Central Awaits Fast Finishes, New Home
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
February 20, 2018
PORTAGE — Thursday night was an emotional one for the Portage Central boys swimming & diving team, and not only because it was Senior Night.
The Mustangs’ 114-69 win against St. Joseph was the last meet in the 44-year-old pool located at the middle school.
“They’re building a new pool at the high school,” Central coach Jim Schafer said. “It’s bittersweet after spending 33 years coaching in this pool; (there are) a lot of great memories.
“A lot of great student athletes have been part of the program. The old pools have served Portage very well, and I’m sure the new ones will serve just as well for the future of Portage Aquatics.”
The future is bright for the program – but so is the present.
The Mustangs are ranked No. 8 in the latest Lower Peninsula Division 2 state poll heading into the Southwest Michigan Athletic Conference meet Friday and Saturday at Battle Creek Lakeview.
The Mustangs have won 19 conference titles, including last year’s when they shared the crown with Kalamazoo Loy Norrix.
“There are a lot of good teams there,” Schafer said. “Mattawan gave us a really good meet last week. Norrix has a lot of good kids; so does St. Joe.
“Battle Creek Lakeview is always strong. It’s going to be a tight race between a lot of teams.”
The Mustangs, who take an 11-1 dual record into the meet, are no slouches in the pool.
After finishing eighth in LPD2 last year, they already have qualified four finalists from that team.
Oakland University will host this year’s championship meet March 9-10.
Star power
Owen Miller, the reigning LPD2 champ in the 200-yard freestyle, is just a junior and, while nostalgic for the pool where he set two varsity records, he is looking forward to the new one.
“I’m very excited for that,” he said. “We were shown the layout of the pool a while ago, but I forget what it looked like. I remember I liked it, but I’m not sure why.
“It’s going to be a much larger pool. More locker rooms.”
Miller also finished third in the 500 freestyle at the Finals last year and swam the first leg of the 400 freestyle relay with junior Sam Weber, senior Jacob Cole and Jack Rogers, who graduated last year. They placed eighth.
“Owen’s a quiet, hard-working guy,” said Schafer, who also teaches physical education, health and sports science at the high school. “As far as our team, he’s a great freestyler, but he can also swim other events as well.
“He’s one of our go-to guys that I can go to at any meet and say I need you to swim this. We’re fortunate enough that we have a handful of those kids. We have a pretty versatile lineup.”
Swimmers on the 10th-place 200 medley relay team were Rogers, who is now a freshman on the Wayne State University swim team, Weber, Cole and junior Jack Liu.
Cole also placed 11th in the 200 IM.
“Swimming is such a mental sport,” Cole said. “People don’t understand. Once you get up on the blocks, you don’t hear anything else. When he says ‘Take your mark,’ everyone has to be quiet in the building. There’s no noise.
“All that pressure that’s on you before you go in the race, it’s all gone for that moment before the buzzer’s released. It’s just like you and the water, and it feels like practice again.”
Cole’s brother Christopher also competed for the Mustangs.
“I’ve coached several brothers, which is kinda nice because you know the families,” Schafer said.
“Jacob brings good solid leadership. He works real hard and is a great all-around kid.”
With his brother holding team records in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke, Jacob Cole has plenty of motivation.
“This year I’m trying to break his record in the 200 IM, so that’s my main goal,” he said. “I like to think I’m close. I’m at 1:58 and he’s at 1:55, so hopefully I can go 1:54 and beat it by a lot.
“I don’t really excel in any of the major strokes, but I’m generally pretty good at every stroke,” Cole added. “My favorite event is the 400 IM which isn’t offered in high school, so I go in the 200 IM.”
Miller holds the school record in the 500 free with a time of 4:33.22 and as part of the 400 free relay (1:26.44) with Cole, Weber and Rogers. Weber was ninth in the 500 free and 10th in the 100 backstroke at the MHSAA Finals last year.
Last year, Miller swam the first leg on the relay team, which was fine with him.
“I like it because I like to go out and try my best to get a lead, and then it takes some pressure off coming to the finish,” Miller said. “I like to cheer on my teammates as they come in.
“I enjoy them both (relays and individual competition). I think relays are more fun in that it’s the team and you’re working together, and it’s more of an accomplishment if you place high. Individuals, you have a little more self pride that you did this all yourself.”
Ready for Finals
Some teams do something special to bond during tournament time, but don’t count the Mustangs among them.
“We’re not shaving our head, that’s for sure,” Miller said, laughing. “We’re going to veto that one if the seniors bring it up.
“They talked about bleaching our hair, but we kinda talked them down to frosted tips style, but we’ll see if we actually go through with it.”
Schafer said there is a reason for Portage Central’s success.
“We’ve got some pretty hard-working kids and there are two good age-group programs in the area, which help feed into our program,” he said.
“We’re fortunate enough to work with kids who already have a good swimming background when they come in.”
Cole gives credit to his coach.
“Schaf’s the best,” he said. “He’s an amazing coach. Whenever I come to the high school season, I’m always excited because the team camaraderie is really great. It’s just a fun time, and I think Schaf brings that out in everybody. One of the three goals is building relationships, and that’s one thing we say.
“It’s great if you’re winning, but at the end of the day were you a good sport while you were doing it? Did you make friends during the season? Was it fun? What’s the point of a sport if you’re not having fun while you’re doing it?”
Schafer has just three other seniors on the team: Caleb Calnin, Ferris Ghazal and Ethan Kloosterman.
Juniors are Harrison Fitts, Alex Galer, Christian Huitema, Josh Parsons, Veeresh Rajendran, Jace Rozankovich, Sheldon Shen and Nikhil Velagalety.
Sophomores are Jacob Crump, Connor Meyer, Logan Misejka, Saad Qureshi and Matt Walsh, and freshmen are Juan Barrera, Andrew Burhans, Ethan Earle-Glinsky, Isaac Hogue, Thenuka Jayatilaka, David Jin, Lucas Miller, Ben Miller, Emery Rahrig, Liam Roehr, Max Schramm, Frans Tanade and Jim Zesiger.
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Portage Central’s Owen Miller is a reigning MHSAA Finals champion. (Middle) From top: Central coach Jim Schafer, Miller and Jacob Cole. (Below) Cole and Miller enjoy a lighter moment during a break. (Top photo by Mike Peterson, head shots by Pam Shebest and below photo by Colleen Ruggerio.)
John Glenn Solo Diver Aiming To Stand Alone Atop Finals Podium
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
January 27, 2022
Jamie Miller is getting used to working alone.
As the lone diver on the Bay City John Glenn swimming & diving team, he spends his practice time by himself, working on the dives he hopes can get him a few steps higher on this year’s Finals podium.
“I’ve worked with plenty of really great coaches, and I’ve been to so many good camps,” Miller said. “I know a lot, and I actually know how to coach. I have a little TV, a little TiVo that records my dives, so 20 seconds later, I can walk up and watch it and see how to fix it. I’m a huge introvert, so I don’t have to talk to anyone and don’t have to worry about anyone.”
So far, so good for the senior, who is off to a strong start after finishing sixth at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals a year ago.
He recently won the Tri-Cities championship at Saginaw Valley State, finishing with a two-day, 11-dive total of 454.5, which would have placed third at this past year’s Finals. He’s also broken the Oscoda pool record, scoring 273.55 for six dives to break the previous mark set in 1989.
“I think it’s going pretty well,” Miller said. “I had had a lot of time off because of COVID, but because of how hard I worked in middle school and my early years of high school, I just jumped right back in where I left off.”
Miller has been diving since seventh grade, although he discovered his skill and love for the sport almost by accident.
“I joined the swim team because it was the only sport I could pick that wasn’t a scary contact sport,” he said. “I started swimming and I got a really bad cramp and was like, ‘This kind of sucks. I’m going to try this other thing.’ Then I actually started to like it.”
He began working with Bay Aquatics Diving and coach Janet Beattie, which he said helped him to grow a lot as a diver. While the pandemic forced him away from the club, the lessons learned have helped him continue to improve.
He was also fortunate to have a strong teammate in Trevor Post, who placed fourth as a senior at the 2021 Finals.
“Trevor’s the kind of guy – you know the saying, ‘Work hard, because someone out there is working harder than you?’ Trevor was that guy, and I got to dive with him every day,” Miller said. “We got so competitive, and if we weren’t on the same team, we would not have been as successful as we were.”
Without Post pushing him daily at practice, Miller said it can sometimes be tough to be self-motivated. But anytime he needs a push, he looks up at the record board in front of him.
“The record I’m trying to beat this year at the schools, it’s been there since 2004, it’s 300 points,” he said. “My highest score is 275, so it’s a reach. We’ve only had two dual meets, and I’ve only got to dive at one of them. We have eight more, so that’s what I’m really going for. It’s going to be close.”
Miller is not only looking to motivate himself every day, he’s also constantly having to get over the fear that creeps in when he’s on the board and prepares to dive. While he considers the sport to be very fun, he’s not afraid to admit it is also “horrifying.”
“I have to get over it every single time I get in the water,” Miller said. “It’s kind of like diving is like a constant mental battle. It’s not a physical sport, it’s all mental. You have to convince yourself of things. You can really learn a lot about your mind with diving.”
As he learns about himself and how to stay motivated, Miller does have a greater goal ahead of him. Only three of the top eight divers from last year’s Division 3 Finals graduated, including two of the top five. Miller has crunched the numbers, and as he sees it, if all remains the same, he will move into the top three this year.
He’s not satisfied with that, though.
“I think the least I can shoot for is top three,” he said. “I should be shooting for first. I should just continue forward, shooting for first for the rest of the season. I know a couple kids who are really good. If nobody (else) just completely shines in their first year and beats me, then I should take third if everything stays the same. But I’m going to shoot for first.”
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) Bay City John Glenn’s Jamie Miller dives during a meet this winter. (Middle) Miller, leading a line of divers on the pool deck, recently won the Tri-Cities diving competition. (Photos by Kent Miller.)