2026 MHSAA Bush Awards Honorees Exemplify Dedicated Service in Several Roles
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
June 30, 2026
Athletic administrators must balance multiple roles no matter the size of their school districts or numbers of sports they direct, and St. Ignace’s Don Gustafson, Brethren’s Jason Kemler, Grand Rapids’ Jolinda Lucas and Greenville’s Brian Zdanowski have thrived while shouldering wide-ranging responsibilities to provide first-rate athletic experiences for their students.
Their dedication to school sports and those athletes – both locally and statewide – made them clearly deserving recipients of 2026 Allen W. Bush Meritorious Service Awards as selected by the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Representative Council.
Al Bush served as executive director of the MHSAA for 10 years. The award honors individuals for past and continuing service to school athletics as a coach, administrator, official, trainer, doctor or member of the media. The award was developed to bring recognition to people who are giving and serving locally, regionally or statewide without a lot of attention. This is the 35th year of the award.
Gustafson has taught at his alma mater St. Ignace since 1982 and continued even after retiring from administration in 2021. In addition to his classroom work, he served as assistant athletic director his first three years, then athletic director for four, as junior high principal from 1994-2005, high school principal from 2005-11 and superintendent for the next decade.
He’s also been an MHSAA-registered game official since 1978, working six Finals in football, one in basketball and numerous in cross country, in addition to several more postseason events during his time officiating seven sports. He was named to the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan (BCAM) Hall of Honor in 2021 as an official and “Friend of Basketball.”
Gustafson served on the MHSAA Representative Council from 2015-21. The Michigan State University grad also has served on St. Ignace’s city council, taking time away only during his tenure as superintendent.
“Don Gustafson’s contributions to school sports span nearly half a century and have included everything from behind-the-scenes support to being considered one of the state’s top game officials and a valued voice on our Representative Council,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “He has long been a knowledgeable and positive voice impacting not only the Upper Peninsula but our community statewide.”
Brethren High School athletic director Jason Kemler recently completed his 20th year with the Kaleva Norman Dickson school district, where he has hosted several MHSAA Tournament events in a variety of sports including Regionals in track & field both at the high school and middle school/junior high levels. He’s also served on multiple MHSAA committees including the Junior High/Middle School Committee.
Kemler has done extensive work as well as part of the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA), serving as a regional representative, historical records chairperson and co-chair of the middle school/junior high committee, and also co-chair for the MIAAA’s 60th and 65th anniversary celebrations. He was named the MIAAA’s Region 3 Athletic Director of the Year in 2023.
Kemler is a graduate of Dansville High School and Albion College and received his teaching certificate from Michigan State University and master’s from Central Michigan University. He also serves as a captain for his local fire department.
“Jason Kemler’s stamp is all over the Brethren athletic department and community as a whole, as he’s embraced all of the roles that go with serving at a small school – teaching physical education and history and coaching as well as serving as athletic director and representing his school in significant ways among his colleagues statewide,” Uyl said. “His commitment and dedication are fine examples of what the Bush Award seeks to recognize.”
Lucas also has made an outsized impact at the middle school level during her 14 years serving in multiple roles for Grand Rapids Public Schools, including as middle school athletic director, director of all GRPS elementary sports and as athletic director for Grand Rapids University Prep Academy, whose students compete for either Ottawa Hills or Union High School. She has served on the MHSAA Junior High/Middle School Committee, contributing to an increasing emphasis at that level, and was selected as a meet manager for inaugural MHSAA Cross Country and Track & Field Regionals for junior high/middle school athletes.
Also a teacher at University Prep and an MHSAA-registered official the last six years for track & field and cross country – and the last two for volleyball – Lucas has served as sportsmanship chair for the MIAAA and as part of the MHSAA/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award Committee, and on the board for the Michigan-based Academy of Sports Leadership. She was named the MIAAA’s Region 14 Athletic Director of the Year in 2022.
Lucas graduated from Hobart (Ind.) High School and has a bachelor’s degree in physical education and health from Indiana State University, a master’s in educational leadership from Indiana University, and earned her certified athletic administrator designation from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA). She is a Red Cross instructor and has served on the GRPS health and physical education leadership team. Prior to coming to Grand Rapids, Lucas served in multiple athletic administration roles in Indiana, where she also taught for 24 years and earned a 30-year coaching and multiple 20-year service awards.
“Jolinda Lucas has brought a special dedication to our junior high and middle school sports and their important roles in educational athletics,” Uyl said. “She has provided valuable input on a variety of historic decisions, including the addition of sixth graders to MHSAA competition and creation of Regional competitions in cross country and track & field. Her foresight is impacting Michigan’s school-sports athletes at the youngest levels and making a difference that will continue to benefit them as they advance to high school programs.”
Zdanowski recently completed his 28th school year as athletic director at Greenville after previously serving as a teacher, coach and athletic director over a decade at Onaway and Midland Bullock Creek. As an athletic director, he has hosted more than 100 MHSAA Tournament events, including five 8-Player Football Finals and 13 11-Player Semifinals. He also has been an MHSAA-registered game official for 44 years, working five sports including Finals in baseball in 1995 and football in 2001.
The longtime administrator also has served on multiple MHSAA committees, including more than a decade on the MHSAA/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award Committee, and served as Ottawa-Kent Conference president for two years. He’s been a member of the MIAAA for 34 years, Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP) for 28 years and National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) for 25. He was named the MIAAA’s Region 4 Athletic Director of the Year in 2008.
Zdanowski, a graduate of Standish-Sterling, has a bachelor’s degree in teacher education from Saginaw Valley State University and a master’s in athletic administration from Central Michigan University. He’s also completed 24 courses from the NIAAA Leadership Training Institute.
“Brian Zdanowski has created a program at Greenville that is the model of quality, and that was proven deservedly when his athletic department was named an Exemplary Athletic Program by the MIAAA in 2000, the first year of that prestigious recognition program,” Uyl said. “He has consistently shared what he’s built at home with the rest of the state for now several decades, and we continue to be thankful for Brian’s desire to serve and contribute to school sports in a variety of leadership roles.”
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.
Retired MHSAA Executive Director Roberts Selected for NFHS Hall of Fame
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 8, 2022
During an award introduction two years ago, MHSAA associate director Tom Rashid described his longtime close friend Jack Roberts as the leader who “took our darkest hours and problems and turned them into positives.”
The MHSAA has faced its share of challenging times, and those may have been among Roberts’ finest hours over 32 years as MHSAA executive director – and admittedly the times when his adrenaline flowed most. But there were many more good times and memorable advances for Michigan school sports under his leadership, and he will be recognized again this summer both for those and a lifetime of service to school sports in this state and across the nation.
John E. “Jack” Roberts was one of 12 honorees announced Tuesday as this year’s inductees into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). He will be inducted as one of three former state association administrators selected for the 39th Hall of Fame class at a ceremony during the NFHS summer meeting July 1 in San Antonio, Texas.
He began his tenure as MHSAA executive director in 1986, and at the time of his retirement he was the nation’s longest-serving executive director of a state high school athletic association. He was the fourth person to serve the MHSAA in that leadership role full time, following Charles E. Forsythe (1931-42, 1945-68), Allen W. Bush (1968-78) and Vern L. Norris (1978-86).
Roberts will become the Hall of Fame’s ninth inductee from Michigan, joining Forsythe (inducted 1983), River Rouge boys basketball coach Lofton Greene (1986), Warren Regina athletic director, softball and basketball coach Diane Laffey (2000), Fennville basketball and baseball standout Richie Jordan (2001), Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett boys and girls tennis coach Bob Wood (2005), Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook hockey standout Jim Johnson (2007), Owosso football, basketball and baseball all-stater Brad Van Pelt (2011); and Vermontville Maple Valley baseball national record holder Ken Beardslee (2016).
Roberts also follows in the footsteps of his late father, John Roberts, who served as executive director of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association from 1957-85 and was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame in 2000. They will be the first father-son team in the Hall of Fame.
Jack Roberts began his career serving as an assistant director for the National Federation from 1973-80. He was involved with the implementation of Title IX at the local and state levels and made immense contributions as the NFHS representative to the landmark Amateur Sports Act of 1978, and also played a significant role in the NFHS rules-writing process as the organization started writing and publishing rules for a number of new sports during the 1970s.
The MHSAA enjoyed continued growth under Roberts’ guidance, particularly in the number of Michigan students participating in athletics and in the number of MHSAA-sponsored tournament sports available to them. Several key rules changes came under Roberts’ watch and direction, and he made the MHSAA a national leader in health and safety efforts particularly in the areas of head injury care, heart safety initiatives and heat management strategies.
“I had a head start in this work. Growing up in the home of the executive director of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association and then spending most of my 20s working for the National Federation office, and much of it with (longtime NFHS executive director) Cliff Fagan, was a jumpstart on this career,” Roberts said. “But I’m also satisfied at this point that, to paraphrase Hamilton in the musical ‘Hamilton,’ I didn’t give up on my shot. I was given a shot, I took it and I didn’t waste the chance.
“The job fit me, and I think I maxed the opportunity I had to serve educational athletics in this job, and that’s satisfying to think about at this time.”
Under Roberts’ leadership, overall participation in high school athletics in Michigan increased 10 percent, and the MHSAA added more than 200 schools in increasing its membership by more than 15 percent at the high school and junior high/middle school levels combined. His tenure saw the addition of girls competitive cheer (1994), girls & boys bowling (2004) and girls & boys lacrosse (2005) to the MHSAA Tournament sport lineup, the creation of a separate wrestling tournament to determine champions by team format (1988), and 8-player football (2010, first playoffs 2011) as many small schools across the state began having trouble fielding 11-player teams because of enrollment and population decreases. Meanwhile, also under his leadership, the 11-player Football Playoffs expanded, doubling to 256 teams in 1999.
Among rules changes put in place during Roberts’ tenure was the addition of opportunities for multiple schools to create cooperative teams in sports where participation is lagging. He also helped Michigan become a national leader in improving sportsmanship; a comprehensive package enacted in 1996 set a statewide tone for appropriate behavior and perspective that continues to make an impact today.
Perhaps the most significant influences by Roberts came on the topics of health and safety. The MHSAA has led nationally in concussion care with its first programming in 2000 and return-to-play protocols enacted in 2010, and with mandated concussion reporting and insurance for those who suffer head injuries rolled out in 2015. A heat management policy and CPR requirements for coaches were introduced in 2013.
Also under this leadership, the first program for coaches education was launched in 1987 and evolved into the Coaches Advancement Program, with nearly 34,000 courses administered as part of CAP since 2004-05. The Women in Sports Leadership Conference was created in 1989 and remains the first, largest and longest-running program of its type in the country, regularly drawing upwards of 500 participants. The first of now-annual statewide Athletic Director In-Service Programs was conducted in 1992, and Michigan also remains a national leader in student services thanks to a variety of programs that were introduced under Roberts’ leadership.
Internally, he put the MHSAA on the leading edge nationally when it came to use the technology, especially in the realm of communications, where he put special emphasis on telling the story of school sports. “I think I was considered a conservative as to rules for eligibility and competition, and a progressive in how we delivered services to schools and school sports,” Roberts said.
In addition to his work specifically in Michigan, Roberts carried significant influence at the national level. He served as part of the NFHS Board of Directors and led the creation of the NFHS Network for video productions in 2012, serving as that board’s chairperson. He also has served on the board of directors of the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO).
“For 32 years, Jack Roberts was the epitome of what leadership looks like. He was the strongest advocate for high school sports that anyone could ever hope for,” said MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl, who succeeded Roberts in 2018. “He is without question one of the preeminent pioneers and difference-makers in the world of high school sports over the past 100 years.
“And other than my father, there has not been a man who has had a bigger impact and positive influence on my life personally than Jack Roberts.”
The National High School Hall of Fame was started in 1982 by the NFHS, and the rest of this year’s class is made up of athletes, coaches, administrators and an official. The 12 individuals were chosen after a two-level selection process involving a screening committee composed of active high school state association administrators, coaches and officials, and a final selection committee composed of coaches, former athletes, state association officials, media representatives and educational leaders. Nominations were made through NFHS member associations. Also chosen for this class were athletes Notah Begay (New Mexico), Walter Payton (Mississippi), Sanya Richards-Ross (Florida) and Thurman Thomas (Texas); sport coaches Ray Crowe (Indiana), Ron Kordes (Kentucky) and Lamar Rogers (Tennessee); administrators E. Wayne Cooley (Iowa) and Becky Oakes (Missouri), official Jeff Risk (North Dakota) and speech/debate coach Susan McLain (Oregon). (Click for more.)
Roberts came to the MHSAA in 1986 from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which he served as executive vice president. He is a 1970 graduate of Dartmouth College and taught English and coached football at high schools in Milwaukee and Denver before joining the NFHS staff.
He and his wife Peggy reside in East Lansing, and in retirement they together have increased their contributions to environmental matters and international refugee issues while both serving in leadership roles. Jack Roberts has served as board president for the Refugee Development Center in Lansing for 13 years, and Peggy Roberts served six years as chairperson of the board for Lansing’s Fenner Nature Center. As part of their environmental work, the Roberts are working within a small group of organizations to help them acquire and preserve land.