8 Members Elected to MHSAA Representative Council
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 23, 2026
Elections were completed recently to fill positions on the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s legislative body, its Representative Council, with six members receiving re-election from their respective constituencies and two more members also selected to join the Council beginning with its Fall meeting this December.
Five Council members were re-elected to two-year terms after running unopposed: Petoskey athletic director Mike Bakker for a statewide at-large position, Brighton athletic director John Thompson to represent Class A and B schools in the southeastern section of the Lower Peninsula, Richland Gull Lake athletic director Karyn Furlong to represent Class A and B schools in the southwestern section of the Lower Peninsula, Cadillac athletic director Fred Bryant to represent Class A and B schools in the northern section of the Lower Peninsula and Bangor athletic director Fred Smith to represent junior high and middle schools.
Three Council members were elected to two-year terms by a majority vote. Calumet faculty member and past athletic director Sean Jacques was re-elected to represent Class C and D schools in the Upper Peninsula. Charlevoix athletic director Alex Tiseo – who previously served on the Council while on staff at Marquette High School – was elected to represent Class C and D schools in the northern section of the Lower Peninsula. Mike Evoy – who serves as director of the Catholic High School League and director of well-being for Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Detroit – was elected to represent private and parochial schools.
The Representative Council is the 19-member 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 Council meets three times annually. Five members of the Council convene monthly during the school year to form the MHSAA’s Executive Committee, which reviews appeals of Handbook regulations by member schools.
Additional elections took place to select representatives to the Upper Peninsula Athletic Committee. Lake Linden-Hubbell athletic director Jack Kumpula was re-elected to represent Class D schools, and West Iron County High School and Middle School principal Mike Berutti was re-elected to represent high school athletic coaches. Both of those elections were uncontested.
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.
Century of School Sports: Let the Celebration Begin
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 28, 2024
A milestone is an opportunity to look back, and we’ll surely dip into our history plenty during the 2024-25 school year as the Michigan High School Athletic Association celebrates 100 years of educational athletics.
But an anniversary of this magnitude also provides an ideal opportunity – at an ideal time in MHSAA history – to explain how we provide opportunities for students to participate in sports, and why that work remains vital.
Beginning next week and continuing through our final championship events next spring, we’ll be telling several of these stories as part of our “Century of School Sports” series on MHSAA.com.
School sports have advanced significantly over the last century, of course, but the values we strive to teach in educational athletics have remained consistent – and we’ll detail several of those efforts and how they’ve evolved over the years. There also are more high achievers and difference-makers worthy of recognition than we could ever highlight even during a year-long quest. But we will do our best to tell you about as many as possible.
Perhaps the most valuable lesson we at the East Lansing office learned during the COVID-19 pandemic is that school sports are just as meaningful to communities all over Michigan, and despite any perceived notion they are being pushed to the background by the multitude of non-school sports options that have sprouted over the last few decades.
We care about them enough to make them our life’s work – and we’re excited to tell many stories of what’s been, what we enjoy today and perhaps what’s to come for the next million student-athletes who will learn lifelong lessons studying in our extension of the classroom.