Novi Principal, Past MHSAA Council VP Carter to Receive Inaugural Hampton Award
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 4, 2024
Nicole Carter grew up in a family of educators, aspired to become one herself, and has dedicated her career to providing opportunities in all facets of education – including educational athletics – to all students through her vision and inspiration. To celebrate Carter’s continuing contributions especially to underrepresented groups in school sports, she has been selected as the inaugural honoree of the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Nate Hampton Champion of Progress in Athletics Award.
The Hampton Award was created by the MHSAA’s Representative Council to honor Nate Hampton, who retired in 2021 after serving in education and educational athletics for 50 years, including the last 32 years as an MHSAA assistant director. Honorees have championed the promotion and advancement of opportunities for women, minorities and other underrepresented groups within interscholastic athletics, while serving as an administrator, coach, official, educator or school sports leader in Michigan.
Carter, in her 10th year as principal at Novi High School, was selected as the first recipient of the Hampton Award by the Representative Council at its Fall meeting in December and will be recognized during the Boys Basketball Finals on March 16 at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.
“As an advocate and strong proponent of athletics, I understand wholeheartedly the impact they have on the whole child,” Carter said. “This is a surreal moment for me, and I’m truly honored to be the recipient of this award, keeping in mind the impact Nate Hampton had on athletics in the state of Michigan over several decades – it’s very humbling.”
Carter began at Novi in 1999, teaching for eight years before moving into administration as dean of student activities for three years and then assistant principal for three. She became principal with the 2013-14 school year and leads a staff of 140 in educating more than 2,100 students.
While leading one of the state’s largest and most highly-regarded high schools – and one of Michigan’s most diverse, with her students’ families speaking more than 70 languages at home – Carter has provided her expertise through several more efforts. She served four years on the MHSAA Representative Council, from 2019-23, and as its vice president for the 2022-23 school year. She has served on the MHSAA’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, and volleyball and classification committees, and presented at the annual Women In Sports Leadership Conference on social and emotional skill building. She also has served as president of the Kensington Lakes Activities Association.
“Nicole Carter serves with the mindset of providing opportunities for all students as the principal at one of the largest and most diverse high schools in Michigan, and students statewide benefitted from her leadership during her time as part of the Representative Council and Executive Committee,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “No matter the topic or details of a situation, Nicole looks at it from a rational point of view in deciding what’s best for kids. She continues to emphasize that academics must be the highest priority in a student’s education, and she can provide that perspective with a wider lens as someone with a strong background in and understanding of the role of athletics.”
Service through education is a tradition in Carter’s family. Her grandfather Charles Butler Nuckolls served as a principal in Kentucky for 40 years prior to desegregation. Her father Gene Nuckolls also spent 40 years in education, including as principal of Saginaw High School and assistant superintendent for Saginaw Public Schools, while Carter’s mother Shirley Nuckolls dedicated 40 years as a teacher, assistant principal and guidance counselor within the Saginaw district.
Carter’s selection for the Hampton Award is something of a full-circle moment for her family. Gene Nuckolls hired Hampton as supervisor of athletic and physical education for Saginaw Public Schools in 1987.
Carter was named Michigan High School Principal of the Year in 2022 by the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP) and Michigan Association of Student Councils and Honor Societies (MASC/MAHS). She additionally has been recognized as a Diversity Champion as part of The Community House honor roll recognition program, and was selected as an African American Educator of the Year by the Michigan Lottery in 2016. She also was recognized in 2017 by the Oakland County Coordinating Council Against Domestic Violence.
Drawing from her athletic background and perspective, Carter noted that she strives to be a coach and mentor – as well as a teacher of teachers and students as principal at her school.
She also has continually looked to create inclusive opportunities during her tenure, citing Novi’s Special Olympics Unified Sports program as a significant point of pride for the school.
“I always lead from the lens of equity and inclusion and accessibility, and I’m always trying to identify opportunities for students to find their place,” Carter said. “Ensuring every single student in our school has a sense of belonging is one of my top priorities as principal.”
Carter is a 1993 graduate of Saginaw Heritage, where she played basketball, soccer and softball. She earned bachelor’s degrees in political science, with a minor in English, and secondary education from Michigan State University in 1999 and her master’s in curriculum and instruction from MSU in 2001. She also has an educational leadership degree from Oakland University. Carter taught civics/economics and U.S. government and politics at Novi before moving into administration.
PHOTOS courtesy of Novi Community School District.
MHSAA Provides Reopening Guidelines
May 29, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Michigan High School Athletic Association today submitted to its member schools a series of updated timelines and recommendations to guide the return of sports, which have been suspended since mid-March to alleviate the potential spread of COVID-19.
The state’s current “Safer-at-Home” order runs through Friday, June 12. There can be no use of any school facilities (indoor and outdoor) and there can be no organized on-site athletic activity, including conditioning or competition, until the current stay-at-home order expires or is lifted by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. When the “Safer-at-Home” order expires or is lifted, the return-to-activity recommendations may be implemented locally by school district leadership, provided the district declares its facilities open to students and staff and the 2019-20 school year has ended for that district (based on its last originally-scheduled school day).
The “MHSAA/NFHS Guidance for Re-Opening School Sports” is based primarily on direction provided by the MHSAA and National Federation of State High School Associations’ (NFHS) Sports Medicine Advisory Committees, in addition to reopening plans provided by the Michigan and federal governments and recommendations from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Concepts from the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee also were consulted.
The MHSAA/NFHS plan recommends a three-step process to returning to full athletic participation, and for each step outlines actions to be taken in five major areas: pre-workout/contest screening of athletes and coaches for sickness, limitations of the number of participants who may be involved in a gathering, proper cleaning for facilities, the use of equipment during activity and best practices for keeping participants safely hydrated. The plan also places sports into categories based on risk for transmitting the virus (low/moderate/high), with adjusted return-to-activity steps based on that level of risk.
The MHSAA serves more than 1,500 public and private schools, including 750 high schools.
“The MHSAA and its Representative Council believe restarting school sports is essential to the physical and mental well-being of students, and the guidelines outlined for schools today provide the ‘How’ for schools to return to athletics when they’ve received the go-ahead from state and county health officials,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “We are thankful for our state government, state education and health departments, our medical partners and the NFHS for their guidance these last few months, and we will continue to follow and pass on their recommendations as we prepare our schools to bring back this part of student life that’s been sorely missed.”
At the present time, the only activity allowed continues to be individual, outdoor recreational activity including walking, hiking, running, etc. (as announced in Executive Order 2020-96). If this type of conditioning activity takes place with more than one person present, it must be in groups of fewer than 10 people with social distancing followed, and the activity cannot involve school coaches, be school sponsored or occur at any school facility (indoor or outdoor) until at least June 13.
Voluntary virtual (not in-person) communication and instruction from coaches to any number of students is permitted under MHSAA rules in all sports during the summer.
“The concept is that students can continue to individually condition themselves (by walking, hiking, running), but there should be no organized, group activity by any person until at least June 13. We must all continue do our part to flatten the curve in hopes of increased activity over the coming weeks,” Uyl said. “Again, it is important to note that this document addresses ‘How’ schools can return to activity; the decision on ‘When’ schools can return to activity will be done under the direction of state government and health department officials. As government actions impact this timeline, the MHSAA will continue to update all involved.”
The return-to-activity guidelines are aimed to provide direction for schools as they continue to limit potential exposure to respiratory droplets, the primary avenue for transferring COVID-19. Specifically, the MHSAA/NFHS plan addresses social distancing, use of cloth and other face coverings, event scheduling and transportation, and the possibility that schools may have to break from or completely discontinue activity including competition during the fall or winter because of recurrent outbreaks of the coronavirus.
School district administrators will determine at which step in the MHSAA/NFHS plan their schools are operating based on the number of people allowed to gather by state medical officials.
The document in full is available from the MHSAA Website. Further guidance will be provided over the weeks ahead as new information is available and the prevalence of COVID-19 changes. Updates to the MHSAA/NFHS guidelines will continue to be in accordance with those published by the Governor’s office.
The MHSAA has remained in regular contact with the Governor’s office, Michigan Department of Health & Human Services and Michigan Department of Education throughout the pandemic, in addition to leadership from the state’s superintendents, school principals, athletic administrators and school boards associations.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.