Leinaar to be Inducted into NIAAA Hall of Fame during National ADs Conference
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 15, 2023
Frankfort’s Karen Leinaar – one of the most active and influential administrators over the century-long history of the MHSAA – will receive deserved national recognition Tuesday with her induction into the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) Hall of Fame during the closing banquet of the 54th National Athletic Directors Conference in Orlando.
Leinaar is in her fifth school year as executive director of the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA) – the state’s professional organization for school sports administrators – and served as an athletic administrator at five schools over four decades through this spring. She also served 22 years on the MHSAA’s Representative Council and from 2009-13 on the Board of Directors for the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
She first served as athletic director at Delton Kellogg for nearly 17 years, from March 1982 through October 1998. She spent three years at Gaylord, then 8½ at Benzie Central before taking over at Bear Lake in November 2010 and spending the next decade organizing athletic programs for students in grades 5-12 before retiring in January 2021. She returned to serve as interim AD at Frankfort for the 2022-23 school year.
Leinaar has been honored several times for her contributions, most recently with the MHSAA’s Charles E. Forsythe Award for a lifetime of contributions to school sports. She also received the MHSAA’s Women In Sports Leadership Award in 1998, a Citation from the NFHS in 2000, was named MIAAA Athletic Director of the Year in 2001 and received an MHSAA’s Allen W. Bush Award in 2014.
A multiple-sport standout while attending Delton Kellogg High School, Leinaar graduated in 1977 and then earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education, health and recreation, with a minor in driver education, from Michigan State University in 1982. She completed a master’s in athletic administration from Western Michigan University in 1994.
The NADC banquet begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday and will be streamed live on the NFHS Network at no cost. Click to watch.
PHOTOS Frankfort’s Karen Leinaar accepts the 2023 Charles E. Forsythe Award from Grand Haven superintendent and MHSAA Representative Council president Scott Grimes during the Division 1 Boys Basketball Final in March.
3 Receive National Honors from NHSACA, Coaching Pair Named to Hall of Fame
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
July 11, 2024
One of the longest-serving members of the MHSAA Representative Council and two longtime Michigan high school coaches have received highest honors this summer from the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.
Brighton athletic director John Thompson was named Athletic Director of the Year during the NHSACA’s annual conference June 26 in Bismarck, N.D. He has supervised the Bulldogs’ highly-accomplished athletic program for two decades and served on the Representative Council the last 14 years, including currently as vice president.
Thompson also this year received the Thomas Rashid Athletic Director of the Year Award from the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA). Brighton was selected as an MIAAA exemplary athletic program in 2015 and as an ESPN unified champion school in 2018, the latter recognizing its statewide leadership in cultivating unified sport opportunities.
Additionally, Farmington Hills Mercy girls golf coach Vicky Kowalski and Livonia Stevenson girls swimming & diving coach Greg Phil were named NHSACA National Coach of the Year in their respective sports.
Kowalski completed her 46th season coaching Mercy last fall by leading the program to its second-straight Lower Peninsula Division 2 championship and fourth MHSAA Finals title overall. She also in January was named the 2022-23 National Coach of the Year in her sport by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Coaches Association. She was inducted into the Michigan High School Coaches Association (MHSCA) Hall of Fame this year for both golf and bowling.
Phil has coached girls swimming & diving since 1976, including at Stevenson since 1985. After winning the Kensington Lakes Activities Association East title, the most recent of several league championships under his leadership, Stevenson finished 16th at last season’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals and previously had placed Finals runner-up twice. Phil was named to the MHSCA Hall of Fame in 2012.
All three honorees were nominated for the national recognition by the MHSCA. Beal City baseball coach Brad Antcliff, now-retired Leland volleyball coach Laurie Glass, Ann Arbor Greenhills boys tennis coach Eric Gajar and Lowell wrestling coach R.J. Boudro also were National Coach of the Year finalists.
Additionally, longtime softball coaches Kay Johnson of Morenci and Kris Hubbard from Ottawa Lake Whiteford were inducted into the NHSACA Hall of Fame. Johnson went over 1,000 career wins this spring and has led her program since 1993, including to Class C championships in 1985 and 1986. Hubbard retired after the 2019 season with an 865-380-3 record since taking over in 1974, with Class D titles in 1984, 1985 and 1987.