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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.

Time and Money

March 29, 2016

Early in the current presidential campaign, several candidates postured to claim the support of Evangelical Christians. I found it all pretty phony. How do you know what’s really in a person’s heart?

I was once told that the best way to discern what may be in a person’s heart is to look at two indicators.

  1. Look at their calendar. How do they spend their time?
  2. Look at their checkbook. How do they spend their money?

Talk is cheap. What’s really important to a person is reflected in their calendar and checkbook (or credit card receipts): How do they spend their time and their money?

So, in this work of school sports, if we are truly committed to educational athletics, it will be obvious in how we – schools and the MHSAA – spend our time and money.

  • Do we daily spend time promoting and protecting our brand of youth sports?
  • Do we annually budget adequate funds for the purpose of designing, delivering and defending policies and programs that maximize the benefits of school sports to students, schools and society?

This will provide the proof of our commitment.