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Retired AD Smith to Receive NFHS Honor
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
November 26, 2019
Retired longtime athletic director Fred Smith has been selected to receive a Citation from the National Federation of State High School Associations during the 50th National Athletic Directors Conference sponsored by the NFHS and National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) on Dec. 16 in National Harbor, Md.
NFHS Citations are presented annually to outstanding athletic directors in recognition of contributions to interscholastic athletics at the local, state and national levels. State associations nominate athletic directors for NFHS Citations, and the NFHS Board of Directors approves recipients.
A 1979 graduate of Western Michigan University, Smith began his career at St. Joseph Lake Michigan Catholic Schools, serving for 11 years. In 1991, he joined Comstock Public Schools, where he served for 16 years. Smith move to Buchanan Community Schools in 2007, where he remained until 2015 before departing for his final stop as athletic director at Benton Harbor for two years. He retired in 2017, serving 38 years total as a teacher, coach and administrator, and resides in Stevensville.
Among his accomplishments, Smith instituted awards programs to recognize three-sport (or more) student-athletes who participated for their full, four-year high school career. Additionally, he assisted with the development of an evaluation tool for coaches and helped provide funding for coaches to attend the MHSAA's Coaches Advancement Program.
Smith was a member of the MHSAA Representative Council from 2005 to 2017, including the final four years as vice president. He also served on several MHSAA committees, and he hosted countless MHSAA District and Regional tournaments. With the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA), he has served as chair of its Professional Development Committee as well as a member of its executive board from 1993 to 1998.
Smith was a member of the NIAAA Board of Directors (1996-98), Credentials Committee (1989-96) and Hall of Fame Screening Committee (2010-18). He has been heavily involved in the NIAAA’s Leadership Training Institute. He is national course chair for LTC 501, and he has presented Leadership Training Courses in 14 states. Smith also served on the NIAAA Executive Director Search Committee, and he has attended 34 National Athletic Directors Conferences.
Smith has been honored with numerous awards. He has previously received the NIAAA Distinguished Service Award, the NIAAA Thomas E. Frederick Award of Excellence, the NIAAA Frank Kovaleski Professional Development Award, and the MHSAA Charles E. Forsythe Award.
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Kick Off Your 2022-23 with MHSAA.com's New Look, Enhanced Experience
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 1, 2022
Welcome to what we hope will be your best – and most welcoming experience yet – on MHSAA.com.
As part of the kickoff of the 2022-23 school year, the Michigan High School Athletic Association is reintroducing this redesigned website filled with enhancements we hope better tell the ever-inspiring story of school sports – while making it easier for visitors to learn how they can be part of these stories as they unfold.
Driving this new fan-focused MHSAA.com are the following:
♦ An opportunity to tell your stories, front and center. You’ll see them immediately on the front page of the website and on pages for all of our sports and schools. After 10 years, our “Second Half” website is gone, with that coverage of schools all over Michigan now moved to MHSAA.com.
♦ The ability to make schedule and tournament information easier to find. The navigation at the top of the site is designed to get you places in fewer clicks. And our pages for every sport will be updated frequently throughout the season and especially at tournament time with information on how to attend and watch your favorite teams compete.
♦ The probability you’re connecting with the MHSAA on your phone. The majority of our web traffic – 70 percent, in fact – is via a mobile device, and our website will be much easier to navigate moving forward.
Much of this will look familiar – just different, and hopefully more organized and easier to navigate.
Are we missing anything? To answer that question in advance, “Yes.” We will be working throughout the coming months to backfill much of the historical data that has made MHSAA.com a home for high school sports, while also positioning those results, records and more in a way our millions of visitors will be able to better enjoy them.
So please, stop by frequently and stay a while. What’s the best place to start? Check out the “I AM …” link at the top of this page, and dive in.