Flynn, Guzzo & Thayer Named 2021 Bush Award Recipients
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
November 18, 2021
Birmingham Groves’ Thomas Flynn, St. Joseph’s Kevin Guzzo and Bay City Western’s Michael Thayer are leaders of Michigan high school athletic programs who have put education and providing a positive student experience at the forefront of their work, while also becoming known among colleagues for their guidance and assistance to others striving to build the same foundations at their schools.
To recognize not only their work within their districts but their impacts on many other leaders in athletic administration, Flynn, Guzzo and Thayer have been named recipients of the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Allen W. Bush Award for 2021.
Al Bush served as executive director of the MHSAA for 10 years. The award honors individuals for past and continuing service to school athletics as a coach, administrator, official, trainer, doctor or member of the media. The award was developed to bring recognition to people who are giving and serving without a lot of attention. This is the 30th year of the award, with selections made by the MHSAA's Representative Council.
Flynn has begun his 21st year as Birmingham Groves High School athletic director and 32nd overall at the school after beginning as a teacher. He has served as a host of MHSAA Tournament events in team and individual wrestling, girls and boys diving, girls and boys tennis, girls and boys basketball, baseball and softball, football, ice hockey, volleyball and girls and boys soccer. Flynn also has served on MHSAA Committees for wrestling, gymnastics, swimming & diving, tennis and various officials topics. He made Groves the home of all Metro Detroit Officials Association meetings and has received recognition for his service to the Oakland County Wrestling Officials Association.
Flynn has served as president, vice president, secretary and treasurer for the Oakland County Athletic Directors Association, and as the Region 11 representative for the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA). A certified athletic trainer, he also is a longtime member of the National Athletic Trainers Association. The MIAAA named Flynn a Regional Athletic Director of the Year in 2012.
He graduated from Hillsdale High School in 1984, then earned a bachelor’s degree in biology with an emphasis on sports medicine from Grand Valley State University in 1990. He received a master’s in sports administration from Wayne State University. Flynn also has served on the Birmingham Bloomfield Community Coalition.
“Tom is a guy who is willing to do anything to assist the MHSAA. He’s hosted an Individual Wrestling District for 20-plus years, and that’s far-and-away the most difficult event to host – and he wants to do it every year,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “Tom is not afraid to do the dirty work, but he’s also not afraid to speak up, and that’s something I’ve always admired and appreciated about him.”
Guzzo has begun his 26th year with St. Joseph Public Schools and 18th as athletic director after previously serving as a coach and teacher. He earned his elite certification in the MHSAA Coaches Advancement Program in 2014 and has served as a CAP instructor and as an instructor for the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) Leadership Training Institute. He also has served as chairperson representing the MIAAA on the Five State Exchange Committee. A frequent contributor as well to MHSAA Committees for sports, officials, classification and site selection, Guzzo recently contributed as part of the MHSAA Multi-Sport Task Force.
He received his certified athletic administrator (CAA) designation from the NIAAA in 2007 and was named an MIAAA Regional Athletic Director of the Year in 2015.
Guzzo graduated from Bessemer High School in 1991, then earned his bachelor’s degree in secondary mathematics at Western Michigan University in 1995 and master’s in math education from WMU in 2001. He has been active in the St. Joseph Lions Club, First Tee of Benton Harbor and the local Senior PGA Tournament Committee.
“Kevin has become a real leader in the southwestern corner of the state, and in many rooms has grown into a veteran voice of reason on many topics and issues,” Uyl said. “He’s taken what he’s learned over the years and incorporated it into his teaching as a Coaches Advancement Program instructor, and we are thrilled that we have many beginning coaches who one of their first mentors is a person like Kevin through CAP.”
Thayer has begun his 25th year as an athletic director and also serves as an assistant principal at Western. He served at Merrill Community Schools from 1995-2007 before arriving at Western with the start of the 2007-08 school year. He also is a frequent MHSAA Tournament host and has been a valued voice on a variety of MHSAA Committees, including the Multi-Sport Task Force and selection committee for the MHSAA-Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Awards. Additionally, he has served as the MIAAA’s historical records chairperson and as part of its public relations committee.
He is active with the NIAAA and Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP) and National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). He was selected for a Regional Athletic Director of the Year Award by the MIAAA in 2017, and also that year received the MIAAA’s George Lovich State Award of Merit.
Thayer graduated from Muskegon Orchard View High School in 1986, then earned his bachelor’s degree in business teaching from Central Michigan University in 1990 and master’s in educational administration/school principalship from CMU in 2003. He also is a CAP elite-certification graduate. He has served as a trustee for Thomas Township – with membership in the Michigan Township Association – and been active in the Shields Lions Club.
“Mike has been one of the true leaders of the Saginaw Valley League for a long time, and he’s really become the point guard of that league over the last five years,” Uyl said. “If ever someone should be defined for quiet, steady leadership, it’s Mike Thayer. It’s always about substance with Mike. He’s as reliable an athletic director as there is in the country.”
Forest Area's Stremlow Never Far from Serving School Sports Community
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
February 4, 2022
He hasn’t met a sport he can’t coach. And, he probably hasn’t turned down a team he’s met – yet.
Many of the coaching jobs he’s taken were actually offered to him by him.
Whenever he’s started a new sport, he’s sought mentors in the form of successful veteran coaches. But make no mistake, if they made a movie in Northern Michigan called “The Mentor” – this Hall of Fame coach would be the star of the show.
He’s technically retired today. The teams he coaches don’t get TV cameras and other media present. He’s a middle school track and volleyball coach for Fife Lake Forest Area Community Schools.
He’s perhaps most well-known as the past volleyball coach at Forest Area. Don’t be surprised if you hear of graduated athletes – and current student-athletes – from Glen Lake, Manton, Kingsley and even McBain Northern Michigan Christian happily call him “Coach.”
Name the coach? Ron Stremlow. He’s a retired physical education teacher, athletic director and coach. He came out of retirement to return as the part-time athletic director for Forest Area, a district he served 32 years as a teacher.
He’s also coaching a couple of middle school sports, just like he did when he was working full-time. Athletic directors often need to put themselves in tough-to-fill coaching slots.
“Ron Stremlow has been a tremendous ambassador of high school sports in Northern Michigan,” said Dave Jackson, athletic director of Frankfort-Alberta Schools. “The number of coaches, parents and athletes Ron has encouraged during his years of service are too many to count.
“He is an athletic administrator that has always been about service and what (he) can do to help.”
Help is exactly what he did once upon a time for then-new volleyball coach at McBain Northern Michigan Christian, Diane Eisenga. The call for help came from Eisenga’s players.
Today, Eisenga is an athletic assistant for the Comets and mother of five boys, her youngest still attending NMC. Like Stremlow, she has built a very successful program. Back then, she was just getting started, pregnant and a mother of two children, and unable to coach her team during a Ferris State University tournament that Stremlow had planned to scout with longtime friend and Kingsley 1,000-win volleyball coach Dave Hall.
Stremlow actually was planning to watch NMC at the tournament, anticipating the Comets would be a potential roadblock to a District title that upcoming season. (He was right: Forest Area would end up losing to NMC in a District Final as the Comets reached the Class D Quarterfinals.)
What Stremlow did not anticipate was being asked by the Comets players to step in and coach them at the Ferris tourney. Stremlow was told Eisenga was not feeling well enough to guide the team at that moment.
Stremlow did not hesitate to help. He had previously leant his wisdom to the former Dordt University (Iowa) athlete with tryouts, cutting decisions and NMC’s summer camp.
“I had played in high school and college, but I was green,” Eisenga acknowledged. “He was a good mentor.”
She recalls her players asking for Stremlow’s help.
“I got real light-headed and wasn’t feeling well,” she said. “Because the girls had known him, he took over for me that day.”
It wasn’t a surprise for Eisenga to witness Stremlow’s contribution to her team’s success that year.
“I always saw him as more of a mentor and more of a friend (than an opposing coach),” Eisenga said. “He was happy with anyone’s success.
“He was always happy for any team that played well,” she continued. “Of course, he always wanted his own to win. … He was always respectful, and you never saw him cross the line.”
Stremlow, who jokes about maybe not having the most wins among hall of fame volleyball coaches while claiming the most losses amongst the elite group (he still ranks 17th in MHSAA history with 944 volleyball wins despite retiring from the Forest Area varsity after the 2018 season), spends his days taking care of Forest Area boys and girls basketball, completive cheer and the Warriors co-ed wresting teams. Many a night he does whatever it takes to run an event, including running the scoreboard for basketball.
In the fall, Forest Area offers 8-player football, cross country and volleyball. He’s in the midst of finalizing spring softball, track and baseball.
Basketball is perhaps his favorite sport, but he loves the change of seasons.
“Once that season’s up, I am ready to rock and roll and get into another,” Stremlow noted.
Giving back is what keeps the 62-year-old Stremlow going. He sees at least three years of involvement ahead.
“A lot of kids do not get good role models or good coaches. And I thought if I can help kids out, I am going to,” Stremlow said.
Today Stremlow wears many school colors, especially the Warriors’ forest green. You also often can find him in Kingsley orange, or perhaps it is actually the Manton orange.
You will definitely find him in his favorite, maize and blue. His forest green should never be confused with the Michigan State green. The Wolverines became the favorite of the Central Michigan grad when he got into the Big House as a high school student with a $2 ticket to watch Michigan take on Navy.
“I have green, but it is not the Michigan State green,” Stremlow said he often jokes with fans of the Spartans and Warriors.
Stremlow uses all his team colors as he follows another passion, photography. He got a camera for college graduation, and student-athletes all over Northern Michigan have benefited.
“There are thousands of former players from Forest Area and Kingsley that can point to pictures in their homes that Ron has taken of them playing sports,” Jackson said. “These pictures are not just cute shots, but pictures that were used to teach form and techniques.”
Stremlow takes satisfaction from capturing sports on film, rather digitally, as he does today.
“I take a lot of pictures – I‘ve always liked it,” he said. “That’s the best gift you can give any kid and parents – just getting pictures.
“It really helps, plus I like doing it.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Fife Lake Forest Area athletic director Ron Stremlow talks with official Chuck Bott (right) before a basketball game against Indian River Inland Lakes this season. (Middle) Stremlow shows support for his favorite college team while prepping before a game against Johannesburg-Lewiston. (Top photo by Tom Spencer; middle photo by Andrew Fish/Gaylord Herald-Times.)