MHSAA Senior Assistant Director Frushour to Receive NFHS Citation

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

January 23, 2026

Andy Frushour, a senior assistant director for the Michigan High School Athletic Association, is one of eight high school association leaders who has been selected to receive a Citation from the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) during this summer’s annual meeting.

The Citation is one of the NFHS’ highest honors and recognizes recipients for their contributions to the NFHS, state high school associations, athletic director and coaching professions, the officiating avocation and fine arts/performing arts programs.

Frushour is in his 25th year at the MHSAA and currently directs the association’s efforts in marketing, girls and boys soccer, and student services. His tenure has been most notably defined by his leadership in making the MHSAA a national trendsetter in digital initiatives and communication, and he has spearheaded several pioneering efforts to bring student voices into decisions affecting their activities.

After beginning his tenure in the communications department, Frushour created the MHSAA’s marketing and brand team – which remains unique among state associations and aims to tell the story of school sports. The team tackles everything from media communications, sports information, website content and social media to ticketing, corporate sales and merchandise. As part of his digital branding contributions, Frushour has served as the lead contributor on every website redesign since 1999, created the Michigan Power Rating (MPR) formula now used for seeding in eight MHSAA Tournament sports, and led Michigan’s efforts to exclusively use digital tickets for postseason events.

“Sometimes the most valuable player  on a baseball team is the utility player – somebody who plays but also excels at a number of different positions. For the last 25 years, Andy clearly has done that – from student leadership, to running a sport, to branding, to business decisions,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “He’s someone who is competent, respected and has become a huge part of MHSAA history during his 25 years with us.”

Frushour also has steered the MHSAA to adopt a more prominent focus on students through the creation of several popular programs, including the Student Advisory Council, a series of annual interactive sportsmanship summits and captains clinics, and the Battle of the Fans student section competition. Building off that work, he has developed and created four free NFHS Learn courses geared toward team captains.

Frushour also has served on NFHS committees for soccer, student services, summer meeting and strategic planning, and spoken at several summer meetings and one NFHS winter meeting, and at the National Athletic Directors Conference.

After graduating in 1995 from Mason High School (Mich.) – where he played baseball and golf – Frushour attended Hope College, where he majored in business administration and minored in communications, graduating in 1999. He received an MBA in sports business from Arizona State in 2003.

Statement on Spectators, Winter Contact Sports

January 22, 2021

Second Half

The following statements are attributable to Mark Uyl, executive director of the Michigan High School Athletic Association, in response to today’s announcements by Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) on the topics of spectators and Winter contact sports. 

Governor Whitmer and MDHHS announced that sports arenas with capacities of at least 10,000 spectators may allow up to 500 to attend events. However, no additional tickets will be sold for today and Saturday’s 11-Player Football Finals at Ford Field. 

“We have been planning these Finals for weeks to include immediate family, and unfortunately this isn’t a process we can adjust midstream,” Uyl said. “Distributing more tickets would put stress on those plans and Ford Field staffing, and force schools to make more hard decisions on who will be able to attend, but at the last second instead of with prior planning.”

Governor Whitmer and MDHHS also announced that Winter contact sports – including MHSAA activities in girls and boys basketball, competitive cheer, ice hockey and wrestling – must remain non-contact through Feb. 21. The previous emergency order was set to expire at the end of January and would’ve allowed those sports to begin contact activities Feb. 1. 

“We found out about this decision at 9:30 a.m. like everyone else, and we will address it as quickly as possible after taking the weekend to collect more information,” Uyl said. “We did not anticipate this delay in winter contact practices and competition, and today’s announcement has created many new questions.

“Obviously, this is disappointing to thousands of athletes who have been training with their teams over the last week and watching teams in other states around Michigan play for the last two months.”