On Call as Doctor, Director, Mom
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 31, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Dr. Kiran Taylor is in her 10th year as a practicing psychiatrist and specializes in providing therapy to cancer patients and family members who care for them.
Taylor is the medical director of the Supportive Care Medicine Clinic at Spectrum Hospital’s Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion in Grand Rapids. She's also the Chief of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine for the entire Spectrum Health System, which includes 11 hospitals and nearly 200 ambulatory and service sites all over the western Lower Peninsula.
And Thursday, she made sure to schedule a trip to her children’s school for the Halloween parade and costume parties.
Balancing is a daily requirement for Taylor (formerly Khanuja), an MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award winner as an East Lansing senior in 1994. But the skills she learned as a tennis standout for the Trojans and at the University of Michigan are those she relies on still as a doctor, director and Mom.
“My high school athletic experience impacts all areas of my life,” Taylor said. “I think about the journey of those experiences and how those changed me.
“The discipline and time management skills you have to have as a scholar-athlete, to pay attention to school and pay attention to your sport, those are certainly skills I carry with me today.”
Taylor was one of 20 scholar-athletes recognized that winter by the MHSAA and 
Farm Bureau Insurance, which continues to sponsor the award program that has grown to 32 recipients. In advance of this March’s 25th celebration, Second Half is catching up with some of the hundreds who have been recognized.
Taylor advanced as far as the Lower Peninsula Class A No. 1 singles championship match during her high school tennis career, finishing runner-up at the top flight her junior season. She already had an interest at that point in health and an understanding of what went into playing at a high level, and was most interested in sports medicine and orthopedics when she began medical school, also at U-M.
But as she got a little deeper into her studies, Taylor discovered a path that seemed more in line with her personality.
‘Natural fit’
A video bio of Taylor on the Spectrum Health website includes her explaining that she chose psychiatry because it’s an area that allows her to empower patients to help themselves. In her line of work, she not only heals but aspires to help those in her care reach their potential.
“When they’re helping themselves, they’re helping others, they’re helping their communities,” Taylor said, “and the impact is endless.”
While at U-M, Taylor found a mentor in Dr. Michelle Riba, the director of the PsychOncology program at U-M’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her work, like Taylor’s at Spectrum, centers on treating patients in their dealing with the emotional issues that come with cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Taylor’s role as chief of psychiatry and behavioral medicine for the entire Spectrum system allows her to affect a patient’s entire care by making more accessible treatment for emotional and well as physical needs.
There are days she comes home after working with a patient facing especially somber circumstances, and through her medical training has learned how to keep those sad situations from affecting her personally.
But there also are days when she’s had to deal with a difficult managerial situation, and during those times she taps into the skills she learned while on the court.
"You manage adversity on a tennis court. It could be a tight match, or you're up 5-0 or down 5-0," Taylor said. "It's a microcosm of the world.
"If I have a challenging colleague or someone with a different opinion in a meeting, I tap into knowing how to deal with adversity."
Pass it on
Taylor, 37, remains tied to a few from her Scholar-Athlete Awards class. She has known Okemos winner Andy Dhaliwal since childhood and he is now a doctor too, having also graduated from U-M. Jackson winner Harland Holman is a family physician in Grand Rapids and also part of the Spectrum Health system, and knew Taylor's husband through wrestling.
Karin is married to Dr. Joe Taylor, quite a former scholar-athlete himself – he was a standout wrestler at Charlotte before graduating in 1995 and going on to study at U-M.
Thanks at least in part to their parents’ inclination toward sports, the Taylor kids are beginning to try some out. The oldest is 9, the same age as when Kiran first picked up a tennis racket.
For this, Taylor also is prepared thanks to her high school and college careers. Considered together, they give her a long perspective when it comes to kids and sports.
“(It’s about) letting them figure out what they’re interested in, letting them explore. They want to pay attention to things or don’t; watching them unfold was fun,” Taylor said. “It’s about understanding the road, and that’s what high school athletics did, and going on into college athletics. They helped me understand it’s a long road. You don’t have to start your kid at 4 and have the best at 7.”
And it's a road she advises this year's Scholar-Athletes to appreciate now as they pick up knowledge they'll use for a lifetime.
“The lessons they’re learning now, and how they conduct themselves – being a scholar-athlete, I think, is about the way you conduct yourself – those are the skills they will take with them no matter what they do at any point in life,” Taylor said. “That’s what being a scholar-athlete has done for me.”
Click to read the series' first installment:
25 Years Later, Scholar Athletes Shine On
PHOTO: (Top) Kiran Khanuja returns a volley during a tennis match while at East Lansing High School. (Bottom) The MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award class of 1993-94 included Khanuja, seated fourth from left.
Rice Brings Officials Expertise to MHSAA
August 2, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Before starting down the path toward becoming one of the nation’s most respected trainers of baseball umpires, Brent Rice was a student at small-town Concord High School who didn’t have to put much effort into succeeding academically.
But he received a challenge that has continued serving him along the way.
It came from one of his high school coaches, who said he’d go to bat for the then-senior leaving school early to begin attending the prestigious Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School in Ormond Beach, Florida. But first, Rice would have to show the higher level of effort and commitment it would take to succeed on his quest to become a professional official.
That nudge from high school sports drove Rice’s surge into officiating, and also remained with him as he decided to come home and serve Michigan’s high schools – with nearly two decades of teaching and training experience to guide him as an assistant director for the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
Rice, who went on to umpire minor league baseball for 12 years and become administrative director and chief of instruction for the Wendelstedt school, has been named to an MHSAA assistant director’s position, effective August 13. He will be charged with supervising the nearly 10,000 registered officials in all sports and also serve as the MHSAA’s director of baseball and assist with softball.
“I went to a small school, and I learned a lot of life lessons through that and I want to be able to give back,” Rice said. “It’s where I got my start, and where I want to finish up.”
The Wendelstedt school is the most highly-attended professional umpire school in the world, and Rice has served as chief of instruction since Sept. 2000 while adding responsibilities as administrative director in Jan. 2005. Rice also umpired at various levels of minor league baseball from 2000-12, including as a crew chief, and has directed or contributed to training publications referred to by thousands of professional umpires worldwide.
Rice, 36, graduated from Concord High School in 2000 and has a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University. He began attending Wendelstedt as a student while a senior at Concord and currently umpires at the Division I college level in the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference. He moved to Battle Creek from New Orleans four years ago, and since returning to this state has been registered as an MHSAA official for baseball, volleyball and 11 and 8-player football, working as part of a regular football crew.
He was selected for the assistant director position from a pool of nearly 70 applicants.
"Brent Rice has devoted his career to preparing the next generations of officials, and he will provide great expertise in growing our efforts to recruit, retain and train officials in all of our sports," said newly-appointed MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl, who formerly served as assistant director and the association's coordinator of officials. "He is a national leader in teaching and training and has been a much sought-after speaker and clinician for many years, yet brings knowledge and passion for Michigan and educational athletics.
“His experience, work ethic and relationship-building skills will make him a valuable addition to the MHSAA staff."
Rice will draw on nearly two decades of experience in administration and rules interpretation in addition to his on-field umpiring experience.
While at Wendelstedt, Rice supervised 30 Minor and Major League Baseball instructors and developed the curriculum for training future professional umpires. He led the day-to-day operations of the program, and also presented daily classroom lectures on rules and directed staff demonstrations of field mechanics.
As the school’s administrative director, Rice was responsible for maintaining registration and enrollment records and developing programs to increase enrollment. Among his successful initiatives were recruiting programs that focused on engaging college student-athletes and military veterans.
He has directed the design, composition and annual revision of the school’s Official Baseball Rules and Interpretation Manual, the go-to source for umpires at all levels across the country and internationally. Rice also is a regular contributor to officiating publications and in the production of video training packages, and has been commissioned to rewrite the Official Baseball Rules manual used at all levels of the professional game.
Additionally, Rice has worked with both Minor League and Major League Baseball to develop various protocols and has served as a consultant for the Chinese Professional Baseball League, Korean Baseball Organization and the summer collegiate Northwoods League, as well as USA Fencing.
One area Rice would like to start work on immediately at the MHSAA revolves around tackling poor sportsmanship – a main factor driving officials away from the avocation.
Rice doesn’t see recruiting officials as the most difficult part of bolstering the MHSAA’s ranks; it’s retaining them.
“For me, the challenge is to try to find incentives outside of the box in some way … find other things to bring them along, make them feel supported and ultimately stay with you,” Rice said.
Rice played football and baseball as a student at Concord. He is working toward a master’s degree in public administration to go with his bachelor’s from WMU in political science and sociology. He and his wife Jenna have two daughters.
PHOTOS: (Top) Brent Rice, left, instructs an umpire during a drill at the Wendelstedt Umpire School. (Middle) Rice, far left, speaks to a group of students under his supervision. (Photos courtesy of Wendelstedt Umpire School.)