2017 Community Service Awards Honor 6
May 11, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Students representing six Michigan high schools have been selected as winners of the inaugural Community Service Awards sponsored by the Michigan High School Athletic Association and Lake Trust Credit Union for their efforts to improve the lives of others in their communities.
Brighton senior Bailey Brown, Newaygo senior Justice Ottinger, Ann Arbor Huron junior Katie Sesi, Utica Ford senior Nikki Sorgi, Colon High School’s “Yard Squad” and Rochester Hills Stoney Creek’s Cougar Athletic Leadership Council have earned $1,000 awards to be applied to individual college scholarships, credited to their schools’ athletic departments or gifted to the groups helped by the honorees. In addition to the $1,000 award, the Lake Trust Foundation is awarding an additional $500 to each honoree, to be donated to a non-profit, 501 (c)(3) organization of the awardee’s choice.
The MHSAA and Lake Trust received 70 applications for the first-time awards from schools and students serving communities in both peninsulas and every region of the state. Individual athletes, teams, and other school groups with athletic ties at MHSAA member high schools were eligible for the awards. Nominations were accepted from students, coaches and school administrators.
“We hear all the time about the wonderful contributions athletes are making in their communities by sharing their talents off the field, and it was great to see so many examples of this work all in one place as we selected this first class of honorees,” said MHSAA assistant director Andy Frushour, who oversees brand management and student services for the Association. “We’re glad for the opportunity with Lake Trust to be able to highlight some of this great work being done all over our state.”
One honoree will be profiled daily beginning May 21 on Second Half.
Below are brief summaries of the community services provided by this year’s award winners:
Bailey Brown, Brighton: Diagnosed as a freshman with amplified musculoskeletal pain syndrome, causing nerve pain that eventually resulted in multiple surgeries, Brown dedicated her effort to children hospitalized while undergoing cancer treatment. American Girl offers dolls that do not have hair; Brown endeavored at first to buy two dolls for children whose hair had fallen out during chemotherapy, and instead raised more than $5,000 to purchase 48 dolls and other toys.
Justice Ottinger, Newaygo: Ottinger was the recipient of a donated kidney in June, 2016, and organized the “Ball is Life, Organs Are Too” event to honor his donor, Mark Linsley, and raise awareness of the need for organ donors. Hosting the event during a basketball game, Linsley signed individuals up for organ donation and sold T-shirts he had designed; more than $4,000 was raised for Gift of Life Michigan and 13 donors signed up.
Katie Sesi, Ann Arbor Huron: Earning donations by playing violin at the Ann Arbor Art Fair since she was 6, and collecting more than 300,000 cans and bottles beginning when she was 9, Sesi has raised $40,000 for C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan to benefit children with cancer. She has donated $10,000 every two years since 2010, contributing to multiple efforts including the creation of an indoor playground.
Nikki Sorgi, Utica Ford: After first organizing a toy drive for hospitalized children in 2013, Sorgi and her older sister Alex for the last three years have directed a blanket drive designed to provide homemade fleece blankets for patients of any age. Sorgi has helped in providing more than 400 homemade blankets including through Kids Kicking Cancer in Southfield and the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
“Yard Squad,” Colon: Sophomores Andrew Smolarz, Isaiah Fellers and Andy Stoll, and freshmen Phillip Alva and Austin Stoll – members of the track & field team – answered a request for students to help clean up an elderly person’s yard. They’ve since cleaned three yards during weekends and while all five are playing multiple sports during the spring – and with more calls for help coming in as the Squad’s reputation grows.
Cougar Athletic Leadership Council, Rochester Hills Stoney Creek: The Council, a group of student-athletes created to serve the community, produced a Suicide Prevention Awareness event in coordination with a Stoney Creek basketball game Feb. 28. The co-chairpersons of the Council’s Special Events Committee – Isabella Ubaydi, Nate Davis and Kevin Price – planned the event and spoke during halftime on how suicide and mental illness have impacted them and their school community. Funds from T-shirts sold, concessions and additional donations allowed CALC to donate more than $4,700 to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
“Lake Trust Credit Union is proud to partner with MHSAA to recognize and support these hardworking, dedicated community members,” said Lake Trust Credit Union Vice President of Culture + Engagement, Brandalynn Winchester-Middlebrook. “These students exemplify commitment to their teams and neighbors, while making remarkable impacts in our communities.”
Lake Trust Credit Union lives up to their name, with branches that stretch from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. With over 175,000 members and $1.7 billion in assets, they’re the sixth largest credit union in Michigan. By participating in and supporting over 100 local events, they reach across the state to create stronger communities. Membership is open to anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in their 35 county service area. Visit www.laketrust.org.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,400 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.
Fenton Principal Bakker Selected as MHSAA's Charles E. Forsythe Award Honoree
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 11, 2026
An educator who has served in several roles – as a teacher, coach, athletic director, assistant principal and for the last four years principal at Fenton High School – Mike Bakker is able to draw from a wealth of experiences as he serves students not only in his school district but as a statewide decision-maker and leader.
In recognition of his several contributions over the last two decades, especially to educational athletics, Bakker has been selected to receive this year’s MHSAA Charles E. Forsythe Lifetime Achievement Award.
The annual award is in its 49th year and named after past MHSAA Executive Director Charles E. Forsythe, the Association's first full-time and longest-serving chief executive. Forsythe Award recipients are selected each year by the MHSAA Representative Council, based on an individual's outstanding contributions to the interscholastic athletics community at the local, regional and statewide levels. Bakker will be honored this weekend during the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA) annual conference in Traverse City.
Bakker began his professional career at Mason High School. He was hired initially as the boys tennis coach while still a junior in college, and then served twice as a long-term substitute teacher before being hired full time and teaching mathematics and statistics, serving as a club advisor and coaching girls and boys swimming & diving in addition to tennis. He moved to Fenton Area Public Schools as the middle and high school athletic director and assistant principal in 2004. Bakker became interim principal midway through the 2021-22 school year, with that promotion made permanent that March.
“I do think that because I’ve held all of those different roles, I still have all of those connections, and there are other athletic directors who have gone on to become principals and those are the people I reach out to – I know they have a passion for making sure everybody, because of the positions they’ve held, has success in different areas,” Bakker said. “Working in athletics so long, and helping those students find success and helping coaches find success, helped me help students who are not in athletics have success. It’s provided a pretty awesome opportunity and perspective to see how the system works and how to help students be successful and help teachers and coaches be successful.”
Bakker’s contributions have long stretched beyond his classroom and office duties as well. Locally, he’s served on the Fenton Education Foundation board of directors for two decades. As athletic director, he hosted more than 125 MHSAA Tournaments over 17 years and served on a dozen MHSAA committees.
Bakker also has been a member of both the MIAAA – the state’s professional organization for athletic administrators – and National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) for 22 years and has served in several leadership roles with the MIAAA including as president during the 2015-16 school year and as assistant executive director since 2018.
Bakker also is serving his second school year as a member of the MHSAA Representative Council.
“As someone who has dedicated himself to education and served in various roles over the last 25 years, Mike Bakker has gained a broad perspective that has helped shape his leadership – and he continues to give more of himself with his contributions at the MHSAA and MIAAA leadership levels,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “As a member of the Representative Council, he provides input on how decisions could affect all groups involved, and our schools are fortunate to have his valuable voice and viewpoint.”
Bakker also has been a member of both the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP) and National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) for 15 years. As a coach he was a member of the Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association (MISCA) and served as a Zone representative from 2001-04.
Bakker was selected as the MIAAA’s Region 9 Athletic Director of the Year in 2010, and as its statewide Tom Rashid Athletic Director of the Year for 2020-21. He also was named Athletic Director of the Year in 2021 by the Michigan High School Coaches Association.
“For me, being an educator, and part of why I went into education and administration, was to help in the education process of the whole student. That doesn’t include just the classroom walls from the first bell to the last bell,” Bakker said. “To really impact kids, you have to build relationships, meet them where they’re at, and you have to help them find success not just in the classroom but out(side it), to help them become better than they thought they could be. … Even when I was athletic director, I still going and seeing kids perform in other things, and I was in charge of clubs as the athletic director, and all of those things allowed me to help meet students where they are and where their needs are as they are figuring out who they want to be when they leave.”
A 1994 graduate of Rochester High School – where he swam and played soccer, tennis and basketball – Bakker earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Michigan State University in 1998 and his secondary teaching certificate from MSU in 2000. He earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from MSU in 2004 and a master’s in sports administration from Eastern Michigan University in 2011. He also received his certified master athletic administrator designation from the NIAAA in 2011.
Bakker and his wife Denise have been married for 23 years and have three children – sons Jasper and Tristan and daughter Paige.
Past recipients of the Charles E. Forsythe Award
1978 - Brick Fowler, Port Huron; Paul Smarks, Warren
1979 - Earl Messner, Reed City; Howard Beatty, Saginaw
1980 - Max Carey, Freesoil
1981 - Steven Sluka, Grand Haven; Samuel Madden, Detroit
1982 - Ernest Buckholz, Mt. Clemens; T. Arthur Treloar, Petoskey
1983 - Leroy Dues, Detroit; Richard Maher, Sturgis
1984 - William Hart, Marquette; Donald Stamats, Caro
1985 - John Cotton, Farmington; Robert James, Warren
1986 - William Robinson, Detroit; Irving Soderland, Norway
1987 - Jack Streidl, Plainwell; Wayne Hellenga, Decatur
1988 - Jack Johnson, Dearborn; Alan Williams, North Adams
1989 - Walter Bazylewicz, Berkley; Dennis Kiley, Jackson
1990 - Webster Morrison, Pickford; Herbert Quade, Benton Harbor
1991 - Clifford Buckmaster, Petoskey; Donald Domke, Northville
1992 - William Maskill, Kalamazoo; Thomas G. McShannock, Muskegon
1993 - Roy A. Allen Jr., Detroit; John Duncan, Cedarville
1994 - Kermit Ambrose, Royal Oak
1995 - Bob Perry, Lowell
1996 - Charles H. Jones, Royal Oak
1997 - Michael A. Foster, Richland; Robert G. Grimes, Battle Creek
1998 - Lofton C. Greene, River Rouge; Joseph J. Todey, Essexville
1999 - Bernie Larson, Battle Creek
2000 - Blake Hagman, Kalamazoo; Jerry Cvengros, Escanaba
2001 - Norm Johnson, Bangor; George Lovich, Canton
2002 - John Fundukian, Novi
2003 - Ken Semelsberger, Port Huron
2004 - Marco Marcet, Frankenmuth
2005 - Jim Feldkamp, Troy
2006 - Dan McShannock, Midland; Dail Prucka, Monroe
2007 - Keith Eldred, Williamston; Tom Hickman, Spring Lake
2008 - Jamie Gent, Haslett; William Newkirk, Sanford Meridian
2009 - Paul Ellinger, Cheboygan
2010 - Rudy Godefroidt, Hemlock; Mike Boyd, Waterford
2011 - Eric C. Federico, Trenton
2012 - Bill Mick, Midland
2013 - Jim Gilmore, Tecumseh; Dave Hutton, Grandville
2014 - Dan Flynn, Escanaba
2015 - Hugh Matson, Saginaw
2016 - Gary Hice, Petoskey; Gina Mazzolini, Lansing
2017 - Chuck Nurek, Rochester Hills
2018 - Gary Ellis, Allegan
2019 - Jim Derocher, Negaunee; Fredrick J. Smith, Stevensville
2020 - Michael Garvey, Lawton
2021 – Leroy Hackley Jr., Byron Center; Patti Tibaldi, Traverse City
2022 – Bruce Horsch, Houghton
2023 – Karen Leinaar, Frankfort
2024 – Sean Jacques, Calumet
2025 – Kris Isom, Adrian
PHOTOS (Top) Fenton's Mike Bakker monitors activities from the field during a Tigers football game. (Middle) Bakker, left, takes a photo with daughter Paige and wife Denise as Paige holds the Flint Metro League volleyball championship trophy. (Photos provided by Mike Bakker.)