NFHS Generic Graphic
Jun 22, 2012
The 93rd annual National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Summer Meeting will be held July 7-11 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The NFHS is the national leadership organization for high school athletic and performing arts activities and is composed of state high school associations in the 50 states plus the District of Columbia.
About 800 individuals are expected to attend the Summer Meeting, including staff members and board members from the 51 member associations.
The 30th annual induction ceremony of the National High School Hall of Fame and discussion of several key issues affecting high school sports and performing arts highlight this year’s agenda.
Twelve individuals will be inducted into the 2012 National High School Hall of Fame class, including former basketball stars Kevin Johnson of California and Fred Hoiberg of Iowa, former Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan of Alabama, and former executive director of the NFHS, Bob Kanaby.
Johnson, who was a standout at Sacramento High School and in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 13 years, is now the mayor of Sacramento, California. Hoiberg, who was a basketball star at Ames (Iowa) High School, Iowa State University and in the NBA, is now the basketball coach at Iowa State. Sullivan, a football standout at John Carroll High School in Birmingham, Alabama, before his stellar career at Auburn University, is now the football coach at Samford University in Birmingham.
Kanaby retired as NFHS executive director in May 2010 after an outstanding 17-year career. He led the organization to a greater national presence and was responsible for starting the NFHS Foundation as well as citizenship programs and steroid and concussion awareness programs.
Among the topics that will be discussed at the 44 workshops are video streaming of state tournaments, summer participation, apps for mobile phones, virtual schools, crowd control, social networking, emergency plan for catastrophic injuries and legal issues.
Students from the Nashville area will present a “We Are High School®” program at the Opening General Session on July 8, where the 40th anniversary of Title IX will be celebrated. In addition, Jacob Goldberg of Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, will be honored with the NFHS Spirit of Sport Award.
The Second General Session on July 9 will feature NFHS President Rick Wulkow, NFHS Executive Director Bob Gardner and various NFHS staff members. They will provide reports on several NFHS initiatives and programs.
Merril Hoge, ESPN football analyst, will speak at the Closing General Session on Wednesday, July 11. Hoge, a former running back with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears, will deliver an inspiring message about his fight with cancer.
The Summer Meeting Luncheon will be held at 11:45 a.m. on July 9, and will feature the presentation of NFHS Citations to 12 individuals. State association honorees include Bill Gaine of Massachusetts, Debbie Moore of Ohio, Bruce Hulion of South Carolina, Todd Clark of Wisconsin, Ken Pickering of South Dakota, Bill Farney of Texas, Ray Mathis of Nevada and Jim Meyerhoff of Washington.
Other Citation recipients are Paul McInnis (NFHS Officials Association), David Johnson (NFHS Coaches Association), Leon Kuehner (NFHS Music Association) and Eloise Weisinger Blair (NFHS Speech/Debate/Theatre Association).
Fred Mueller, director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, will be honored with the NFHS Award of Merit at the Luncheon as well. Mueller has assisted the NFHS and other sports organizations with injury data for the past 30 years.
The NFHS Summer Meeting will conclude at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 11 with the induction of the 2012 class of the National High School Hall of Fame.
In addition to Johnson, Hoiberg and Sullivan, the other former high school athlete in this year’s Hall of Fame class is Tracy Hill, the top scorer in Colorado girls basketball history from Ridgway High School.
High school coaches slated for induction this year include Ronald Bradley, who won more than 1,000 basketball games at eight Georgia high schools during a 49-year career; Rod Harman, who completed his 54th season as a head swimming coach in Oregon this past year at the age of 84; Larry Luitjens, the winningest basketball coach in South Dakota history from Custer High School; and Catherine Neely, who has coached volleyball at East Ridge High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for 47 years and ranks third nationally with 1,371 victories.
Truman Owens, a multi-sport official for 50 years from Clinton, South Carolina, who is still active in football at the age of 80, and Robert “Bob” White, one of the top high school soccer officials in the nation from Caribou, Maine, are this year’s honorees in the Officials category.
Rounding out the 2012 class is Jan Heiteen, speech coach at Downers Grove (Illinois) South High School since 1980 who has led her teams to 16 Illinois High School Association state speech championships.
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