Marine City Rising Under Familiar Leader
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
January 30, 2019
Championship celebrations aren’t unfamiliar in Marine City. It’s just that they typically don’t happen after a boys basketball game.
The town most known for its football prowess is experiencing some extra excitement this winter, as the basketball program – now led by the same man who leads the football program, coach Ron Glodich – is seeing success it hasn’t seen in decades.
On Jan. 22, the Mariners boys basketball team clinched its first conference title since 1985, and three nights later, after another Macomb Area Conference Bronze win, they cut down the nets in their home gym.
“It was a great feeling, because I’m going to keep that net for the rest of my life,” Marine City junior Angelo Patsalis said. “When I look back at it, I’ll know this team was special.”
The Mariners were 10-2 overall and 7-0 in the MAC Bronze through January, and are changing the way people feel about their program. Now big, raucous crowds aren’t limited to just fall Fridays at East China Stadium.
“It’s definitely starting to change,” senior point guard Jack Kretzschmar said. “We didn’t really used to get a lot of people at home games because people just assumed we were going to lose. Now everyone is starting to show up, and the atmosphere they’re bringing to basketball is crazy.”
It’s no coincidence that Glodich, who has had multiple roles in Marine City athletics since taking a job at the school in 1987, is a common thread between the programs.
Most of his success has come on the football field, where he’s been head coach since 2012, and was the offensive coordinator prior to that, as the team won Division 4 championships in 2007 and 2013 and made several other deep playoff runs. He’s also coached volleyball and baseball and had a previous stint as the boys basketball coach during the early 2000s.
For the football players who also play basketball at Marine City, they knew exactly what to expect when Glodich took over.
“It’s the same guy,” Patsalis said. “If we’re in halftime and down by a couple points and not playing well, he still gets pretty fired up. The intensity kind of helps, because it fires you up to be better and pushes you to get to your potential.”
While each sport has its own quirks, Glodich has been able to apply many of his same coaching philosophies no matter which ball is in play.
“One of the things that stays consistent (from sport to sport) is the way we practice,” Glodich said. “We believe in high tempo, fast-paced practices. We break things down to bits and pieces and work on them, and that stays consistent. Getting into a good stance, that’s a commonality in all sports.”
A commonality between Glodich’s football and basketball methods is movement on offense, and just like it has done for decades on the gridiron, it’s having success now on the court.
“We know how to score and how to get kids moving, which makes us difficult to defend,” Glodich said. “We have one base offense, but we have some wrinkles going on. This group has some very good team speed, and we’re trying to put pressure on defenses, not letting them get settled.”
That speed also allows the Mariners to run, making up for a lack of size as the Mariners’ tallest player stands at just 6 feet, 4 inches.
“Even the drills we do in practice, basically we’re always running, and that correlates to the games,” Kretzschmar said. “Everyone on our team has such a high basketball IQ and we have a lot of chemistry built in over the last few years, so we know that we’re best when we’re running.”
That strategy helped make it a bit easier to transition from a football season that ended in the Division 5 Semifinals to the opening night of hoops in less than two weeks.
“Football got us conditioned, so we were already conditioned when we started the season,” Patsalis said. “When we got against that first team, we were ready to go.”
Glodich’s strong supporting staff also played a large role.
“Thankfully, I have a wonderful JV coach in Scott Hand,” Glodich said. “Not only did we go deep into the season with football, but basketball started a week early. In November, I had shoulder surgery, so it’s been a blessing to have such a wonderful JV coach who could handle things.”
The strong start never really stopped, as even the Mariners’ two losses came in double overtime against rival St. Clair, and to a 13-1 Richmond team. Winning the conference title was just the start, as there’s plenty more to play for the rest of the season.
“After Tuesday of next week, we get into the MAC tournament, so the Bronze and the Silver have four teams from each cross over in a three-game tournament,” Glodich said. “We would like to show that the Bronze, even though we’re the bottom level of the MAC, have a level of play that’s as competitive as the next league. Then, obviously, we move on to the District.”
There’s a long way to go, but the Mariners hope to at least continue building Marine City’s reputation as more than a football school.
“We kind of have a chip on our shoulder, because we’ve been known as a ‘football’ school for so long; we’re looking to bring that to basketball,” Kretzschmar said. “I think it’s just a special group of kids that we have, and everyone is trying to kind of change the culture to being an ‘athletic’ school.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Marine City’s Reese Adamczyk (40) pulls up for a jumper during last week’s win over Center Line. (Middle) Mariners coach Ron Glodich. (Below) Tanner Mason (33) muscles for a shot in the post. (Action photos by Ally Swantek.)
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.)