Four Selected for MHSAA Bush Awards
June 14, 2012
Four athletic administrators who additionally have made significant contributions at the league, state and MHSAA tournament levels – Robin Dilday of Utica, Robert Dowd of Troy, Curt Ellis of Saline and Greg Lattig of Mason – have been named the recipients of the Michigan High School Athletic Association's Allen W. Bush Award for 2012.
Al Bush served as executive director of the MHSAA for 10 years. The award honors individuals for past and continuing service to prep athletics as a coach, administrator, official, trainer, doctor or member of the media. The award was developed to bring recognition to men and women who are giving and serving without a lot of attention. This is the 21st year of the award, with the selections being made by the MHSAA's Representative Council.
Dilday has been a leader not only in his home school district of Utica, but as a voice throughout Macomb Country. A graduate of Utica High School, Dilday has worked in education 38 years and for Utica Community Schools for the last 28, including the past 18 as District Athletic Director.
He’s taken a leadership role in numerous projects starting with the expansion of athletic program offerings and the development of a coaches handbook and student-athlete code of conduct for his schools. He’s also worked at the forefront of efforts to construct gymnasiums, stadiums and other athletic venues, hosted various MHSAA tournaments and served on several MHSAA committees.
Dilday is in his 18th year as president of the Macomb County Athletic Directors Association and also works with the Macomb County Special Olympics and as community fundraising chair for his district’s middle school sports programs. He was named to the Utica High School Hall of Fame in 2011. Dilday earned his bachelor’s degree in radio and television communications from Michigan State, received teaching certification in social studies from Central Michigan University and then his master’s degree in educational leadership from Wayne State University.
“Robin Dilday has provided stable leadership through the changes and challenges high school athletics have faced during his nearly four decades of service,” said John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. “He has experienced high school athletics from a variety of perspectives – athlete, coach and administrator – and worked to provide the best for those in every position. He has done so while managing multiple schools in a large district. We are pleased to honor Robin Dilday with the Bush Award.”
Dowd might be known best in Oakland County for his contributions to lacrosse dating back more than two decades. But as an assistant principal and the athletic director at Troy Athens High School the past 16 years, Dowd also has hosted MHSAA Finals in five sports and a variety of tournaments at the District, Regional and Semifinal levels.
He served as president of the Michigan Scholastic Lacrosse Association from 1990-94 and then as executive director from 1996-2004. Dowd was named the Michigan High School Lacrosse Coaches Association Man of the Year in 2006 and was selected for the MHSLCA Hall of Fame in 2011.
Dowd has served on the MHSAA’s lacrosse committee, as well as those for soccer officials, gymnastics, tennis and hockey. He’s the committee chair for the Oakland Activities Association boys and girls lacrosse committee and previously served as chair of the football and soccer committees. He was named Oakland County Athletic Director of the Year in 2009. Dowd earned his bachelor’s degree in secondary social studies and a master’s in history from the State University of New York at Cortland. He also earned a master’s in K-12 administration from Michigan State University.
“Robert Dowd’s contributions – particularly as a Finals host – have been invaluable to the MHSAA,” Roberts said. “He is a passionate supporter of high school athletics. That is evident in how he is always a reliable source both of input and assistance. All make him a worthy recipient of the Bush Award.”
Ellis served as an athletic administrator in Michigan for 16 years, including the last eight at Novi High School before leaving the district in the fall to become Executive Director of Human Resources for Saline Area Schools. His Novi athletic program was a recipient of the Exemplary Athletic Program Award from the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
He’s served as a tournament manager for multiple MHSAA ice hockey and soccer Finals over the last decade and for more than 125 District and Regional tournaments since 1997. He’s also served on the ice hockey, volleyball, officials and site selection committees, among others.
Additionally, Ellis has served in various leadership roles statewide. He was president of the Oakland County Athletic Administrators Association in 2002-03 and joined the MIAAA executive board in 2008. He was named OCAAA Athletic Director of the Year in 2007 and MIAAA Region 11 Athletic Director of the Year in 2007, and is a regular speaker at the MIAAA’s Mid-Winter Conference. Ellis earned his bachelor’s degree in organizational communication from Eastern Michigan University and is pursuing his master’s in educational leadership also at EMU.
“Curt Ellis has been a consistent source of leadership and a true advocate of high school athletics,” Roberts said. “He has brought great perspective to those working with him both locally and through the MIAAA, and been of great assistance in his work as an MHSAA tournament host. We’re pleased to honor him with the Bush Award.”
Lattig has served four school districts – Mason, Eaton Rapids, Leslie and Lansing Christian – as a coach or administrator. Also a host of numerous MHSAA tournaments and member of various committees, Lattig twice served as president of the Capital Area Activities Conference and previously was secretary of the Capital Circuit league.
A Certified Master Athletic Administrator, Lattig also has served on various MIAAA committees —including as co-chair of the scholarship committee – and as a regional representative to that body. He has guided the athletic department at Mason the last four years after nine at Eaton Rapids. He coached varsity track at Leslie and middle school basketball at Lansing Christian.
Lattig earned his bachelor’s degree in sports management and communications from the University of Michigan and his master’s in athletic administration from Michigan State University.
“Greg Lattig has provided a significant voice during the evolution of the Capital Area Activities Conference over the last decade, and is a helpful source of input both to the MIAAA and MHSAA,” Roberts said. “His understanding of the complex lives of students and desire to help them achieve are admirable traits that make him an excellent choice for the Bush Award.”
2023 Forsythe Award Celebrates Leinaar's 40 Years Dedicated to School Sports
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 8, 2023
Few people in Michigan have had a longer-lasting influence on the rules and policies of educational athletics than Frankfort’s Karen Leinaar, who has served in several roles locally, statewide and nationally over more than 40 years contributing to the school sports community.
Thank you, Bill Baker.
The longtime teacher, coach, principal and superintendent during a career that stretched across multiple schools – including Leinaar’s growing up, Delton Kellogg – made an impression on the standout multi-sport athlete before she graduated from high school in 1977. Baker’s philosophy and work led Leinaar to study education at Michigan State University and then brought her back as Delton’s athletic director to begin four decades of making the same impact on children in her hometown and eventually in hometowns all over Michigan and beyond.
Baker died in 2009, but not before continuing to mentor Leinaar through many good times and tough ones.
“The man had two daughters that I grew up with, his wife was a teacher, and he demonstrated to all of us – he never missed an event – that we were important to him. That even though we weren’t his kids, we were his kids and athletics was a way to help kids become better people – and for some kids it was the only thing that they had positive in their life,” Leinaar said. “And he made it known just to that individual kid how important their participation was and their involvement, and how that helped them become the person that they were.
“That to me was such an example of how to help people be good people, that I just took that role on.”
It’s a role in which she continues to serve. Leinaar began her career as an athletic administrator in 1982, and as the interim athletic director currently at Frankfort High School is serving her fifth district in that position. Since June 2019, she also has served as executive director of the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA), the professional organization for school sports administrators in the state with a membership of nearly 700.
To recognize that longtime and continuing impact, Leinaar has been named the 2023 honoree for the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Charles E. Forsythe Award.
The annual award is in its 46th year and named after former MHSAA Executive Director Charles E. Forsythe, the Association's first full-time and longest-serving chief executive. Forsythe Award recipients are selected each year by the MHSAA Representative Council, based on an individual's outstanding contributions to the interscholastic athletics community.
Leinaar also served 22 years on the MHSAA’s Representative Council and a four-year term from 2009-13 on the Board of Directors for the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), and just last week was named to the 2023 class of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) Hall of Fame.
“It is impossible even to estimate the number of students, coaches, administrators and others who have been affected by the work Karen Leinaar has done to make school sports the best they can be – not only in her communities, but across Michigan and throughout the country,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “There are few who have equaled her dedication and her support and promotion of the ideals of school-based sports. She has always placed an emphasis on being in the room, on the field or at the arena, actively participating in her leadership roles, and our programs are better for it.”
Leinaar first served as athletic director at Delton Kellogg for nearly 17 years, from March 1982 through October 1998. She spent three years at Gaylord, then 8½ at Benzie Central before taking over at Bear Lake in November 2010 and spending the next decade organizing athletic programs for students in grades 5-12 before retiring in January 2021. She came out of retirement to return to the athletic director’s chair this past fall as interim AD at Frankfort. She has completed nearly four years as MIAAA executive director, moving into that position after previously serving nine years as an assistant to the executive.
Leinaar began her service on the Representative Council in Fall 1999 and completed her last term as a statewide at-large representative at the Fall 2021 meeting.
She has been honored several times for her contributions. She received the MHSAA’s Women In Sports Leadership Award in 1998, a Citation from the NFHS in 2000, and she was named MIAAA Athletic Director of the Year in 2001. She received an MHSAA’s Allen W. Bush Award in 2014 – recognition given for work done generally behind the scenes and with little attention.
“This is the top of the mountain, per se. This one does mean so much,” Leinaar said of the Forsythe Award. “The names that are associated with this over the years, I never thought I’d be put in that group.”
Leinaar remains a continuous source of support at a multitude of MHSAA championship events, and during her time on Council was one of the most frequent representatives handing out trophies and medals to champions and runners-up at Finals events. She began while athletic director at Delton Kellogg hosting the MHSAA Volleyball Finals in Class B and Class C and continues to assist with those championships now played at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek.
She also hosted Competitive Cheer Finals at Delton Kellogg in 1996 and 1997, Ski Finals while at Gaylord, and many more championship events across the Lower Peninsula. She continues to assist at the MHSAA’s Lower Peninsula Cross Country and Track & Field Finals.
After attending Delton Kellogg High School, Leinaar earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education, health and recreation, with a minor in driver education, from MSU in 1982. She completed a master’s in athletic administration from Western Michigan University in 1994.
Leinaar has been a member for 40 years of both the MIAAA and NIAAA, and has served as chairperson of the MIAAA Annual Conference and awards chairperson for both the state and national bodies. She’s also served as chairperson of the MIAAA’s Exemplary Athletic Program.
Past recipients of the Charles E. Forsythe Award
1978 - Brick Fowler, Port Huron; Paul Smarks, Warren
1979 - Earl Messner, Reed City; Howard Beatty, Saginaw
1980 - Max Carey, Freesoil
1981 - Steven Sluka, Grand Haven; Samuel Madden, Detroit
1982 - Ernest Buckholz, Mt. Clemens; T. Arthur Treloar, Petoskey
1983 - Leroy Dues, Detroit; Richard Maher, Sturgis
1984 - William Hart, Marquette; Donald Stamats, Caro
1985 - John Cotton, Farmington; Robert James, Warren
1986 - William Robinson, Detroit; Irving Soderland, Norway
1987 - Jack Streidl, Plainwell; Wayne Hellenga, Decatur
1988 - Jack Johnson, Dearborn; Alan Williams, North Adams
1989 - Walter Bazylewicz, Berkley; Dennis Kiley, Jackson
1990 - Webster Morrison, Pickford; Herbert Quade, Benton Harbor
1991 - Clifford Buckmaster, Petoskey; Donald Domke, Northville
1992 - William Maskill, Kalamazoo; Thomas G. McShannock, Muskegon
1993 - Roy A. Allen Jr., Detroit; John Duncan, Cedarville
1994 - Kermit Ambrose, Royal Oak
1995 - Bob Perry, Lowell
1996 - Charles H. Jones, Royal Oak
1997 - Michael A. Foster, Richland; Robert G. Grimes, Battle Creek
1998 - Lofton C. Greene, River Rouge; Joseph J. Todey, Essexville
1999 - Bernie Larson, Battle Creek
2000 - Blake Hagman, Kalamazoo; Jerry Cvengros, Escanaba
2001 - Norm Johnson, Bangor; George Lovich, Canton
2002 - John Fundukian, Novi
2003 - Ken Semelsberger, Port Huron
2004 - Marco Marcet, Frankenmuth
2005 - Jim Feldkamp, Troy
2006 - Dan McShannock, Midland; Dail Prucka, Monroe
2007 - Keith Eldred, Williamston; Tom Hickman, Spring Lake
2008 - Jamie Gent, Haslett; William Newkirk, Sanford Meridian
2009 - Paul Ellinger, Cheboygan
2010 - Rudy Godefroidt, Hemlock; Mike Boyd, Waterford
2011 - Eric C. Federico, Trenton
2012 - Bill Mick, Midland
2013 - Jim Gilmore, Tecumseh; Dave Hutton, Grandville
2014 - Dan Flynn, Escanaba
2015 - Hugh Matson, Saginaw
2016 - Gary Hice, Petoskey; Gina Mazzolini, Lansing
2017 - Chuck Nurek, Rochester Hills
2018 - Gary Ellis, Allegan
2019 - Jim Derocher, Negaunee; Fredrick J. Smith, Stevensville
2020 - Michael Garvey, Lawton
2021 - Leroy Hackley Jr., Byron Center; Patti Tibaldi, Traverse City
2022 - Bruce Horsch, Houghton
PHOTOS (Top) Karen Leinaar, left, awards the 2022 Division 4 volleyball finalist trophy to Indian River Inland Lakes coach Nicole Moore. (Middle) Leinaar accepts the MHSAA's Women In Sports Leadership Award in 1998.