Cohen Champions Treatment, Technology
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 10, 2014
Abby Cohen was looking for a problem to solve.
Two years later, she’s potentially only one more year from helping relieve a medical dilemma faced by 25 million Americans.
And the most impressive part might be that she graduated from high school a mere five years ago and is 23 years old.
Cohen, a 2009 MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award winner as a senior at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood, certainly could be called proactive, going back to her days as a volleyball, basketball and soccer standout for the Cranes. Less than a year after graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., she’s co-founder and co-CEO of Sparo Labs, which seeks to provide asthma sufferers with a proactive way of monitoring their symptoms and improving their treatments.
“Everyone has a different perspective on how to go about doing things,” Cohen said. “For me, growing up trying to improve in sports, I’d write down a list of things to do every day and actually do them, follow through. That aspect of always wanting to get better, and improve, is something that’s carried through to the rest of what we do at Sparo and in general how I approach things.”
On March 22, the MHSAA and Farm Bureau Insurance will recognize a 25th class of Scholar-Athlete Award winners. In advance of the celebration, Second Half has caught up with some of the hundreds who have been recognized (see additional links at the bottom of this page).
Cohen, who also served on the MHSAA Student Advisory Council from 2007-09, chose Washington based on its strong engineering problem and successful women’s basketball program. She studied bio-medical engineering and was a freshman on the Bears team that defeated Hope College for the Division III national championship in 2010.
But that first season was followed by a series of ankle injuries that required reconstructive surgery – and, effectively, ended her collegiate sports career. She still can play pick-up games, but four-hour daily practices and the other commitments of a varsity program would've been too much.
She missed basketball. But the end of her competitive career on the court, as it turned out, allowed more time to dive into a new pursuit – and, in her words, “work with another kind of team.”
“I’m a big believer in everything happens for a reason,” Cohen said. “It was disappointing having to have surgery to make everything feel better, for the long term, not just basketball. For me at that time, I didn't appreciate that with the extra time I could have, I could take the time to try new things, make the world a better place.”
Cohen planned at first to eventually become a physician. She shadowed a number of doctors, but decided that in the long run she could have a greater impact as an engineer designing products physicians could use.
In addition to her classwork, she helped form an extracurricular entrepreneurial group – and set out for an issue in need of repair. She and her now-business partner Andrew Brimer didn't realize how many Americans are affected by asthma, “that respiratory diseases are the only ones getting worse over time rather than getting better. That although technology is improving, why it’s not making a dent.”
They set out find out and make that dent themselves.
Through a series of interviews with patients, doctors, respiratory therapists and others in the field, Cohen and Brimer got an idea what could help – an affordable, easy-to-use device to allow patients to monitor on their own their symptoms so they can better manage them and the treatments to help. Cohen and Brimer designed a device that plugs into a smart phone and allows patients to blow into it like a whistle and register lung function readings – while also collecting data on medications, pollen counts, and other variables that affect lung function. Their device also should dent the health care costs that go with current testing, which generally requires an office visit.
Sparo will work over the next six months to improve its app interface and user experience, and then submit for Food and Drug Administration approval at the end of this year or the beginning of 2015 – with the hope it will then become available to patients later next spring.
Cohen is based in St. Louis, where she and Brimer have been able to work with three large local hospitals and within a nurturing entrepreneurial community. Brimer's brother owns a tech education company in New York which has provided additional support as she and Brimer discussed what was possible. “We were talking to patients and physicians, and it just seemed like the right thing to do,” Cohen said. “If we weren’t going to do this, who was?”
Cohen and Brimer have won 9 of 11 entrepreneurship grant competitions they've entered, netting more than $300,000 to get their lab rolling and allow them to hire two more engineers. Long-term, today’s work could just be the start of what Cohen hopes eventually will reach into developing countries as well.
She remains in touch with a number of teachers at Cranbrook-Kingswood – also, her mother Sheila Cohen teaches sixth-grade math at the school – and she spoke there at the end of 2013 as part of a TEDx event.
As she continues to build her team, Cohen is reminded of additional lessons she learned on the courts and soccer field – including a major one that will continue to pay as Sparo expands.
“Learning how to work on a team, with really different personalities, different people who all play different roles,” Cohen said. “That really came from sports – the ability to work with people and reach one common goal.”
Click to read the series' first installments:
- 25 Years Later, Scholar Athletes Shine On
- On Call as Doctor, Director, Mom
- "Mailloux Management" Goes Global
- Goorhouse Gives Back at Home
PHOTO: Abby Cohen (10) helps her teammates hoist a trophy while a player at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood in 2009. (Photo courtesy of Cranbrook-Kingswood.)
East Kentwood’s Brumels, Gull Lake’s Furlong, East Lansing’s Norris Selected for Bush Awards
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
May 23, 2025
East Kentwood athletic director Blaine Brumels, Richland Gull Lake athletic director Karyn Furlong and East Lansing athletic director Nikki Norris are widely regarded as exemplary event hosts after decades of managing countless Michigan High School Athletic Association tournament competitions at their respective schools – and also thriving in leadership positions at the Finals championship level.
Their expertise in fulfilling this essential role in MHSAA postseason play is among several reasons Brumels, Furlong and Norris have been honored as the 2025 recipients of the MHSAA’s Allen W. Bush Award.
Al Bush served as executive director of the MHSAA for 10 years. The award honors individuals for past and continuing service to school athletics as a coach, administrator, official, trainer, doctor or member of the media. The award was developed to bring recognition to people who are giving and serving locally, regionally or statewide without a lot of attention. This is the 34th year of the award.
For 20 years, Brumels has directed the athletic department for what is currently the largest (by enrollment) school in the MHSAA high school membership with nearly 3,000 students and 30 varsity athletic teams. This is his 34th year total with Kentwood schools and 40th in education.
Brumels came to his longtime district after six years at Fremont, where he taught and coached track & field, football and junior varsity basketball. He spent his first year in Kentwood at the middle school level before moving to the high school as a teacher, and he later assisted in managing athletic events before eventually becoming the athletic director.
Under Brumels’ leadership, East Kentwood has hosted several MHSAA postseason events including Track & Field and Soccer Finals; this season’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Track & Field Finals will be competed there on May 31. Brumels also has served on several MHSAA committees over his tenure, assisting with selection of basketball and volleyball sites, competitive cheer judges and annual awards. He was named the Regional 4 Athletic Director of the Year in 2016 by the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA).
Brumels has filled several more roles at East Kentwood, including as department chair and MEAP coordinator for mathematics, curriculum council representative, intramural and KIDS program director and senior class advisor, and he has also served on the board for Byron Center Christian School. Brumels earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics with an emphasis on education from Hope College in 1985 and his master’s in educational leadership from Grand Valley State University in 1992.
“Blaine Brumels is a consummate professional who embraces the philosophy of educational athletics as well as any athletic director in the state – that sports can provide lifelong lessons whether students are state champions or role players on a team,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “Blaine has been a significant part of passing on those lessons not just through athletics but in several roles as a champion of Kentwood Public Schools and loyal member of the Kentwood community for more than three decades.”
Furlong has served as athletic director at Richland Gull Lake High School for 11 years and has contributed to her district for nearly three decades, as she also served as varsity volleyball coach for 19 seasons before stepping down after the 2014 season.
As athletic director, Furlong has served on several MHSAA committees including those for officials and site selection for various sports, and she’s part of the administrative teams at the Girls Volleyball and Team Wrestling Finals. She’s currently serving as the MIAAA Region 5 representative, and she’s served as Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference (SMAC) chairperson for volleyball, competitive cheer, golf, wrestling and basketball. Furlong was named Michigan Wrestling Coaches Athletic Director of the Year in 2023 and Region 5 Athletic Director of the Year by the MIAAA in 2024.
As a coach, Furlong was named Wolverine Conference Coach of the Year multiple seasons and twice Regional Coach of the Year by the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association (MIVCA). She also has been a registered official the last two school years, currently in volleyball, cross country and track & field.
Prior to taking over at Gull Lake, Furlong served as director of volleyball for nearly 12 years at Courthouse Athletic Center in Kalamazoo and was an event coordinator for the Gull Lake athletic department for two years. She has helped coordinate youth wrestling and basketball programs in the Gull Lake community and worked with the Gull Lake Area Rotary on several events. She earned her bachelor’s degree in finance and business law in 1997 and master’s in sport and fitness administration management in 2003, both from Western Michigan University.
“Karyn Furlong genuinely cares about enriching her community and the kids growing up in Gull Lake. Whether it’s in the building of facilities or managing of programs or hiring of personnel, she always has the end goal of helping students in her school become better people,” Uyl said. “She’s also become a go-to voice in the athletic director community, especially in southwestern Michigan, on how to host events and provide great hospitality to visiting teams and their spectators. It’s that dedication and care that has made her an admired leader locally and across the state.”
Norris is completing her seventh year as athletic director at East Lansing High School after eight in that position for Corunna Public Schools. She previously taught for six years at Carson City-Crystal and then 11 at Corunna before taking over the Cavaliers’ athletic department during the summer of 2010. She also coached volleyball at multiple levels over more than 15 years including Corunna’s varsity for seven seasons over two tenures, and coached high school basketball for a combined eight years during her time at the two schools where she taught. Additionally, she has served as an MHSAA registered volleyball official for a total of 15 years.
Her schools have hosted various MHSAA Tournament events in multiple sports, and she’s served on every type of MHSAA Committee, providing input on a variety of sports and selection of tournament sites, officials and Scholar-Athlete Award honorees. She also annually contributes as a tournament administrator at the Girls Volleyball and Softball/Baseball/Girls Soccer Finals.
Norris served as MIAAA president in 2021 and 2022 and was named Region 7 Athletic Director of the Year in 2016. She has received “Certified Athletic Administrator” designation from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) and was honored with the MHSAA Women In Sports Leadership Award in 2020.
A 1987 graduate of Ithaca High School, Norris received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Alma College and then earned master’s degrees in biological sciences from Michigan State University and educational leadership from American College of Education.
“Nikki Norris is the ultimate utility player in athletic administration. She knows the ins and outs of every sporting event and understands which problems are unique to high school athletics and how to solve them,” Uyl said. “She’s a school-first, sports-second type of athletic director who prioritizes the development of the whole student, and that philosophy and knowledge have made her very well-respected in her field.”
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.