![Grand Rapids Christian’s DeClan Winstanley (22) dunks before Chelsea’s Hayden Long (4) can get a hand in to stop the attempt.](/sites/default/files/2024-03/240315_D2_2H3.png)
GR Christian Withstands Late Chelsea Rally to Book Historic Opportunity
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
March 15, 2024
EAST LANSING – Grand Rapids Christian has never looked at it as courting disaster.
The Eagles admit there have been a handful of games where major trouble has been averted by a strong second half. The latest example was Friday's tight 50-41 win over Chelsea in a Division 2 Semifinal at the Breslin Center.
Instead of fretting about slow starts, the Eagles say they prefer to dwell on what happens during the final two crucial quarters. In the win over Chelsea, for example, the Eagles nearly let a 10-point lead slide away over the final five and a half minutes before hitting some clutch free throws and limiting the Bulldogs to just three points during the final 4:25.
Business as usual, said the Eagles (25-2), who will play Warren Lincoln in Saturday's 6:45 p.m. Final. It’s a matchup of the top two-ranked teams in Division 2 and a rematch of a 49-47 Warren Lincoln win earlier in the season. Grand Rapids Christian will be playing for a first championship since winning the Lower Peninsula Class B title in 1938.
"We get a little excited early sometimes," Eagles senior Jaylan Ouwinga said. "Maybe we move too fast or too slow, but we forget slow starts and just get the job done. We work on coming out strong, but we've had to learn to just let the game come to us."
Such was the case against Chelsea (21-6). Grand Rapids Christian led 40-30 with 5:34 left, but an 8-0 Bulldogs run cut the margin to 40-38 with 4:25 to go. Ouwinga made a basket, Carter Goodyke added a layup and the Eagles managed seven free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Grand Rapids Christian's Tyler Davis said the team is aware of the dangers of slow starts.
"We talk about it, and we know it's not so great," he said. "We've never been here before, but we have confidence. We're not going to get down on each other because of someone's mistake."
Eagles coach Eric Taylor said the key to stronger second halves isn't complicated.
"Guys are focused," he said. "We've never wavered. They made some runs at us and cut the lead. We talked about basketball being a game of runs. We didn't lose focus because another team makes a run, because it happens."
Ouwinga had 13 points and 13 rebounds. Senior guard Nate Johnson added 13 points, and Davis had 10.
Johnson said second-half strength is something the team has capitalized on all season.
"It's something we've acquired," he said. "We stay resilient and keep our heads in the game. We stay strong mentally and stick to the game plan."
Jake Stephens had 18 points and 10 rebounds for Chelsea.
Taylor said experience has been a factor in the team's success. There are nine seniors on the roster, and they benefitted from a schedule that included seven ranked teams.
"We're very battle-tested," Taylor said. "We've proven we're ready for the moment; we know we have to play 32 minutes, not 28. (Slow starts) aren't what we like, but tough players win and we've been tough all year."
Chelsea coach Andrea Cabana said there were chances to win.
"They made enough runs in the second half that we allowed them to get away from us," she said. "We've played a tough schedule; teams similar to who they've played. We're gritty and never give up. We got a couple turnovers late, but couldn't capitalize on them. We were relentless, which is how we play."
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Rapids Christian’s DeClan Winstanley (22) dunks before Chelsea’s Hayden Long (4) can get a hand in to stop the attempt. (Middle) Tyler Davis (11) launches a jumper from the top of the key during the Eagles’ Division 2 Semifinal win. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
![Hudsonville Unity Christian boys basketball coach Scott Soodsma stands in front of a portion of the school’s trophy case, which he’s helped fill over decades coaching basketball.](/sites/default/files/2023-02/230215_Soodsma_2H.png)
Energy, Competition, Moments & More Continue to Spark Unity Coach Soodsma
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
February 15, 2023
HUDSONVILLE – The pep band is blaring the school fight song, the boisterous crowd of a couple of thousand fans has long grown weary waiting for the opening tip-off, and the antsy players are crowded behind the locker room doors ready to spring like a pack of lions.
It's like the scene from the epic basketball movie "Hoosiers" where coach Norman Dale pauses before entering a rollicking and packed Friday night gymnasium to mutter to himself, "Welcome to Indiana basketball."
Scott Soodsma not only grasps the significance of that scene firsthand, it's why after four decades he still loves coaching.
"The fierce competition, the band, your heart pounding like a dog – it's still like it was 30 years ago," said Soodsma, the Hudsonville Unity Christian coach and dean of West Michigan basketball coaches in his 41st season of a run that’s included two states and three schools.
"How does it get any better than that? I'm always telling the kids to live for the moment. You can't replace all that; I still get the shivers. I've had so many moments like that."
Among those highlight moments are being one of just two Michigan coaches to win both girls and boys MHSAA Finals championships (Paul Cook of Lansing Eastern was the other), and the moment he claims is easily No. 1 on his all-time personal list: coaching his daughter Amber as part of the 2006 Class B champ. Unity Christian also won a 2019 boys state title. He also won a third Finals championship with the boys at McBain Northern Michigan Christian.
Soodsma, 63, admits there have been myriad changes in coaching basketball since his first season at North Dakota's James Valley Christian High School in 1983 and coming to Unity Christian in 1993. For starters, players are bigger and stronger and are more schooled in the game through AAU and offseason programs. In addition, the influence of parents – for better or worse – has increased dramatically. As for the on-court game, Soodsma unabashedly admits he at first fought the institution of the 3-point shot. And the emphasis on winning has definitely only increased pressure on many coaches.
Soodsma, a member of the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan Hall of Fame who ranks ninth on the state's all-time boys wins list with 635, said he's adapted to the times. He wants to win as much as he ever has, still broods for days after losses and still considers himself receptive to the changing Xs and Os aspect of coaching.
But where his booming voice routinely used to resonate loudly into the middle sections of the Unity Christian bleachers, most of those comments now are only audible to fans perched in the first couple rows of the stands. Which is probably a good thing, Soodsma adds sheepishly.
Coaching, he readily contends, is still coaching – and winning still heads the list of priorities. He does add one disclaimer, however, in terms of winning. Whereas it used to be about a young coach building a resume through wins, it's now about what winning can do for today's teenager athlete. An old-school coach? Yeah, probably. But one who has learned much about himself, players and parents after 41 years.
"I've learned to enjoy the kids more; I'm definitely a different kind of person in the ’90s as opposed to now in the 2000s," he said. "I am a stubborn man, and it took a long time (to change). But winning? Oh, yeah. I've never backed down. The winning and losing hasn't changed, and I make no excuses that I still want to win."
Which is then strange, perhaps, that he doesn't list being just one of two coaches to win Finals titles in both girls and boys basketball as the zenith of coaching for 41 seasons. That honor goes to having his daughter, who went on to a stellar career at Dort College, on the state championship club.
"It's not that big of a deal," he said of being on the bench for what likely will never happen again as boys and girls basketball are now in the same season. "To me it's not an accomplishment I would rank (at the top). I'm just being honest. Winning a state title with Amber, and the picture I have of her and me in my office, that's the best."
How well has Soodsma adapted his coaching style over the years? Two people in a position to know offer their own opinions on the topic, including 22-year assistant Bruce Capel and Randy Oosterheert, who with son Rylan are the only father/son combination that Soodsma has coached.
"Scott has always been vocal on the sidelines as a coach. As I sit in the stands and watch as a spectator, same Scott," said Randy Oosterheert who played for Soodsma in 1992-93 and 1993-94 and whose son is a current Unity Christian player. "I will say that my son and I agree, if you do something wrong on the floor, he is the first person to greet you on the sidelines and point out your failure. However, if you do good, he is the first person to greet you on the sidelines and tell you good job.
"The latter is done at a little lower decibel level than the offense, and those with a watchful eye from up in the stands unfortunately (don’t) get to hear the praise, only the punishment. Scott is obviously very competitive, then and now. He expects a lot but gives a lot."
As far as the competitive side, Capel hasn’t seen much of a difference over their two decades together.
"Certainly, coaching is a lot different in how you approach kids from more than 20 years ago," he said. "There's a difference in society and you have to change with it, and he's done that. I don't think it's as much life and death with Scott anymore. But in terms of winning, I haven't seen that go away."
It's a coin flip as for how much longer Soodsma will be directing traffic from the sidelines. He broke into the top 10 among the all-time winningest boys coaches in Michigan history by passing Warren De La Salle's Bernie Holowicki and Ray Lauwers of Morley Stanwood last season. Next on the list is Big Rapids' Kent Ingles (644). When you factor in Soodsma's win total as both boys and girls coach, the 742-and-counting combined wins rank eighth in state history.
He does admit the desire to spend more time with wife Mary, the longtime away scorekeeper for the program, and 11 grandkids scattered from Denver to Seattle to San Diego. Retirement could strike when this season ends in March, or it could still be several Marches away. But when the end comes he anticipates making a contented transition from arguing with officials, coming to an "understanding" with parents and devising new Xs and Os. Soon, he mused, will come time for much-anticipated passions such as hunting, fishing and pickleball.
"For the first time I've contemplated it," he said. "There are a lot of things I'd like to do. I'm not a basketball junkie."
That may be true. But it'll still be tough to surrender those noisy pep bands, bright gymnasium lights and the din of Friday night crowds.
PHOTOS (Top) Hudsonville Unity Christian boys basketball coach Scott Soodsma stands in front of a portion of the school’s trophy case, which he’s helped fill over decades coaching basketball. (Middle) Soodsma and daughter Amber embrace during their team’s 2006 Class B Final victory. (Top photo by Steve Vedder. Middle photo courtesy of the Soodsma family.)