Courtesy Photo Alpena High alum John Cunningham, second from left, was inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2019 in Bismarck, North Dakota. Cunningham, a 1963 graduate of Alpena High School, has been coaching for more than 50 years and has earned numerous coaching honors in his career, including induction into several Halls of Fame. He was joined at the ceremony by his wife Sally and his sons Adam and Ryan. Cunningham will be inducted into the Alpena Sports Hall of Fame next month.

ALPENA — In a career chock-full of coaching honors and team accomplishments, John Cunningham may well put the cherry on top of his resume next week.

Cunningham is one of four members of the Alpena Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022 and will be inducted on May 6 during the Hall of Fame’s annual enshrinement banquet at the APlex. He will be inducted along with Tim Holsworth, Phil Straley and Michele (Suszek) Yates.

“My son said recently, ‘Dad, you’ve been in so many Halls of Fame. They finally got around to the one you should have been in from the very beginning,'” Cunningham said with a laugh. “This one means more than some of the others. To be honored in Alpena, that’s pretty cool.”

Becoming a Hall of Famer is something Cunningham has gotten used to in a coaching career that spans more than five decades.

Among his many honors are inductions into the Michigan High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the Canton High School Athletic Hall of Fame, the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame, and the Michigan Gymnastics Coaches Hall of Fame.

In a career that stretches back to the early 1970s, Cunningham’s coaching tenets of teamwork, respect, and hard work have carried his teams a long way.

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Cunningham coached at Plymouth High from 1968-1972 and took over at Canton High in 1972.

In more than 50 years at Canton, the Chiefs have been a state powerhouse. They won a team state championship in 2014 and have finished runner-up numerous times. Additionally, Canton gymnasts have won individual state titles and All-America honors under Cunningam’s tutelage.

Cunningham’s foray into the sport for which Alpena became known for success for a time began with a simple sign-up sheet to join the gymnastics program in 1959. As a competitor on the high bar, Cunningham competed on talented teams alongside several future Alpena Hall of Famers, including Tim Mousseau and Ray Timm.

After graduation in 1963, Cunningham walked on at Michigan and student taught at Plymouth, where he discovered the school didn’t have a gymnastics team. He got permission to start a gymnastics program and by that fall he had enough athletes for the school to compete as a club team.

Cunningham said he was never the best athlete on any team he competed on, but he took to coaching because it requires a lot of attention to detail.

“In most sports, the good coaches aren’t always the best players,” Cunningham said. “A lot of times, you’ll have a better understanding of your sport if you learn it step by step.”

Cunningham’s attention to detail extends even to his captains, who are required to take a Michigan High School Athletic Association course each year.

“It teaches them how to be a good captain and about respect and teamwork,” Cunningham said.

In addition to his induction into so many Halls of Fame, Cunningham has earned enough awards to fill a trophy case or two. He’s been named the Michigan High School Gymnastics Coach of the Year several times, has been a NHSACA Coach of the Year finalist three times, and was named NHSACA’s Coach of the Year in the special sports category in 2016.

Awards are nice, Cunningham said, but he’s still coaching for a simple reason: It’s still fun.

“I do this because it’s fun. I tell my girls, ‘If you don’t have fun, you’re doing the wrong sport,” Cunningham said. “There’s a quote that sticks with me that says, ‘If you’re a coach, you will impact more people in a year than the average person does in a lifetime.'”

Tickets for the banquet are $20 per person and can be purchased at The Alpena News office, at Jimmie Garant’s Party Store, through Venmo (@AlpenaSportsHOF) or by check. Those interested in paying by check can contact Nancy Garant at 989-464-0319 to make arrangements.