Defense Key to Sailors' Title Defense
September 21, 2016
By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
GRAND RAPIDS – Goalkeeping and defense were catalysts in last year’s MHSAA Division 3 championship run for the Grand Rapids South Christian boys soccer team.
As the Sailors attempt to replicate last year’s success, those two elements remain vital in their quest for back-to-back titles.
South Christian, top-ranked in Division 3 this week, has had to fill huge holes after the departures of all-state goalie Carter Selvius and all-state Dream Team defender Austin Clark.
“Our defense is really what we’re working on right now, knowing the guys I lost,” Sailors coach Jason Boersma said. “We lost our goalie and two real keys to our defense. It doesn’t automatically get replaced overnight having new players coming in.
“We’re working hard at figuring out what the best line-up is. We’re doing well, and we haven’t had a lot of goals scored on us, so that’s a positive.”
The Sailors surrendered only 13 goals last season, including only a single goal over seven MHSAA tournament victories.
They defeated Williamston 1-0 in a shootout to capture their third MHSAA Final in the last six years.
Selvius was one of the heroes in that game with 14 saves, and Boersma knew his absence in the net would be felt entering this season.
There was no clear-cut favorite to take over in net at the beginning. That allowed Boersma to look at a group of potential replacements.
“That’s why I kept four of them on my team,” Boersma said. “We knew what we were losing, and we had four guys who were somewhat equal. They all had different strengths and weaknesses, and we were going to let them battle it out.”
Junior Jake Tanis earned the job, and has spent a majority of time in the net.
“I’m going to give him as much experience as I can right now with him playing every single game just for more knowledge back there,” Boersma said. “He was more of a field guy, but his best chance to get time on this team was as a goalie. He has a big frame. He’s 6-2, 230 pounds, and so he has good size and is very athletic. He’s really learning right now.”
Senior midfielder Ryan Doornbos is one of eight starters back. He has faith in the players who have filled in at important positions.
“I trust them,” he said. “They’ve done a good job so far in replacing those roles, and I hope they continue to do that the rest of the year.”
Thirteen in all have returned from last season, including standouts Zack DeKock, Emmett DeJong, Sam DeVries and Daniel Sculley.
The Sailors opened the season with nine straight wins, but suffered consecutive losses to East Grand Rapids (2-0) and Caledonia (1-0) during the past week.
Doornbos missed both games with a concussion, while DeKock also is nursing an injury and didn’t play against Caledonia.
“It’s a huge difference with having him on the field for the team chemistry and moving the ball around,” Boersma said. “The effort he brings is phenomenal, and that’s a huge loss without him. He should be back within a week.”
The recent setbacks and injuries haven’t spoiled the Sailors’ outlook. Boersma would rather have them occur now than in late October and November.
“The guys are OK with losses because they learn from them,” he said. “Obviously no player likes to lose and they are competitive, but they are real good at sitting back after a game and knowing that they have to work on this and this.
“They are a very hard-working crew, and that’s one of my favorite things about them. They leave it all on the field each and every day. They know in games they lost that we made small mistakes. We make sure they don’t happen again.”
Boersma believes this team has the talent to make another deep run, but understands it will revolve around defensive adjustments.
“Knowing all the offense we had back, I was incredibly optimistic that we were going to have an opportunity, if we play the game we’re capable of playing, that on paper (we) could be one of the best teams in Division 3 in my mind,” Boersma said. “We also know soccer, and all the years I’ve watched my teams do well it has typically been my defense. You get great teams towards the end, and in the playoffs and there are numerous games you have to win in a shootout. That’s the way it goes in soccer.”
Doornbos hopes this year’s team can follow in the footsteps of last year’s in terms of staying together and creating a positive atmosphere.
“I think we need to keep each other hyped up and really be tight as a family,” he said. “I think that’s what helped us last year; our whole team was a family. We also enjoyed it last year, and that’s how we kept winning because we were having fun. We need to do those things and keep working hard.”
Dean Holzwarth covered primarily high school sports for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years and more recently served as sports editor of the Ionia Sentinel and as a sports photojournalist for WZZM. Contact him at[email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) South Christian players, in white jerseys, defend their goal against Middleville Thornapple Kellogg last week. (Middle) Key returnee Zack DeKock moves the ball upfield. (Photosby Craig Pollatz.)
McKelvey Fills Record-Setting Kicking Role with Lenawee Christian Football
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
October 11, 2022
ADRIAN – A couple of years ago it would have been easy to image Brady McKelvey scoring a last-second shot for Adrian Lenawee Christian to win a basketball game or for him to find the back of the net with a game-winning goal in soccer.
But fast forward to today and McKelvey might be more likely to kick a game-winning field goal for the No. 2-ranked Cougars 8-player football team.
“I watched football of course, but I never played it until last year,” McKelvey said. “It’s interesting. It’s been a lot of fun. I’m glad Coach (Bill) Wilharms asked us to try out.”
McKelvey is a two-sport athlete in the fall, playing for both the Lenawee Christian soccer and football teams. He’s played on MHSAA championship teams in both sports. Last week McKelvey reached rare territory when he kicked his 100th career extra point – the state record for 8-player football.
“We were never big football players,” McKelvey said, referring to him and his brother, Jacob, now a student at the University of Michigan. “We just always had a soccer ball in our hands.”
Wilharms is the strength and conditioning coach and varsity football coach at Lenawee Christian, which has grown into an 8-player powerhouse, winning Division 1 championships in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Brady and Jacob McKelvey were working out at the LCS facilities two springs ago when Wilharms asked if they wanted to try out kicking for the football team.
“I always wondered what it would be like to kick a football,” Brady McKelvey said. “I’ve always wanted to, but never had the opportunity. We were excited to try it out.”
Both came out for the team last season and were coached by Casey Opsal, a former Hudson kicker and now a Lenawee County sheriff’s deputy who is one of Wilharms’ assistants. With Opsal’s guidance, Jacob and Brady blossomed into outstanding kickers.
“He’s been the person who has taught me everything I know about it,” McKelvey said. “He helped me improve a lot.”
McKelvey has never attended a football camp or had a lesson in kicking a football from anyone outside of the LCS staff. Yet, his statistics are nothing short of amazing.
Last season, McKelvey had a string of 52 consecutive extra points at one point and finished the season making 59-of-61 attempts. He has a current streak of 23 straight makes heading into this week’s game and is 44-for-45 overall this year. In two seasons, that makes him 103-for-106. He kicked his first field goal earlier this season, giving him 106 career kicking points.
Twice in his career he’s kicked 10 extra points in a game. This year he’s hit at least eight PATs four straight weeks. He also averages about 45 yards per kickoff.
Wilharms said he’s happy McKelvey decided to try his leg at football and said the senior is still learning nuances of football, such as where to place the ball on kickoffs.
“He is a good athlete,” Wilharms said. “His PATs are consistent. We are definitely glad to have him on the team.”
Brady and Jacob shared duties last season, although by the end of the season Jacob was kicking off and Brady was handling the bulk of the extra points.
“At first, one of us would go out and kick and the next time the other one would go out there,” McKelvey said. “Toward the end of the season, I was better at extra points, and he was better at kicking off. It is cool to be on a team that scores a lot because you get to kick a lot.”
LCS has no trouble scoring. The Cougars are 6-1 and average 49.8 points per game.
Soccer continues to be McKelvey’s favorite sport. The Cougars are having a solid season on the pitch as well, and he is a big part of that team’s success too.
“I still love soccer,” McKelvey said.
Cougars soccer coach Nathan Sharpe said McKelvey is a team leader. He has three goals and three assists this fall. “He’s a captain and a key player on our team,” Sharpe said.
McKelvey said kicking the ball in soccer and kicking the football are very different things requiring different technique.
“It’s surprisingly different,” he said. “A soccer ball is a lot bigger. You have more room to hit it. You want to lean over and try and keep it toward the ground. A football you have to make a much different type of contact because you want to get it up into the air.
“The first time I kicked a football with no coaching, it was interesting. I had to try and completely switch how I was kicking.”
He’s learned the technique so much that this winter he is considering not playing basketball so he can go to football kicking camps. He’s hoping to become good enough to try out or walk-on to a football team in college.
“I didn’t really expect to be as consistent as I have been,” he said. “You watch college kickers, and even they miss sometimes. I work at it as much as I can. With soccer games, there are times I cannot go to football practice, but I try and get out there as much as I can.
“I think it would be awesome to kick in college,” he added. “I plan on going to some camps this winter. If I’m able to walk-on somewhere, that would be fine with me.”
Besides soccer, the McKelveys have a basketball background as well. Their dad Scott has coached boys and girls basketball in Lenawee County for years. He recently was hired as the boys varsity coach at Blissfield. The boys grew up being managers and hanging around the teams that Scott coached.
McKelvey is setting the bar high in the 8-player football record book. LCS still has two regular-season games remaining and is considered among the favorites to make a long postseason run – meaning he could push that extra point number a lot higher.
“I’m very happy I tried out for the team,” he said. “Being part of it is a lot of fun. The guys on the team have always treated me as part of the team. I really like being on the team. All the success we have makes it so much fun.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Brett McKelvey prepares to kick off during a game this season. (Middle) McKelvey, with father Scott McKelvey and mother Melissa Dempsey. (Photos courtesy of Jeff Jameson/Lenawee Christian.)