Kemp Proud to Keep Troy Athens Tradition
August 29, 2019
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
TROY – Jason Kemp has never needed the tradition of Troy Athens soccer explained to him, because he’s been able to experience the sights and sounds of the program his entire life.
Living less than a mile from the school, Kemp, now a senior goalkeeper for the RedHawks, has heard the cheers and seen the lights of the stadium from his house numerous times growing up.
“I’ve grown up watching playoff games and watching league games,” Kemp said. “I can hear the crowd and the goals from my house. My whole childhood has been Athens soccer. Now I’m a captain on the team and get to play in front of large crowds that support us. It’s kind of a dream come true for me.”
Kemp won’t be hearing cheers this year from his house, mainly because he’ll be on the field as a big reason why Athens is producing the positive crowd noise.
Kemp certainly generated a lot of cheers last year for the Athens faithful.
After splitting time as the starting keeper as a sophomore, Kemp was dominant in his first full year as the starter last fall, recording 16 shutouts and allowing just four goals in being named first team all-state by the coaches association.
Kemp is back for his senior season to anchor the net for an Athens team with understandably high expectations.
The RedHawks started the season ranked No. 15 nationally by Top Drawer Soccer and feature a senior-laden roster that has grown up playing travel ball together in the community, which Kemp said gives the team an even bigger advantage to go along with its talent.
“I’ve been playing with most of these guys my whole life,” Kemp said. “I always have thought that was cool growing up playing travel with these guys and now adding high school to it. I feel like it gives us an advantage. A lot of teams, they only have trained a couple of times in the summer before they even start with their high school teams. For us at Athens, a lot of us have been playing together since early middle school years or even elementary school years. It adds a cool twist to our team because we’ve been playing together so long.”
Big reasons for the 16 shutouts Kemp recorded last year were Athens’ stout defenders and organized system, but make no mistake about it: Kemp was also a vital component.
“He’s able to catch balls instead of punch them or tip them,” Athens head coach Todd Heugh said. “He’s got shot-stopping ability and quite honestly, he’s got the confidence of all his teammates. They think he’s good and in turn, I think that helps the way we defend and I think the way he goalkeeps a little bit too.”
Despite putting up terrific numbers as a junior, there is one area Kemp said he has worked on improving going into his senior year.
“Last year, I was very timid on set pieces, especially corner kicks,” said Kemp, who sports a 4.0 grade-point average and took five Advanced Placement classes during his junior year. “A lot of teams would curl a ball in the box, and I would rely on my defenders to clear that away. Now that I’m a little bigger, a little stronger and worked out a lot over the summer, those set pieces don’t really bother me anymore. I don’t have a problem coming out and jumping with a forward and getting hit around a little bit. I’ve grown out of that struggle.”
Athens won Class A titles in 1983, 1984 and 1989, and claimed Division 1 in 1997. Heugh was a senior on the 1989 team.
But a fifth championship has proven elusive. Athens also finished runner-up in 1986 and 2016, when it lost the Final in a shootout to East Kentwood
And the RedHawks still feel a stinging loss from last year’s tournament – they entered unbeaten and ranked No. 1, but were upset in the District Final by Utica Ford, 1-0.
While October is still a few weeks away, Kemp said there’s “a lot of fire in our bellies” among the seniors to try and bring Athens its first title in 30 years.
“This is it,” he said. “This is our last season and a lot of us have been dreaming of this moment for our whole lives. We really want to make this year count as well as we can in the postseason.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Troy Athens keeper Jason Kemp provides skillful play and leadership from the net. (Middle) Kemp dives to thwart an opponent’s shot. (Photos courtesy of the Troy Athens boys soccer program.)
Wagner Transforming Kalkaska Into Lake Michigan Conference Challenger
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
October 6, 2023
Figuratively speaking, there is a new boys soccer sheriff in the Lake Michigan Conference. And Kalkaska is making big changes in the league’s competitiveness and results.
The Blazers are 11-5-4 overall and have shown to be a formidable challenger for perennial champion Elk Rapids.
They are coached by a sheriff, literally — actually the undersheriff of Kalkaska County. David Wagner II took over the Blazers program four years ago, inheriting a team that went winless the year before.
This week they almost stopped Elk Rapids from clinching its 17th title in the league’s 21 years of existence. The Blazers ended up falling only 1-0 to the Elks after suffering a 2-1 loss earlier in the season, giving up two penalty kick goals.
The challenge by the new sheriff is welcomed by the league, especially Nate Plum, now in is 16th season at the helm of Elk Rapids. When Plum first took over the Elks, they usually played conference games with their junior varsity squad and the varsity team took on as many strong nonconference teams as they could schedule.
The Blazers had been an easy win for Lake Michigan Conference teams, often the victim of the MHSAA goal-differential rule.
All that has changed with Kalkaska producing high scorers like Cooper Swikoski last year and Wagner taking over, Plum noted.
“You can see kids that have been in that program the last four years and they get on the ball and they can move it, putting you in difficult spots,” Plum said. “They have been dangerous this year.
“They have been consistently harder to play,” he continued. “Dave sees the game the right way at the high school level as another avenue besides school to teach boys lessons — he’s a class act.”
Kalkaska earned two wins in Wagner’s first season, which was also his son Tripp’s first in high school soccer. The Blazers earned four wins the next year and 10 last fall.
Coach Wagner points more to life’s lessons than wins though and keeps soccer in perspective as just a game as he faces the challenges in his professional life.
Wagner came to Northern Michigan in 2002 as a deputy in Kalkaska County. He worked as a corrections officer, road patrol deputy, Traverse Narcotics Team officer, member of the emergency response team, road patrol sergeant and dispatch sergeant before being named undersheriff in 2018.
“To be honest with you, I don’t even look at our record – I don’t get hung up on it,” Wagner said. “I think boys soccer is very important, but from my line of work it’s a boys soccer game.
“I put in it in perspective,” he continued. “I am just trying to make these kids hopefully a little better adults.”
The Blazers have been led by strong defense, in particular in the middle of the field and at goal.
Adam Williams in normally the first line of defense with Ryan Perry playing more back. And then stellar goalkeeper Kayden Dueweke-Gonzales wraps things up. He has four shutouts this season.
“The defenders can’t pile up stats,” Wagner pointed out. “They are our rock.”
The three seniors leading the defense are among the six Blazers seniors who started playing soccer around the age of 5 under Wagner, who was their youth coach in Kalkaska for nine years before taking over the high school program. The rest of the Blazers seniors started playing for Wagner at 10 years of age.
Wagner had hopes the boys would have a different coach in high school but found himself needing to step into the vacancy. His seniors all played their last game at home Thursday on Senior Night, earning a 2-2 tie with Grayling.
Senior Night provided Wagner a nice chance to go down memory road.
“I had to dig up some old pictures for Senior Night because they wanted to do the young pictures and the current pictures,” he said.
Jose Saez is leading the team scoring with 11 goals and two assists. Tripp Wagner is next with six goals and six assists. Cade Ponstien has eight goals and two assists.
“Kalkaska has guys on the field that make a difference,” Plum said. “They definitely started to compete at higher level last year and an even higher level this year making the game extra difficult, and it made the conference even better — we can only hope that continues.”
Wagner, though, knows the Blazers will have to get stronger to wrestle the league crown away from the previous champions. The list includes Charlevoix and Harbors Springs along with Elks’ title accomplishments.
“We’re still not at the level of the Elks or the Traverse City teams,” Wagner acknowledged. “At least we’re in the running for competitiveness.”
Wagner grew up playing soccer in the Kalamazoo area and became a soccer referee while he was in college at Ferris State. He is viewed by many referees and former coaches as the best referee Northern Michigan has ever seen.
He started high school refereeing in Northern Michigan 20 years ago and achieved national referee certification in the United States Soccer Referee Association.
Wagner has noticed a lot more disparity among high school soccer teams in the north than the south of Michigan. For example, he had never refereed a game ending in a mercy before moving north.
He’s also noticed many of the same referees on the pitch today he worked with two decades ago.
“It’s aging,” he said with a laugh. “But it is the coaches and parents’ fault. (Potential referees) stop and ask themselves, ‘Why would I want to go out there?’
“I have utmost respect for all the officials – even the ones I don’t agree with,” he continued. “At the end of the day, it is always about the kids.”
Jerry Grieve, a retired forester and veteran soccer referee, is one of many referees who recall working with Wagner as an official. He is also the father of three former Kalkaska athletes and graduates — Abigail, 2005, Paul, 2007, and Alex, 2009.
Grieve is extremely proud of Wagner’s affiliation and success with the Blazers.
“I first met Undersheriff Dave Wagner more than 20 years ago at a Cadillac/TC Central game, in which he was the center. “I have always thought he was the best soccer referee I have ever officiated with.
“And in the past few years he has been the coach of the Kalkaska high school boys team and they are the highest-quality team I have yet to see from that school,” Grieve continued. “But more importantly, as coach he has always treated referees with dignity and poise — which is a great teaching moment for his players.”
Kalkaska will now try to continue its growing success in the playoffs.
“It’s just one day at a time,” Wagner said of the Blazers’ motto. “We are not a soccer super powerhouse up here yet.
“I do like talking about giving credit to the team – they deserve it.”
The Blazers will travel to Cheboygan for the first round of the postseason. They will have to win that game and knock off the winner of Grayling/Boyne City in the second round to earn a possible rematch with Elk Rapids. The Elk have a first-round bye as the top seed and then play the winner of Kingsford and Iron Mountain.
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. 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) Kalkaska coach David Wagner II stands among his many seniors last week. (Middle) Wagner and his players meet with an official for the coin flip before playing Elk Rapids. (Photos by Tom Spencer.)