brought a ball change from urethane to reactive resin for Fitzner.
Wood carried a 41-pin lead into the second game and gave more than half of it back when he left a 4-6-7-10 split in the third frame. Fitzner, meanwhile, had strikes on five of his first seven deliveries in the game to get Wood’s attention.
After the split in the third, an undaunted Wood crushed the pocket for six straight strikes to seal the win.
“It’s moxie. This kid is unfazed. They call him the Iceman. Nothing fazes him,” Nick Wood said. “Mistakes happen — he’ll be the first to tell you. It’s what you do after the mistake that defines you, and he’s pretty good at defining himself.”
In his first match of the day, Noah Wood shot 279 and 212 to oust Caro senior Cameron Cuddie and then knocked out top seed Carter Ramage in a tight contest 421-413. Ramage, a Croswell-Lexington senior, was unstoppable during qualifying, shooting 1,419 on games of 228, 229, 205, 266, 265 and 226 to secure the top seed by 120 pins.
Wood sidelined Whitehall senior Mason Slaughter in the semifinals with 257-258 after Slaughter had rolled 259-263 in the quarterfinals.
“It gave me all the confidence I needed to get it done,” Wood said of his semifinal victory.
Fitzner qualified 10th with 1,218, then shot 241-221 to beat Ishpeming Westwood senior Roman Yuhas in the first round, scored 185-224 to topple Bronson junior Clayton Shortridge in the quarterfinals and came from behind to squeak past Armada senior Trenton Rogers in the semifinals 386-381.
Fitzner, who lost in the first round last year to eventual state champion Hunter Ross of Almont, was pleased with his showing.
“It was a long grueling day. It was who can pick up spares and who can stay in it mentally longer than physically,” he said. “That’s what bowling comes down to. For me, coming into it, keep the mental game strong for as long as you can and the scores will follow.”