Seng Leads, Coaches Others to do Same
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 25, 2018
Meg Seng misses coaching – in her words, “those relationships really are what it’s all about … stronger than just about anything other than family.”
But the coach in Seng continues to show the way in her work every day.
Seng will be honored next month with the MHSAA’s 31st Women in Sports Leadership Award for her work at Ann Arbor Huron and Greenhills over more than 30 years in educational athletics.
The award also will recognize Seng’s teaching, training and empowering of the next generation of coaches and especially women aspiring to follow her into leadership positions in a field where they remain underrepresented.
“I’ve always loved sport, and early on found I had a knack and an interest in coaching. So to be able to share with other young women what I think is a really noble profession makes it a passion for me,” Seng said. “I think it’s a great endeavor, and I’d love for more women to have the opportunity and the confidence to seek out some of those positions.”
Seng will receive this year’s award during the WISL Banquet at the Crowne Plaza Lansing West.
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.
Seng is in her 28th year at Greenhills School, serving as the athletic director the last 15 after 13 teaching physical education and health. Previously a scholarship athlete playing both volleyball and softball at Indiana University – and winning a pair of Big Ten championships on the diamond – Seng coached both sports at Ann Arbor-area high schools over nearly two decades and has continued as a role model for emerging coaches.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve been to every single (WISL) conference, and so for years, I’ve certainly been in the audience watching these great women be recognized,” Seng said. “To have followed for that long and now be on stage, it’s a tremendous honor for me – that group of women and their value to sport in Michigan is not lost on me at all. I truly respect that group, and I’m really proud to be part of it.”
A 1977 graduate of Maine South High School in Park Ridge, Ill., Seng began coaching at the college level after her playing days with the Hoosiers were done. She served first as a graduate assistant softball coach at Louisiana Tech University in 1983-84 while studying for her master’s degree, and then as a softball assistant at Illinois State University for 1984-85.
Seng took over the Ann Arbor Huron volleyball program in 1985, and over 12 seasons stretching two tenures led her team to five league titles and a District championship in 1993. She also served as Huron's co-head varsity softball coach from 1986-90.
She completed her teacher certification at Eastern Michigan University in 1990 and began teaching at Greenhills that year, later coaching that school’s varsity volleyball team from 1993-2000 and leading the Gryphons to a District title in 1997.
In 2001, Seng co-founded The Academy of Sports Leadership (TASL), a non-profit organization that provides education and training for women interested in becoming coaches and hosts a five-day residential camp for high school girls with that aspiration. In 2003, Seng became Greenhills’ athletic director and began her work as well contributing to the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA) and National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA), serving on committees for both including as part of the MIAAA’s Leadership Academy faculty since 2011 and the NIAAA’s certification committee since 2014. She served as the MIAAA’s Executive Board president in 2013-14.
At Greenhills, Seng has hosted more than 20 MHSAA tournament events in various sports at the District, Regional and Quarterfinal levels, and she’s served on a variety of MHSAA committees as well as currently the Multi-Sport Participation Task Force. She also is an instructor for the MHSAA Coaches Advancement Program.
“Meg Seng has been a leader at every level of educational athletics – as an accomplished coach, respected athletic director and someone who empowers women interested in following her lead and filling the need we have in school sports for more women in all forms of leadership positions,” MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts said. “She personifies the Women In Sports Leadership Award, and we’re delighted to present her with this honor.”
Seng received the MIAAA Jack Johnson Distinguished Service Award in 2012 and her region’s Athletic Director of the Year Award in 2008. She also received the Pathfinder Award in 2004 from the National Association for Girls and Women in Sports (NAGWS), and under her leadership Greenhills received the Exemplary Athletic Program Award from the MIAAA in 2017. She also received the Girl Scouts’ Leaders and Best Award in 2005.
In addition to her work with The Academy of Sports Leadership, she’s served since 2009 on the board as a founding member of the Michigan Softball Academy, which annually raises money for the American Cancer Society. She is published for her work in coaching education and recruitment and has spoken on various occasions on ways to provide opportunities for young women in coaching. She will present on recruiting and retaining female leaders at the annual statewide MIAAA conference this March.
“Meg sees a need and takes initiative to put a committee, group or process in place to solve and satisfy this need,” Holly athletic director Deb VanKuiken said in her letter recommending Seng for the WISL Award. “I truly respect and admire her. She has a great mind and a great heart for athletes and coaches alike. She leads, and she serves.”
Part of filling that need is helping athletic directors find candidates and helping candidates feel confident.
Seng monitors coaching at the high school and college levels, and has watched the percentage of female coaches at the college level fall drastically since Title XI. She also hears a few things – from women finishing college athletic careers who don’t feel qualified to coach, and also from athletic directors who would love to hire women coaches but aren’t finding candidates.
“Our Academy is a grassroots organization just trying to get young girls to follow that dream and show them the possibilities,” Seng said. “It’s a primer on coaching; we show them all the things coaches do and hope it sticks, that they say, ‘I can do that.’
“Part of what we do is try to empower them to take some of those risks.”
In addition to the MIAAA and NIAAA, and NAGWS, Seng is a member of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD).
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 Notre Dame Prep
2017 – Dottie Davis, Ann Arbor Huron
PHOTOS: (Top) Ann Arbor Greenhills athletic director Meg Seng instructs in the classroom; she taught at Greenhills for 13 years and continues teaching as part of CAP and the Academy of Sports Leadership. (Middle) Seng, left, also was a successfull volleyball coach at Ann Arbor Huron and Greenhills. (Photos courtesy of Meg Seng.)
Council Approves Tennis Finals Pilot Program, Girls Wrestling Titles at Districts, Regionals
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
May 8, 2025
The approval of a pilot program assigning all four Lower Peninsula Tennis Finals to be played at one site and the addition of girls wrestling team championships for District and Regional rounds were among actions taken by the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association during its Spring Meeting, May 4-5 in Gaylord.
The Spring Meeting of the 19-member legislative body of the Association’s more than 1,500 member schools is generally the busiest of its sessions each year. The Council considered 22 committee proposals and dealt with a variety of eligibility rule, postseason tournament and operational issues.
The tennis pilot program was an MHSAA Tennis Committee recommendation and will be conducted during the 2025-26 and 2026-27 schools years. All four Lower Peninsula Finals for girls and boys seasons will be played at the Midland Tennis Center, which in addition to substantial outdoor courts includes up to 16 available indoor courts in case matches must be played inside due to inclement weather. Each season’s four Finals will take place over two successive days during a two-week period – one division on a Wednesday and Thursday and the next on a Friday and Saturday, to be repeated the following week.
In girls wrestling, District and Regional team champions will be awarded during the upcoming 2025-26 season for the first time, after a Finals champion was awarded for the first time this past season. Champions for all rounds will be determined by results from individual brackets as the sport continues to grow toward the possibility of a head-to-head team tournament.
A pair of football changes will be noticeable this fall. The Council approved a Football Committee recommendation to not award playoff points to a team that forfeits a football game; previously, a team that forfeited would still receive the bonus points for scheduling that opponent, although a game was never played. The Council also approved a Football Committee recommendation to assign neutral sites with artificial turf for the four 8-Player Semifinals near the end of each season. Previously that round of the MHSAA Playoffs, like the first two of the 8-Player Tournament, was hosted by the participating team with the highest playoff-point average.
Anticipating the first MHSAA-sponsored boys volleyball season to be played in Spring 2026, the Council approved a pair of Volleyball Committee recommendations regarding tournament classification and structure. The first establishes a tournament with two divisions, with classification determined by enrollment and delayed until September prior to this inaugural season only as to allow for a more accurate count of how many schools will have teams. The first MHSAA Boys Volleyball Semifinals and Finals will be played June 5-6, 2026, at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek.
The Council also approved the recommendation to include boys volleyball among sports for which cooperatives are permitted when the combined enrollment of schools involved is fewer than 3,500 students.
Here is a summary of other notable actions taken by the Representative Council at the Spring Meeting, which will take effect during the 2025-26 school year:
Regulations
• The Council approved a pair of changes to the sport-specific transfer regulation regarding the full-and-complete residential move exception that allows students to gain immediate eligibility. The first increases the number of school days to 180 that a student who has changed residences and attends a new school must complete at that new school before returning to a previous school district and potentially having athletic eligibility in that former district. The 180 days also applies to all persons with whom the student moved to the new school district; if those other persons move back to the former school district before 180 school days, the student loses eligibility in all sports at all schools until approved by the two school districts and the MHSAA.
The second change increased the amount of time an athlete’s former residence must be signed into a long-term rental or lease agreement to a minimum of 12 months.
• The Council approved multiple clarifications to the definition of a scrimmage. A clarification was added to note that win-loss records, team and individual statistics and records may not be accrued or achieved during a scrimmage. A statement was added as well explaining that in sports that do not use a timing device – for example, baseball and softball – at least one rule must be altered to indicate it is a scrimmage.
Junior High/Middle School
• The Council approved a change to allow junior high/middle school teams to begin fall practice on the first day of classes at that school if it’s before the otherwise first allowable practice date on the 14th Monday before Thanksgiving. Ninth-grade football teams from junior high/middle schools may begin practice on the same date as the grade 10-12 football teams of that school district if the ninth-grade team is comprised only of ninth-grade students who have been approved for eligibility advancement.
• Also concerning junior high/middle school athletes, the Council approved a Junior High/Middle School Committee recommendation to make seventh and eighth-grade students who are eligible for high school competition due to their high school’s small enrollments also subject to high school transfer rules while in middle school and competing at the high school level.
Sport Matters
• BASEBALL: The Council approved a Baseball Committee recommendation to allow baseball players to play on multiple levels on the same day, with the 38-game season and daily limits still applying to all students.
• BOWLING: The Council approved a Bowling Committee recommendation to establish the official start of bowling practice as the third Monday before Thanksgiving.
The Council also approved a Bowling Committee recommendation to allow students to participate in no more than eight games on a school day (Monday-Thursday).
• COMPETITIVE CHEER: The Council approved the incorporation of a series of Competitive Cheer Committee-proposed technical high school and middle school rules recommendations into the 2024-26 Girls Competitive Cheer manual.
• GOLF: The Council approved a Golf Committee recommendation to allow Regional Tournament host schools to receive reimbursement for the expense of two referees.
• TENNIS: The Council approved two more Tennis Committee recommendations. The first will allow for all teams that tie for third place at their Regional to advance to Finals, but only in Lower Peninsula divisions where there are six Regionals.
The other approved change will allow continuous coaching between points and between non-changeover games, at all levels, if that coaching does not hinder the current pace of play.
• VOLLEYBALL: The Council also approved a Volleyball Committee recommendation to allow students to play in no more than 18 sets (games) per day.
The Council also reviewed reports on membership, with 754 senior high schools and 777 junior high/middle schools in 2024-25 plus 63 elementary schools with 6th-grader participation; cooperative programs, with 409 high school programs for 750 teams during 2024-25; eligibility advancement applications, which totaled four; the use of Educational Transfer Forms, of which there were 142; travel forms for out-of-state practice, school violations, attendance at athletic director in-service workshops and Coaches Advancement Program sessions; officials’ registrations (which were up nearly two percent from 2023-24 as the total rose for the fourth-consecutive school year), and officials reports submitted for the past three sports seasons. The Association’s $15.7 million budget for the 2025-26 school year also was approved.
The Representative Council is the 19-member legislative body of the MHSAA. All but five 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.