Richmond Reigns Again as Paw Paw Offers Another Titanic Challenge
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
March 5, 2022
GRAND RAPIDS – Richmond was backed into a corner Saturday afternoon – but like a true champion, dug deep and fought its way out to continue its reign.
The Blue Devils needed a near-perfect final round to barely hold off a gutsy and impressive performance by Paw Paw at the Division 3 Final at the Delta Plex.
“We left our hearts out there on the mat in that final round,” said Richmond senior Sarah Mikolasik. “It’s bittersweet because it’s over, but it’s unreal what we did.”
Unreal is the perfect term to describe the high school cheer career for Mikolasik and the other seven seniors, who were a perfect 4-for-4 with Division 3 championships all four years.
However, for a period of time Saturday, it looked like the fourth title might slip away.
Richmond and Paw Paw entered the third and final round in a virtual tie, with the Blue Devils holding less than a 1-point lead (463.60 to 462.80).
Paw Paw was first to go out of the eight-school field in the final round, and to say the Red Wolves delivered would be the understatement of the day.
The Red Wolves, led by the senior duo of Paige Miller and Lexi Sunlin, absolutely nailed their final routine – much to the delight of the spectators who made the trip up from Southwest Michigan – putting them in position to win their first-ever cheer Finals title and bringing tears to the eyes of their veteran coach.
“I have never cried when one of my teams came off the mat – until today,” said 13th-year Paw Paw coach Stefanie Miller, who is also Paige’s mother. “Throughout that Round 3, the tears just welled up in my eyes. They went for it. I knew they won it.”
But Richmond had its chance.
At that point, all of the pressure in the world was on the three-time reigning champion to perform a very difficult routine, all while knowing that the slightest bobble or lean on a stunt would likely mean the end of that streak.
It was against that backdrop that Richmond, representing a small town just north of Detroit, showed why it has emerged as one of the best competitive cheer programs in the state.
Even though they weren’t on the mat at the same time, the Blue Devils matched every skill and stunt of the Red Wolves, finishing with a third-round score of 317.40, slightly better than Paw Paw’s final round of 317.20.
Richmond ended up winning with a total of 781, while Paw Paw was second at 780 – nearly the same margin of victory as one year ago.
While the margin was the same, both teams improved their total score by almost 10 points, with Richmond winning 771.62-770.72 in 2021.
“I was speechless when they came off that mat for the last time, because I knew they had done everything that they possibly could,” said Richmond coach Kelli Matthes, who has won six titles to go with five runner-up finishes during her 14 years as the team’s coach.
“They are not supposed to be perfect; they are human. But they fight tooth-and-nail every day to get there.”
Matthes is assisted by Melana Szczesniak, Lauren Riggs and Jessica Hatcher.
Pontiac Notre Dame Prep placed third at 776.62, followed by Croswell-Lexington and Monroe Jefferson.
The title for Richmond means that all four team champions from 2021 repeated this year – Rochester Adams in D1, Allen Park in D2, Richmond in D3 and Hudson in D4.
Gracie Ellis, one of five returning senior all-staters for Richmond, said the abilities to be coachable and always striving to get better is the reason her school has won four championships in a row.
“Never when we correct people does anybody complain,” said Ellis, who was joined as a senior returning first-team all-stater by Makenna Parker, Hannah Jeroue, Savanna Krywy and Ava Moskwa. “They take it, and they work harder. That’s how you keep getting better.”
Other seniors for Richmond were Eryn Hart, Jenna Alexander and Mikolasik.
PHOTOS (Top) Richmond competes during Saturday’s Division 3 Finals at Grand Rapids’ Delta Plex. (Middle) Paw Paw celebrates its second-straight runner-up finish. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Schmitz Makes Most of Many Opportunities
January 12, 2018
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
MORENCI – When Madysen Schmitz was a freshman in high school, she told Morenci athletic director Kay Johnson she was going to earn 16 varsity letters with the Bulldogs.
Schmitz was wrong. If all goes as planned, she’ll earn 18.
“I’m used to being involved,” Schmitz said.
Her to-do calendar leaves little time for anything else.
A senior, Schmitz has never played a sport at the junior varsity level. She already has completed four years of varsity volleyball and this past fall was part of Morenci’s club equestrian team. This winter, she is not only one of the top scorers in Lenawee County in basketball, she’s a member of the competitive cheerleading team. Later this year she plans to be a dual-sport athlete for the fourth straight spring, playing softball and competing as part of the Bulldogs track & field squad. She also has been a sideline cheerleader for Morenci.
“Mady is naturally talented,” Johnson said. “She is fast and jumps so well. She’s been doing all of the cheer moves for some time now. She’s just very athletic.”
Morenci allows athletes to compete in multiple sports during one season as long as they abide by the guidelines set forth by the district. One of those rules is to pick a predominate sport that takes precedent in any season. Last spring, for example, it was track & field instead of softball. Schmitz qualified for the MHSAA Finals in the long jump. After the event was over, she drove back to southeast Michigan to play in a Division 4 District Final for the softball team.
“My coaches work with me and around my schedule,” Schmitz said. “If they know I have basketball practice after school, we’ll have cheer practice in the morning. Or, if there is a game one night, we won’t have practice in another sport that day. They work with me.”
Johnson, who is also the Morenci softball coach, said the district supports dual-sport athletes.
“We allow it, but not many athletes do it,” Johnson said. “It’s tough to compete in multiple sports at the same time. With our enrollment (just more than 100 girls at last count), if we have an athlete that wants to do two sports, we’ll let them.”
Schmitz helped Morenci’s softball team into the MHSAA Semifinals as a sophomore. She’s an outfielder who covers a lot of ground because of her speed.
Success is nothing new to Schmitz, who moved from Evergreen Schools in Ohio to Morenci before her freshman year. She’s leaving quite a legacy on the ultra-successful Morenci athletic program. She’s received numerous honors from the Tri-County Conference, was second team all-county in basketball last season and enters Friday’s home game against co-TCC basketball leader Ottawa Lake Whiteford with 987 career points. The only other Morenci girl to reach 1,000 career points is Kylene Spiegel, now in her first season as head women’s basketball coach at Lawrence Tech.
The Bulldogs have won 13 games each of the past two seasons and are off to a 7-2 start heading into the game with Whiteford. Larry Bruce is in his fourth year as the head varsity girls basketball coach after a long and successful run as the Bulldogs boys coach in the 1970s and 1980s. Bruce had a heart attack in July and, while still going through regular rehabilitation exercises, is back on the bench.
“I had four bypasses in August,” he said. “I’m good now. I work out a couple days a week. I feel normal.”
His return to the basketball court, he said, was never in doubt.
“Some other people may have doubted it, but I didn’t,” the veteran coach said.
The Bulldogs won four straight TCC basketball titles from 1985 to 1988 and four more from 2001-2004, but none since. They are trying to end Adrian Madison’s six-year reign at the top of the league. Whiteford and Morenci are both 5-0 in league play entering tonight.
“He’s awesome,” Schmitz said of Bruce. “He helps us a lot. We have really good team chemistry this year. We are all happy he is back.”
This season, Schmitz was sluggish to start the season while shaking off some effects of an ankle injury suffered in volleyball. But, after scoring 34 points against Clinton, 28 against Reading and 23 against Pittsford, her game appears to be back on track.
“She’s a durable kid,” Bruce said. “She’s jumps so high and is so fast. It’s kind of scary when she goes up in traffic to get a rebound. She’s always flying down the floor. She goes all out. That’s the only way she knows. She’s been that way since she was a freshman.”
Bruce recalls the time Schmitz was injured and did have to miss a couple of games.
“She’s left-handed,” he said. “She had her left arm in a sling, but was in the gym at night, shooting with her right hand. That is when she was a freshman. She wanted to get better shooting with her right hand. She’s worked pretty hard at the game.”
Schmitz isn’t the only high scorer on the Bulldogs’ roster. Junior Daelyn Merillat has more than 800 career points.
Bruce supports Schmitz’s choice to play multiple sports.
“It really hasn’t been an issue,” he said. “There was one night where she missed a practice because she had a cheerleading event. It wasn’t a big deal. The coaches work with her.”
In addition to her athletic ability, she also gets it done in the classroom. Schmitz is a National Honor Society student with a cumulative 3.49 grade-point average.
"There are definitely some late nights just trying to keep up with it all," Schmitz said. "You just have to manage your time and stay on top of everything. I'm used to it though. I've been this way my whole life. It's all worth it. I love sports.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTO: (Top) Morenci’s Madysen Schmitz looks for an opportunity on offense against Pittsford on Jan. 3. (Middle) Schmitz goes hard to the basket during the 68-56 loss, one of only two defeats this season for the Bulldogs. (Photos by Mike Dickie.)