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.
Multi-Sport Career at TC West Helps Gillis Thrive as Pro in Game She Once Left Behind
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
July 9, 2026
When Gaby (Muller) Gillis walked away from golf her sophomore at Traverse City West High School, she had no idea she would sprint back to the sport.
Especially since her walk quickly turned to a stumble thanks to a torn ACL suffered during basketball practice a few months after giving up the fairway.
“I think everything happens for a reason,” said Gillis, a three-sport star at West and now the first female head golf pro at the John’s Island Club in Vero Beach, Fla. “It’s a silver lining — it’s what got me back into golf. A few months after my surgery, all I could do was chip and put. I had to try to do something.”
When Gillis was a freshman in high school, girls golf was a spring sport, girls volleyball was a winter sport and girls basketball was a fall sport. Girls golf and volleyball became fall sports her sophomore year. After consultation with her coaches and her parents, Gillis chose volleyball, then her favorite sport, over golf.
Gillis did play golf and volleyball in the same season her junior and senior years, balancing academics and competing in two sports simultaneously. She practiced golf mostly on her own, following volleyball team practices.
“I wouldn't change anything,” Gillis said. “School was important to me as well, but I was very lucky with the opportunities that I had. Those fall seasons, junior and senior year were pretty hectic. I had a lot of support from the coaches and my teammates.”
After leaving West, Gillis went on to play golf for Michigan State University and become a golf pro. Before her ACL injury, she was seriously entertaining thoughts of playing volleyball at the next level.
“A lot of the elite athletes were playing club throughout high school, and I just couldn't do that because I was playing my other sports,” Gillis recalled. “So could that have affected maybe my volleyball career? I don't know if volleyball would have taken me to where I am now.”
Gillis, who credits much of her success to her parents encouraging her to play multiple sports, points to high school athletics as key to functioning as a golf pro today and managing two golf courses and a staff of 30. She is one of two head golf pros at John’s Island. The other is her husband, Tim Gillis.
“High school sports taught me a ton,” Gillis acknowledged. “High school sports teaches kids discipline, time management and how to work with others. When you're on a team and also for individual sports, you learn how to handle things and experience the highs and lows and trying to figure something out on your own.”
She recommends today’s student-athlete avoid focusing on just one sport.
“I do a lot of recruiting and hiring in my job now,” she added. “I ask them about their golf experience but I also ask if they grew up playing any other sports. I think high school sports can teach someone so much. A lot of the people that I hire have played high school sports.”
Gillis graduated from West in 2010. She was an all-state golfer for the Titans and selected to the all-Big North Conference first teams in basketball, volleyball and golf. During her junior year, she eagled two holes during the same round.
She went on to play for Big Ten championship teams at MSU. Her younger brother, Gage, joined her at Michigan State and played for the Spartans, too.
“I grew up a very passionate Michigan State fan and had the opportunity to play golf there,” Gillis said. “Even though golf is an individual sport, it still had that team aspect at the college level and I'm still extremely close with some of my teammates. Golf added the family aspect, which I think is so important.”
Gillis has been around golf much of her life. Her father, Fred Muller, was the head golf professional at Crystal Downs Country Club in Frankfort for 42 years. He died a little over a year ago. Gillis recalls vividly playing at Crystal Down as young as 5 years of age,
Gillis pointed out she couldn’t imagine doing any other kind of work today.
“Growing up, I watched my dad work at the golf course, caddying, working in the bathroom and the golf shop,” Gillis said. “I played at a high level in high school and college, but I didn't really know that's what I wanted to do after graduating college.”
Gillis is ready to start her own family any day now. She and her husband are preparing to celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary in September, and they’re expecting the birth of their first child by the end of this month.
So golfing once again has been halted.
“We're expecting a little boy, which we're very excited about,” Gillis said. I hung up my clubs up a couple weeks ago, but I actually played really well in my last round.”
She was under par going into the 18th hole and three-putted to finish even.
“But I gave all those men a run for their money,” she noted. “My body is not quite moving how I would like it, so I hung them up on a high note.”
The soon-to-be-new parents are planning to raise their son in sports similar to Gaby’s experiences at West and MSU.
“I feel like that was important that our parents didn't limit us to just one sport,” Gillis said. “When you're on a team learning how to work with people, you're working with people to try to be as successful as possible and win. And with individual sports, you're trying to find success as well. It translates to the real world.”
2026 Made In Michigan
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PHOTOS (Top) At left, Gaby (Muller) Gillis poses for a photo with her Traverse City West coach Cathy Coon during her senior season in 2009. At right, Gillis now serves as a golf pro at John’s Island Club in Vero Beach, Fla. (2) Gillis stands for a photo with her husband Tim, who also serves as a pro at John’s Island. (3) Gillis, right, blocks a kill attempt for West’s volleyball team. (4) Gillis posts scores during an event. (Photos provided by Gaby Gillis.)