Seven high school athletic directors will be inducted into the sixth Hall of Fame class of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) December 16 in National Harbor, Maryland, during banquet festivities at the 45th annual National Athletic Directors Conference co-sponsored by the NIAAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
This year’s conference will be held December 12-16 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
The 2014 NIAAA Hall of Fame class includes Steve Berseth, CMAA, South Dakota; Bill Bowers, CMAA, Oregon; Bobby Guthrie, CMAA, North Carolina; Warren Hagman, CMAA, Nevada; Ed Lockwood, CMAA, North Dakota; and two individuals who will be inducted posthumously – John Foley, CAA, New York, and Charles Maas, Indiana.
Following are biographical sketches of the seven members of the 2014 NIAAA Hall of Fame class:
Steve Berseth, CMAA
Brookings, South Dakota
Beginning in 1972, Steve Berseth, CMAA, spent his entire 39-year career in the Brookings (South Dakota) School District as a teacher, counselor, coach and administrator. For the last 19 years of his tenure, Berseth served as director of student activities until his retirement in 2011. In addition to his primary duties of facilitating athletics, performing arts programs and student organizations, he was also responsible for the development of the school district calendar, community use of facilities and advisor to the Brookings High School Monogram Club.
Berseth was also heavily involved in planning and supervising the construction or renovation of several campus athletic facilities, including the main gym, a sports complex, a new track and field facility and a softball stadium.
At the state level, Berseth’s primary influence on education-based athletics was promoting the professional development of coaches and athletic administrators as a member of the South Dakota Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (SDIAAA), the South Dakota High School Activities Association (SDHSAA) and the South Dakota High School Coaches Association (SDHSCA). He was a member of the SDIAAA Executive Committee for 18 years, and as president, Berseth initiated a new athletic director workshop. He also continues to serve as the state’s coordinator of the NIAAA Professional Development Academy, and has presented 17 different leadership training courses in the state.
Berseth served a five-year term on the SDHSAA Board, including two years as vice chair and a year as chairperson. He also was a tournament manager for several SDHSAA state events, including basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, golf and debate.
Berseth’s devotion to professional development continued at the national level. He was a pioneer in certification, earning his CAA certification in 1995 and his CMAA distinction in 2000. He was a member of the NIAAA Certification Committee from 1999 to 2005, including three years as chair. During that time he helped develop the RAA and CMAA certification levels as well as attainment of full registration of the program by the National Certification Commission in 2001.
Berseth continues to serve on the Leadership Training Institute’s National Faculty and has been vice chair of LTC 504 since 2002, and LTCs 506 and 508 since 2010. In addition, his involvement with the NIAAA included time on the programs subcommittee for the first NIAAA Strategic Plan, service on the ad hoc screening committee for the selection of the NIAAA executive director in 2004 and a term on the Board of Directors from 2007 to 2009. He is also a current member of the NFHS Hall of Fame Screening Committee.
Since his retirement, Berseth authored a chapter on scheduling considerations for the NIAAA’s Guide to Interscholastic Athletic Administration, and he currently is a reviewer for the NIAAA Quality Program Award.
Berseth has been recognized at the state level with the NIAAA State Award of Merit and the SDHSAA Distinguished Service Award – both in 2003. The SDHSCA named him athletic director of the year in 2009 that resulted in the 2010 National High School Athletic Coaches Association National Athletic Director of the Year Award. Berseth was inducted into the SDHSCA Hall of Fame in 2011 and the SDIAAA Hall of Fame in 2014. He earned an NIAAA Distinguished Service Award in 2003 and an NFHS Citation in 2007.
Bill Bowers, CMAA
Springfield, Oregon
Bill Bowers, CMAA, devoted 31 years of stout service as an educator in Springfield (Oregon) Public Schools before becoming executive director of the Oregon Athletic Directors Association (OADA) in 2004, a position he held until July 2014.
Bowers served as a mathematics instructor and the football, wrestling and baseball coach at Hamlin Junior High School from 1972 to 1979; was a mathematics instructor, head baseball coach and assistant football coach at Springfield High School from 1979 to 1997; and was athletics and activities director at Springfield High School from 1995 to 2003.
Since leaving Springfield, Bowers has remained active in athletic administration. He was the Leadership Training Institute state coordinator, vendor chair of the state athletic directors conference and chair of the state’s new athletic directors workshop.
Within the NIAAA, Bowers was state liaison to the NIAAA from 2001 to 2013 and a state certification chair for two years, and he has presented more than 30 leadership training courses at state conferences and the national conference. He is a certified CAA Exam administrator, served on the third NIAAA Strategic Planning Committee and wrote a chapter in the NIAAA’s Guide to Interscholastic Athletic Administration. From 2010 to 2013, Bowers served a term on the NIAAA Board of Directors.
At the state level, Bowers continues to serve as ticket manager for various Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) state championship events, was the Class 3A state wrestling championship meet director for three years and was the Class 1A state volleyball championship meet director for three years. Bowers, who was a member of the OADA executive board for 16 years, also served as the organization’s president. He also currently serves on the executive committee of the National Executive Directors Council.
Throughout his career, Bowers has received considerable recognition. He was named Midwestern League Baseball Coach of the Year in both 1983 and 1988, the Midwestern League Athletic Director of the Year, the OADA AAAA athletic director of the year and the OADA State Athletic Director of the Year. At the national level, he was an NIAAA State Award of Merit recipient in 2003, an NIAAA Distinguished Service Award recipient in 2005 and an NFHS Citation recipient in 2008. The OADA established the Bill Bowers Award of Excellence in his honor in 2014. Bowers will be inducted into the OADA Hall of Fame in April 2015. In addition, he earned the CAA designation in 1998 and in 2002, became the first athletic director in Oregon to attain the CMAA designation.
Bowers has also been a key asset to the community as he was the executive secretary and treasurer of the Oregon Junior Baseball Association, president of the Springfield Baseball Commission and president of Midwestern League Athletic Directors. Currently, he is on the Emerald Kidsports Board of Directors and is the scoreboard operator for the University of Oregon’s football and men’s basketball teams.
John Foley, CAA
New York
From supporting the NIAAA as a charter member to being instrumental in forming an association for athletic administrators in his own state of New York, John Foley was a trailblazer in his field for more than 35 years before he passed away in 2009.
Foley began his career in 1955 at the Three Village School District in East Setauket, New York, where he was initially hired to teach physical education at Ward Melville High School. Soon, he became the first director of health, physical education, recreation and athletics for the district, a position he held until he retired in 1990. The gymnasium at Ward Melville was dedicated in his honor the same year and still bears his name today.
As a member of the NIAAA since its inception, Foley’s love of education and professional development led to his full support of the NIAAA Certification Program. He was part of the first class to take and pass the CAA exam and took most, if not all, of the available courses in the Leadership Training Institute. He also taught many of the same courses at several national and state conferences.
Foley was a prolific writer, authoring many articles and reviews of professional publications for the NIAAA. One of the longest-serving members of the Publications Committee, he attended more than 40 meetings and was a regular contributor to the Interscholastic Athletic Administration (IAA) magazine. He also was a speaker at many National Athletic Directors Conferences.
At the state level, Foley was instrumental in the formation of the New York State Athletic Administrators Association (NYSAAA) and frequently offered his services to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) as well. He chaired the NYSPHSAA Committee on Modified Sports for 12 of the 19 years he served on the committee. He was also a member of the state association’s boys lacrosse and boys and girls basketball committees.
Foley was president of the NYSPHSAA’s Section XI, Suffolk Zone, and its athletic association. He was the coordinator for boys lacrosse and volleyball, as well as both boys and girls basketball. He also chaired the Suffolk County Council on Physical Fitness and Sports for almost 15 years.
A founder of the Long Island Institute of Professional Studies in Physical Education, Foley also served as its director after his retirement. Additionally, he taught courses at Adelphi University (New York) and was an adjunct assistant professor at Stony Brook University (New York).
Foley was the recipient of more than 50 major awards throughout his career, including National High School Athletic Director of the Year in 1988, Man of the Year by the New York State Coaches’ Association in 1987 and the NYSAAA State Award of Merit in 2004. He also received the Distinguished Physical Education Alumni Award from his alma mater, Manhattan College.
He has been inducted into the NYSPHSAA Hall of Fame, the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the National Council of Secondary School Athletic Directors Presidential Hall of Fame and, most recently, the inaugural class of the NYSAAA Hall of Fame in March, among others. Foley was awarded the NIAAA Distinguished Service Award in 1993 and the Award of Merit in 2004. Since 2011, the NYSAAA has given out the Dr. John Foley Professional Development Award annually in his honor.
Bobby Guthrie, CMAA
Raleigh, North Carolina
Bobby Guthrie, CMAA, is the former senior administrator for athletics and driver education of the Wake County Public Schools System in Raleigh, North Carolina, having spent his entire career promoting education-based athletics and coach education in North Carolina.
After starting his career as a teacher at Scotland High School in Laurinburg, North Carolina, Guthrie became a baseball coach at the collegiate level. He was a graduate assistant baseball coach at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for a year before moving to the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, where he was the head baseball coach from 1983 to 1991. While there, Guthrie was named Colonial Athletic Conference Baseball Coach of the Year in 1989, and the North Carolina Baseball Coaches Association College Coach of the Year in 1990.
Returning to the high school ranks, Guthrie became a teacher and coach in the New Hanover School System in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1991. From there he moved to Wake County in 1994, where he remained until his retirement in 2013. While at Wake County, Guthrie oversaw athletic programs for 20 high schools and 31 middle schools, and was involved in planning the athletic facilities of nine new high schools. During his tenure, he assisted with numerous North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) championships, developed a cheerleading coach education program, established a sportsmanship education program and initiated the Wake County Schools Sports Medicine Symposium.
Guthrie is an outspoken advocate for coaching education on the national level. He still serves as the NIAAA representative on the NFHS Coaches Education Committee and is chair of the NIAAA Ad Hoc Coaching Education Committee. In 2010, Guthrie was named the NFHS Coach Educator of the Year. In addition, he was the first Accredited Interscholastic Coach to be certified in the United States through the NFHS Coach Education Program. Guthrie also served on the NIAAA Board of Directors from 2007 to 2011 and presented at the 2012 National Coaching Conference.
At the state level, Guthrie served on the boards of directors of both the NCHSAA and the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association (NCADA), and he has served as chair of the NCADA Mentoring Committee since 2003. In 2010, Guthrie initiated the revision of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Middle School Athletic Manual.
Among his numerous awards, Guthrie earned an NFHS Citation in 2010, was named athletic director of the year by the NCADA in 2007 and received the NCADA Award of Merit in 2001. He was also a member of the 2014 induction class of the NCHSAA Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Southern Alamance High School Hall of Fame in 2011
Guthrie received both his bachelor’s (1974) and master’s (1978) degrees from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he played baseball, earning the team’s Most Valuable Player Award in 1974.
Warren Hagman, CMAA
Henderson, Nevada
Warren Hagman, CMAA, spent 26 years as an athletic administrator in Alaska and Nevada. In both states, Hagman proved to be a leader and visionary in growing interscholastic and athletic administrator programs.
After graduating from Montana State University in 1971, Hagman was a teach and coach at Chugiak High School in Eagle River, Alaska for 11 years before starting his career in administration at Service High School in Anchorage. While at Service, Hagman oversaw the athletic program of the largest school in the state.
Hagman was a founder and charter member of the Alaska Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (AIAAA), which under his leadership became the 49th state association to join the NIAAA. He also worked with the Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA) as a state tournament coordinator in several sports, including football, ice hockey, basketball and volleyball.
Hagman then moved to Nevada where he quickly became a state and national leader of professional development and leadership training. He served on the planning board of the Nevada Athletic Directors Association (NADA) Conference for 22 years, and was the state’s Leadership Training Coordinator from its inception for 15 years. Hagman is a former president of the NADA and served as the athletic administrator liaison to the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association Board of Control for six years.
Working in the Clark County School District, Hagman had the opportunity to supervise the building and opening of a new high school in Las Vegas. As the athletic administrator of Mojave High School, Hagman was responsible for hiring a complete coaching staff and integrating the freshman-only campus into a complete 9-12 campus. Hagman was then asked to move to Western High School to oversee major renovations, serving as the athletic administrator and on-site construction liaison. Hagman finished his career at Liberty High School.
At the national level, Hagman has served on the NIAAA Professional Development Committee and on the host committees for two National Athletic Directors Conferences in Las Vegas. He also represented Section 7 for a term on the NIAAA Board of Directors, during which the organization made the decision to relocate to a new building and become independent from the NFHS.
Since his retirement from athletic administration in 2010, Hagman has continued to teach NIAAA Leadership Training Institute classes at several state conferences. In addition, he has developed and taught two 18-credit graduate level programs for coaches at Touro University in Henderson, Nevada.
For his accomplishments, Hagman earned the NFHS Citation in 1990 and has also won the NADA Distinguished Service Award. He is a three-time winner of the NIAAA State Award of Merit – twice in Alaska and once in Nevada.
Throughout his career, Hagman emphasized continuing professional development to his fellow athletic directors and coaches. Perhaps his greatest legacy is the fact that, during his career, he has mentored six teachers/coaches into athletic director positions.
Ed Lockwood, CMAA
North Dakota
Ed Lockwood, CMAA, dedicated most of his 34-year athletic administration career to expanding activity programs for students in four North Dakota high schools and creating professional development opportunities for fellow athletic directors.
After graduating from Bowbells (North Dakota) High School and Minot State (North Dakota) University, Lockwood began his career at Berthold (North Dakota) High School, coaching football and track and field, and teaching social studies. He spent the next 10 years at Mohall (North Dakota) High School as the head football coach. After just two years at Mohall, he was also named activities administrator. He then became principal and athletic director at Underwood (North Dakota) High School before moving on to become athletic director at Williston (North Dakota) High School.
In 1991, Lockwood landed at Fargo (North Dakota) South High School as assistant principal and athletic coordinator, where he remained for almost 20 years. In 2003, he was named director of student activities for the Fargo Public Schools, a position he held until he retired in 2012. Since his retirement, Lockwood has served as executive director of the North Dakota Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NDIAAA).
At Fargo, some of Lockwood’s accomplishments included guiding the renovation of the athletic complexes at two schools, collaborating with the city park district to create shared athletic fields to save resources, and developing a tournament committee, representing all private and public schools in the Fargo metro area, which hosted several state and local tournaments every year. He also developed a marketing plan that provides the tournament committee with funding.
As a 31-year member of the NIAAA, Lockwood has served on numerous committees, including the first Strategic Planning Committee, Current Issues and Resolution Committee and Certification Committee, and he is currently a member of the Professional Development Committee. After his stint on the Certification Committee, Lockwood was selected as the assistant director of certification, a position he has held for the past two years. In that role, he writes questions for the Certified Athletic Administrator (CAA) exam and has developed a Certified Master Athletic Administrator (CMAA) project format that provides guidance and consistency for potential CMAA candidates. He was co-chair in the development of Leadership Training Course (LTC) 719, has contributed to the development and revision of several other courses and has taught two courses.
Perhaps Lockwood’s most significant influence has come through his service to the NDIAAA. There, he led the organization through its first strategic plan in which it grew from a small group of around 20 members to its current size of almost 150 dual members with the NIAAA. His leadership has helped the NDIAAA become recognized as a respected and effective educational leadership organization that provides members with many professional development opportunities, including two annual conferences.
Along with his work with the NDIAAA, Lockwood has been very active in the North Dakota High School Activities Association (NDHSAA). He has presided over both organizations and was instrumental in the NDHSAA’s decision to sanction baseball, softball, girls hockey, and boys and girls soccer.
Among many honors and awards, Lockwood was twice named North Dakota large school athletic director of the year in 1994 and 2012. He previously received the NIAAA Distinguished Service Award in 2003 and the NFHS Citation in 2005. He was also awarded the NDIAAA State Award of Merit in 2005 and entered the NDIAAA Hall of Fame in 2007. Most recently, he won the NDHSAA Distinguished Service Award and was inducted into the North Dakota Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2012.
Charles Maas
Indiana
From serving his country and coaching to working as an athletic director and in the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA), the late Charles Maas accomplished a lot in a relatively short 23-year career.
Maas graduated from Arsenal Tech High School in Indianapolis and went right into the United States Army, where he served as an athletic instructor for 2½ years during World War II. After returning to Indianapolis and graduating from Butler University, Maas taught and coached basketball at Decatur Central (Indiana) High School for one year.
In 1951, Maas returned to his high school alma mater to coach baseball and basketball. He won 80 percent of his games during his 10 years at Arsenal Tech, including four city championships, one conference championship in 1957 and both the sectional and regional championships in 1960. Maas was named the North Central Conference Coach of the Year in 1957.
Maas’s last stint at the high school level was as athletic director at Indianapolis Arlington High School, where he helped transform the school’s athletic programs into some of the city’s best. In his 12 years there, Arlington built a new football stadium and completed work on other athletic facilities, which were a source of pride for the community. As a result, he was named Indiana High School Athletic Director of the Year in 1970.
At the time Maas joined the IHSAA staff in 1973, he had already served on the association’s Athletic Council for two years. As an assistant commissioner, he was responsible for providing rules interpretations and administering state tournaments for boys and girls track and field and cross country, swimming and diving, and boys wrestling. He created a new system for licensing, evaluating and assigning officials for state tournaments. He remained on staff until his passing in 1984.
Maas was the first president of both the Indiana and Marion County High School Athletic Directors Associations. He also served as the executive secretary of the Indiana High School Coaches Association. Maas was called upon to present at several NFHS annual meetings and served on the NFHS Football Rules Committee.
As a 20-year veteran football official at both the high school and college levels, and a 5-year high school basketball official, he proudly served as president of the Indiana Officials Association and the Indiana Collegiate Officials Association.
Maas received many awards and honors throughout his career. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball and Baseball Halls of Fame in back-to-back years and was awarded the NIAAA Distinguished Service Award in 1984.
As a basketball player at both Arsenal Tech and Butler, Maas won mental attitude awards and was captain of the Butler team during his senior year. Throughout his career, he was described as an honest person, knowledgeable in all things to do with athletics, who functioned with integrity and reputable moral character.
Fittingly, the IHSAA’s mental attitude award for boys cross country, given to an athlete who demonstrates excellence in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability, has been named the Charles F. Maas Mental Attitude Award since 1985.
