Gordon to Receive MHSAA Hampton Award for Championing Unified Sports
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
February 11, 2026
As athletic director at Novi High School a decade ago, Brian Gordon helped Michigan become a national leader in growing Special Olympics Unified Sports for students with intellectual disabilities. Nearly three years after retiring from school administration, he remains an impassioned advocate helping schools all over the state add these inclusive programs to their athletic offerings.
To recognize his pioneering and now continuing work in expanding these opportunities across the state, Gordon has been selected as the recipient of this year’s Nate Hampton Champion of Progress in Athletics Award by the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
The Hampton Award was created by the MHSAA’s Representative Council to honor Nate Hampton, who retired in 2021 after serving in education and educational athletics for 50 years, including the last 32 as an MHSAA assistant director. Honorees have championed the promotion and advancement of opportunities for women, minorities and other underrepresented groups within interscholastic athletics, while serving as an administrator, coach, official, educator or school sports leader in Michigan.
Gordon will receive the Hampton Award during the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA) annual conference, March 13-16 in Traverse City.
“To me, (Unified Sports) is absolutely the purest form of sport – what you’re supposed to get out of participating in athletics. Kids that participate in this program get every bit of that – teamwork, camaraderie, adversity, how to win, how to lose, being part of something bigger than yourself. It was, to me, just so impactful,” Gordon said. “The whole idea of more kids being involved in their athletic program, where they have the opportunity to play in front of their parents, being members of an athletic department at their school, to me was just incredible. … And the life lessons that kids learn, families learn, you can’t even measure them.
“It’s just a great, positive experience – for everyone.”
Gordon began his professional career in educational athletics in 1990 as a physical education and health teacher for Royal Oak Schools, and moved into his first athletic director/assistant principal role at Royal Oak in 2010. He left to become the director of athletic and physical education at Novi High School in 2012, retired from Novi at the end of the 2020-21 school year but then returned to Royal Oak as athletic director the following fall for two more years.
Unified Sports pair students with and without intellectual disabilities as teammates for training and competition. While at Novi, Gordon and Brighton athletic director John Thompson were inspired to bring Unified Sports not only to their schools, but to the Kensington Lakes Activities Association as a whole – and during the 2015-16 school year their schools were joined by Northville, Howell and Hartland in offering Unified teams, with the total soon growing to 13 KLAA schools. The KLAA, at Novi, hosted the first league tournament in the nation for Unified Sports teams – playing 21 basketball games during the inaugural event.
Also following his Novi retirement in 2021, Gordon became a liaison for Special Olympics of Michigan and Unified Sports. He meets with school administrators to promote Unified Sports and help districts build programs, and estimates there are more than 600 elementary, middle and high school Unified Sports teams across the state – with more than 100 high schools playing as part of leagues.
Current Unified offerings in Michigan include basketball, soccer and bocce, with track & field to be introduced this spring. Unified athletes have opportunities to play not just as part of leagues, but during special events like school-day assembly games and at venues like Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
“Brian Gordon has spent more than 35 years promoting school sports and the athletes they serve, and who better to advocate for Unified Sports than someone who has dedicated his career to championing kids and creating opportunities for them to excel,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “The MHSAA and the state’s school sports community have long benefitted from Brian’s positive approach and tremendous energy, and he’s poured all of himself into building bridges for Unified Sports in communities all over Michigan.”
In addition to his Special Olympics efforts, Gordon has served as a mentor for the MHSAA’s AD Connection Program since its creation at the start of the 2023-24 school year, working with first-year athletic directors as they transition to that role.
He’s also taught at the elementary and middle school levels, and supervised physical education and served as a health advisory chairperson at the district level. Including a season while still a college student, he has coached baseball, football, basketball and track & field from the junior high to varsity levels, including a stint as Royal Oak Kimball and Royal Oak High varsity baseball coach from 1995-2010. He was inducted into the Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Michigan High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2021.
Gordon was selected for the MIAAA’s Jack Johnson Distinguished Service Award in 2021 and received an MHSAA Allen W. Bush Award in 2019 for his essential but often “behind-the-scenes” contributions to school sports. Previously, Gordon also was named Oakland County Athletic Director of the Year for 2018-19 by the Oakland County Athletic Directors Association, served as the OCADA president in 2014-15 and on its board from 2010-16, and also served as vice president of the Kensington Lakes Activities Association and president of the Kensington Conference. He has been a member of the MIAAA since 2008 and National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) since 2010, and was named a Regional Athletic Director of the Year by the MIAAA in 2018.
“Being a recipient of the Nate Hampton Award – Nate has made such a difference in educational athletics in our state for so long, that it’s truly an honor to represent him in this award,” Gordon said. “I’m really proud of the fact that we’ve been able to make a difference in the state, just like he did, with Unified Sports.”
Gordon graduated from Clawson High School in 1985 and earned his bachelor’s degree at Central Michigan University – where he also played baseball – and master’s in sports administration and school leadership from Wayne State University. He earned his certified athletic administrator (CAA) designation from the NIAAA.
Prioritizing education and students has been a family focus for the Gordons; Brian’s wife Jill Gordon also is a retired teacher. They have two children – daughter McKenzie Ribbing and son Zachary Gordon, and retirement has allowed for more time with both as well as son-in-law Mike Ribbing and granddaughter Isabel.
The first Nate Hampton Champion of Progress in Athletics Award was presented in 2024.
Past recipients
2024 – Nicole Carter, Novi
2025 – Arnetta Thompson, Wyoming
(Photos courtesy of Brian Gordon.)
Rep Council Approves Phased-In Fall
July 29, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association today approved the next steps in returning sports for member schools, adopting a plan to phase in competition for Fall sports in hopes of continuing to deter the spread of COVID-19.
The Council affirmed that lower-risk sports – cross country, Lower Peninsula girls golf, Lower Peninsula boys tennis and Upper Peninsula girls tennis, and Lower Peninsula girls swimming & diving – may begin practice on Aug. 12 and begin competition on their traditional start dates of Aug. 19 and 21.
However, moderate and high-risk sports – football, girls volleyball and boys soccer – may begin practice but not competition. Decisions about competition timelines for these three sports will be made by Aug. 20.
Practice for boys soccer and girls volleyball may begin on Aug. 12. Football will delay the start of practice with full player pads and equipment until Monday, Aug. 17. The week of Aug. 10 may include football practice sessions consisting of conditioning, physical training and skill work with no other player equipment except helmets. This week of acclimatization is similar to allowed summer football activities that have been ongoing for schools since June.
The Council – the MHSAA’s 19-member legislative body – also voted to cancel scrimmages in all Fall sports for this school year and approved limitations on numbers of teams that may compete together at regular-season tournaments, invitationals and other multi-team events. The Council believed eliminating scrimmages emphasized the importance of keeping teams from mixing before the first date of competition, and the regular-season limitations may lessen opportunities for viral spread while still allowing meets to be conducted.
As this remains a fluid situation, the MHSAA would release updated timelines for competition for football, girls volleyball and boys soccer by Aug. 20 dependent on how the spread of the virus is trending statewide. Plans remain reliant on sustained metrics measuring virus spread and/or progression by schools and regions across the state according to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s MI Safe Start Plan. Currently two regions are in Phase 5, which allow for limited indoor activity, while the rest are in Phase 4 and unable to host indoor training, practice or competition.
The start of volleyball and swimming & diving practices are in part contingent on the reopening of indoor facilities. Those sports may begin their practices outdoors if not allowed to be indoors by Aug. 12.
“The Council, reflecting on the positive impact on their athletes this summer from taking part in offseason training, feels it’s of utmost importance to continue athletic activity moving forward,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “If we take a month off, our students will find opportunities to compete through non-school entities that may not be as focused on safety. Our athletic directors and coaches can provide the safest-possible environment to return to sports, and this phased-in approach to competition will help schools continue building on progress already made.
“The Council chose to make these adjustments to help ensure our athletes have a safe regular season this fall. As we continue to solidify the regular season, we can then turn our attention to building a safe postseason for our athletes.”
The MHSAA also has posted sport-by-sport guidance documents outlining increased precautions designed to limit the viral spread, plus a four-page overview with precautions that apply generally for all sports and include coverage of the following topics:
- Protocol for reporting COVID-19 infections.
- Guidance on face coverings. Athletes participating on the field/court are not required to wear face coverings, but are allowed to do so. However, bench personnel must wear face coverings at all times.
- Transportation, use of locker rooms and facility cleaning.
Specific sport guidelines and the overview are available on the respective sport pages of the MHSAA Website. Recommendations on spectator attendance will follow before the start of competition; spectators will be limited in accordance with Governor Whitmer’s executive orders on large gatherings.
The Council on July 17 approved a return-to-activity plan for the 2020-21 school year retaining the traditional calendar of Fall, Winter and Spring sports, but allowing for the possibility that Fall sports forced to halt activity during the next four months may conclude later in the school year.
“The easy way out would be to postpone all activity to next spring, and we are not taking the easy way out. But we will make wise decisions based on medical guidance,” Uyl said. “We will make these difficult decisions quickly and appropriately. If we don’t play this fall, it won’t be because we didn’t make every effort to do so.”
The Representative Council is the legislative body of the MHSAA. All but five members are elected by member schools. Four members are appointed by the Council to facilitate representation of females and minorities, and the 19th position is occupied by the Superintendent of Public Instruction or designee.
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.