38 | DECEMBER 30 • 2021

M

ark Schwartz spot-
ted a need in the
Oakland County
youth sports scene, and he did
something about it.
He’s continued to do it, pow-
ering through a pandemic that
shut down his idea for several
months and continues to cause
headaches.
Schwartz is the founder and
general manager of the 2-year-
old Bloomfield Bulls boys bas-
ketball 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 best-
kept 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 com-
munication 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 tour-
naments.
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 inter-
viewing, 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 presti-
gious award since 1995.
He also made the Parade All-
America 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 all-
time), starting 97, and he scored
1,599 career points (No. 13 all-
time). 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 champi-
onship 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 sum-
mer 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 sev-
enth-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 Wright-
Jones.
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 eighth-
grade 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 out-
side 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.

Bulls Charge
Through the
Pandemic

SPORTS

Ex-Michigan star is the coach
for founder Mark Schwartz’s
travel basketball organization.

From left are Bloomfield Bulls founder and general manager Mark
Schwartz, coach Dion Harris and assistant coach Tony Davis.

MARK SCHWARTZ

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER