MHSAA's Roberts Elected to NFHS Board
July 12, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts has been elected to serve a four-year term on the Board of Directors for the National Federation of State High School Associations, the national governing body for high school athletics and activities.
Roberts has served as executive director since 1986 and is the longest-tenured active state association executive director among NFHS members. The MHSAA is one of the nation’s largest state associations with more than 1,400 high schools and junior high/middle schools. The NFHS, in its press release on new officers and board members, called Roberts "one of the nation’s most articulate advocates for education-based activity programs."
After graduating from P. J. Jacobs High School in Stevens Point, Wis., and Dartmouth College and attending graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Roberts taught English and coached football at high schools in Milwaukee and Denver until 1973, when he joined the staff of the NFHS, which at that time was located in Elgin, Illinois.
From 1973 to 1980, Roberts developed the NFHS’ volleyball, swimming & diving and ice hockey rules programs, and re-codified the Soccer Rules Book. Later, as assistant director, he was in charge of public, legislative and judicial affairs for the NFHS.
Roberts joined the staff of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) in 1981 and was named executive vice president of the FCA in 1984. He served in that capacity until 1986, when he was named executive director of the MHSAA.
Roberts served a previous term on the NFHS Board of Directors from 1996 to 2000 and has been chairman of the NFHS Network Board of Directors since 2013. He also has served on two previous NFHS Strategic Planning Committees and is past chair of the board of directors of the Michigan Society of Association Executives.
PHOTO: MHSAA Executive Director Jack Roberts congratulates an MHSAA/Farm Bureau Scholar-Athlete Award winner at the Breslin Center.
Skip the lines: Get Finals Tickets Here
February 28, 2012
Avoid lines at the ticket window by ordering and downloading your MHSAA Finals E-tickets for cheer, individual wrestling, girls and boys basketball from our partner vendor web sites.
Hockey, Cheer and Girls Basketball Finals are on sale now, with Boys Basketball Finals tickets going on sale at 10 a.m. March 5. See below on how to order each:
- Girls Basketball Finals tickets are on sale either online or via phone. Tickets can be ordered online by clicking this Breslin Center Box Office link or over the phone by calling (800) 968-2737. Tickets cost $8, with a $3 service charge applied to each order. All girls basketball seats are general admission. The Girls Basketball Semifinals are March 15-16, with all Four Finals on March 17.
- Boys Basketball Finals tickets go on sale via the Breslin Center Box Office on March 5. Tickets can be ordered online by clicking this Breslin Center Box Office link or over the phone by calling (800) 968-2737. As with girls basketball, tickets cost $8, with a $3 service charge applied to each order. However, Boys Basketball Semifinals and Finals seats are reserved in Breslin’s lower bowl, with general admission for the upper deck. The Boys Basketball Semifinals are March 22-23, with all four Finals on March 24.
- Cheer tickets are available via online vendor TicketLeap. They cost $7 – plus a 97-cent processing fee per ticket – for each of the four sessions, with a separate ticket required for entry to each. The Division 1 Final is 6 p.m. Friday at the Grand Rapids Delta Plex, with Division 2 at 10 a.m. Saturday and followed that day by Division 4 at 2 p.m. and Division 3 at 6 p.m. Cheer online ticket sales end at 4 p.m. Friday. The paper E-ticket must be presented at the gate.
- Hockey tickets are available via online vendor TicketLeap. They cost $6 per Semifinal session and $7 per Final session, plus the 97-cent processing fee per ticket. Each division’s Semifinals and each of the three Finals count as separate sessions. The Division 2 Semifinals begin at 5 p.m. March 8 at Plymouth’s Compuware Arena, with the Division 3 Semifinals at noon March 9 and Division 1 at 6 p.m. that day. The Division 2 Final is at 10 a.m. March 10, followed by Division 3 at 2 p.m. and Division 1 at 6 p.m. The paper E-ticket must be presented at the gate. Hockey online ticket sales end two hours before each session.