Veteran St Francis Earns Top Billing
May 19, 2017
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
TRAVERSE CITY – Tom Passinault does not like to put unnecessary pressure on his Traverse City St. Francis baseball team.
So, when his team took over the No. 1 ranking in the Division 3 baseball coaches poll, he made it more of a lighthearted moment.
“We were joking when we got ranked No. 1,” Passinault said. “We said, ‘That honor is usually reserved for the football team.’”
But now, two weeks away from the start of the MHSAA Tournament, the 27-2 Gladiators are in that envious position.
And it’s no accident.
St. Francis returned its entire starting lineup from last season’s 25-11 squad. Plus, the Gladiators added junior pitcher/first baseman Joey Muzljakovich, who tore a knee ligament in football and missed last season; and second baseman Gabe Callery, who ran track last spring.
“We expected to be a good team,” junior catcher Cooper Peterson said. “We’re doing really well, even better than I thought.”
The only setbacks have been to Division 1 No. 15 Brownstown Woodhaven and Muskegon Mona Shores. The 27 wins are a school record.
Passinault is in his fourth season as head coach – and the Gladiators are closing in on a fourth consecutive Lake Michigan Conference title.
The keys to success? Pitching and defense.
“In basketball, you talk about how you can always play good defense because you’re not always going to shoot well,” Passinault said. “We (apply) that to baseball. You can always pitch and play defense because your hitting is going to be sporadic at times, although we’ve been pretty successful one through nine hitting the ball.”
St. Francis pitchers sport a 1.45 earned run average. Seven pitchers have earned wins. Muzljakovich is the ace. He’s 7-0 with a 0.58 ERA and has struck out 67 hitters in 36 innings. Junior lefthander Casey Peterson is 5-0 and has yet to allow an earned run. He separated a shoulder in the Mona Shores game, missed about three weeks, but has returned to action. Peterson has 42 strikeouts in 24 innings. Sophomore Keaton Peck is 4-1 with a 2.05 ERA, while senior Connor Sweet is 3-1 with a 1.48 ERA.
“First of all, there’s great depth,” pitching coach Mike Muzljakovich said. “We have four guys that most years we would gladly call our No. 1.”
Mike Muzljakovich believes Joey Muzljakovich and Casey Peterson will pitch in college. In addition to Joey Muzljakovich’s injury last season, Peterson missed time with elbow issues. Sweet stepped up and won 10 games.
Now, everyone is healthy. And with the MHSAA implementing pitch count limits, that depth is a blessing.
“When the pitching limitations came out, we felt like it would be to our advantage because we have more depth than most teams,” Mike Muzljakovich said. “That won’t always be true, but we’re going to ride it for the next three or four years.”
When St. Francis has needed an extra arm, particularly for weekend tournaments, Passinault has called up Josh Bradfield from the JV. He’s 4-0 with a 1.75 ERA.
“Normally, he would be solidly in our rotation,” Mike Muzljakovich said.
What impresses Passinault the most is the command.
“Our strikeout (207) to walk (56) ratio is very impressive,” he said. “We walk (an opposing batter) about every 3.2 innings.”
That’s not lost on the players in the field.
“We have phenomenal pitching,” sophomore centerfielder Danny Passinault said. “Our pitchers throw strikes, and our defense makes plays.”
The Gladiators are especially strong up the middle with Peterson behind the plate, Peck at shortstop, Callery at second and Passinault in center.
“Watching (Passinault) track a baseball is the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Peterson said.
Tom Passinault notes that he has a “really good defensive team,” and he’s quick to praise his other regulars, including Sweet at third, Muzljakovich at first, senior Peter McAndrews in left and sophomore Artie Dutmers in right
“As hard as our pitchers throw, (Dutmers) gets a lot of action,” Passinault said.
Assistant coach Brad Peterson works with the infielders.
The Gladiators are also hitting .338 as a team. The leaders include Muzljakovich (.414), Sweet (.405), Peck (.395), McAndrews (.392) and Cooper Peterson, junior Matt Westman and sophomore Nathan Schmuckal (all at .333). Muzljakovich leads the team with 25 RBI.
“We’re getting clutch hits at the right time and scoring runs when we need to,” Passinault said.
A year ago, the Gladiators were surprised in the District by Lake City.
“Losing to Lake City did not sit well with us,” Cooper Peterson said. “It’s been a major motivator this whole year.”
“We had one of those games you want to avoid,” Passinault added. “In the tournament, it’s one (loss) and done.”
Passinault called the 2016 season a “unique year” because he did not have a senior.
“It made last year tough leadership-wise,” he said. “But the good thing is we brought a bunch of players back that had experience.”
Callery, who had played baseball previously, decided to come back after running track. He’s one of four seniors on this year’s roster.
“I missed it,” he said. “It’s fun being around these guys. Plus, I knew we had a chance to be really good.”
Passinault, who coached Grand Rapids Catholic Central to the Division 4 Football Final in 2005 and then turned around the Traverse City Central football program before stepping down after the 2014 campaign, said the Gladiators have “high goals” as the postseason nears. But he knows there will be difficult challenges ahead.
“One of the things we know we’ll have to do is beat a very good pitcher,” he said. “We challenge the kids – what can you do when we face that good pitcher? Not everybody is going to drive the ball in the gap. Is it stealing bases? Is it making a play? We’re really trying to get the kids to understand what they can do to make us better.”
It’s already been a good year for the Passinaults. Tom and Teresa’s oldest son, Noah, a senior at St. Francis, received a scholarship and will attend Notre Dame, Tom’s alma mater. Noah, who’s involved in band and choir, is thinking of trying out for the marching band, his father said.
“I told my wife, ‘I knew I’d have a son playing in that football stadium,’” Tom Passinault said. “I thought he might be a running back, but he’s a clarinet. It’s awesome. He’s going (to Notre Dame) for the right reasons. He likes math and philosophy and he made it into their honors college, which is quite a feat.”
As a sophomore, Danny Passinault has been a primetime varsity player in football, basketball and baseball. He was the quarterback on the 11-1 football team that lost a heartbreaker to eventual champion Pewamo-Westphalia in the Regional Final.
The Passinaults’ daughter, Gwyneth, a seventh-grader, just set the school record in the 70-meter dash.
“It’s been quite a spring,” Passinault said.
And it looks like it could get even better. The Gladiators will host the baseball District.
“We stress to the kids, that no matter what happens, it’s been a good year,” Passinault said. “We don’t want to put too much pressure on the end result. But we do have high goals. We want to go as far as we can.”
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Traverse City St. Francis senior Conner Sweet prepares to deliver a pitch during a game this season. (Middle) Senior Gabe Callery stretches his lead off first base. (Below) Peter McAndrews (3) holds an Elk Rapids runner close to first base. (Photos by Toni Sweet.)
Oakridge 3-Sport Star Potts Applying Lessons to 'Second Chapter' in Sales
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
July 20, 2023
Jamie Potts put a major strain on his feet and ankles for many years.
Potts was constantly twisting and contorting in cleats and sneakers as a three-sport standout at Muskegon Oakridge and later as a rare two-sport star at Grand Valley State University, where he is still listed in the school’s football and baseball record books.
So it’s fitting that the 30-yeaar-old Potts is now helping to heal feet and ankles as a medical device salesman for Stryker.
“It’s a very competitive, fast-paced job and lifestyle,” said Potts, who graduated from Oakridge in 2011.
“I am very thankful for that because there is a huge void there. When you put so much of your time and energy into it, transitioning out of competitive sports is difficult.”
Potts is the youngest of four boys, so he practically grew up in the bleachers at Oakridge. By the time he got to high school, he fell effortlessly into the rhythm of football in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring – all while maintaining a 4.1 GPA, good for fifth overall in his class.
Potts did everything on the football field at Oakridge, as a 6-foot-3, 200-pound dual-threat quarterback. As a senior, he rushed for 1,561 yards and 24 touchdowns and threw for 696 yards and 10 TDs – along with totaling 64 tackles and successfully booting 9-of-13 field goal attempts.
“He was a fantastic high school athlete and one of the best athletes to ever come out of Oakridge,” said former Eagles coach Jack Schugars, the all-time winningest high school coach in the Muskegon area who is now the special teams coordinator at Ferris State. “He was a tremendous leader and the epitome of a role model for younger kids.”
Potts was a solid, if not spectacular, basketball player, known as a defensive specialist who wasn’t afraid to guard anybody.
Then in the spring, he was back to all-state status in baseball as an outfielder, batting .584 his senior year with six home runs, 38 RBIs and 34 stolen bases.
That meant it was decision time when it came to college – would it be football or baseball?
Potts received several Division I offers, including from Central Michigan University for football and Oakland University for baseball.
But it was Division II Grand Valley, particularly then-assistant coach Matt Yoches (now the director of football operations at Miami of Ohio) that floated the possibility of playing both sports – a very rare feat at the DII level.
Potts made the GVSU coaches look like geniuses. He was a four-year starter at tight end and receiver, finishing his career second all-time for the Lakers in TD receptions (35) and third in career receptions (169). In baseball, he finished with 241 career hits, the fifth-most in school history at the time.
“People told me that playing both in Division II wasn’t realistic,” said Potts, who now lives on the east side of the state in Fenton, with his 1-year-old daughter, Brooklyn. “But I wanted to give it a shot and I think I did all right with it. Growing up in Oakridge, my life was all about sports, so it prepared me.”
Potts was drafted by the Texas Rangers shortly after his senior collegiate baseball season in 2015 and played that summer for Class A Spokane (Wash.), batting .217 with four home runs in 57 games. He missed training camp and the first two games of the 2015 football season, but returned to help the Lakers to the DII Semifinals his senior year.
He prepared to resume his baseball career and left in late February for the Rangers spring training complex in Surprise, Ariz., before announcing his retirement in March with a long and heartfelt Facebook post, which concluded:
“My best advice I can give is that you should always chase your dreams until your heart says it’s time to stop,” Potts wrote. “No matter how far out of reach you think it is or how old you are, you can do it with enough hard work and preparation.”
Potts, who completed his degree in allied health sciences with a minor in psychology during the Lakers’ 2015 football run, then had to shift gears and find his place in the “real world,” outside of competitive sports.
Potts said Oakridge, in addition to being a hard-working sports community, also did a mighty fine job preparing him and his three older brothers, sons of Tom and Kathy Potts, for life after athletics. Oldest brother Chris is an engineer, Andy works as a logistics manager and Aaron is an orthopedic surgeon.
It was actually Aaron who pointed him in the direction of medical device sales. He went through five interviews shortly after his retirement before landing his first job in the field at Arthrex in Grand Rapids, before moving on to Kalamazoo-headquartered Stryker last year.
“A big part of my job is being in the operating room with the surgeons and making sure that everything is working,” explained Potts, who is part of a six-member team which covers much of eastern Michigan. “It’s very intense, very much like the feel of a close game. No doubt all of those years of sports help me every day.”
But Potts could not leave sports behind completely after his baseball retirement.
He was back in Muskegon in the spring of 2016 and attended a Muskegon Ironmen indoor football game. He spoke with team owner TJ Williams, who Potts used to watch playing for Oakridge as a kid, and a few weeks later, he was in an Ironmen uniform.
Potts played two years with the Ironmen as a receiver, linebacker and kicker.
“It was a lot of fun, really, getting to play in front of fans in Muskegon again,” said Potts. “The worst part was the walls. I’ve never experienced getting tackled into walls before and, I tell you, that takes some getting used to.”
More recently, Potts helped out last month as a coach at Schugars’ kicking camp at Oakridge, getting him back on the turf at Russell Erickson Stadium, where the field is now known as Jack Schugars Field.
“I’m happy to be a role model for kids,” said Potts. “You learn so many life lessons from playing sports. It really gets you ready for the second chapter of life.”
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PHOTOS (Top) Jamie Potts runs the offense for Muskegon Oakridge as a senior in 2010, and now. (Middle) Potts, second from left, is advancing in his career in medical device sales. (Photos courtesy of Jamie Potts.)