'Officiate Michigan Day’ to Draw 1,100
July 23, 2013
More than 1,100 Michigan High School Athletic Association officials are scheduled to attend “Officiate Michigan Day” on Saturday, July 27, at the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, where they will receive training from 40 of the best in the officiating field.
Officials representing the amateur, collegiate and professional ranks will speak and provide training during four instructional workshops throughout the day plus additional sessions mid-day and at the end of the afternoon. “Officiate Michigan Day” is the kickoff event to the National Association of Sports Officials’ (NASO) annual Sports Officiating Summit, which will follow July 28-30 in Grand Rapids.
MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts and Barry Mano, founder and president of NASO, will give the opening address. Four-time Super Bowl official Jerry Markbreit will speak to close the event. Four instructional sessions will focus on sport-specific training in officiating the following: baseball, basketball, competitive cheer, football, gymnastics, lacrosse, ice hockey, soccer, softball, track & field, volleyball and wrestling.
“We’re expecting this to be one of the largest gatherings of sports officials ever held in the United States,” said MHSAA assistant director Mark Uyl, who oversees the association’s officials program. “It will be a historic day of learning and training for our officials.”
Among scheduled clinicians are current National Basketball Association officials Joe Crawford and Bill Kennedy, NCAA National Coordinator of Volleyball Officials Joan Powell, National Hockey League Senior Vice President and Director of Officiating Terry Gregson and official Dan O’Halloran, and National Football League officials Perry Paganelli, Carl Paganelli, Jr., and Dino Paganelli. All three Paganellis have officiated Super Bowls, and O’Halloran is coming off working his fourth straight Stanley Cup Final. Crawford and Kennedy both officiated during the recent NBA Finals, and Powell also served as team leader of the U.S. women’s national volleyball team that won the silver medal at the 2008 Olympics.
“Officiate Michigan Day” is open to all officials, including those not registered with the MHSAA, and cost to attend is $35. It is recommended officials sign up online by 5 p.m. Thursday, July 25. Click to register for the conference or see the schedule and list of presenters and clinicians.
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 approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.
Longtime Chelsea High School Administrator, Coach Bush to Join MHSAA Staff as Assistant Director
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 21, 2022
Brad Bush, a highly-respected educator, administrator and coach over the last three decades, has been selected to serve in the position of assistant director for the Michigan High School Athletic Association, beginning Jan. 17.
Bush, 52, taught and coached at East Kentwood High School for four years before beginning a tenure at Chelsea High School in 1997 that has included teaching, then serving as athletic director and later also assistant principal and leading the football program as varsity coach from 1997-2002 and again from 2004-18.
He also has served as a statewide delegate on the MHSAA Representative Council during the last year and provided leadership in multiple roles, including president, for the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association (MHSFCA) since 2005.
Bush will serve as the MHSAA’s lead administrator for baseball and also among lead administrators for the officials program, which includes more than 8,000 registered officials in all sports. Bush also will be assigned additional duties in other sports based on his vast experiences. He was selected from a pool of 34 applicants.
“I’m incredibly excited to have Brad join our team,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. "He’s been an outstanding athletic director and coach who is highly-respected by those who know him.”
As Chelsea athletic director, Bush annually has supervised a staff of 110 coaches across 31 programs, with nearly 70 percent of the high school’s 800 students participating in athletics. As a teacher and assistant principal, he has served on Chelsea’s School Improvement Team and on multiple committees that provided instructional leadership including in the development of the district’s new trimester schedule. In his roles with the MHSFCA, Bush helped direct an organization with more than 2,200 members and also served as the association’s treasurer and liaison to the MHSAA.
Bush is perhaps best known, however, for his coaching success. Over 22 seasons, he led Chelsea’s varsity football team to a 169-60 record, 13 league championships, 18 playoff appearances, seven District titles and a Division 3 runner-up finish in 2015. During his break in tenure as Chelsea coach, Bush served as an assistant football coach and recruiting coordinator for Eastern Michigan University during the 2003-04 school year, and he has served as an assistant coach at Albion College the last four seasons contributing to the team’s two league titles and appearance in the 2021 NCAA Division III Playoffs.
“I feel like joining the team at the MHSAA is an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” Bush said. “The 26 years I spent at Chelsea were some of the best times of my life. It’s a professional transition that in the back of my mind, if this opportunity came, was something I needed to do.
“Over time, I’ve grown to care about the bigger picture of athletics and appreciate the role of the MHSAA in protecting high school athletics in Michigan.”
Bush is a 1988 graduate of Ypsilanti High School. He studied and played quarterback at Cornell University before returning and graduating from EMU after majoring in history and minoring in social studies. He earned his physical education endorsement from EMU in 2000 and his master’s in physical education and sports management from EMU in 2002. He has earned continuing education credits in sports management from Drake University and completed the Path to Leadership program from the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP).
Bush was inducted into MHSFCA Hall of Fame and Ypsilanti High School Hall of Fame both in 2019. He and his wife Laura have three adult children, two daughters and a son.
PHOTO Chelsea coach Brad Bush directs his team during the 2015 Division 3 Final at Ford Field.