Ambrose Era: Generations of Success
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
February 26, 2019
KENTWOOD – When Jock Ambrose began his coaching career during the mid 1970s, sports options were limited in the community he had recently moved to after college.
The construction of a new indoor community pool, however, sent residents flocking to the water.
The Kentwood Public Schools Aquatic Center presented an opportunity for parents to introduce swimming to their children, and Ambrose would eventually reap the rewards.
“We did not have the ice arena, and soccer for boys and girls was not a sport yet,” Ambrose said. “Water polo wasn’t a high school sport either so there were fewer choices, but the draw of the pool was huge within our community.
“For eight to 10 years, young go-getter parents brought their kids a lot to swimming and it took off from there.”
Ambrose started coaching high school boys swimming in 1976, and after 38 seasons, he recently announced he would retire after this winter season after an illustrious career filled with success.
“‘I’m seeing that my energy level, as I get older, is not what it used to be,” said Ambrose, who retired from teaching four years ago.
“I never imagined I would coach forever, and my wife, Ann, and I want to do things with our kids and grandchildren. I’ve had a tremendous last year of teaching great students and great kids in the pool with wonderful parents.”
For the 65-year-old Ambrose, the decision to step down was made easier knowing that he’s leaving the program in good hands.
His successor won’t officially be named until after the season.
“We have a young man in the program who is more than ready to take over and continue to improve the program,” Ambrose said. “He’s ready to have a long career and is tremendous with the kids and parents. It would’ve been harder to walk away if I didn’t have someone like that, but I feel completely confident in where this program is going in the future and he is going to equal and surpass what we’ve had in the last several years.”
The East Kentwood boys swimming & diving program hit its peak during the 1980s, emerging as a perennial powerhouse.
The Falcons won Class A titles in 1983 and 1989 while also finishing as Finals runners-up in 1985, 1986 and 1988.
They finished in the top three seven consecutive years and became the benchmark for other programs to follow.
“There is no doubt in those years that we had some tremendous athletes,” Ambrose said.
Eric Gale was an All-American diver for East Kentwood and as a senior considered one of the top five divers in the country on the way to competing at the University of Tennessee.
Gale still holds several conference and meet records at the high school and has been the team’s diving coach the past 31 years.
“He is truly a class act, and it has been my honor to be one of the student-athletes under him and to have coached with him,” Gale said of Ambrose. “He is a tremendous human being and treats everyone he comes in contact with with respect and kindness, and that includes members of opposing teams he has faced.
“He’s the definition of what an educator should be, and he has positively affected thousands of lives in the swimming community and education.”
In 1997, Ambrose accepted the position of athletic director at East Kentwood and was away from coaching for five years.
He returned to the classroom and came back to the pool.
He also coached the girls team for three years during the 1990s, and that included coaching his youngest daughter.
As Ambrose’s coaching career continued, he began to see an influx of former athletes’ children.
“All the way through I’ve had tremendous family and community support for what we’ve tried to do, and I get one sibling after another,” Ambrose said. “Every year for the last 12 or 15 years I’ve had at least one person whose parent swam for me, and one year I had five boys on the team whose mom or dad swam for me in high school or within our club.
“It feels good when a parent brings their kid back knowing what they went through was a good place for them. The support of the parents helps you to continue the levels of success.”
East Kentwood athletic director Blaine Brumels said Ambrose has been a “true blessing to Kentwood Public Schools.”
“His hard work, dedication and commitment to our students in the classroom and the pool are unbelievable,” Brumels said. “We always have great stories about Jock, and they are always about his love of kids and being a Falcon. It is always about the students and love of the school and sport.”
Although Ambrose will remain with the program as an assistant coach for a couple years, his last MHSAA Finals directing it will take place in a couple weeks.
“We have a good group of seniors who are working hard, and we think we can get some kids to score and get to the second day,” Ambrose said. “It will be exciting for the entire program.”
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.
PHOTO: East Kentwood coach Jock Ambrose revs up his team before the start of the 2009 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals at Eastern Michigan University.
Seaholm Dominates in Regaining D2 Title
March 8, 2014
By Chip Mundy
Special to Second Half
YPSILANTI – One by one, members of the Birmingham Seaholm boys swimming and diving team approached coach Tom Wyllie – who was completely soaked after a post-meet dip in the pool – and greeted him with a big hug.
When one swimmer offered a handshake, Wyllie insisted on a hug.
“It’s hugs; we’re all family,” Wyllie told the swimmer. “Soak it in.”
They were soaking in the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 champions after a dominating performance Saturday at Michael H. Jones Natatorium on the campus of Eastern Michigan University.
Seaholm started the meet with an emphatic statement – an LP Division 2 Finals record performance in winning the 200 medley relay – and ended with a huge exclamation mark – another LP Division 2-record performance in winning the 400 freestyle relay. In between, Seaholm won the 200 freestyle relay, and junior Jack Russell captured the 200 IM for the Maples’ only individual championship of the meet.
The Maples finished with 357.5 points in a complete domination of the meet as Dexter was second with 203. They also won the MHSAA championship in 2011 and were second in 2012 and third in 2013.
Seaholm had 10 swimmers qualify for at least one individual event, and nine swimmers qualified in two. That all happened in an outstanding effort during preliminaries Friday.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my 16 years of coaching,” Wyllie said of Friday’s performance. “We were very deep across the board; we had swimmers qualify in every event, and we qualified four 100 freestylers in the top eight – and only had one individual state champion.
“That goes to that team concept – it takes a team to win.”
The 200 medley relay opened in impressive fashion as Evan Burke, Russell, Cliff Ross and Matt Perham won in 1 minute, 33.41 seconds, narrowly edging Grosse Pointe South’s effort of 1:34.23. The previous LP Division 2 Finals record was 1:34.81 set by Holland in 2013.
“That relay probably would not have been that fast if it had not been for Grosse Pointe South,” Wyllie said. “They were right there with us neck and neck and pushing us really hard. We walked away with the win and a record on top of that. It just set the tone for the rest of the day.”
The individual highlight of the day for Seaholm came in the third race – the 200 IM – when Russell won in 1:52.10 – more than a second better than his time in the preliminaries. Robbie Zofchak of Dexter was a close second in 1:52.28.
“I had no clue if I won,” Russell said. “When I touched, I just looked at the board and saw first. I thought he caught me on the end.
“My coach told me that I would have him on the breaststroke, but he’ll be gunning for me on the freestyle. When I looked over in the last 25, I saw he was catching me off the turn. I just put my head down, didn’t breathe and touched the wall and hoped for the best.”
Russell also was third in the 100 breaststroke and swam the second leg on the winning 200 medley relay team.
While Seaholm had only one individual champion, it had several standouts.
- Senior Nathan Anderson was on both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays that won, and he also tied for second in the 100 freestyle and was third in the 50 freestyle. “The most important part of that day was getting first with my relays,” Anderson said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do that without them. Because of them, I got what I wanted – I got my first place.”
- Junior Enrique Hernandez was on the winning 200 and 400 freestyle relays in addition to taking fourth in the 100 freestyle and sixth in the 200 freestyle.
- Senior Mike Shaben also swam on the winning 200 and 400 freestyle relays, and was fifth in the 50 freestyle and sixth in the 100 freestyle.
- Perham, a senior, was on the winning 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay, and added a sixth-place finish in the 50 freestyle and an eighth-place finish in the 100 backstroke.
- Burke, Cliff Ross and Nick Ross each were on one winning relay team. Burke added a fourth-place finish in the 200 IM and was seventh in the 100 breaststroke. Nick Ross was seventh in the 200 freestyle and eighth in the 100 freestyle, while Cliff Ross was seventh in the 100 butterfly.
- Sophomore Sebastian Fay was runner-up in diving after placing 24th a year ago.
With the team championship secure, Seaholm went into the final event – the 400 freestyle relay – on a mission. Crosstown rival Birmingham Groves set the meet record of 3:05.63 in 2011, and in the preliminaries Friday, Seaholm was in the neighborhood with a 3:06.99.
They weren’t to be denied in the final, with Anderson, Shaben, Nick Ross and Hernandez teaming up to win in 3:05.13, shaving a half-second off the LP Division 2 record.
“The state record has always been one of our goals,” Shaben said. “The entire season we’ve been eying it. Two seniors, Nathan Anderson and me, we’ve really wanted to end our season with that record.”
While Seaholm dominated, there were other standouts as well led by Holland senior Thomas Rathbun. He successfully defended his championships in both the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle. His winning time of 4:28.75 in the latter was nearly 10 seconds ahead of the runner-up, and he won the 200 in 1:38.74.
Both times were better than his winning performances from 2013.
“I feel like that was the most important part,” Rathbun said of his times. “The placing doesn’t mean that much to me – it’s great to be first – but to me it’s more about the times and if I improve on myself.”
Rathbun also was rebounding from a difficult situation last summer.
“Coming into the season, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go,” he said. “I had an off-summer dealing with some mono and bronchitis, so it was a slow start.
“I worked through some stuff, and now it feels pretty good.”
The other successful defending champion was junior John Vann of Battle Creek Lakeview, who repeated in the 100 butterfly. His winning time of 49.23 was better than his 50.83 in 2013.
“It feels really good,” said Vann, who also was second in the 200 freestyle. “I was definitely more confident this year just knowing I had a state championship under my belt, and it just felt really good that I could compete with everybody and just get out there and race them.
“I took it out a lot faster than Friday, and it hurt a lot more in the end, but it was definitely worth it.”
White Lake Lakeland senior Will Walker, who finished second to Vann in the 100 butterfly, won the 50 freestyle in 20.83 seconds, while Nick Leshok of North Farmington won the 100 freestyle in 46.03 seconds.
The 100 backstroke went to Jason Wesseling of Jenison in 50.05 (just off the meet record of 50.04), and Xinghao Wang of Grand Ledge took the 100 breaststroke in 55.77 seconds.
The diving portion of the meet went to Swartz Creek senior Jason Maxwell, who outdistanced the field with 437.50 points as runner-up Fay of Seaholm had 375.20. Maxwell had a healthy lead for his final dive – a reverse double somersault in the tuck position.
However, the day and the meet belonged to Seaholm.
“Everybody played their part – the hugs – we’re one giant family,” Wyllie said. “When family cares about each other, you don’t want to let each other down. Everybody does their part.
“My son was on the last state championship with me. He was a senior and a captain, so that was a different feeling. I was wondering how this one would feel, and it feels like I have 45 sons; it’s just incredible. Both state titles are unique in their own way.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Swimmers launch for a leg of a relay Saturday at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final. (Middle) A swimmer surges ahead during his race at Eastern Michigan University. (Click to see more from High School Sports Scene.)