Logo

BOTF x 2

April 5, 2013

“Battle of the Fans,” an idea of the MHSAA Student Advisory Council, is one of the best ideas to ever flow from the MHSAA.  It has provided a new way of promoting one of the oldest, and most important, defining features of school sports.  That’s sportsmanship.

Where schools have participated in BOTF, attending school sports events is becoming cool again.  Crowds are larger and more positive.  Students and administrators are having positive discussions about sportsmanship.  Media are reporting on the positive changes they are seeing.

Take a look on MHSAA.com at the videos submitted by 27 schools this year to enter the second BOTF competition.  Look at the videos prepared for the five finalists after the MHSAA’s onsite visit.

Spectator stands are filled with students – happy, engaged, energetic, cheering students.  Exactly what we want in school sports; exactly what is missing from other youth sports programs.

It’s our advantage – energized students, cheerleaders, pep bands, marching bands and mascots.  It’s what we have and what the AAU doesn’t have; what US Soccer Development Academies don’t have; what club volleyball lacks and what travel ice hockey is missing.

Using YouTube and Facebook, BOTF is a new way to present and an energetic way to promote school sports that is local, student-centered, high spirited and highly sportsmanlike.

Congratulations to our two winners so far – Frankenmuth in 2012 and Buchanan in 2013.

New Beginnings

August 30, 2016

The Michigan High School Athletic Association office experienced an unusual amount of mobility this summer:

  • Gina Mazzolini retired after nearly a quarter-century on the MHSAA staff, with special attention to skiing, swimming & diving, tennis, volleyball, international students and interstate sanctioning.

  • Andi Osters was promoted to assistant director.

  • Dan Hutcheson joined the staff as assistant director.

  • Jeremy Sampson joined the staff in a tournament promotion, ticketing and marketing capacity.

  • We played musical chairs with offices: John Johnson, Andy Frushour, Andi Osters, Geoff Kimmerly, Kathy Westdorp and Cole Malatinsky all have a change of scenery or surroundings.

So we have some new faces, and some “old” faces in new places at the MHSAA office.

During all these transitions, I discovered I was less jealous of Gina’s retirement than I was of the new beginnings for Andi, Jeremy and Dan. Their new energy renews my own for so much that we hope to accomplish together in 2016-17.