Expert Teammates Fill Health Roster
January 2, 2020
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
Teamwork is a necessity in athletics. The MHSAA has put together the beginnings of a solid roster to combat mental health ailments throughout schools in the state.
Among the experts listed on the MHSAA Mental Health Speakers Bureau are Christy Buck, executive director, and Cat Lanting, program coordinator at the Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan; and Brooke Buys, mental and behavioral health specialist and founder of BLND Health. They already are serving MHSAA schools in various capacities.
Through personal appearances, promotional videos and staff availability, both organizations emphasize the same strategy when tackling mental health issues: recognition and treatment from within the school buildings and districts.
“We wanted to create self-starting kits that anyone in the district can implement,” said Lanting. “We have in-person trainings and opportunities for students to get together – students talking to students – for high schools and for middle schools.”
Lanting coordinates the be nice.® Action Plan, founded by Buck. The plan calls for people to “notice, invite, challenge and empower” when recognizing changes in those close to them.
“It’s an attractive statement, but the key to the action plan is that it’s transferable. It can work from the pre-K level to senior citizens,” she said. “We want people to notice change, invite people into the conversation, challenge stigmas, and empower themselves with knowledge surrounding mental health.”
Buys, meanwhile, is one of a team of behavioral health specialists delivering messages to student-athletes around the state. Many of her associates in BLND (pronounced “blend”) not only talk the talk, but have walked the walk as collegiate athletes.
“The best course of action for administrators, teachers, coaches is to strive to build and maintain trust with the student-athlete; have genuine, non-judgmental conversations to include open-ended questions and authentic concern,” said Buys, who played soccer at Kalamazoo College.
Both be nice.® and BLND staff members made appearances at schools this year to assist in promoting recognition. A 90-second video produced by be nice.® was included in all MHSAA online rules meetings this year, featuring endorsements from University of Michigan coaches Jim Harbaugh and Carol Hutchins and Michigan State University coaches Mark Dantonio and Tom Izzo.
“When our team met with Mark (Uyl) and some athletic directors in Spring 2019, the room was filled with people who have just started to recognize mental health as an issue. The challenge was to deliver a 90-second video promoting the be nice.® Action Plan with a quick turnaround so it was ready for the fall rules meetings,” said Lanting.
She encourages people to visit be nice.org and “take the be nice.® pledge.”
“be nice.® started in 2010, and when people first see it they think, ‘bullying prevention,’ but really it is an action plan that is evidence-based,” Lanting said. “The be nice.® Action Plan can be used anywhere – in the workplace, community organizations – but schools is where we started and where we are currently having the most impact.”
Connecting with the most people possible is the goal across the board. Buys encourages schools to utilize the “one-stop shopping method” in the BLND programming.
“An external referral service that is qualified, efficient, dynamic, and integrated in nature – like BLND – helps provide a one-stop shop for student-athletes and parents to receive the support they need,” said Buys.
Lanting agrees, stating, “The more students and parents become familiar with some of the signs and symptoms, the better. Coaches and teammates might be the first to notice a change in someone’s behavior whether through daily interaction or social media activity.”
Buys and company have noticed a few recent trends leading to school-aged anxiety and stress, and have people in place to visit groups and lead discussions.
“The signs and symptoms can be very individualized, but some general factors may include isolation, irritability, drastic changes to an individual’s common mood or behavior,” noted Buys. “Students can also be affected by major life changes such as parent divorce, break-up with significant other, changing schools, things of that nature.”
When Lanting receives inquiries from individual coaches regarding the be nice.® program, she encourages them to get entire teams or districts involved, because, “it’s a K-12 initiative, and sports is really a great place to start.”
Sport participation offers a different set of variables. Student-athletes enjoy additional support and guidance, but there is a flip side.
“Student-athletes do have access to more adult guidance through coaches, and certainly enjoy inclusion as part of a team, but they also tend to be more at risk for anxiety,” Lanting said.
Buys points out several reasons for this, including added expectations – whether from within or from peers, parents and coaches. They are also busier than many others.
“Time management is an issue for all of us, but student-athletes can have difficulties finding that rhythm,” Buys said. “This can cause a lot of anxiety if an area of the athlete’s life that they value is perceived as not getting the attention it needs.”
Another source of stress more likely to affect athletes is injuries.
“One of the biggest challenges in the athlete population dealing with stress and anxiety is the strong relationship between stress and injury,” said Buys. “Susceptibility to injury as well as the length of time for recovery are affected by stress.”
Identifying physical conditions is much simpler than recognizing behavioral ailments. That’s why it’s important for groups like BLND and be nice.® to teach the school population to self-diagnose.
Lanting coordinated a be nice.® football game between Holland/Zeeland-area high schools last fall, and is planning a similar event during a Fennville-Saugatuck boys basketball game this winter.
“We see all the ‘pink-out’ games and events for other causes, and that’s great,” Lanting said. “But a person in high school is so much more likely to be affected by mental health than suffer a physical ailment. That’s why the student-led part of this is so important; they tell us when things happen that might trigger certain behaviors.”
PHOTOS: (Top) be nice. founder Christy Buck (left) and program coordinator Cat Lanting pose with MSU men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo during production of a promotional video this summer. (Middle) The BLND Health Detroit Metro Team, including founder Brooke Buys (seated middle, second row from bottom.)
Granlund's Voice Continues to Tell Story in 56th Year Serving Clarkston Schools
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
February 13, 2025
CLARKSTON — When many people think of Clarkston as a community, high school and athletic program, they understandably think of Dan Fife.
After all, Fife was a hometown hero as a standout basketball and baseball player at Clarkston High School, a college basketball player at Michigan, a professional baseball player and ultimately, the longtime boys basketball coach and athletic director who built that hoops program into a state power.
But what some might not know is that there is another prominent figure connected to the school and athletic program, one who has served the community since the year after Fife graduated from high school in 1967.
It’s hard to imagine anyone having Clarkston more in his heart and soul than Neil Granlund.
The 79-year-old Granlund has been a part of the Clarkston community since starting his teaching career in the district in 1968. He is best-known at the moment not just as an announcer within the athletic program, but as pretty much THE announcer for Clarkston athletics.
Granlund is the main announcer for contests in football, boys and girls basketball, hockey, boys and girls soccer, and track & field. He also helps out announcing for volleyball, wrestling, lacrosse and field hockey.
And those are just the high school sports within the community. Granlund also announces middle school track events.
Granlund took over the football and basketball duties in 2018 after the longtime “Voice of the Wolves,” Dale Ryan, retired. For all those years, Granlund was Ryan’s right-hand man spotting in the press box and working the clock.
When Ryan stepped away, it was a no-brainer to have Granlund take over, even if he was seemingly announcing every other sport for the school.
When Granlund stepped into Ryan’s role for football and basketball, he said Fife offered some advice.
“He gave me instructions on what to and how he wanted it done,” Granlund said. “He told me that you’re not the cheerleader. He didn’t want nicknames for the kids. Just keep it strait-laced and treat both schools fairly. I’ve always stuck to that.”
Granlund said announcing Clarkston football games when the Wolves played at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor and doing Clarkston team introductions when they advanced to championship games at Ford Field have been thrills, adding others in the community have helped make his life easier when switching from sport to sport.
“I had mediocre understanding of the sports, but I’ve had good people to work with,” he said. “In football, you are only as good as your spotter.”
Clarkston as an athletic program has had many memorable moments since 2013, whether it’s been the football team breaking through and winning Division 1 titles in 2013, 2014 and 2017, or Fife finally realizing a lifelong dream by leading the basketball team to Class A titles in 2017 and 2018.
But Granlund said the most memorable moment came during a basketball game at the old high school between Clarkston and historic archival Pontiac Northern.
Clarkston was coached by Fife, while Northern was coached by the legendary Sy Green, and the game was played before the 3-point line.
Granlund said before that game, referees told him that they couldn’t hear the buzzer on the scoreboard.
So they gave Granlund a task.
The referees gave Granlund a towel and said If the game came down to a buzzer-beating shot, Granlund would monitor the clock and the action on the court to see if the player beat the clock with his shot. Granlund would then throw the towel to the middle of the court to indicate that the shot counted.
“Sure thing, that’s what did happen,” said Granlund, adding Clarkston was down by two and attempting a game-tying shot. “Clarkston went on to tie the game. I remember when that did go off — I had that panel in front of me so I could see exactly what the time was on the clock when it had left the player’s hand — both Sy Green and Dan Fife looked at me and I gave the signal that the basket was good. That tied the game, and it went into overtime. That was exciting. Everything in that old gym was exciting.”
While that was the most memorable moment to date for Granlund at Clarkston, the one he wants to see most hasn’t happened yet.
Granlund’s biggest dream is to see the boys soccer team win a Finals championship, something it came closest to accomplishing in 2007 when the Wolves lost to East Kentwood in the Division 1 title match.
Granlund was the school’s first boys soccer coach, starting the program in 1983, and helped build it up until he stepped away as coach in 1990. But he has stayed involved as the announcer and a general supporter.
“I wish we could (win a state title) one of these days,” he said. “Having started the soccer program here, I always stuck with it.”
Even though he is nearing 80, Granlund might still be around to one day see the Wolves win that soccer championship. He still teaches a construction tech class for the high school, doing so for the same reason he still announces: He loves being around kids he says are so good to him.
Teaching also gives him an opportunity to spend more time with his grandson, who is in the class.
“He said ‘Grandpa, will you stick around for a couple more years?’” Granlund said. “I said, ‘Oh yeah.’”
As for announcing, listen for his voice to still be a fixture at Clarkston sporting events for the foreseeable future.
“For a while longer,” he said. “I really do enjoy it.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Neil Granlund, speaking into the microphone, announces during a Clarkston home basketball game. (Middle) Granlund, right, takes his place in the Michigan Stadium press box in advance of announcing Clarkston’s “Battle at the Big House” football game. (Below) Granlund narrates the action during another event at the school. (Photos by Larry Wright.)