Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics
Michigan High School Athletic Association - Promoting Educational Athletics |
|
User Sections
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Feb. 4, 2008 Women In Sports Leadership Conference Approaches EAST LANSING, Mich. – Feb. 4 – The 18th Women In Sports Leadership Conference, sponsored by the Michigan High School Athletic Association, will take place Sunday and Monday, Feb. 10-11, at the Sheraton Lansing Hotel, featuring four dynamic keynote speakers. The Women In Sports Leadership Conference is the first, largest and longest-running program of its type in the nation. The program annually attracts upwards of 500 participants, most of them high school female student-athletes, who are interested in pursuing careers in the athletic world as a coach, official or administrator. Two judges will be the general session speakers on the first day of the conference. Judge Sara J. Smolenski will deliver the opening address. Judge Smolenski is a former athlete who played basketball at Grand Rapids Community College and the University of Michigan. She was appointed Chief Judge of the 63rd District Court of Michigan in 1996 and was recognized in 2003 by the Grand Rapids Business Journal as one of the 50 more influential women in West Michigan. In the afternoon, Judge Janelle A. Lawless will be the second keynote speaker. Judge Lawless is the Presiding Judge of the Family Division in the 30th Circuit Court of Michigan. She received degrees from Central Michigan University and Cooley Law School. On the second day of the conference, Jacquie Joseph, softball coach at Michigan State University; and Denise Ilitch, president of Ilitch Enterprises, will be the general session speakers. A Central Michigan University graduate, Joseph is in her 15th season at the Spartans’ coach. Ilitch is also a member of Clark Hill’s Business and Government Policy groups, owner of Denise Ilitch Designs and publisher of Ambassador Magazine. Workshops offered during the conference include topics on coaching, injuries in general and knee injuries in particular, leadership skills, officiating, sports nutrition, careers in athletics, and interactive sessions of Yoga, Pilates and Aqua Aerobics. The first day of the conference will conclude with a banquet at which Jane Bos, a sports writer at the Grand Rapids Press, will be honored as the annual recipient of the Women In Sports Leadership Award. The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,800 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 approximately 1.6 million spectators each year. -0- MEDIA ADVISORY – Additional information about the conference, including a complete schedule of general sessions and workshops; workshop speaker thumbnail biographies; and workshop descriptions, can be found on the Women In Sports Leadership Home Page of the MHSAA Web site. A press release announcing Jane Bos as the recipient of the annual Women In Sports Leadership Award can be found on the Press Releases Home Page of the MHSAA Web site. Media interested in attending the event should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office as soon as possible. AT&T, Farm Bureau Insurance, Henry Ford Health System and MEEMIC Insurance |