D2 Preview: Downriver Powers Rising to Lead Another Finals Charge
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 4, 2022
A return of full Downriver League power will make Saturday morning’s Competitive Cheer Final feel much more like what we’re used to from Division 2.
Allen Park is back at Grand Rapids’ Delta Plex seeking a third-consecutive championship, and Gibraltar Carlson is returning after a year away and still sits second on the all-time championships list with 11. Southgate Anderson is a three-time Finals champ, and together they finished first-third in the league and their Regional over these last many weeks.
Division 2 competition begins at 10 a.m. Saturday. Tickets cost $10 and may be bought at the Delta Plex, and all four Finals will be broadcast live on MHSAA.tv and viewable with a subscription. More information, including the spectator seating chart, is posted at MHSAA.com.
Below is a look at all eight finalists:
ALLEN PARK
League finish: First in Downriver League
Coach: Julie Goodwin, 17th season
Championship history: Four MHSAA titles (most recent 2021), four runner-up finishes.
Top score: 794.16.
Team composition: 28 total (nine seniors, 11 juniors, six sophomores, two freshmen).
Outlook: The Jaguars are competing for a third-straight Division 2 title and seventh-straight top-two Finals finish. They are again undefeated heading into Finals weekend, having broken 790 points in five of their last six competitions. Many of the team’s leaders have championship experience and multiple all-state honors – seniors Adreanna Carone and Cassidy Kuhn and junior Emma Buffa are returning first-team selections from 2021, while senior Cassidy Reardon and junior Kristine Beste made the second team last season and juniors Madisyn Setser and Emma Williams earned honorable mentions.
CEDAR SPRINGS
League finish: First in Ottawa-Kent Conference Gold
Coach: Katy Hradsky, first season
Championship history: Seeking first top-two Finals finish.
Top score: 755.08.
Team composition: 17 total (nine seniors, one junior, six sophomores, one freshman).
Outlook: Cedar Springs is making its fourth-straight trip to the Finals and improved from seventh in 2020 to sixth last season. This will be the first appearance with Hradsky as head coach, but she was a major part of the program as the junior varsity coach the previous eight seasons after serving as co-head coach at Sparta from 2011-13. Cedar Springs posted its second-highest score, 753.58, to finish Regional runner-up. Senior Abbey Salisbury made the all-state second team last season.
DEARBORN DIVINE CHILD
League finish: First in Detroit Catholic League Bishop
Co-coaches: Amber Genevich, 19th season; Shelley Popiel, fifth season
Championship history: Division 2 runner-up 2011-14.
Top score: 782.86
Team composition: 20 total (three seniors, three juniors, seven sophomores, seven freshmen)
Outlook: Divine Child is returning to the Finals after two seasons away, riding a wave of strong scores with four straight of 761 or better and three of those reaching at least 773. Senior Makenna Yost and juniors Reese Eberth both earned all-Regional recognition last season.
DEWITT
League finish: Third in Capital Area Activities Conference Red
Coach: Candace Heskitt, 14th season
Championship history: Division 2 runner-up in 2020, 2015 and 2007.
Top score: 765.86 at Regional.
Team composition: 25 total (five seniors, four juniors, five sophomores, 11 freshmen).
Outlook: The Panthers have moved up from sixth in 2019 to third in 2020 to runner-up last season and enter this weekend coming off their first competition championship of this season. DeWitt is trending upward with its four highest scores coming in its four most recent events. Senior Anneliese Phillips made the all-state second team last season, and senior Hilary Ballard earned honorable mention.
GIBRALTAR CARLSON
League finish: Second in Downriver League
Coach: Alyssa Tocco, first season
Championship history: 11 MHSAA titles (most recent 2019), six runner-up finishes.
Top score: 790.18 at District
Team composition: 23 total (three seniors, nine juniors, three sophomores, eighth freshmen).
Outlook: Carlson is back at the Finals having finished first or second in Division 2 every season from 2008-20. Tocco is a past three-time Division 2 runner-up as an athlete on Allen Park’s team and a national runner-up collegiately, and served as an assistant at Plymouth the last five seasons before taking over the Marauders. They’ve finished first or second at all of their competitions this winter. The team didn’t compete during the 2021 postseason, but senior Destiny Rogers earned an all-state honorable mention in 2020 as a sophomore on that Finals runner-up team.
GRAND RAPIDS FOREST HILLS NORTHERN
League finish: First in O-K White
Coach: Carly Sienkiewicz, fifth season
Championship history: Seeking first top-two Finals finish.
Top score: 757.04
Team composition: 18 total (two seniors, nine juniors, five sophomores, two freshmen).
Outlook: Forest Hills Northern is returning to the Finals for the first time since 1998 after winning its second-straight league title and reaching Regionals for the second time in three seasons. The Huskies’ top four scores have come over their four most recent competitions, including in winning the District title with a 756.82 two weeks ago. Junior Julie Fiser earned all-District recognition last season as FHN just missed advancing.
MUSKEGON REETHS-PUFFER
League finish: Second in O-K Green
Coach: Lisabeth Smith, first season
Championship history: Seeking first top-two Finals finish.
Top score: 750.64 at Regional
Team composition: 23 total (four seniors, nine juniors, three sophomores, six freshmen).
Outlook: Reeths-Puffer is returning to the Finals for the first time since 2018, after winning its District and posting its top score in finishing third at the Regional. Smith is a past Reeths-Puffers cheer athlete and coached in the program immediately after graduation, later taking over the Muskegon High program before taking a few years off and returning to coach the Rockets this winter. Reeths-Puffer just missed the Finals last season, but seniors Lillyanna Schoonbeck and Summer Curtis, junior Makenna Anthony and sophomore Kendall Eek all earned all-Regional recognition.
SOUTHGATE ANDERSON
League finish: Third in Downriver League.
Coach: Colette Norscia, 19th season
Championship history: Division 1 champion 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Top score: 782.44 at District.
Team composition: 22 total (four seniors, 10 juniors, three sophomores, five freshmen).
Outlook: Anderson improved from sixth in 2020 to a close fifth last season, and its top score this season is more than six points higher than heading into last year’s Finals. The Titans have surpassed 771 three times and 761 in seven competitions. Senior Savannah Thomas and juniors Bella Plonka and Alexis Morris earned all-Regional recognition last season.
PHOTO Allen Park competes during last year’s Round 1 at Breslin Center. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Southgate Anderson Seniors Key 3-Peat
March 1, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GRAND RAPIDS – When Southgate Anderson’s seniors were sophomores two years ago, they played huge roles in the Titans winning their first MHSAA competitive cheer championship.
And because those sophomores already acted like seniors even then, coach Colette Norscia felt pretty confident that title was only a start.
Her hunch was correct. That group of seven athletes, now seniors, led Anderson to its third straight MHSAA title Friday at the DeltaPlex,
The Titans scored 785.96 points, 2.42 more than runner-up Grandville after both trailed Rochester Hills Stoney Creek by three tenths of a point after Round 1.
“We’ve been cheering together since we were really little, and we stuck with it all through these years,” Anderson senior Holly Zmijewski said. “We just want to prove who we are, and that we don’t go backward. We just keep going forward.”
But it took a little kick to get the Titans rolling again.
Anderson competes in the Downriver League, which also includes reigning Division 2 champion Gibraltar Carlson and Finals qualifiers Allen Park and Trenton. The Titans finished second at their league competition, four points back of Carlson, which is nothing to scoff but disappointed those seniors nonetheless.
But it also brought perspective to underclassmen who weren’t yet part of the program prior to this championship run.
Norscia knew walking into the DeltaPlex on Friday that her team was prepared every possible way.
“It’s hard to get it, but it’s harder to keep it every year,” Norscia said. “The kids, once they have it, not all of them are so gung-ho about keeping it, working to that level, and I think we got scrutinized a little bit more as well.
“Those sophomores on the team that first year we won, they were strong and carried us through,” she added. “They learned a lot from that senior group, and they’ve been teaching each group that comes in. Our next two classes are just as strong, and actually our eighth grade group is incredible.”
All seven seniors – Marisa Laginess, Madison Small, Zmijewski, Jacklyn Carrico, Haley Evans, Aleta Madera and Brittany Walton – earned all-state honors as juniors.
Stoney Creek set the pace with a 235.20 to lead Round 1. But Anderson posted the highest Round 2 score in Division 2 this season and put up a 231.46 on Friday, two points better than both Stoney Creek and Grandville.
Grandville responded with a strong 319.20 in Round 3. But that was bested by only Anderson, by four tenths of a point.
“It’s hard to have to go out there three times, and have to peak three times, and we did,” Grandville coach Julie Smith-Boyd said. “We weren’t playing defense. … We were going for it. We wanted to win.
“But when you’re a senior, or even for any of these girls, we want them to go out just feeling great about it. They gave their all, did their best, and it was that way every single round. We’re just really proud of them.”
The Bulldogs improved from eighth at the 2012 Final to fourth last season to second and have only six seniors – including only two in Round 2, and with a couple freshmen who contributed in Round 3.
A pair of sad circumstances – two athletes’ mothers died during the fall after fights with breasts cancer – bonded the team as it took another giant step.
“These girls just really bonded together really tight, pulled together and supported each other through the whole thing. And I really felt that made them stronger at the end,” Smith-Boyd said. “Because we said, what we’ve been through was far worse than we have to go out there and do. We made it through that; we can do this.
“We did it the best we could do it. Southgate obviously did too.”
Macomb Dakota ascended from seventh after Round 1 to finished third in the final standings. Lake Orion, eighth after Round 1, came in fourth in its return to the Finals after missing last season.
PHOTOS: (Top) Southgate Anderson performs its Round 3 routine Friday at the DeltaPlex. (Middle) Grandville, this season’s runner-up, improved from fourth place in 2013. (Click for action and team photos from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)