4 minute read
Bulls Charge Through the Pandemic
Mark Schwartz spotted a need in the Oakland County youth sports scene, and he did something about it.
He’s continued to do it, powering through a pandemic that shut down his idea for several months and continues to cause headaches.
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Schwartz is the founder and general manager of the 2-yearold Bloomfield Bulls boys basketball travel program.
The Bloomfield Hills resident is proud of what the Bulls have done in their infancy.
“I’m very happy with how everything has gone so far,” he said. “I feel we’re one of the bestkept secrets around here in travel basketball.”
Schwartz has been a travel baseball coach for several years. He decided to put his expertise in that area to work and form a travel basketball organization.
“There aren’t a lot of options for young guys in the Oakland County area to play high-level, competitive basketball,” he said. “My goal in forming the Bulls was to put together a travel basketball organization that had good coaching and good communication with the families.”
The Bulls have two sixth-grade teams and hope to have two eighth-grade teams playing this winter in the Big Cat Basketball of Michigan league, and in tournaments.
It’s the most teams they’ve put on the floor in a season.
Schwartz feels one of the Bulls’ biggest assets is their coach. He’s 36-year-old former University of Michigan basketball star and ex-professional basketball player Dion Harris.
“I wanted to put a team in the Big Cat league in fall 2019, so I conducted a national search for a coach,” Schwartz said.
Job interviews were done in the late summer. Schwartz said he knew he had his guy when he spoke with Harris.
“Hiring Dion as our coach was a slam dunk,” Schwartz said. “It’s funny ... I didn’t realize it was THAT Dion Harris I was interviewing, the guy I watched play at U-M, until I was doing my interview with him.
“Dion is one of the kindest, most humble people I’ve met through sports. He’s been great with the kids. Besides being a very knowledgeable coach, he’s had countless conversations with the kids about what it’s like to be a student-athlete.”
A 6-foot-3 guard, Harris was the 2003 Mr. Basketball in the state when he was a senior at Detroit Redford High School. He was the first Public School League player to win the prestigious award since 1995.
He also made the Parade AllAmerica second team in 2003.
His four-year U-M career was equally as outstanding.
He played in 131 career games for the Wolverines (No. 6 alltime), starting 97, and he scored 1,599 career points (No. 13 alltime). His 398 career assists are No. 8 all-time and 135 steals are No. 9 all-time.
The Bulls started modestly, with a 13U team in spring 2019 that won its division championship in the Kenny Goldman Basketball League at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield.
The team was coached by then-Birmingham Groves High School basketball player Grant Blau.
“That team in the Kenny Goldman league gave us our footing. Then we took the summer off,” Schwartz said.
The Bulls had an eighth-grade team in the Big Cat league in fall 2019 and winter 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 and shut down the league “when our team was showing great improvement,” Schwartz said.
A year later, when league play resumed, the Bulls had a seventh-grade team in a short Big Cat winter season and the spring season. Each team tied for its division title.
This past summer, the Bulls offered basketball training for grades 5-10 at the Beverly Hills Academy, the Bulls’ home base.
Schwartz hired assistant coaches before the fall season: Tony Davis and Fred WrightJones.
Wright-Jones has taken a high school coaching job, Schwartz said, so another assistant coach is being sought for the Bulls.
The Bulls had two eighthgrade teams and a grades 9-10 junior varsity team in the Big Cat fall league.
Big Cat league games are played at South Lyon and South Lyon East high schools, and Novi High School and Novi Middle School.
So who is Mark Schwartz outside of basketball?
He’s a clinical psychologist who works with pre-teens through senior citizens but mainly with patients ages 10-25 on an outpatient basis at his office in downtown Birmingham.
His sons Benjamin, 15, and Jonathan, 13, each has played for the Bulls.
Benjamin, a sophomore at Frankel Jewish Academy, is on the boys basketball team there. Jonathan, an eighth-grader at Detroit Country Day, also is on his school team.
Schwartz and his wife, Rachel Kukes Schwartz, also have a daughter Julia, 11, a fifth-grader at Country Day.
Interested in more information about the Bulls? Send an email to info@bloomfieldbulls.com or go to the organization’s website, www.bloomfieldbulls.com.
Ex-Michigan star is the coach for founder Mark Schwartz’s travel basketball organization.
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
MARK SCHWARTZ
