Special Year Thanks to No Specialization
August 7, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
As we embark on another sports-filled school year Monday, we can look to a recent Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central grad for the value of a school year filled with sports.
As specialization at the highs school level continues to be debated, Bryce Windham will start his college baseball career this fall at Division I Old Dominion University – after playing baseball but also football and basketball for the Falcons.
The MHSAA has long advocated athletes taking on as many sports as they have interest instead of focusing on just one in pursuit of a college scholarship – a position that’s received plenty of public backing of late, be it from stars of the U.S. women’s soccer team after their World Cup championship run or former Lansing Waverly multi-sport athlete John Smoltz during his enshrinement in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
Enter Windham – who easily could’ve been excused for focusing on baseball, or even basketball as his dad is the St. Mary’s varsity boys coach. Instead, Bryce quarterbacked the football team to last season’s Division 6 championship – breaking Ithaca’s national-best 69-game winning streak in the Final – before being named Class C Player of the Year by The Associated Press in basketball and earning a Most Valuable Player honor at the baseball state coaches association all-star game at Comerica Park this spring.
All three of Windham's teams reached at least the MHSAA Quarterfinals.
“His participation in football and basketball helped land a Division 1 baseball scholarship to Old Dominion. They were able to see his athleticism in basketball and toughness in football, and ODU’s coach loved it,” dad and hoops coach Randy Windham said.
“He probably would’ve given up football, and that ended up his greatest memory by winning a state championship.”
Click to read about Windham’s multitude of accomplishments as reported last month by the Monroe Evening News.
Honors Abound
National coaching honors were bestowed on a trio of Michigan coaches over the summer:
- Retired Trenton ice hockey coach Mike Turner – the winningest hockey coach in MHSAA history with a record of 629-126-52 from 1974-81 and then 1995-2014 – was named National Coach of the Year in Special Sports by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association. His teams won 11 MHSAA titles and finished runner-up four times. “I was there when the MHSAA added hockey as one of their sanctioned sports and crowned their first MHSAA state championships in 1975. At that time there were 60-70 high school teams participating, and now there are 170,” Turner said. “It has been great to be a part of the advancements made in the sport of high school hockey, with more teams participating, more player development, and more opportunities that exist for players after high school.”
- Traverse City Central boys track and field and cross country coach John Lober won his second national coaching honor of the 2014-15 school year, named the NHSACA Coach of the Year for track and field to go with a previous honor earned in January from the National Federation of State High School Associations. He has coached the Traverse City Central boys track and field team since 1977 and also the boys cross country team since 1989. His 1992 track team won the Class A championship, and he has coached 17 individual MHSAA Finals champions. He was inducted into the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2006.
- Ann Arbor Pioneer assistant girls swimming and diving coach Liz Hill was named the Assistant Coach of the Year for all girls sports by the NHSACA. Hill, a former All-American at the University of Michigan and standout sprinter at Pioneer, began assisting her husband Denny Hill in 1983 before becoming his fulltime assistant a few seasons later. Together they’ve led the Pioneers girls to 15 MHSAA team titles, the last two as co-head coaches.
Michigan Mourns
Fremont and the high school athletic community statewide mourned the death July 21 of longtime coach Rich Tompkins, who led Fremont’s boys cross country teams to six MHSAA cross country championships including three and a runner-up finish during his last decade of coaching before retiring in 1997.
The Muskegon Chronicle reported that his boys and girls cross country teams and boys track and field team combined for 45 league championships, with his boys cross country team winning 116 straight duals from 1977-88. Tompkins was executive director of the Michigan High School Coaches Association for more than a decade and served on its board for more than two decades.
Click to read more from the Chronicle on Tompkins’ legacy.
Officials in the News
The Monroe County Officials Association took to the county fair to encourage passers-by to “Be the Referee” – and received 47 sign-ups from people interested in the avocation. Visitors to an MCOA booth at the fair were told in some detail what is involved with being an MHSAA official, and those who then signed up to find out more about officiating football, basketball, baseball or softball (sports the MCOA trains for and schedules) will be invited to an orientation session where they will become eligible for one of 20 complimentary registration fees for this school year.
The West Michigan Officials Association marked a decade of support at the start of this summer for the Visually Impaired Sports and Activity Day, sponsored by the Helen DeVos Children’s Foundation. The WMOA has contributed nearly $18,000 to the event over the last 10 years as well as taking part in the event, which includes a number of sports and other activities.
The Saginaw Athletic Officials Association sent along this photo of five members who worked 2013-14 MHSAA Finals, from left: Mark Jarlock (baseball), Tom Behmlander (softball), Scott Helmka (football), Dale Brown (softball and football) and Mark Schoenow (football). The Baseball Final was Jarlock’s first; the other officials had worked Finals in the past.
PHOTO: (Top) Monroe St. Mary quarterback Bryce Windham unloads a pass during last season's Division 6 Final win over Ithaca at Ford Field.
NFHS Hall of Famers: Multi-Sport Experience Makes Major Difference
By
The NFHS Voice
National Federation of State High School Associations
July 28, 2026
The theory that athletes in high school need to specialize in one sport in an out-of-school program to progress to the next level was not the theme from the five athletes inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame last month in Salt Lake City, Utah.
At a press conference preceding the 43rd Hall of Fame induction ceremony, five former extraordinary high school athletes – all of whom later excelled at the college, professional and for a few Olympic levels – delivered resounding messages about the importance of playing multiple sports within school-based programs.
Joe Carter, who was a four-sport standout in football, basketball, baseball and track at Millwood High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, long before his stellar pro baseball career, said he might never have been a successful pro baseball player without his multiple sport career at Millwood.
“If I had played baseball all year long, I wouldn’t have been a professional baseball player because I would have burned out,” Carter said. “Coaches will tell you that if you don’t come out for football in the spring instead of playing another sport, you will be passed up. This is not the case because if you’re good they will find you. I will take an athlete who played two or three sports over an athlete who just played one sport because those guys know how to take advantage of a situation and know how to adjust.”
Jordan Larson, a three-sport participant at Logan View High School in Hooper, Nebraska, before settling into volleyball and leading the University of Nebraska to an NCAA championship and playing in four consecutive Olympics, also pointed to multiple sports as a reason for success.
“I can’t emphasize it enough – playing multiple sports helped me personally,” Larson said. “It helped me adapt and adjust as I got older. I can’t recommend it enough from a young age.
“Playing multiple sports helped shape me health-wise from a longevity standpoint. There’s something to be said for the mind. If you’re on the grind in the same sport, burnout will come.”
Another volleyball standout in the 2026 class was Alisha Glass Childress, who also played basketball at Leland (Michigan) High School and who would later lead Penn State University to three consecutive NCAA volleyball titles and team with Larson on the U.S. squad at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
“Playing for your high school team is so important – it’s such a different experience,” Childress said. “Being in the same program for four years and getting to know the athletes you’re with, I felt like it was family.
“High school was a beautiful time and the beginning of a love affair with sports. I fell in love with the sport of volleyball but also tried a lot of different sports. I played basketball as well. For me, high school is when you start to have an understanding of yourself – reflecting on who you want to be or what you want to achieve.
“The life lessons you learn along the way are so important. The majority of the athletes on our team did not continue on to play past high school. The life lessons you learn as a high school athlete – being a leader, accountability, goal-setting – carry with you the rest of your life.”
Patrick Willis was one of Tennessee’s top two-way football players at Hollow Rock-Bruceton Central High School who also played basketball and baseball before his hall of fame football career with the San Francisco 49ers.
“Coming from a small town with two red lights, I would say the most fun I had growing up was playing sports,” Willis said. “Life can throw a lot of things at you, and to be able to adjust is amazing. In sports, we’re able to learn these things – the discipline, the toughness, the perseverance. I wanted to be a representative that anything is possible, and it’s not just the ones from the big cities or towns, but ones from small towns also.”
Another proponent of playing multiple sports was Krissy Wendell Pohl, the most dominant player in girls ice hockey in Minnesota history and the national record-holder in goals scored in a season who went to a stellar career at the University of Minnesota and won a silver medal at the 2002 Olympics. In addition to her excellence in ice hockey, Wendell Pohl also played tennis, baseball and softball.
“It was so special for me to be able to play multiple sports,” said Wendell Pohl. “For me, playing baseball, softball and hockey, you had different groups of friends, different roles on different teams, and all of that had an impact and you don’t realize it until later.
“High school is the purest form of sport. What you learn in high school, as you’re learning and growing and developing, those things stay with you. The people who impact you in high school – you will never forget that.”
We urge coaches today to take the message from these five outstanding athletes about playing multiple sports to heart and make that option available to athletes in their schools.
These vital programs help to shape young student-athletes into successful parents, citizens and leaders of our nation for years to come.