By: Scott Bentley | Novi Note | Published February 26, 2026
NOVI — The Michigan High School Athletic Association announced in a press release Feb. 11 that former Novi High School Athletic Director Brian Gordon will be the recipient of this year’s Nate Hampton Champion of Progress in Athletics Award.
This is the third year that the MHSAA has given out the Hampton Award. The two previous winners are Novi’s Nicole Carter in 2024 and Wyoming’s Anetta Thompson in 2025.
“The thing that’s so cool about this award … is that it’s named after Nate Hampton, who was such a giving man and was an integral part of interscholastic and educational athletics in Michigan,” Gordon said. “Just to have your name in the same breath as a person like Nate, who signifies what’s right in athletics and educational athletics, (is an honor).”
The Hampton Award was created in 2024 by the MHSAA Representative Council. The Award honors Nate Hampton, who served in education and educational athletics for 50 years. According to a press release by the MHSAA, recipients of the award have promoted opportunities for women, minorities and other underrepresented groups within interscholastic athletics.
Gordon has put in decades of work in the community, but perhaps nothing is more important to him than the work he’s done with Unified Sports.
“It is truly the purest form of sport,” Gordon said. “People come into the gym, they cheer for each other, everyone has a great moment and when everyone walks out, everybody is happy. … I challenge you to come to an event and not shed a tear of joy.”
Unified Sports pair students with and without intellectual disabilities as teammates. Gordon and Brighton Athletic Director John Thompson came together in 2014 to try to bring Unified Sports to the Kensington Lakes Activities Association. In 2015, there were five schools participating. According to the MHSAA’s press release, Gordon estimates that there are more than 600 elementary, middle and high school Unified Sports teams across Michigan. Gordon meets with school and district administrators to promote Unified Sports.
“It’s been amazing … and honestly had COVID not hit, we’d be (even bigger),” Gordon said. “But many schools pushed through it. Just like you push through for the football program, we’re going to push through it for our Unified program too.”
The legitimacy of Unified Sports is what makes its impact so large. Students from the schools come to watch events, the athletes have training and games, the schools recognize the sports and media coverage has grown.
“Our Unified programs across the state are treated as equally as any of the other programs that are at any of the schools,” Gordon said. “Kids that may have never had the opportunity to represent their school the way that all of the other student athletes do … it’s a great moment.”
Gordon, who also spent 24 years at Royal Oak Schools before moving to Novi, became a liaison for Special Olympics Michigan and Unified Sports following the end of his tenure as an athletic director.
The message that Gordon wanted to make clear was that this award was not about him. Unified Sports has always been about the kids, and he said it’s taken an army to get these opportunities statewide.
“It’s not me, it’s people that have supported this along the way, it’s superintendents, it’s principals, it’s the basketball coach that’s going to start their game a little bit later because we’re going to have a Unified game,” Gordon said. “It’s all of the people that support the movement of inclusion. This is no different than any of the other programs that are going on out there. … (The MHSAA) and (Executive Director) Mark Uyl have been nothing but supportive.”
The MHSAA’s support of Gordon over the years is now tangible in the form of the Hampton Award.
“The MHSAA and the state’s school sports community have long benefitted from Brian’s positive approach and tremendous energy,” Uyl said in the association’s press release. “He’s poured all of himself into building bridges for Unified Sports in communities all over Michigan.”
Uyl also highlighted the impact that Gordon specifically has had in the community for over three decades.
“Brian Gordon has spent more than 35 years promoting school sports and the athletes they serve,” Uyl said in the release. “Who better to advocate for Unified Sports than someone who has dedicated his career to championing kids and creating opportunities for them to excel.”
Gordon received the MHSAA’s Jack Johnson Distinguished Service Award in 2021, the MHSAA Allen W. Bush Award in 2019, the Oakland County Athletic Director of the Year award for the 2018-19 school year by the Oakland County Athletic Directors Association and was the Regional Athletic Director of the Year by the Michigan Interscholactic Athletic Administrators Association in 2018. Gordon retired from Novi in 2021. After two years as the Royal Oak athletic director, he retired in 2023.
The award will be given during the Michigan Interscholactic Athletic Administrators Association annual conference in Traverse City on March 13.