NFHS Honors 4 of Michigan's Finest
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 14, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Three longtime Michigan high school coaches and one of the state’s most highly-respected athletic directors were recognized Wednesday by the National Federation of State High School Associations Coaches Association.
Leland volleyball coach Laurie Glass, Trenton softball coach John Biedenbach and Traverse City Central boys track and field coach John Lober were named Coaches of the Year in their respective sports. Longtime Troy athletic director Jim Feldkamp – currently an instructor for the MHSAA’s Coaches Advancement Program – was honored as this year’s National Coach Contributor Award winner as an individual “who has gone above and beyond and who exemplifies the highest standards of sportsmanship, ethical conduct and moral character.”
Feldkamp served one year as a teacher and coach of three sports at Romeo in 1970-71 before moving on to New Baltimore Anchor Bay, where he taught, coached varsity boys basketball for 14 years, subvarsity basketball for five seasons and served as athletic director at the high school.
He moved on to West Bloomfield as director of health, physical education and athletics in 1985, then became citywide athletic director for the Troy School District from 1988-2004. Feldkamp consulted at Detroit University Prep from 2007-12, then served as district athletic director of L’Anse Creuse Public Schools during the 2012-13 school year.
Feldkamp received the MHSAA’s Charles E. Forsythe Award in 2005 for his outstanding contributions to the interscholastic athletics community after retiring from the Troy district, where he was responsible for 178 teams, more than 4,800 athletes and 315 coaches. He also received the MHSAA’s Allen W. Bush Award and has served as a CAP instructor for the last decade while co-authoring the program module Administrative Responsibilities of Coaching. He also previously was named Athletic Director of the Year by the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association and received a National Award of Merit from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
“Jim Feldkamp is an outstanding educator who understands and recognizes the qualities of leadership necessary in educational athletics while also appreciating the meaning and applications of the rules,” said MHSAA assistant director Kathy Vruggink Westdorp as part of the association’s nomination of Feldkamp for the award. “He has a great understanding of the coach’s role and has worked with thousands of coaches throughout Michigan in a continued effort to improve the sport experience of participating students.”
The following brief bios on Michigan coaching award winners include excerpts from coaching philosophies they were asked to submit after being identified as candidates:
Laurie Glass this fall led Leland to the Class D Volleyball Final and has taken her program to four MHSAA championships over three tenures stretching 20 seasons. Including four seasons at Traverse City Central, Glass has a 909-302-108 record dating to her first season at Leland in 1990-91.
“Athletics is all about opportunity, both for the athlete and the coach. Opportunity to learn life lessons that will help them as the move on outside of the athletic arena. Opportunity for personal growth. Opportunity to be passionate about something that you are willing to work hard for. … Most importantly, the opportunity to develop young women into strong young women who believe in themselves and value what they have to offer.”
John Biedenbach took over the Trenton softball program in 1975. He has led teams to more than 940 wins and was inducted into the Michigan High School Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1997. He also coached basketball teams to 445 wins beginning in 1977.
“Building that sense of being a ‘team’ is my most important job as a coach. The team leaves no one out in the cold; each member of the team plays as hard as they can for the sake of their teammates and for the sake of themselves. As coach, I lead by example, always stressing hard work and dedication, long hours practicing and the fundamentals of the game. If I have done my job, my players will start their adult lives stronger and better prepared for the challenges ahead.”
Lober has coached the Traverse City Central boys track and field team since 1977 and also the boys cross country team since 1989. His 1992 track team won the Class A championship, and he has coached 17 individual MHSAA Finals champions. He has built a record of 334-33-3 and was inducted into the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2006.
“Athletics are an integral part of the educational setting that should provide experiences through a variety of sports for every student, regardless of ability. While being part of the team, these experiences should foster the qualities of hard work, dependability, fitness and dedication to the team’s goals. Student athletes should be challenged, motivated, counseled and led through activities that develop their mental, social, physical and psychological needs.”
2023 WISL Award Honoree Glass Continuing to Create Leaders On Court & Off
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 2, 2023
Hailing from one of Michigan’s smallest communities, Laurie Glass has made an impact that continues to connect all over Michigan.
But her impact on women’s athletics began long before a career that has seen the longtime Leland volleyball coach become one of the winningest in her sport in state history.
As a high school junior in 1976, she recruited seven classmates and a coach to form Leland’s first girls sports team – for basketball – and the same group then played volleyball that winter. She was a senior and major contributor when, during their second season, the Comets won the 1978 Class D volleyball championship.
More than four decades later, Glass is a Michigan legend in that sport – a winner of 1,218 matches with Leland and Traverse City Central and three Finals championships with the Comets. She’s also a nationally-recognized voice in volleyball and women’s athletics as a whole – and this year’s MHSAA Women in Sports Leadership honoree for those many and continuing contributions.
“Because I’m a teacher and coach, that’s my desire to help the youth be the best they could be. And if I can impact a coach or impact another district or program, that means I’m affecting more youth in a positive way,” Glass said. “So for me, it’s just the ripple effect; it gets a lot bigger when I’m starting little drops in other places. So I can affect the hundreds of kids that I’ve seen go through Leland, or I can impact the larger audience by impacting coaches or impacting kids in other places that can then impact other people. It allows me a wider audience for wanting to help young women to be their best young woman self in however way I can make that happen.”
Each year, the Representative Council considers the achievements of women coaches, officials and athletic administrators affiliated with the MHSAA who show exemplary leadership capabilities and positive contributions to athletics.
Leland finished 49-13 this past season and reached the Division 4 Quarterfinals. Glass has a record of 1,218-393-122 over more than three decades as a varsity volleyball coach, having led the Comets for a combined 29 seasons over three tenures, the first beginning with the 1989-90 winter season and later picking up with her most recent return for Fall 2010. She also coached Traverse City Central for four seasons beginning in 1991-92.
Glass led Leland to Class D Finals championships in 2002, 2006 and 2015, and runner-up finishes in Class D in 2014 and Division 4 in 2018 and 2019. She was named to the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association (MIVCA) Hall of Fame in 2006, and selected as national Coach of the Year in volleyball in 2014 by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Coaches Association. She’s a three-time MIVCA Coach of the Year and was named Michigan High School Coaches Association (MHSCA) Coach of the Year for volleyball in 2015. She also was a finalist for National High School Athletic Coaches Association (NHSACA) national Coach of the Year in 2014.
Glass has spoken multiple times at the MHSAA Women In Sports Leadership Conference and several times at the MIVCA Coaches Clinic, and among various other engagements was the featured speaker at the Nebraska Athletic Association Coaches Clinic. She will receive the Women In Sports Leadership Award during the MHSAA Division 1 Girls Basketball Final on March 18 at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.
“Laurie Glass is recognized most on the statewide level for leading one of the most successful volleyball programs in state history. But she is known among her peers most for the way she teaches not only volleyball but life skills to her athletes,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “Her leadership creates more leaders, be they the athletes who have the opportunity to play for her or the coaches who learn from her and receive her mentorship.”
Glass’ roots are in one of the most accomplished athletic families in Michigan high school history.
Her father Larry Glass coached Northwestern University’s men’s basketball program from 1963-69, and later took over the Leland girls basketball program and led the Comets to a 388-110 record and three straight Class D Finals championships (1980-82) over two tenures from 1977-91 and 2000-05. Laurie’s sister Rebecca McKee played basketball at Leland and Michigan State University, and her brother Michael Glass played basketball at Lansing Community College before also becoming a high school and college coach.
Laurie also coached and parented arguably the most accomplished volleyball player – and perhaps top female athlete across all sports – in Michigan high school history. Her daughter Alisha Glass-Childress graduated from Leland in 2006 with national records for career kills, aces and blocks, and the first two still top those respective lists. Alisha, also an all-state basketball player, went on to star on the volleyball court at Penn State and as the U.S. Olympic team setter in 2016 in helping that team to the bronze medal.
Larry Glass’ lessons still ring true as Laurie passes them on to another generation. One of her favorite sayings from her father was “you can’t take money out of the bank until you put money in” – in essence, a coach can’t expect athletes to accept criticism or a hard ask if that coach first hasn’t invested in them. Another of her dad’s themes involved making sure players learned fundamentals at young ages and improved on them at all levels, whether they won games or not during those early years. As one of his middle school coaches, that stuck with her, and it remains a basic component of her coaching.
“I’ve always said that we compete with teams that are way more athletic, have all the things on paper that should beat us. And the fact that we know how to be a really good team is what allows us to beat people who on paper should be better than us,” Laurie Glass said. “I’ve always valued the time spent on culture and team because that’s the advantage we hold. We’re never going to be the tallest or most talented – Alisha being the anomaly, of course.”
Laurie Glass has served on the MIVCA Executive Board, including as president, and is a member of the MHSCA and American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). Locally, her program annually hosts the Forever Dig Abby match in honor of former player Abby Gross, who died after a fight against cancer in 2015. Proceeds most years go to benefit another community member battling the disease, and this past season went to a fund for efforts related to ovarian cancer.
Glass has served nearly 35 years in education and retired from her duties as a behavior intervention specialist and special education teacher in the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District in 2019. She has returned to the school setting, however, and is in her second year as a behavior intervention specialist at Leland.
Glass earned a bachelor’s degree in special education with an endorsement in emotional impairment from Western Michigan University in 1988, and has done master-level coursework in education administration and technology. She also is a certified instructor for the Crisis Prevention Institute. Glass first attended Grand Valley State University and played a season of volleyball before transferring. (NOTE: Glass also coached the Kalamazoo Central varsity for two seasons during the mid-1980s. Those records are unavailable currently but will be added to her overall record when research is complete.)
Past Women In Sports Leadership Award Winners
1990 – Carol Seavoy, L’Anse
1991 – Diane Laffey, Harper Woods
1992 – Patricia Ashby, Scotts
1993 – Jo Lake, Grosse Pointe
1994 – Brenda Gatlin, Detroit
1995 – Jane Bennett, Ann Arbor
1996 – Cheryl Amos-Helmicki, Huntington Woods
1997 – Delores L. Elswick, Detroit
1998 – Karen S. Leinaar, Delton
1999 – Kathy McGee, Flint
2000 – Pat Richardson, Grass Lake
2001 – Suzanne Martin, East Lansing
2002 – Susan Barthold, Kentwood
2003 – Nancy Clark, Flint
2004 – Kathy Vruggink Westdorp, Grand Rapids
2005 – Barbara Redding, Capac
2006 – Melanie Miller, Lansing
2007 – Jan Sander, Warren Woods
2008 – Jane Bos, Grand Rapids
2009 – Gail Ganakas, Flint; Deb VanKuiken, Holly
2010 – Gina Mazzolini, Lansing
2011 – Ellen Pugh, West Branch; Patti Tibaldi, Traverse City
2012 – Janet Gillette, Comstock Park
2013 – Barbara Beckett, Traverse City
2014 – Teri Reyburn, DeWitt
2015 – Jean LaClair, Bronson
2016 – Betty Wroubel, Pontiac
2017 – Dottie Davis, Ann Arbor
2018 – Meg Seng, Ann Arbor
2019 – Kris Isom, Adrian
2020 – Nikki Norris, East Lansing
2021 – Dorene Ingalls, St. Ignace
2022 – Lori Hyman, Livonia
PHOTOS (Top) Leland coach Laurie Glass confers with one of her players during the 2019 Division 4 Final at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) Glass passes the championship trophy to her team after the Comets won the 2015 Class D title.