High School a Time for Plays of All Kinds
April 2, 2015
By Jack Roberts
MHSAA executive director
At end of season or school year banquets attended by student-athletes and their parents, I often tell this short story about my mother that never fails to get a good laugh, especially from mothers:
“At the end of my junior year of high school I attended the graduation ceremony for the senior class on a hot and humid early June evening in our stuffy high school gymnasium. The bleachers on each side were filled to capacity, as were several hundred folding chairs placed on the gymnasium floor.
“The public address system, which was wonderful for announcing at basketball games or wrestling meets, was awful for graduation speeches. Person after person spoke, and the huge audience wondered what they had to say.
“I was present because I was the junior class president; and as part of the ceremony, the senior class president handed me a small shovel. It had something to do with accepting responsibility or carrying on tradition.
“In any event, the senior class president spoke briefly; and then it was my turn. I stepped to the podium, pushed the microphone to the side, and spoke in a voice that was heard and understood in every corner of the gymnasium.
“Whereupon my mother, sitting in one of the folding chairs, positioned right in front of my basketball coach – who had benched me for staying out too late on the night before a game, because I had to attend a required school play rehearsal – my mother turned around, pointed her finger at the coach and said, ‘See there? That’s what he learned at play practice!’
“And she was heard in every corner of the gymnasium too.
“But my mother knew – she just knew – that for me, play practice was as important as basketball practice. And she was absolutely correct.”
This old but true story about in-season demands of school sports actually raises two of the key issues of the debate about out-of-season coaching rules.
One is that we are not talking only about sports. School policies should not only protect and promote opportunities for students to participate in more than one sport; they should also allow for opportunities for students to participate in the non-athletic activities that comprehensive, full-service schools provide.
This is because surveys consistently link student achievement in school as well as success in later life with participation in both the athletic and non-athletic activities of schools. Proper policies permit students time to study, time to practice and play sports and time to be engaged in other school activities that provide opportunities to learn and grow as human beings.
A second issue the story presents is that parents have opinions about what is best for their children. In fact, they feel even more entitled to express those opinions today than my mother did almost 50 years ago. In fact, today, parents believe they are uniquely entitled to make the decisions that affect their children. And often they take the attitude that everyone else should butt out of their business!
The MHSAA knows from direct experience that while school administrators want tighter controls on what coaches and students do out of season, and that most student-athletes and coaches will at least tolerate the imposed limits, parents will be highly and emotionally critical of rules that interfere with how they raise their children.
No matter the cost in time or money to join elite teams, take private lessons, travel to far-away practices and further-away tournaments, no matter how unlikely any of this provides the college athletic scholarship return on investment that parents foolishly pursue, those parents believe they have every right to raise their own children their own way and that it’s not the MHSAA’s business to interfere.
It is for this very reason that MHSAA rules have little to say about what students can and can’t do out of season. Instead, the rules advise member schools and their employees what schools themselves have agreed should be the limits. The rules do this to promote competitive balance. They do this in order to avoid never-ending escalating expense of time and money to keep up on the competitive playing field, court, pool, etc.
Every example we have of organized competitive sports is that, in the absence of limits, some people push the boundaries as far as they can for their advantage, which forces other people to go beyond what they believe is right in order to keep up.
If, during the discussions on out-of-season rules, someone suggests that certain policies be eliminated, thinking people will pause to ask what life would be like without those rules.
Our outcome cannot be mere elimination of regulation, which invites chaos; the objective must be shaping a different future.
A good start would be simpler, more understandable and enforceable rules. A bad ending would be if it forces more student-athletes and school coaches to focus on a single sport year-round.
WISL Honoree Thunberg Embraces Leadership Opportunities in Every Role
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 3, 2025
Through several professional roles in education, Jennifer Thunberg always has maintained a strong connection with athletics and provided leadership – locally, within her league and sport community, and currently at the statewide level serving on the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
To recognize her vast an ongoing contributions, Thunberg has been named the 39th recipient of the MHSAA’s Women In Sports Leadership Award.
Each year, the Representative Council considers the achievements of women coaches, officials and athletic administrators affiliated with the MHSAA who show exemplary leadership capabilities and positive contributions to athletics. Thunberg will receive her award during the Division 1 Girls Basketball Final, March 22 at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing.
A standout herself as a three-sport athlete at Bay City Central and then volleyball player at Saginaw Valley State University, Thunberg began her coaching career at Central in 1997 and teaching career there in 2001. After coaching the volleyball junior varsity two seasons while still playing collegiately, she led the varsity to a 249-201-43 record over 10 seasons before moving on to Pinconning High School, where she served as athletic director from 2008-14.
Thunberg returned to Central as an assistant principal and became the school’s athletic director in 2017. She remained in that position until becoming principal at Freeland Middle School two years ago.
“A lot of the women who are on that (WISL Award) list are women who have been mentors of mine – who I have worked very closely with – and to be included in that group of women, I’m humbled and honored,” Thunberg said. “Jean LaClair (Bronson, 2015) has been a mentor of mine since I began my coaching career, and I can’t say enough about her. (There are many) between the volleyball world and athletic director world, and I’m just honored to be part of it.”
During her time as Bay City Central’s volleyball coach, Thunberg also served as president of the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association (MIVCA) from 2005-08, and was instrumental in the creation of the annual Miss Volleyball Award honoring the state’s top high school senior.
As Pinconning and later Central’s athletic director, Thunberg hosted several MHSAA Tournament events and Coaches Advancement Program sessions. She also has served on MHSAA committees for volleyball rules, site selection, Scholar-Athlete Award selection and Women In Sports Leadership Conference planning.
She was one of only two female athletic directors in the Saginaw Valley League when she took that position at Central, and she served as the league’s executive director during the 2022-23 school year. The Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA) named her its Region 8 Athletic Director of the Year in 2022.
Thunberg also served on the board for the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals from 2015-21. She was appointed to the MHSAA’s Representative Council at its 2023-24 Fall Meeting and is serving a two-year term.
“At every stage of her educational career, Jennifer Thunberg has taken on a leadership role, and her vision and dedication to students is admired by her athletic and administrative communities across the state,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “She is a strong believer in the power of athletics to help drive a student’s all-around education, and we are thankful to have her voice representing school sports.”
A 1996 graduate of Bay City Central, Thunberg played basketball, volleyball and softball for the Wolves. At SVSU, she earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and master’s in educational leadership, and she remains among the volleyball program’s all-time leaders in single-season aces.
Thunberg earned her certified athletic administrator designation from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) in 2010, and her certified master athletic administrator designation in 2014.
In addition to leading a school and serving on the MHSAA’s Council, she’s also currently serving as president of the Bay County Sports Hall of Fame.
“I was student council president in high school, National Honor Society vice president, and whatever group I got involved in … I just liked to be involved in those organizations,” Thunberg said of taking on leadership roles. “And every single one of those organizations improved and helped me more than I’ve helped the organization. They’ve taught me things, helped me get to know more people – helped me become who I am today.”
Her husband Todd Thunberg is a teacher and Bay City Central’s girls basketball coach, and they have two daughters, 13-year-old Taylor and 11-year-old Rylee.
The first Women In Sports Leadership Award was presented in 1990.
Past recipients
1990 – Carol Seavoy, L’Anse
1991 – Diane Laffey, Harper Woods
1992 – Patricia Ashby, Scotts
1993 – Jo Lake, Grosse Pointe
1994 – Brenda Gatlin, Detroit
1995 – Jane Bennett, Ann Arbor
1996 – Cheryl Amos-Helmicki, Huntington Woods
1997 – Delores L. Elswick, Detroit
1998 – Karen S. Leinaar, Delton
1999 – Kathy McGee, Flint
2000 – Pat Richardson, Grass Lake
2001 – Suzanne Martin, East Lansing
2002 – Susan Barthold, Kentwood
2003 – Nancy Clark, Flint
2004 – Kathy Vruggink Westdorp, Grand Rapids
2005 – Barbara Redding, Capac
2006 – Melanie Miller, Lansing
2007 – Jan Sander, Warren Woods
2008 – Jane Bos, Grand Rapids
2009 – Gail Ganakas, Flint; Deb VanKuiken, Holly
2010 – Gina Mazzolini, Lansing
2011 – Ellen Pugh, West Branch; Patti Tibaldi, Traverse City
2012 – Janet Gillette, Comstock Park
2013 – Barbara Beckett, Traverse City
2014 – Teri Reyburn, DeWitt
2015 – Jean LaClair, Bronson
2016 – Betty Wroubel, Pontiac
2017 – Dottie Davis, Ann Arbor
2018 – Meg Seng, Ann Arbor
2019 – Kris Isom, Adrian
2020 – Nikki Norris, East Lansing
2021 – Dorene Ingalls, St. Ignace
2022 – Lori Hyman, Livonia
2023 – Laurie Glass, Leland
2024 – Mary Cicerone, Bloomfield Hills; Eve Claar, Ann Arbor
PHOTOS At left, Jennifer Thunberg speaks during an MASSP Conference. At right, she and her family show their support for Bay City Central. (Photos provided by Jennifer Thunberg.)