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.
GR Catholic Central Earns 1st Finals Title, Timpf Claims 3rd Medalist Honor
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
October 21, 2023
ALLENDALE – Adverse weather conditions couldn’t prevent the Grand Rapids Catholic Central girls golf team from making school history.
Despite two days of rain, wind and chilly temperatures, the Cougars overcame the elements to win their first Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final.
Catholic Central shot a 673 at The Meadows at Grand Valley State to win by 12 strokes.
Williamston finished runner-up with a 685, while 2022 champion Macomb Lutheran North (696) was third.
“It’s exciting,” Catholic Central coach Kim Napieralski said. “Just think about it. The boys had their first a couple years ago, and now the girls have their first. We’re on a roll.
“The good news about this weather is I have mudders for players. They don’t care about the conditions as much as some other teams perhaps. It was hard to get through the puddles of water, but they just kept playing.”
Lutheran North senior Lauren Timpf won the medalist honor, claiming her third individual Finals title. She became the seventh golfer in MHSAA Lower Peninsula girls golf history to achieve the feat, carding a 5-under-par 67 to finish with a two-round 141.
The Cougars’ previous best team finish at the Finals was fifth, which happened last year, but they got contributions from across the line-up to prevail.
“It’s been that way all season,” said Napieralski, who returned three of her top four golfers from a year ago. “A couple of girls at the top and then our three, four, five and sometimes even six. It could switch up any day. We go really deep as far as talent across the board.”
Junior Ava Wisinski led the Cougars with a 158 and finished sixth individually.
“I'm just so proud of my teammates," Wisinski said. “We knew it was going to be a challenge when we went into it, but we really stuck it out and it was a good fight.
“It was really wet out there, but I think we did well despite the conditions.”
Sophomore Kelly Preston also placed in the top 10 with a 159, while sophomores Margaret Deimel and Sofia Piccione and senior Katie Cook also played well.
Cook, the team’s lone senior, said it was even sweeter to win in her final tournament.
“I’ve been on the team since my freshman year, and just seeing it grow has been awesome,” Cook said. “We worked so hard to get here. We’ve had a really good season, and our depth is where we shine and we can all put together good scores on any day.
“We came into today thinking we were even with everyone around us. The conditions were awful, and half of it was playing golf, but half the battle was dealing with the conditions out there. It was really hard, but we did it. We were willing to battle through it.”
Catholic Central opened with a 334 and led Lutheran North and Williamston by 18 strokes heading into the final round.
“It was important to play well the first day and it felt good, but we came into today with the mentality that we’re going first day again,” Napieralski said. “We are all even, straight up.”
Timpf fired a first-day 74 and was tied with Spring Lake’s Zoe Dull entering the final 18 holes. Dull and Grand Rapids Christian’s Lillian O’Grady both finished with two-day totals of 149 to tie for second.
“I know I didn’t play my best golf yesterday, and I just really tried to block it out of my head and know that I am capable of going low,” Timpf said. “Since it was my senior year and last high school tournament, it just really meant the world to me to come out here. I've been working all four years to try and accomplish this goal, and to just come back from where I started today and end up winning is super special.”
Timpf recorded a double-bogey on her first hole, but recovered with four straight birdies on the back nine.
“After the first hole I thought that I’m not going to win this if I don't start making some putts,” Timpf said. “I started draining a bunch of birdie putts, especially on the back nine, and that got it going for me.
Williamston was tied with Lutheran North entering Saturday, and the two teams were still knotted on the back nine.
“What my girls did the last hour and a half is kind of a blur to me,” Hornets coach Brian Kent said. “We started making putts, we started making chips and I thought for the first time in school history we are in the top five and might get state runner-up.”
The Hornets shot a 333, the lowest in the final round. This was their first top-two Finals finish.
“I'm proud of my team,” Kent said. “I knew on day one of practice that we had a special team, but this is not what I thought. This course is tough on a good day, let alone with these conditions. We all had to play the same conditions, but they were hitting greens and fairways all day long and that's what saved us.”
Leading the way for Williamston was junior Nicole Schafer, who finished fourth overall with rounds of 77 and 73.
Freshman Paige Radebach and seniors Ellie Thorburn and Allison Kane rounded out the top four.
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Rapids Catholic Central's Ava Wisinski follows a shot during the weekend's LP Divison 3 Final. (Middle) Macomb Lutheran North's Lauren Timpf putts during her run to a third medalist honor. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)