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.
After Blazing Multiple Volleyball Trails, Bastianelli Charting Next Career Path
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
July 9, 2025
Volleyball took Ali Bastianelli around the world. But she found the perfect ending to her career in her home state, fewer than 200 miles from her hometown.
The 2015 Marysville graduate recently completed her ninth and final professional volleyball season, playing on a one-year contract with the Grand Rapids Rise of the Pro Volleyball Federation and setting the league record for blocks in a season while earning her second-straight PVF Middle Blocker of the Year award.
“I was talking to Cathy George, the head coach of the Grand Rapids Rise, before the season and she was like, ‘How cool would it be to retire near home, in front of your home crowd?’” Bastianelli said. “It was going to take some things falling into place for me to really want to play another year, and it turned out Grand Rapids had all of those, so it was a pretty easy yes. This year, they could offer people multi-year contracts, and (George) had wondered if I wanted one. I was like, ‘Nope. I’m putting my foot down and taking a stance this is my last year.’ I kind of went into the season with that mentality. As the season progressed, it became more and more clear I was ready to be done, not because I was miserable in volleyball, but because it was a great season, and there was no better way to go out.”
Bastianelli, who played collegiately at Illinois and had professional stops in France, Puerto Rico and San Diego, will now turn her attention to life after volleyball, as she has been accepted into the radiologic technology program at Baker College in Muskegon.
It’s something she had been preparing for over the past few years, taking her prerequisite courses while playing – essentially continuing her time as a student-athlete well into her 20s.
“Honestly, it wasn’t as intense as in college, but I think having played in college made it feels that way, knowing that I can balance 16 credit hours while being in season,” she said. “I will say, being a student-athlete my entire life, even in high school, a lot of that was learning how to manage my time. It will be interesting next year not having volleyball and just school.”
A health administration major at Illinois, Bastianelli shifted her focus to a more patient-focused role in healthcare after graduation.
“I’ve always liked the people interaction side of healthcare,” she said. “I didn’t know if I was ready to sit at a desk and work a 9-to-5. I’m much more of a people person, and as a team-sport athlete, I’m used to working with people in that sort of way.”
Bastianelli’s second career will have a lot to live up to in order to match her first, as her run in volleyball was among the best for a former Michigan high school player.
She earned All-America honors three times at Illinois, being named to the third team as a junior and senior and honorable mention as a sophomore. She was named all-Big Ten three times, and when she graduated, she was not only Illinois’ all-time leader in blocks, but second in Big Ten history, leading the country in blocks as a senior in 2018.
Bastianelli played for the U.S. National Team in the Pan American Cup in 2021 and 2022, and the Pan American Cup Final Six in 2022. As a pro, she played in the inaugural seasons of two leagues, Athletes Unlimited and PVF.
“We’ve never had, in Marysville certainly, and probably the Blue Water Area in general, has never had a girl with that type of upside and potential,” said former Marysville volleyball coach Ryan Welser, who coached Bastianelli her senior year. “... Certainly, if you want to look back, Ali is the best we’ve ever seen with just the longevity that she’s been able to do it and the levels she’s been able to succeed at. We played and coached against a lot of girls in the Southeast Michigan area, and for all their accolades, Ali has surpassed all of them with her longevity and her ability to excel and go to the next level.”
Bastianelli was at Marysville during an interesting time in the storied volleyball program’s history. She transferred from Yale as a freshman in the fall of 2011, along with her older sister Samantha, when legendary coach John Knuth returned for a season. That team advanced to the Class B Semifinals, the deepest run for the Vikings since winning nine titles in 10 years from 1997-2006.
The following two years, Bastianelli and the Vikings were coached by Kristen (Fenton) Michaelis, who was the star of four of those previous title teams and who had played collegiately at Fresno State and as part of the U.S. National Team during the Pan-Am Games in the 2000s.
“I’m thankful for the guidance Kristen had given me in high school,” Bastianelli said. “She saw my potential before everyone else did. She’s the original GOAT of Marysville. She paved the way.”
During Bastianelli’s junior year, however, the Vikings failed to win their District for the first time in more than 20 years. When Welser, a former assistant under Knuth, took over the program the following year, he aimed to not only fix that, but also create an energy around the program that had been present the prior decade. He turned to Bastianelli and fellow senior Nicole Slis to head that up.
“A big thing for us, when Ali was in high school, was that she bought into the promotion of the program,” Welser said. “It was a constant battle of trying to get fans in the stands and trying to make it popular in the middle school and elementary school. Ali completely bought into that, everything we were trying to do. She didn’t have to. She had a lot going on with her club team, but we needed someone to totally buy into promoting Marysville volleyball and leave a lasting legacy, and that’s what she did.”
Through social media and simply talking with students at the school, Bastianelli and Slis worked to create a vibrant student section for their games, incorporating theme nights. That led to a boom in student attendance at matches, and the team responded, advancing to the Regional Final before losing to Pontiac Notre Dame Prep.
Personally, Bastianelli earned first-team Under Armour All-America honors during the season and was ranked the No. 10 college recruit in the country.
“My senior year was definitely the most memorable,” Bastianelli said. “Even though it wasn’t the most successful (as a team) on paper, it was definitely the most memorable for me. … The Regional games were hosted by Marysville, and we played Armada and there had to have been 150 kids who showed up for that game. During one timeout, Ryan didn’t even say anything about volleyball, he just told us, ‘Just take a moment and look around.’”
While Bastianelli couldn’t have imagined it at the time, her efforts in building excitement around the Marysville program were good training for her future as a professional.
As a member of two brand new professional leagues, she and her peers were asked to be promoters as well as players, to the point where sharing social media posts was written into their contracts.
There were few people better suited for that role than Bastianelli.
“I think it’s very fitting that everywhere she’s gone, there’s been that promotion of program,” Welser said. “To go on to the pro level, to promote volleyball at that level and for women’s sports in general – we’re watching women’s volleyball on TV, and I truly believe Ali had an impact on those levels. Her getting behind it, being there to help and realizing that when you’re doing that, you’re there to help everyone. That’s what Ali was all about.”
PHOTOS (Top) At left, Ali Bastianelli prepares to hit during her senior season at Marysville; at right, Bastianelli readies to serve for the Grand Rapids Rise. (Middle) Bastianelli plays for the Rise during her final professional season. (Photos courtesy of Marysville volleyball and the Grand Rapids Rise.)