A-PLUS Idea: Portland Spring Carnival
April 25, 2012
A major challenge not just at the high school level, but in athletics as a whole, is the increasing number of competitors for people's time and money.
At Portland High School, local fans get a chance to check out nearly all the Raiders have to offer during a season that rarely draws football or basketball-sized crowds.
A decade ago, athletic director Kevin Veale looked at the unwieldly matrix of dates, times and sports fighting for spectators in his community, and decided to try something. This April 14, Portland hosted its 10th “Spring Sports Carnival."
“Every spring, we have a date when all of our spring sports host home events; except golf, because of its off-campus nature,” Veale said. “It’s a unique event, and from the top of the football press box it’s a pretty awesome scene to view baseball, softball, tennis, soccer and track events taking place at one time.
“Our crowds depend on the weather, of course. But the community has grown well aware of the event, and our local businesses and boosters get behind it,” he added. “We do special concessions, too. One year we barbecued half chickens, and this year it was cheeseburgers, with a lot of the food and supplies donated.”
PHOTO: From the football stadium press box, one simultaneously could watch track, soccer and softball competitions at Portland's Spring Sports Carnival, despite an overcast sky when this photo was taken. (Photo courtesy of Portland High School).
Ann Arbor Greenhills' Seng to Receive NFHS Citation
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 6, 2021
Ann Arbor Greenhills’ Meg Seng is one of eight high school athletic directors who have been selected to receive a 2021 Citation from the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) on Dec. 13, as part of the 52nd National Athletic Directors Conference in Denver sponsored by the NFHS and National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA).
The Citation is one of the NFHS’ highest honors and recognizes recipients for their contributions to educational athletics at the local, state and national levels. State associations nominate candidates, who are then approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.
Seng is in her 37th year of service to schools and athletes, and has served as Greenhills athletic director since 2003 after previously teaching and/or coaching there and Ann Arbor Huron. She has received the MHSAA’s Women In Sports Leadership Award and Allen W. Bush Award, as well as the Jack Johnson Dedicated Service Award from the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA). She was named state Athletic Director of the Year by the Michigan High School Coaches Association (MHSCA) last month and will receive the same recognition from the MIAAA in March.
Seng has served on 12 MHSAA committees focused on various topics including specific sports, classification and athletic equity. She also has served on committees as part of the MIAAA’s Leadership Academy faculty and NIAAA’s certification committee, and served as the MIAAA’s Executive Board president in 2013-14. In 2001, Seng co-founded The Academy of Sports Leadership, a non-profit organization that provides education and training for women interested in becoming coaches.
A 1977 graduate of Maine South High School in Park Ridge, Ill., Seng was a scholarship athlete at Indiana University playing both volleyball and softball. She began coaching at the college level after her playing days with the Hoosiers were done, serving first as a graduate assistant softball coach at Louisiana Tech University in 1983-84 while studying for her master’s degree, and then as a softball assistant at Illinois State University for 1984-85.
Seng took over the Ann Arbor Huron volleyball program in 1985, and over 12 seasons stretching two tenures led her team to five league titles and a District championship in 1993. She also served as Huron's co-head varsity softball coach from 1986-90. She completed her teacher certification at Eastern Michigan University in 1990 and began teaching at Greenhills that year, later coaching that school’s volleyball varsity team from 1993-2000 and leading the Gryphons to a District title in 1997.