Bremer has been named this year’s recipient of the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association Awards Committee's Finish Line Award. The award is presented each year to recognize ongoing contributions, support and assistance on behalf of cross country and track and field. He will receive the honor at a Nov. 13 MITCA luncheon.
He earned a similar honor two years ago from the statewide wrestling association. Never one to seek attention, Bremer said he appreciates the honor, “but honestly I look at it as I’m just doing my job. I’ve done it long enough now that I’m getting lifetime achievement awards.”
As a TK Alum, Class of 1996, Bremer earned the “Most School Spirit” award in senior class voting. TKHS Cross Country Coach Josh Reynolds said Bremer still carries that same enthusiasm in his professional career today and nominated Bremer for the award.
“Brett Bremer is much more than a sportswriter who covers high school athletics. For more than two decades, he has been a passionate supporter, storyteller, and advocate for student-athletes and the coaches who dedicate countless hours to their teams. His work has helped ensure that the accomplishments of high school runners, jumpers, throwers, and teams receive the recognition they deserve,” Reynolds wrote in his nomination letter.
While Bremer’s masterful photography work captures and preserves the images, his words tell the full story about the student athletes and their accomplishments. “For cross country and track & field in particular, Brett has provided something that is increasingly valuable: consistent, knowledgeable, and meaningful coverage of sports that do not always receive the same attention as football, basketball, or other major team sports. He understands that a cross-country meet or track meet is about much more than a final score. It is about personal records, qualifying performances, team accomplishments, individual improvement, perseverance, sportsmanship, and the relationships that develop between athletes and coaches,” Reynolds wrote.
Reynolds said the Finish Line Award is especially appropriate for Bremer because of his consistency in being present at sporting events. Bremer covers every varsity sport for Thornapple Kellogg and Caledonia high schools in the Sun and News. He also covers sports for Hastings, Delton Kellogg, Maple Valley and Lakewood in other papers for The View Newspaper family.
TK Athletic Director Brian Hammer said Bremer is very deserving of this honor. “I don’t know how he does what he does with the scope of his job. He’s always around. His dedication to local sports is unmatched and we truly appreciate what he does.”
Bremer said every Monday morning he makes a list of every varsity sporting event in all the schools he covers. He looks to see if there are important matchups taking place and then what fits best into a schedule.
“My goal is to see every varsity team at each school at least one time per season,” said Bremer, who also tries to juggle a busy family schedule. He and his wife, Nichol, have three children in TK Schools - Dylan, a senior, is involved in the band program; Owen, a sophomore, is involved in cross country, basketball and track; and Stella, a sixth grader, participates in many sports.
“Doing this job the way I feel like it needs to be done would be impossible without Nichol’s support and understanding,” Bremer said.
Bremer follows teams not just through the regular season, but also their journeys in district and state events as well, always sharing the student-athlete stories with the local communities. He has covered high school teams on their trips to Ford Field in Detroit, the Palace of Auburn Hills, Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek, Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo, university and high school campuses all over the state, and of course Michigan International Speedway - home of the state cross country finals.
The job as sports editor wasn’t something Bremer said he was necessarily looking for, but the opportunity was there and he went for it. Bremer earned a degree in journalism at Central Michigan University, but at the time was looking more toward advertising than writing.
His love of sports started at an early age, and he played nearly everything through middle school. In high school he was a four-year varsity tennis player and a two-year varsity soccer player. He said some of his favorite memories in college were being in the Rose Rowdies student section at Central Michigan during college basketball games.
Even now when he’s not reporting on sporting events, his hobbies still involve sports - watching the Detroit Tigers and Lions, college basketball games especially the March Madness tournament, attending a University of Michigan football game or two and even catching up with the Red Wings when he can.
“I never worked on the student newspaper or anything. After college I was working as an auto parts delivery person and at some point this job came open. I thought, I like sports and I can put sentences together so why not give it a shot.”
And the rest, as they say, is history.
He admits he is mostly self-taught in his photography skills. “I learned to shoot first and ask questions later,” he said. “You have to be ready to take the pictures, but you can always follow up with the coach to ask questions.”
It’s a career that seems meant to be in a place where Bremer was needed and has called home for most of his life. “I like seeing what newspapers mean to a community and being able to share stories about the students and the teams,” Bremer said.