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Crystal Apple Award for Outstanding Contributions to Youth Sports

In 1995, as one expression of public acknowledgement for dedicated service to education, Michigan State University’s College of Education inaugurated a special award, the Crystal Apple Award, to honor educators personally selected by donors as being representative of excellence and commitment. Gifts in honor of these outstanding educators are designed to support worthy students. In this way, the legacy of excellence and commitment exemplified by the recipients of the Crystal Apple Award inspires another generation of outstanding educators.

Beginning in 2004 the Director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports began honoring an educator who made major contributions to youth sports with a Crystal Apple Award. The first Crystal Apple Award for Outstanding Contributions to Youth Sports was awarded to John E. (Jack) Roberts, Executive Director of the Michigan High School Athletic Association. Mr. Roberts was selected for high outstanding leadership in establishing the MHSAA as a national model for educational athletics. During his tenure, he MHSAA established the Program for Athletic Coaches Education, the nation’s first high school association-sponsored training program for coaches. He also lead the efforts to provide outstanding services to high school officials and to promote sportsmanship on and off the field.