Winter Sports 3

Your guide to Ludington’s and Manistee High School’s upcoming sports seasons, featuring stories, team photos and schedules

Ludington Daily News • Monday, December 9, 2013

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BY DAVID BOSSICKDAILY NEWS SPORTS EDITOR

Ludington’s girls basket-ball fanbase might be some-what familiar with what they see this winter.

Many of the faces have changed, no doubt, but the in-your-face pressure with a bench as deep as pretty much any school in the state are in play, much like two seasons ago.

Part of that is because of the senior class that gradu-ated from Ludington last year — All-State forward D’Erika Varenhorst, now Hope College junior varsity player Logan Meeker, Molly Hallead, Rachael Petzak and Mekayla Steckel.

“We lost 90 percent of our scoring from last year’s basketball team,” second-year Ludington coach Thad Shank said. “We had a very good (junior varsity) bas-ketball team last year, but there’s a big difference be-tween JV basketball and var-sity basketball.

“This group is going to be good. I’m just not sure when it’s going to happen.”

That left behind just four girls who have varsity min-utes on the team — 5-foot-8-inch senior Autumn So-rensen, 5-4 junior Brooke Schneider, 5-8 sophomore Kristen Reidenbach and 5-6 junior Kalli Wahr.

Shank brings in a bunch of new faces — 11 in all, as he has a 15-girl rotation. Sev-eral girls made an impact right away in last Tuesday’s defeat of Shelby. Sophomore Claire Flewelling, at 5-6 had nine points while the team was led by 5-5 sophomore Kaci Kuster and 5-5 fresh-man Jenna Keson.

“Whenever you have two freshmen and five sopho-mores and another group of

girls that haven’t played a lot of varsity minutes, it takes time,” Shank said.

Ludington’s roster:

SENIOR: Autumn Sorensen.JUNIORS: Brooke Schneider,

Jordan Luft, Kalli Wahr, Stepha-nie Kelly, Annika Wilson, Audra Sides and Brandy Thomas.SOPHOMORES: Claire Flewel-

ling, Kaci Kuster, Kristen Re-idenbach, Madilyn Shank and Mikayla Mesyar.FRESHMEN: Ali Plamondon and

Jenna Keson.

Ludington tipped off the season in grand style with the win against Shelby and then faced what Shank de-scribed as Lakes 8 co-favor-ite Tri-County last Friday night. Both the Vikings and Orchard View should be a challenge for the three-time Lakes 8 champions.

The Orioles even started the season with a 39-game consecutive winning streak in the conference. Shank said he expects every team in the league to challenge his varsity inexperienced squad.

“The majority of the teams returned all their girls, and they want to more than any-thing else to beat Luding-ton,” he said.

Beyond the league sched-ule is a nonconference slate that is as tough as anyone in the state. The Orioles play at two-time defending state champion Grand Haven Tuesday night. That sched-ule also includes the likes of Manistee, Mona Shores, Reeths-Puffer and the team that knocked Ludington out of the playoffs a season ago, Midland Bullock Creek.

“We probably have the toughest schedule in the his-tory of Ludington girls bas-ketball this year,” he said. “We added in Grand Haven, who’s won in Class A back-

to-back state champion-ships and 53 straight games. We added in Bullock Creek, who’s going to be in the top three or four in Class B in the rankings. They return every-body.”

Ludington is back to hav-ing varsity and junior varsi-ty teams and not a freshman team this season, too. With the Orioles’ 15-girl roster, Shank likes that there isn’t a drop off in talent for his team.

SEE GIRLS, 5

Ludington girls basketball

Young core to defend three-peat

RUSS MILLER | FOR THE DAILY NEWSMembers of the Ludington varsity girls basketball team are, front row, from left, Madi Shank, Brooke Schneider, Claire Flewelling, Jenna Keson, Annika Wilson, Jordyn Luft and Kaci Kuster; back row, Audra Sides, Kristen Reidenbach, Kalli Wahr, Autumn Sorensen, Brandy Thomas, Ali Plamon-don, Stephanie Kelly, Mikayla Mesyar and manager Kelvina Bei-Tumi.

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Ludington’s wrestling team is switching things up this fall, and it comes to phi-losophy on the mat itself.

Second-year coach Dan Fulton said he would like to see his kids go on the of-fense when they’re on the mat as soon as the whistle blows to signal the start of the first period.

“I feel we need to take control. If we are in con-trol, we’re going to be scor-ing the points. We’re not go-ing to give them a chance to set up. We want to get con-trol of their arms and their legs. We’ve been working on our takedowns and our arm drags.”

The Orioles lost state-qualifying wrestler Dylan Sorensen from last year’s team, but return a good group that reached the re-gionals a season ago. Ryan Miston and Jacob Laliberte return as does Chase and Griffin Ray. Lucas Catron is another grappler coming back.

There are a number of new wrestlers into the program this year. Fulton said there’s a good group of freshmen out and competing this fall, including the younger broth-er of Dylan, Logan. The team also picked up a transfer from Manistee, Adrian Ham-mer.

“They’re looking pretty good. The way we set up our training, the way we drill, we’re working everything with someone trying to stop them,” he said. “One person is not dominating the drill. These new kids are taking on the experienced kids.”


SENIORS: Jacob Laliberte, Ryan Miston and Noah Perkins.

JUNIORS: Jarod Cobb, Adrian Hammerle III, Sondrey Jen-nings, Chase Ray and Griffin Ray. SOPHOMORES: Lucas Catron,

Ari Hoekstra and Logan So-rensen.FRESHMEN: Troy Althaus, Evan

Cooper, Keean Hays, Garth Lemere, Dylan Lindeman and Ethan Tucker.

Fulton said Spring Lake should be the team to beat in the conference. He’s also looking at competing with Manistee and Mason County Central in the team district when it rolls around in early February.

Ludington this year still won’t be able to fill a com-

plete lineup as Fulton fig-ures most nights the team will take a forfeit at 112 pounds. It’s still different than last year.

“Last year we were with-in six and 12 points,” he said. “We’re not going to give away those matches. We came close with a lot of teams. I think it’ll be differ-

ent this year.”While the team has a tough

task itself when it comes to the team district, Fulton be-lieves he’s got six wrestlers who very well could reach The Palace of Auburn Hills and the MHSAA state in-dividual wrestling tourna-ment.

“They’re good kids.

They’re tough kids. The Ray boys are really tough kids. Lucas is training so hard this year. He wants it,” Ful-ton said. “Giving those kids a free ride down there (to the finals), gave them something to work for.

“That would be a neat goal. That’s something we’re try-ing to shoot for.”

Ludington wrestling

Orioles shooting for more qualifiers

RUSS MILLER | FOR THE DAILY NEWSMembers of the Ludington wrestling team are, front row, from left, Garth Lemere, Dylan Lindeman, Sondrey Jennings, Ethan Tucker, Troy Althaus, Jacob Laliberte and Ari Hoekstra; back row, assistant Corey Ottgen, assistant Jerome Nickelson, Evan Cooper, Ryan Miston, Jarod Cobb, Logan Sorensen, Chase Ray, Lucas Catron, Noah Perkins and coach Dan Fulton.

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2013 | LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS/SPORTS TAB | 3www.ludingtondailynews.com


Ludington’s boys swim-ming coach Jacob Cook was looking ahead to a pretty good season at the pool this winter.

Heading into the 2013-14 season, the Orioles return all of their top swimmers from a season ago.

“We graduated a couple, but we’ve got a veteran swim team. And we’ve got a lot of depth as we have a lot of new swimmers out for the sport and some freshmen up on the team,” Cook said.

Many of the new swimmers to the program are mainly there from the friendships of the guys who were already on the team, he said.

“They’ve got good friends outside of the pool and they’ve getting people to come out for the sport,” Cook said.

Ludington returns the likes of Patrick Bade, Hunt-er Klug, Christopher Snow, Noah Dobrzelewski and Lu-ciano Maniaci. Because of those returners, Cook is looking forward to seeing perhaps some relays and some individuals reach the MHSAA state meet.

“Noah Dobrzelewski and Christopher Snow have put in a ton of work,” he

said. “It’s already starting to pay dividends. . . They’re in shape, although maybe not in swimming shape, but they’ve been very active.”

Dobrzelewski played for the Orioles football team in the fall and Snow was on the state-qualifying cross coun-

try team.Ludington’s roster:

SENIORS: Patrick Bade, Jona-than Ebert, Zeb Jones, Hunter Klug, Christopher Snow, Koki Takeshita and Evan Williams.JUNIORS: Noah Dobrzelewski

and Luciano Maniaci.

SOPHOMORES: Nathan Ander-son, Jordan Bottrell, Trenton Dalm and Spencer Kovar.FRESHMEN: Kyle Gracia and

David Ritter.

The Orioles will rely on the several seniors and juniors on the team, but the under-

classmen are what may push Ludington into a higher standing within the Coastal Conference.

“I think we’re building something really good here. And I think is the best team I’ve had in the three years I’ve been here,” Cook said. “I

think we will be in the mid-dle of the pack and I’d like to close the gap on Spring Lake and Manistee.”

The Orioles started the season Saturday with host-ing the league relays at Don-ald C. Baldwin Community Pool.

Ludington boys swimming

Top swimmers back in pool for LHS

RUSS MILLER | FOR THE DAILY NEWSMembers of the Ludington boys swimming and diving team are, front row, from left, David Ritter, Drew Althouse, Ryan Ruba, Spencer Kovar, Evan Smith, Jordan Bottrell, Nathan Anderson and Trent Dalm; back row, coach Jacob Cook, Koki Takeshita, Noah Dobrzelewski, Patrick Bade, Luciano Maniaci, Christopher Snow, Zeb Jones, Evan Williams and Hunter Klug. Not pictured: Luke Snyder, Kyle Gracia and Jonathan Ebert.

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Ludington’s boys bas-ketball program is going through a bit of a youth movement as the Orioles have just three returning players from last year’s team.

Second-year coach Ja-mie Bandstra will be rely-ing on twin forwards Chase and Remington Rohrer and guard Matt Ritter.

The work of the twins, each coming in at 6-foot-3-inches tall, should anchor the front court for Luding-ton.

“They’re solid players. Chase will be playing varsi-ty for a third year and this is Remy’s second year. They play well together,” Bandstra said. “Also, I’m trying to give them the freedom to step away from the basket. They can play with their backs to the basket, and they have solid jump shots for us, too.”

Bandstra was concerned, though, that Chase Rohrer’s shoulder continues to both-er him from an injury he sus-tained during Ludington’s football season in the fall.

For Ritter, the 5-11 senior shooting guard will help in limiting Ludington’s oppo-nents.

“He’s got good defensive intensity and great endur-ance. He’s a strong athlete and he’s a very smart player. He will take a lead for us, es-pecially defensively.”

There is just one other player who has varsity expe-rience on the roster and that is Chad Large. Large was a substitute during his soph-omore year and took last year off. The 6-foot guard returned to the basketball court for his senior year.


SENIORS: Chad Large, Mat-thew Ritter, Chase Rohrer and Remington Rohrer.JUNIORS: Ryan Bowen, Sheldon

Carey, Alex English, Taylor Follrath and Dylan Karlsen.FRESHMEN: Cameron Bandstra

and Noah Laman.

The remainder of the new-comers are five juniors and a pair of freshmen. Cameron Bandstra, at 5-10, and Noah Laman, at 6-4, are the two freshmen who are bypass-ing high school subvarsity teams for the top roster.

“We’re excited about those players,” Jamie Bandstra said. “They’ve played a lot of basketball. They’re going to show people their skill set.”

The team also adds in 6-2 juniors Ryan Bowen, Shel-don Carey and Alex English along with 5-9 junior Taylor Follrath and 6-foot junior Dylan Karlsen.

Bandstra said the team isn’t necessarily deep, but the players will be getting their shots to play on the floor.

Ludington played in a scrimmage against Reeths-Puffer, Montague and Mus-kegon Catholic last Wednes-day evening. Bandstra said the team played well, and he saw a lot of positives. One thing, though was that fa-tigue set in the second round of action. The teams played three 20-minute scrimmages followed by three 10-minute scrimmages.

“I’ve seen them play sol-id, intense defense,” Bands-tra said. “That’s what we’ve been known for. I think you’re going to see the quick pace of the game and we will try to use it to our advan-tage. We have a lot positive possibilities this season. I want the guys to go out and enjoy the game of basket-ball.”

Bandstra tabbed Grant and Spring Lake as the fa-vorites, but they won’t be the runaway favorites. Rather, he sees his Orioles and Fre-mont in the mix, too.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of disparity between the teams. Going into the Friday night games, it’s going to be fun keeping an eye on the re-sults,” he said. “There’s a lot of chances for an upset. That starts to change things with

there not being a dominant team.

“We’re going after that conference title. We have to do the right things, and we have to win close games. We have to win the games that we should win. We have to stay healthy and middle games are so crucial.

“We’re looking forward to a great season and we’re excited for what the future holds.”

Ludington boys basketball

Rohrers, Ritter to lead way for cagers

RUSS MILLER | FOR THE DAILY NEWSMembers of the Ludington varsity boys basketball team are, front row, from left, Dylan Karlsen, Cameron Bandstra, Chad Large, Taylor Follrath, Matthew Ritter and manager Sabrina Grubb; back row, coach Jamie Bandstra, Alex English, Noah Laman, Chase Rohrer, Remington Rohrer, Ryan Bowen, assistant Erin Doan and assistant Terry Laman.

GIRLSFROM PAGE 2

“There’s not a huge dif-ference between our third and fourth player and our 13th and 14th and 15th player,” he said. “We try to make depth a factor in bas-

ketball games. We don’t have any superstars. What we do have is the deepest bench you’re going to see this season.

“We’ve got some shoot-ers, too, so we’re going to make games as fast and as furious as we possibly can and make that depth a fac-tor,” he said.

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Ludington’s boys bowling team will have a few familiar faces this year while the girls team will have a lot of similar surnames.

BOYS BOWLINGBill Huether is in his 11th year

coaching the boys program this season and he’s rejoined by Jeff Medina, Greg Butterfield, Joey An-derson and Brian Shangle. Medina reached the MHSAA state finals two seasons ago.

“It’s nice to have those guys. They’re strong bowlers,” Huether said. “They’re definitely going to be the heart of the team. We lost some good bowlers, too.”

The team has a roster of 10 bowl-ers, meaning there are six new fac-es for the lineup this season. Lud-ington’s boys roster:

SENIORS: Joseph Anderson and Grego-ry Butterfield.JUNIORS: Blake Bentz, Jordan Gilbert

and Jeff Medina.SOPHOMORE: Brian Shangle.FRESHMEN: Kevin Eldredge, Dillon Ely,

Nathaniel Long and Quinn Phelps.

Many of the bowlers are still be-ing developed to help keep the pro-gram alive. Two bowlers, Dillon Ely and Quinn Phelps, participated in the youth recreational bowling leagues. Huether is glad to see that each has good prior experience.

“That helps a lot. To have a lit-tle bit of experience. You can tell they’ve been bowling,” he said. “It’s easier to work with them and develop them. Their averages will come up a lot quicker because of that experience.”

Ludington graduated two bowl-ers from its program it had last year, Bryan Clark and Justin Cook. Matt Dilliner was another depar-ture as he transferred to Mason County Central.

Last season, Ludington was nip-ping at Fremont all year long. He wouldn’t guess which team would be the one to beat this winter.

“It’s going to be interesting to see who the strong teams are this year. We may be down a little bit from last year. (On Wednesday), we’re going to simulate a match in practice to see where they are in practice and see what kind of scores we can expect,” he said. “We won’t know where fit into that mix until (Dec. 18).”

As for the MHSAA tournament, Medina will again be a threat to reach the state tournament. Huether also believes Joseph An-derson could reach the tourna-ment, too. Similar to the league, he’s unsure exactly how the team

would stack up when it came to the MHSAA tournament.

But what is good with the 10 that there are in Ludington is they’ll be challenging to be one of the eight to factor into the team scoring. The competition to be in that top eight is starting to take hold for the indi-viduals on the team.

“We’re really working a lot indi-vidually with all of the bowlers,” Huether said. “I’m working with them individually. They’re all mak-ing some really good progress. I can see their averages coming up from where they started a week ago.”

GIRLS BOWLINGLudington’s girls bowling team

lost three seniors from last year’s team, Mackenzie Bentz, Tiffani Gil-bert and Shelbi Hardenburgh. Hard-enburgh’s loss is perhaps the big-gest as she had state tournament experience from her junior year.

The Orioles now have four re-turning bowlers, all seniors — Meagan Bates, Brianna Kirk, Aja Shilander and Katie Shilander. Lud-ington’s roster:

SENIORS: Meagan Bates, Brianna Kirk, Aja Shilander and Katie Shilander.JUNIORS: Ashley Bates.

SOPHOMORE: Patricia Kirk.FRESHMEN: Bianca Kirk and Amber

Spence.

The intriguing part to Luding-ton’s girls lineup is there are just four surnames to go around for the eight girls. Senior Meagan Bates has a younger counterpart in ju-nior Ashley Bates. Freshman Bi-anca Kirk and sophomore Patri-cia Kirk join Brianna Kirk. Then there’s the pair of seniors, Aja and Katie Shilander.

Ludington girls coach Mary Gon-zalez could not be reached for comment.

Ludington coed bowling

Orioles continue to develop bowlers

RUSS MILLER | FOR THE DAILY NEWSMembers of the Ludington coed bowling team are, front row, from left, Brianna Kirk, Meagan Bates, Aja Shilander, Amber Spence, Brianca Kirk, Patricia Kirk, Katie Shilander and Ashley Bates; back row, girls coach Mary Gonzalez, girls assistant Tiffani Gilbert, Quinn Phelps, Dillon Ely, Blake Bentz, Gregory Butterfield, Kevin Eldridge, Joey Anderson, Jeff Medina, Brian Shangle, Nathaniel Long, Jordan Gilbert, boys coach Bill Huether and boys assistant Jason Kelly.

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RUSS MILLER | FOR THE DAILY NEWSMembers of the Ludington varsity sideline cheerleading team are, front row, from left, Andrea Scarfone, Kasey Eckstein, Brandie James, Demika Garcia, Lauren Totten and Madison Miller; back row, Hannah Schmuhl, Samantha Patch, Kayla Gottwald, Alexandria Butts, coach Judy Bernard, Madison Coleman, Mikayla Jewett and Jordyn Alexander.

GREG GIELCZYK | DAILY NEWSMembers of the Manistee High competitive cheerleading team, front row, from left: Isabel Burger, Ashley Peddie and Madison Chick; back row, Sydney Blake Johnson, Maddy Miller, Danielle Ashley, and Leah Christensen. Not pictured: Katie Jo Jacobi and Alexis Forsyth.

WRESTLINGDec. 11 at Reed CityDec. 14 at Hart InviteDec. 16 at ManisteeDec. 18 at Pine RiverJan. 4 at O.V. InviteJan. 8 at Spring LakeJan. 11 at T.C. CentralJan. 15 at Tri-CountyJan. 22 Lakes 8 quadJan. 25 at Shelby InviteJan. 29 at FremontFeb. 1 at Lakes 8 tourn. at Tri-County, TBA.

BOYS SWIMMINGDec. 7 Ludington RelaysDec. 10 at West OttawaDec. 17 FremontJan. 6 at GrandvilleJan. 9 Mona ShoresJan. 11 at Spring Lk InviteJan. 16 Muskegon Cath.Jan. 21 at ManisteeJan. 23 at FremontJan. 30 at Spring LakeFeb. 6 ManisteeFeb. 13 Muskegon Cath.

BOYS BASKETBALLDec. 10 at M.C. CentralDec. 13 GrantDec. 17 North MuskegonDec. 19 Benzie CentralJan. 3 FruitportJan. 7 at Spring LakeJan. 10 at FremontJan. 13 at ShelbyJan. 17 Orchard ViewJan. 21 Tri-CountyJan. 24 at GrantJan. 28 CadillacJan. 31 at ManisteeFeb. 7 at FruitportFeb. 11 at Spring LakeFeb. 14 FremontFeb. 18 at T.C. CentralFeb. 21 at Orchard ViewFeb. 25 at Tri-CountyFeb. 27 Coopersville

GIRLS BASKETBALLDec. 3 ShelbyDec. 6 Tri-CountyDec. 10 at Grand HavenDec. 13 GrantDec. 19 Reeths-Puffer at Mona Shores

Dec. 20 at Mona ShoresJan. 3 FruitportJan. 7 Spring LakeJan. 10 at FremontJan. 14 ManisteeJan. 17 Orchard ViewJan. 21 at Tri-CountyJan. 24 at GrantJan. 25 Bullock CreekJan. 28 at CadillacFeb. 3 at M.C. CentralFeb. 7 at FruitportFeb. 11 at Spring LakeFeb. 14 FremontFeb. 21 at Orchard View

COED BOWLINGJan. 8 at FruitportJan. 13 at FruitportJan. 15 at FremontJan. 18 at Ravenna InviteJan. 20 Ludington hostsJan. 27 Ludington hostsJan. 29 at Orchard ViewFeb. 3 at Orchard ViewFeb. 5 at Tri-CountyFeb. 10 at Tri-CountyFeb. 12 at FremontFeb. 19 at Lakes 8 tourn.

CO-OP HOCKEYDec. 13 GR West CatholicDec. 14 Reeths-PufferDec. 20 GR Forest Hills C.Dec. 21 at GladwinDec. 27 at Jenison tourn.Dec. 28 at Jenison tourn.Jan. 3 at GR Kenowa HillsJan. 4 PetoskeyJan. 10 CadillacJan. 11 at JenisonJan. 15 at West OttawaJan. 18 JenisonJan. 22 at CadillacJan. 24 at GRNorthviewJan. 29 Bay RepsFeb. 1 at Sag. Swan ValleyFeb. 7 Unity KnightsFeb. 8 GladwinFeb. 14 at NMHL tourn.Feb. 15 at NMHL tourn.Feb. 21 Midland DowFeb. 22 at Big Rapids

WRESTLINGDec. 11 T.C. CentralDec. 13 at Mona Shores JVDec. 16 home quadDec. 18 at Pine RiverDec. 21 at Maple ValleyDec. 28 at Rogers City

Jan. 4 at WesternJan. 8 at FrankfortJan. 11 at AlmaJan. 15 at MantonJan. 17 at Benzie JVJan. 18 at PetoskeyJan. 22 Benzie, Lake CityJan. 27 home quadFeb. 1 at Manton

BOYS SWIMMINGDec. 14 at GR CrestonDec. 21 Olsen MeetDec. 28 Alumni meetJan. 4 at GR Forest HillsJan. 9 Spring LakeJan. 11 at Spring LakeJan. 14 at South HavenJan. 16 FremontJan. 30 Muskegon Cath.Feb. 1 at Ottawa HillsFeb. 6 at LudingtonFeb. 7 at Coastal meetFeb. 8 at Coastal meet

BOYS BASKETBALLDec. 10 at MontagueDec. 13 at Muskegon HtsDec. 19 Maple City Gln LkJan. 4 ShelbyJan. 6 at EvartJan. 11 at Brethren

Jan. 14 at BR CrossroadsJan. 17 at N. MuskegonJan. 28 KalkaskaJan. 31 LudingtonFeb. 3 at MantonFeb. 7 at CadillacFeb. 10 at FrankfortFeb. 11 at WhitehallFeb. 13 T.C. ChristianFeb. 18 at McBainFeb. 19 FremontFeb. 24 HartFeb. 27 at M.C.Central

GIRLS BASKETBALLDec. 10 at Muskegon HtsDec. 13 Cadillac,Jan. 4 ShelbyJan. 14 at LudingtonJan. 15 at KalkaskaJan. 18 at GladwinJan. 20 at T.C. WestJan. 21 WhitehallJan. 28 at FremontJan. 30 FrankfortFeb. 3 RoscommonFeb. 6 at CadillacFeb. 10 at Benzie CentralFeb. 11 T.C. WestFeb. 14 at T.C. CentralFeb. 17 at Hart

Ludington winter schedulesManistee winter schedules

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BY GREG GIELCZYKDAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

MANISTEE — Before the season started, coach Jeff Patulski professed his opti-mism despite the fact that Manistee High’s co-op ice hockey team had graduat-ed two of its better players from last year.

Two games into the regu-lar season, the Chippewas have made their coach look like a prophet with a pair of impressive wins, 5-0 over Hudsonville and a 5-2 domi-nation of Lowell/Caledonia/South Christian.

Jacob Graczyk, a senior from Mason County Central, scored two goals in the first game while Ludington junior Jacob Harrie had two in the second.

Patulski knows there’s still plenty of work ahead of the Chippewas, but the quick start has helped bolster the team’s confidence.

Manistee’s roster:

SENIORS: Jacob Graczyk (Lud-ington), Austin Persoon (Mason County Central), Kody Berkel (Mason County Central), Jake Kacynski (Ludington), Katelyn Graczyk (Mason County Central), Cale Cookenmas-ter (Mason County Central), Andy Fortier (Shelby), Sam Johnson (Ludington), Mason

Clark (Manistee Catholic), Josh Thompson (Ludington), Antti Vanhatalo (Manistee) and Conor Fitzgerald (Manistee); JUNIORS: Tyler Cook (Mason

County Central), Jacob Har-rie (Ludington), Ben Lamm (Ludington) and Nick Gurizzian (Ludington);

SOPHOMORES: Jacob Stefanski (Manistee), Josh Johnson (Lud-ington), Matt VanderWall (Hart), Nolan VanderWeele (Manistee), Dean Nowaczyk (Ludington), Ben Strbich (Ludington) and Will Shriver (Manistee); FRESHMEN: Randy Johnson

(Ludington), Thomas Berentsen

(Manistee), Austin McCarthy (Ludington) and Ryan Vander-Weele (Manistee).

“My third and fourth lines still need quite a bit of work yet when we get teams that put a lot of pressure on us, but at least there’s some-

thing to work with there,” Patulski noted.

“We’re going to have our nights when we’re going to have our hands full, but I think we’re going to be more competitive than we have in the past mainly because we’re just deeper all the way

around.“There’s some raw tal-

ent, if you will, to work with. Time will just tell how they handle the different pres-sures of the different styles that we’re going to run into.”

SEE HOCKEY, 9

Manistee co-op hockey

Quick start has team optimistic

GREG GIELCZYK | DAILY NEWSMembers of the Manistee High co-op ice hockey team, front row, from left: Josh Thompson, Austin McCarthy, Will Shriver, Jacob Harrie, Jake Kacynski, Kody Berkel, Jacob Stefanski, Katelyn Graczyk, Mason Clark and equipment manager Gabe Hogensen; middle row, assistant Dave Johnson, assistant Bud Fitzgerald, Austin Per-soon, Connor Fitzgerald, Andy Fortier, Randy Johnson, Tyler Cook, Dean Nowaczyk, Josh Johnson, Ben Lamm, Ryan VanderWeele, assistant Mike Healy and coach Jeff Patulski; back row, Matt Vanderwall, Jacob Graczyk, Tom Berentson, Sam Johnson, Antti Vanhatalo, Nick Gurizzian, Nolan VanderWeele, Ben Strbich and Cale Cookenmaster.

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MANISTEE — After win-ning all of their dual meets and finishing third in the Coastal Conference Cham-pionships last year, the Man-istee High boys swimming and diving team expects even more success this year.

Depth was the Chippewas’ only fault last year, and the only reason they finished third in the conference in coach Corey Van Fleet’s opinion.

“We ran out of (swim-mers),” he says. “We didn’t have enough numbers. We lacked one or two. But, we swam well. We lost one swimmer, and we replaced him already.”

Chris Blevins, the team captain, is gone. But in his place steps Alex Carter, who didn’t even swim last year but has already swum faster than Blevins.

Van Fleet is excited about the potential of the six or eight freshmen who’ll be vy-ing for starting positions on the team, and pushing the older veterans.

“We have some boys that are just starting out, that have never done any swim-ming before,” Van Fleet said. “We have a couple of for-eign exchange students, one from Denmark who has had some swimming experience, and one from Spain who is going to have some swim-ming experience.

“But, we’re always pleased when we get foreign ex-change students. It just en-riches the culture of the group. We had three foreign exchange students on our girls team, and two of them actually scored points in the conference championship.”

Manistee has all of its relays coming back virtually intact,

with the exception of the but-terflier. Troy Trombley and Zach Reau return in the 200.

Reau was conference champion in two events last year, and John Kutschke came away with the confer-ence title in the 100 and is back.

Also returning is diver Nick Bauman, along with Cameron Blevins in the breaststroke who has won a conference championship in the past.

“We feel pretty good about what we’re doing,” Van Fleet said. “Our strength is in the relays. We have five kids that can swim with anybody.

“So, when we get them in shape, and get them tuned up, we’ll be just fine. This gang does pretty well.”

The Chippewas’ major competition is expected to come from Spring Lake ac-cording to Van Fleet. Last year, the Chippewas defeat-ed the Lakers in a dual meet,

but Spring Lake knocked Manistee off in the confer-ence championships.

Ludington returns a lot of swimmers and should be strong, with last year’s sur-prise team, Fremont, losing almost its entire squad to graduation.

“We’ll swim some good teams this year,” Van Fleet noted. “Outside of our con-ference we’re going to some invitationals that are going to stretch us.

“You don’t get good swim-ming the same people and beating them. You only get better when you have a chance to lose. They know if they work hard, they’ll be re-warded.”

And the conference?“I think it’ll be Spring

Lake battling both in the dual meet and the confer-ence championship. It’ll come down to the last relay in both of them. That’s what makes it fun.”

Manistee boys swimming

Coastal title in swim team’s sights

GREG GIELCZYK | DAILY NEWSMembers of the Manistee High boys swimming and diving team, front row, from left are: Jared Haywood, Noah Antal, Josh Robles, AJ Reau, David Bottrell and Nick Bauman; second row, Joe Stack, Alex Carter, James Bialik, Logan Schmutlzer, Zach Reau, Troy Trombley, Jake Robels and Weston Fredricks; third row, Tad Schmeling, Cory Cabot, Cody Gutowski, Austin Fancher, Cameron Blevins, John Kutschke, Zac Carter and Ken Wilson. Not pictured: Brandon Shannon, Chris Rowland, Tommy Morin, Brad Wygmans, Jared Wrzesinski, Noah Cameron, Emil Pederson and Rafael Cuerda.

FROM PAGE 8

Patulski is set on the Chippewas’ first line of Graczyk, Harrie and Lud-ington freshman Austin Mc-Carthy. The team’s second, third and fourth lines are a different matter.

In fact, Patulski said that all three will be filled by dif-ferent personnel for the Chippewas’ opening game in the Northern Michigan Hockey League at Cheboy-gan last weekend.

But he’s happy with the top line.

“What we have there is Jake Graczyk who is more of a grinder type of play-er,” Patulski explained. “He understands the game re-ally well, and he likes to go

grind in the corners.“The leader on that line

is Jacob Harrie, the center, an extremely smart hockey player and extremely skilled. He covers a lot of ice, and has really good ice awareness.

“And then, of course, there’s Austin McCarthy and he is a great playmaker, though. All we’re worried about with Austin is when the big boys step up how he’s going to handle that.

“But, he’s handled it very, very well. (I’m) very im-pressed with his play the last two weeks. He’s unself-ish, and he looks to make the play first and go on from there. They complement one another because their styles are nothing alike.”

Manistee’s defense has

performed better than Patulski and his staff had expected. Ludington junior Ben Lamm and Manistee High sophomore Jacob Ste-fanski have been pleasant surprises.

The coaches were worried about Stefanski’s size be-ing a detriment, but that’s a non-issue at this point. He places with a lot of tenacity.

“Lamm, for as young as he is, is a super smart defense-man,” Patulski said. “(Lud-ington senior) Jake Kacyn-ski, who is our captain, has stepped his game up a pile.

“He’s sensitive to the fact that this is his last shot at, really, organized hockey be-cause he’s so good at foot-ball, and he’s an intelligent young man.”

HOCKEY: Off to good start to season

9



MANISTEE — While coach Chris Codden hesitated to single out any one of his wrestlers in keeping with the team mentality, there’s no denying that Manistee High has a high profile individual on the squad.

That would be Adam Ball, who enjoyed what could only be considered a break-out season last year when he not only qualified for the Michigan High School Ath-letic Association state finals, but placing.

What made Ball’s story even more tantalizing is that

he had never made it out of the districts before, so he was wading in the deep end of the pool setting foot on the mat at The Palace of Au-burn Hills.

It’s only natural that every-one’s attention would be on Ball’s attempt to repeat as a state qualifier, and finish his high school career by earn-ing a state title in his weight class.

Codden, however, would prefer to look at the team as a whole and not focus on Ball’s chase of a state title, which could bring even more pressure on his shoulders.

One thing working in Ball’s favor is the natural competi-

tion within the team, and for him especially that of team-mates Jake Williams and Lo-gan Bond pushing him in practice.

The pressure will be on ev-eryone this season as Man-istee builds toward the Divi-sion 3 team and individual districts, which will be held at MHS in 2014.

“We have almost every-one back,” Codden says. “We also had a really good bench of mostly seniors that could always be plugged in at dif-ferent weights, and they’re all gone.

“But, by the same token I also had a lot of freshmen, sophomores and juniors

that were integrated within that lineup throughout the year.

“It’s kind of hard to gauge wrestling like a football team where you have first string that’s mostly all se-niors. Last year I had a first string that changed through-out the year.

“Some of it was me chang-ing it, some of it was due to kids either dropping weight or going up a weight class. It just depended on what happened the week that we would go wrestle.”

Williams, Bond and Ball have the lion’s share of ex-perience on the team, but the rest all got to see time

on the mat last year and have potential to have solid seasons.

Codden wouldn’t say who had the most potential.

“I’m not going to single out one person in particu-lar,” Codden said. “There’s a lot of people here that will shine as the season goes on.

“But, we’re a family. We work together. We wrestle together. We practice togeth-er. For me to say who am I looking to ... I’m looking for the whole team to come for-ward.”

Yet it’s hard to deny that Ball, Bond and Williams car-ry the most potential for in-

dividual achievement into the season, and everyone will be following their prog-ress.

Manistee’s strongest tests in the conference are expected to come from Ben-zie Central, Pine River and Kingsley.

An unknown is Lake City, which joined the league last year. But whose athletes are coming off a deep run in the high school playoffs.

The Chippewas went 31-8 over the regular season a year ago, and know that it’ll be a challenge to duplicate that kind of success with such an untested group.

Manistee wrestling

Matmen aim to build on Bond’s success

GREG GIELCZYK | DAILY NEWSManistee High wrestling team front row from left: Sinead McCann, Erica Jozwiak, Audrey Padilla, Jazmyn Booker, Ian Pinkerton, Tanner Vadeboncoeur, Joe Shannon, Caroline Kessler, Morgan Waitner, Olivia Vadeboncoeur, Presley Petzak and team manager Raegan Codden; middle row, assistant Nathan Bond, Marie Kneidl, Rodolfo Grimaldo, Corbin Miller, Logan Guenthardt, Chase Janis, Brandon Garber, Dennis Switalski, Connor Madsen, Cameron Smith, Dakota Johnson, Ruby Sturdevant and coach Chris Codden; back row, Logan Bond, Brad Madsen, Adam Ball, Ben Chandler, Bobby Florian and Jake Williams. Not pictured: Joe Bechtel, Dakota Bentley, Logan Bialik, Miranda Bromley, Destinee Cross, Evan Erts, Kyle Garber, Ryan Johns, Stephanie Johnson, Shyann Ronning and Conner Leach.

10



MANISTEE — Although it’s unfa-miliar ground, Todd Erickson is al-ready feeling right at home as the new Manistee High girls basketball coach.

Erickson made his debut on the Manistee bench with last Monday night’s season opener at Mason County Central. His home debut with the Chippewas even went bet-ter as they whipped Kingsley.

The Chippewas have high expec-tations after losing only one se-nior last year, and the future looks bright as well with only one senior on the squad this season.

As usual, Erickson will keep add-ing stuff to the playbook through-out the season, and won’t really feel like he has everything covered until at least January.

Coming off a 14-8 season and with their returning leading scorer, Emilee Kott, just a sophomore, the sky would seem to be the limit for the Chippewas.

“We’re excited with the group we have,” Erickson remarked. “You have two All-State runners, and one of them is an All-State swim-mer.

“The others play volleyball. It’s a nice group of kids. Now, it’s just a matter of getting them all on the same page where we’d like to see them. It’ll happen. It’ll just take a little time.”


SENIORS: Stephanie Smogoleski.JUNIORS: Jessica Gustad, Kenzie

Kaminski, Olivia Vadeboncouer, Annie Fuller and Emily Thompson. SOPHOMORES: Emma Burns, MacKen-

zie Thompson, Audrey Tomaszewski, Emilee Kott and Emily Thompson.

Smogoleski had been primarily a perimeter player heading into her senior year, but was moved to the post over the summer.

Because of her experience on the perimeter, Smogoleski will swing back to the outside on occasion,

but her role is definitely as a cen-ter.

Erickson said Fuller might be the most versatile player on the team, and is expected to be at one of the guard spots but won’t be nailed down in that area.

“She has size. She has great speed,” Erickson said. “She has knowledge around the basket.

But, she has a great three (pe-rimeter shot), and a good 15-foot jumper.

“If I need to go inside, outside and bring all height in, she’ll prob-ably be my all-round player. MacK-enzie Kaminski, who is up from last year’s junior varsity team, will be in one of our post areas.

“Kids need to accept change. It’s

not ‘I need you,’ it’s ‘Your team needs you.’ I just ask them to give it a try, and they have been doing that.”

Emily Thompson and Kott both were starters last year, and have displayed that experience during the summer and in practice.

Tomaszewski, an outside shoot-er, might be used in the post as

well. Kott and Thompson could also be called on to play center at times.

“We’re still young, and we’ll grow with every game,” Erickson said. “It’s not like we’re going to come out of the gates on fire.”

Then again, after last week’s ear-ly-season games, that can change, too.

Manistee girls basketball

Chippewas already off and running

GREG GIELCZYK | DAILY NEWSMembers of the Manistee High girls basketball team are, front row, from left: Jessica Gustad, Emma Burns, Stephanie Smogoleski, Kenzie Kaminski and MacK-enzie Thompson; back row, Olivia Vadeboncoeur, Emilee Kott, Annie Fuller, Audrey Tomaszewski, Emily Thompson and Frankie Jans.

11



MANISTEE — Coach Scott Solberg won’t have to worry about finding leaders on the Manistee High boys basket-ball team this season.

The Chippewas are load-ed with 12 seniors on the 14-player roster. But, that’s a double edged sword, too, because it means Solberg will have only two players expected to return next sea-son.

Solberg, of course, prefers to look on the positive side of things.

“We have kids that know what we expect of them,” Solberg noted. “A lot of these kids are hungrier than they were before. They know it’s their last shot.

“Being seniors, sometimes that light bulb goes on a lit-tle bit. We’ve had some real, competitive practices so far. People know that they’ll be competing for playing time when we have this much ex-perience.”


SENIORS: Levi Zimmerman, Colin Bachinski, Tanner Liston, Kreighton Rahn, Tyler Kempf, Gary A. Lodin, Blaine Peck, Kody Malstrom, Jordan MacAr-thur, Alex Bialik, Cody McShane and Aleksander Bredal-Olsen.JUNIORS: Blake Davis and Matt

Simmons.

One of the key returning players is senior Jordan Ma-cArthur, who is beginning his third year on the varsity and he’ll be a team captain.

Fellow seniors who played a lot last year are Kody Mal-strom, Cody McShane, Levi Zimmerman and Kreighton Rahn. The Chippewas also have senior transfers Gary A.

Lodin and Blaine Peck, who came over from Brethren.

Although he’s “only” a ju-nior, Matt Simmons came up from the junior varsity five games into last season and started several games.

The Chippewas also gained senior Alex Bialik, who transferred from Man-istee Catholic Central last year and is expected to be one of their go-to players.

He’s the tallest player on the team, at either 6-foot-1 or 6-2, and Solberg plans to play him in the post most of the time when he’s not on a wing.

“We look to rebound and run, and when we can’t we’ll set up,” Solberg said. “We play Muskegon Heights the second game of the year, so I’m sure we’ll go into some kind of zone against them.

“Our schedule is a tough one again, but we look for-ward to it. It’s going to be a challenge. The great thing about these guys is I think they know this program is about hard work, and giving one hundred percent.”

Last year, the Chippewas finished 5-16 against what Solberg says was the third

toughest schedule in Class B, and six of their losses were winnable games that just didn’t go their way.

Many of the teams they played won district titles, and Cadillac advanced to the Michigan High School Athletic Association semifinals, while Pine River was 23-2 and the Chippewas lost to the Bucks by just four points at home.

“Pine River’s coach emailed me after the season and said ‘You guys played us tougher than anybody,’” Sol-berg related. “That gives you some hope.

“Our skill level has to im-prove, of course, like any team’s does, but when you have guys that are will-ing to leave it all out on the floor and give everything, it makes it a lot easier to coach them.

“It’s wins and losses at this level, but it’s also when you know you’ve done your best you can walk off, and that’s success. We have that.”

Solberg says the biggest thing his players have to conquer is the mental aspect of the game, of just having the confidence to make the

big free throw, having the confidence and courage to take the big shot.

The bottom line is, Solberg stresses to his team that they can’t be afraid to fail.

“We have to improve our shooting,” Solberg said. “In some areas in defense and rebounding, we have to make sure that we always box out

“Being the size we are, we have to be doing the funda-mentals. Turnovers last year just killed us. We’ve got to take better care of the ball, and make better decisions.”

Manistee boys basketball

Cagers senior-laden for ‘13-’14

GREG GIELCZYK | DAILY NEWSManistee High boys basketball team front row from left: Levi Zimmerman, Colin Bachinski, Tanner Liston, Kreighton Rahn, Tyler Kempf, Gary A Lodin and Blake Davis; back row, coach Scott Solberg, Blaine Peck, Kody Malstrom, Jordan MacArthur, Matt Simmons, Alex Bialik, Cody McShane, Alexsander Bredal-Olsen, assistant Andrew Solberg and assistant Alex Lindeman.

12


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