MHSAA's Westdorp Recognized by NFHS
January 15, 2013
Michigan High School Athletic Association assistant director Kathy Vruggink Westdorp has been named 2013 Coach Educator of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
Westdorp developed and continues to direct the MHSAA Coaches Advancement Program (CAP), a six-level educational regimen that aids coaches in their growth and development as they advance in the field of educational athletics.
Nearly 5,800 coaches have completed at least the first-level CAP unit since the program’s inception during the 2004-05 school year. More than 1,000 coaches have advanced at least through the program’s fourth level.
A former principal, athletic director, teacher and coach in the Grand Rapids area, Westdorp oversees the program and personally presents many of the CAP units.
“Kathy Westdorp is the heart and soul of our coaches education efforts,” said John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. “She is very deserving of this recognition.”
Delivery to Michigan’s current and prospective interscholastic coaches is done in two ways. First, presenters trained and evaluated by Westdorp travel the state to provide programs, which are coordinated by schools, school districts, leagues and coaches associations. Or, after faculty training and with Westdorp’s regular evaluation, colleges and universities in Michigan are licensed to present up to five levels of CAP through their undergraduate or graduate studies.
All aspects of CAP are administered from the MHSAA office under Westdorp’s direction. This includes the arrangements for continuing education credits through the State Department of Education, as well as liability insurance and an online newsletter for all coaches who complete CAP units.
Westdorp joined the MHSAA in 2004 after serving as principal at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central High School. She also previously served as athletic director at Grand Rapids Creston and as director of health and wellness programs for Grand Rapids Public Schools, taught at Grand Rapids Central and has coached basketball, field hockey, gymnastics, track and field and volleyball. Westdorp is a past president of the Ottawa-Kent Conference and a past recipient of the MHSAA’s Women in Sports Leadership Award.
The NFHS Coach Educator Award is presented annually to an individual who has exemplified passion and leadership for the promotion of coach education at the local, state and national levels. Nominations are considered by the NFHS Coach Education Committee, and the recipient is approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.
NFHS Introduces Updated Logo
July 17, 2019
Special from NFHS
As the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) heads into the next 100 years of leading high school sports and other activity programs nationwide, it will be doing so with a new logo.
The new logo was unveiled to the membership earlier this month at the close of the NFHS Centennial Celebration. The NFHS and its 51-member state high school associations celebrated the organization’s accomplishments at the 100th Annual Meeting at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.
The organization will continue to be branded as the NFHS in the new logo, and the N and F are connected as has been the case since 1979. However, the entire acronym is together on one line as opposed to the previous logo with the NF and HS on separate lines. While red and blue will continue to be the predominant colors, the new logo mixes white with red and blue to suggest a flag waving in the wind. The direction of the flag is pointing upward to symbolize forward-thinking and advancement.
The new design maintains a resemblance to the shield that has been a part of the NFHS logo since 1997. However, the logo is flared at the top, and the bottom of the logo does not have definitive borders, which suggests the organization has moved past its first 100 years and is expanding its reach as the national leadership organization for high school sports and performing arts programs in the United States.
While the organization’s logo from 1952 had four stars to signify the four charter members of the NFHS, the four stripes within the new logo represent the four homes of the organization during the first 100 years.
“We wanted to retain NFHS as the central component of the new logo because the organization’s national presence has continued to spiral upward in the 22 years since the NFHS acronym was adopted,” said Dr. Karissa Niehoff, NFHS executive director. “However, as we celebrated our first 100 years, we felt it was important to establish a new look that would signify our ever-increasing role as the national leader in high school sports and performing arts programs.”
Counting the Centennial logo that was used during the 2018-19 school year, the new logo will be 10th used by the organization since the first one was adopted in the 1930s. The new logo was created by Section 127, an Indianapolis-based design company.
The NFHS was started in 1920 and had offices in Chicago until 1971, when it moved to Elgin, Illinois. The organization moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1979, and then in 2000 to Indianapolis, where it remains today.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association is a member of the NFHS, and Michigan is one of the four founding states of the national association.