NFHS committees consist of individuals with diverse backgrounds in the given sport/activity. Various NFHS sections are represented across the nation and there are five women who currently serve as the chair on several NFHS committees. We would like to spotlight these female leaders.

Sarah Bridenbaugh, Middle School Chair

Sarah Bridenbaugh is an Assistant Commissioner with the Kentucky High School Athletic Association where she oversees the sports of cross country, track & field, and softball, as well as the sport-activities of bowling and dance. Her duties also include being the Director of Middle Schools and Emerging Opportunities, guiding the state’s Adapted and Unified offerings and managing novelty sales, trophies and medals for all KHSAA championships.

Prior to joining the KHSAA in 2015, Bridenbaugh spent six years as a girls’ basketball coach and a mathematics teacher. A product of Morgan (Ohio) High School, Bridenbaugh graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education. She added a master’s degree in instructional leadership from Eastern Kentucky University in 2015. She and her husband, Sy, reside in Richmond.

Sherry Bryant, Field Hockey Chair

Sherry Bryant has led a varied 30-year career at the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA). Bryant is the current associate executive director and also currently serves as associate director of the Massachusetts School Administrators’ Association (MSAA). In her MIAA role, Bryant is the association’s liaison to the Tournament Management Committee and the Ad Hoc Technology Committee. During her tenure, she has overseen the sports of field hockey, basketball, gymnastics, skiing, tennis, softball and rugby. More recently, Bryant led the MIAA’s COVID-19 Task Force and the MIAA Blue Ribbon Committee on Gender Equity.

At the national level, Bryant is a leader in the NFHS/USA Field Hockey Advocacy Group and is a current member of the NFHS Strategic Planning Committee. In 2008, Bryant was awarded the NIAAA “Outside the Field” Distinguished Service Award at the Massachusetts Secondary Schools Athletic Directors Association Conference.

Amy Doherty, Girls Gymnastics Chair

After seven years of teaching and 15 years coaching multiple sports, Amy Doherty joined the staff at the Minnesota State High School League in 2008. She administers boys and girls tennis, gymnastics, performing arts activities and robotics, and previously administered boys and girls soccer. In addition to serving as incoming chair of the NFHS Girls Gymnastics Committee, Amy is also on the NFHS Speech, Theatre and Debate Committee. 

After a childhood in club gymnastics, Doherty transitioned to high school gymnastics, and also enjoyed high school band, soccer and track and field. She was inducted into her high school’s Hall of Fame in 2023. Doherty holds a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Minnesota, and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota). She competed in collegiate track and field and earned All American honors in indoor and outdoor track.

Amy previously coached gymnastics from toddlers through teenagers at community centers and high schools, and currently officiates and announces high school and college track and field meets in her spare time.

 Kelley Haney, Officials Advisory Chair

Kelley Haney has served as the Assistant Director for Athletics for the Virginia High School League (VHSL) since 2017. She has directed field hockey, golf, gymnastics, soccer, cheer and indoor and outdoor track. Her other responsibilities include rules clinics and the officials program. In addition, Haney currently serves as the University of Virginia athletics spirit coordinator, a position she has held since 1997, managing a team of more than 60 cheerleaders, dance team members, and mascot performers. She also supervises three assistant coaches. 

Before joining the VHSL in 2016, Kelley Haney spent 16 years with Varsity Brands, Inc. (1999-2015) as a sales and service representative managing a territory that included 200 schools and youth groups in Virginia. In addition, Haney is the head coach for Spirit Teams at the University of Virginia. She also served as an assistant director of marketing for the University of Virginia from 1997-1999.

Before joining the UVa marketing staff, Haney was the head cheerleading coach at VCU (1992-1997) and served as an athletics department assistant from 1996-97. She also taught kindergarten and elementary school following her graduation from VCU in 1993, earning a B.A. degree in General Studies with a Concentration in Early Childhood Development.

Emily Mason, Volleyball Chair

Emily Mason joined the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) in June 2014, where she began working with the Sport Management Department as a Program Coordinator. Since 2014, she has worked with a multitude of sports at the OHSAA and has served as an Assistant Director of Sport Management, Director of Sport Management and now a Senior Sport Administrator. Mason is currently the Sport Administrator for baseball, bowling, field hockey and girls & boys volleyball and has worked with the sport of volleyball since her arrival in 2014. In addition to her duties in the Sport Management Department, Mason began serving as the staff liaison to the Joint Advisory Committee on Sports Medicine in 2021.

Mason is a native of Fayetteville, Arkansas, where she played basketball and volleyball in high school. A graduate of the University of Arkansas, she received her bachelor’s degree in May 2012 in Recreation & Sport Management with a minor in General Business. In August 2012, she moved to Columbus, Ohio to attend graduate school at The Ohio State University, from which she earned her master’s degree in Sport Management in May 2014. Mason’s term on the NFHS Volleyball Rules Committee ends in 2028.