No Track, No Problem for Champion Dux
June 9, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Phil Hoover is looking forward to returning to Zeeland’s renovated stadium for the 2015 track and field season.
But his Zeeland West boys team – which shares the stadium each spring with neighboring Zeeland East and one of the district’s middle schools – might be hesitant to switch things up.
It’s tough to question the methods that led the Dux to win their first MHSAA championship June 7 – despite having no track or field to practice on and no home meets during the regular season.
In fact, West finished this season perfect, winning its league, Regional and the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final and all 16 of its events this spring – despite traveling for every single one.
The track surface showed signs it needed replacing during last fall’s football season, but the football team was on its way to winning the MHSAA Division 3 championship. Demolition was put off until after football season ended, and reconstruction continued through last week.
“We as coaches agreed that we didn't want to make a big deal out of it,” Hoover said. “We went with the status quo. I don’t think they were stressed about it. The kids were great; they were never like, ‘Why don’t we have a track?’ They adapted quickly.”
And who needs a track when you've got a gym and hallways?
Coaches split with groups of athletes (the team had 65 total) to practice throughout the school – high jump in the gym, sprinters on the carpeted hallways, more events in other areas of the building.
Hoover, who has coached the team since the school opened in fall 2005, spent 3-4 hours every Sunday mapping where and what his athletes would practice over the following week.
Of course there were challenges. Tracks are curved and school hallways generally are not – so runners took off down a hall and had to make two 90-degree turns to run back.
And there had to be some break from tradition, like the usual Monday meeting spot at the track where the team would hash out its training schedule.
The Dux were able to use three lanes to the side of the track to work on hurdles and getting out of starting blocks, and also traveled to Hope College for a few practices.
There wasn't any kind of “us against the world” mentality Hoover could've conjured up as extra motivation for his team without a track. But he did say the all-road show might’ve benefited his athletes at the end of the season when they traveled for the spring’s most important meets.
It also surely helped to have a skilled and knowledgeable senior class that had been part of two MHSAA football championships and won the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association team state title in 2013 (the Dux ended up winning that event this spring as well). “We came into this year pretty focused to accomplish some things,” Hoover said. “We laid out the possibility of winning the state meet and focused on that.”
Zeeland West placed in seven events at the LP Division 2 Final at Houseman Stadium, with senior Jason Tran in the 300 hurdles its only individual champion. But the mix of points coming from sprints, hurdles and middle distance helped the Dux outpace runner-up Auburn Hills Avondale by 10.
Hoover said he missed this spring the daily scene at Zeeland’s staditum, where practices usually included 400 athletes mixing together from all three schools. But his Dux proved practice can make perfect – even if that practice comes in an unconventional setting.
“It’s strange here. The kids come to practice, and they really trust us,” Hoover said. “We feel we put out good training for them, and there’s not ever a question."
Good news for MHSAA hockey
A revised schedule coming this fall from the Michigan Amateur Hockey Association should provide a big boost to high school hockey in this state – and open up opportunities for athletes to play fall high school sports as well.
MAHA will this fall add an early season for its Midget A and AA teams – made up of high school-age players – allowing those players the opportunity to play both travel hockey in the fall and then high school hockey in the winter after that “early” travel season ends Nov. 8. MAHA also will play a "late" travel season – beginning Dec. 1 – which will allow travel hockey players the opportunity to play fall high school sports before hockey season in the winter.
Previously, the travel season began at the start of fall and concluded at the end of winter with MAHA’s state tournament. MAHA teams will still be able to play that traditional full season – but the MAHA state championship tournament in March will feature the top teams from the “early” and “late” seasons facing off after the MHSAA tournament is complete.
“The current system creates a lot of uncertainty and stress on the players who want to play high school hockey,” said Don Wright, MAHA high school hockey director, in a press release. “They have to gamble on which team they might make and hope they gamble correctly so they have a place to play come November. These expanded opportunities will also allow for increased skill development of these players prior to the start of the MHSAA season.”
The MAHA “late” season teams will hold tryouts after MHSAA hockey season practice has begun, allowing athletes who did not make their high school teams an opportunity to return to travel hockey for the winter.
Linked Up
Check out this Saginaw News story we came across leading up to the MHSAA Track and Field Finals on May 31.
Hugh Bernreuter tells of Saginaw Nouvel parent Celia Sullivan, who did not expect to see her son graduate as she suffered liver failure two years ago – but got that opportunity this spring thanks to another football mom, Sue Joynt, who donated 60 percent of her liver to Sullivan.
One of Sullivan’s thoughts that stuck most:
"I'm a bit of a control freak. I didn't need a transplant. I can go on. I thought I could beat it, but finally the doctors got through to me. This is something you don't beat. You cannot wait. You will die."
Click to read the entire piece.
PHOTO: Zeeland West's Jason Tran runs the 300 hurdles at this season's Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals at Houseman Stadium.
Aspirations High as Reigning Champion Hackett Vaults Into New Season
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
March 14, 2023
KALAMAZOO — Harrison Wheeler has not been a pole vaulter for very long – two weeks to be exact – but he already has some lofty goals.
The sophomore is aiming for the Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep record board and, if he makes it, he will be in good company.
Coach Shelly (Martin) Germinder, a 2001 Hackett graduate, still holds the girls record of 10 feet, 2½ inches.
“I’m hoping to have my name next to hers (on the record board),” Wheeler said.
The sophomore has a few feet to go before surpassing current record holder Brian Kucinich, who vaulted 12 feet, 6 inches in 1992.
Wheeler’s unofficial best is 9 feet; officially it is 8 feet, 6 inches.
“That is going to be a very big jump in my pole vaulting career,” he said.
Wheeler is one of 42 athletes on the reigning MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 champion boys team, which includes 12 seniors and 13 juniors. Besides Wheeler, the team has six sophomores and 10 freshmen.
One of the returners is senior Liam Mann, who helped lead the Irish to the Finals title last year.
Mann, Andrew Finley, Evan Wurtz and Isaac Backman won the 800-meter relay with a time of 1:31.55 last season, setting a school record as well.
While he lost his relay mates, Mann said there are good runners to replace them.
“(Senior) Brice Brown is coming out to do track, and I’ve been working with him this winter,” Mann said. “Jude Coffman, who is a sophomore, is coming out this year. I think he’s going to be a good addition to our 4-by-1.
“(Junior) Gabe Oeurn, last year he was running solid times, but this year he’s been putting in the work and I think he’ll be able to break that 12-second barrier.”
Mann, who will attend Ashland (Ohio) University on a track scholarship in the fall, also added gold in the 200-meter dash (22.82) last season.
“Last year, I played basketball and was able to lift to keep in shape,” he said. “This year, I wanted to focus all my time on track, so I’ve been doing indoor track, practicing once a week and going to meets on weekends.”
He continued to put his skills on display as a running back during football season with Kalamazoo United, ending the fall with 1,413 rushing yards on 177 carries and 267 receiving yards on 10 catches.
Opportunities & possibilities
The biggest group of competitors impacted by graduation are the sprinters, coach Charissa Dean said.
“Hackett’s been really big on sprinting talent in general,” she said. “But track has 17 events, and only two of them are open sprint events and two are relays.
“The other 13 are wide open for possibilities, and there’s a lot of younger talent that’s coming back this year. While they didn’t go to the state meet, they are the next generation of athletes coming up.”
Among that next generation are freshmen Marek Butkiewicz and Sean Siems, who “are incredibly talented athletes,” Dean said.
“(Junior) Gavin Sehy figured out how to do the distance thing this year in cross country.”
Sehy said he wanted to run track, but wasn’t sure where he fit.
“I thought I was mid-distance when I was younger, but my dad forced me to do cross country my sixth-grade year and it turned out I was decent at it so I kept doing (long distance) in track,” he said.
“It’s kind of brutal at times to train for long distance, mentally and physically, because you have to go on long runs, but I have fun with it. At the cross country state finals, I hit an 11 flat split at the two-mile, which beat my 3,200 best from last season, so we have yet to see my best times.”
Butkiewicz and Sehy have been running consistently six days a week all winter to prepare for their first meet, March 22.
“I’ve never done track,” the freshman said. “I know I can perform well. I know my times compared to other people.”
A sophomore this year, Alex Dumont had a 400-meter time that “came out of nowhere,” Dean said. “Toward the end of the season we recruited him to do the 4x8, so an 800-meter runner. That kid came through.
‘We actually took him to the state meet in the 4x8. He did the lead leg, and I clocked him at a 2:07. He was sprinting. It was an amazing leg in that relay.”
Seeing potential
It was Germinder who converted Wheeler to the pole vault last year.
“Harrison’s a strong athlete, and just the way his mind works in that he asks questions and he wants to learn and he wants to improve,” she said.
“He wants to work hard, and he wants to put in the time. That’s something you need for that, along with the athletic component.”
Wheeler, who said he was shocked at being successful right away, competed for two weeks last season before a foot injury suffered on a vault sidelined him.
“It took her a whole season to finally convince me to do it,” he said. “I grabbed a pole one day and ended up being really good at it. Ever since, I’ve had a love of it.
“The feeling I have once I get in the air is almost like I’m just floating. When you get really good vaults and you get that nice height and good form, you get what we call a ‘stall.’ You just feel like you’re sitting up in the air for a second. It’s gotta be the coolest thing ever.”
Germinder has the background to help the Irish vaulters.
While at Hackett, she competed in the AAU National Championships and said she learned from the best, Oran Mitchell, a noted pole vaulting coach.
Her own coaching style revolves around the safety of the athletes.
“You can teach a lot of people to grab hold of a pole and pop yourself over,” she said. “But I want to make sure my athletes are safe. That’s really, really important to me, and that’s something that was instilled in me.
“When you’re jumping 6 to 16 feet, that’s a long way to fall. Safety is very important to me. If you’re not willing to put in the time, then I’m not the coach for you.”
Germinder said one of the foundations on which the team is built is leadership, which was instilled in the younger athletes by last year’s seniors.
“That’s one of the things our program is built on,” she said. “If you’re there because you want to get ready for the next sports season, we’ll coach you for that.
“If you want to be a state champion, we’ll coach you for that. That’s the really unique thing about track. There’s something for everyone, whatever that might be.”
As for the girls team, numbers are steadily climbing.
Five years ago, the team had just two girls. This year, 25 girls are on the team.
No matter girls or boys, track or field events, one thing is common for all the athletes.
“We pray before every meet, we put God first, and all those pieces have fallen into place for us.” Germinder said.
“I really believe that foundation is what is going to be our success this year. It’s there, it’s just a different team.”
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) Hackett's Harrison Wheeler points to the pole vaulting record he hopes to break this season, while pole vaulting coach Shelly (Martin) Germinder points to the record she still holds at the school. (Middle) Clockwise from top left: Hackett head track & field coach Charissa Dean, Liam Mann, Germinder and Gavin Sehy. (Below) The Irish celebrate last season’s Finals championship, from left: Dean, Sehy, Logan St. Martin, Alex Dumont, Mitch Eastman, Nick Doerr and Germinder. (Top photo and head shots by Pam Shebest; team photo courtesy of Hackett track & field.)