Arbor Prep Closes in on 2nd Straight Title
March 17, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Absolutely, Ypsilanti Arbor Prep has noticed differences playing in Class B this season after winning the Class C title a year ago.
As expected, it’s tougher. There’s structure, more athletes. The Gators still pride themselves on suffocating defense, but at times it’s hasn’t been as bothersome against some of these new opponents.
And yet, the results have been the same – if not better.
Arbor Prep entered the postseason ranked No. 1 in Class B, and it remains undefeated after handing previously-undefeated and No. 5-ranked Freeland its first and only loss 54-46 in Friday’s last Semifinal at the Breslin Center.
The Gators now have won 36 straight games and will try to finish a perfect run against No. 2 Detroit Country Day in Saturday’s 6 p.m. championship game.
“It’s our last time playing together, and we just want to make it as special as we can,” Gators senior guard Ro’zhane Wells said. “And that’s winning the state championship. There’s no other way to go out than that.”
“Like Ro’zhane said, we’ve won the state championship. What better way to go? 28-0?” senior Adrienne Anderson added. “So that’s what we’re going for, and that’s our goal.”
Two teams had that goal Friday, with the assurance the season would end for one of them. Freeland’s strengths – especially outside shooting – were almost enough to send the Falcons (26-1) on instead.
Their 46 points were the second-most Arbor Prep (27-0) has given up this season despite facing a schedule that has included Class A finalist Flushing, another Class A power in Muskegon Mona Shores and a pair of ranked Class B teams during the playoffs in No. 3 Williamston and No. 8 Ida. Only Dearborn Heights Robichaud, with 54 in a four-point District Final loss to the Gators, put up more points against them.
Freeland made nine 3-pointers on 23 tries and shot better than 40 percent in two quarters, finishing just under 40 percent from the floor for the game. Leading Falcons scorer, senior guard Jessica Piper, made 6 of 9 shots including three 3-pointers on the way to 18 points.
But Arbor Prep’s defense did make a difference when it came to possessing the ball. The Gators took advantage of 21 Freeland turnovers, while giving the ball up only 10 times.
Still, a Piper 3-pointer pulled the Falcons to within 49-46 with 2:31 to play. At 5:55, they trailed Arbor Prep by 13.
“We’re like, we’re a good 3-point shooting team. We needed to get the 3 off, and the shots started falling; they didn’t fall the rest of the game,” Piper said. “And we looked at each other and we’re down by six. And we’re like, that’s two 3s, just look to shoot. We got it down to three at the end and almost pulled it off.”
Arbor Prep made five free throws down the stretch as Freeland had two turnovers and missed two shots.
“I knew we would never give up. We came out, I think we were a little hesitant, maybe a little nervous,” Freeland coach Tom Zolinski said. “(But) this team at any point could score 20 points in five minutes, and I think that’s half the reason we didn’t give up. We knew our firepower and what we were able to do.”
Wells had 14 points and six steals to lead Arbor Prep, and Anderson and Williams both added 10 points, with Anderson grabbing eight rebounds.
There are certainly some similarities as well between this run and Arbor Prep’s last two to Breslin (the Gators made the Class C Semifinals in 2015). They aren’t fazed by the stage, the different shooting perspective and other differences that might throw off first-time finalists – which should put them on at least even footing from that perspective with a Country Day team they know plenty about from playing against and with many of those players growing up.
“The girls believe they can play against anybody,” said Arbor Prep coach (and Ro’zhane’s father) Rod Wells. “We don’t really look at the jersey of the other team. We just think we can beat anybody. The girls still don’t get the attention they deserve. But they work extra hard, and you’ve got to respect that. I’ll probably never get a group (again) that works this hard.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Arbor Prep’s Lasha Petree stops Freeland’s Jenna Gregory (11) during Friday’s Class B Semifinal. (Middle) The Gators’ Cydney Williams (20) puts pressure on a driving Alyssa Argyle.
Energy, Competition, Moments & More Continue to Spark Unity Coach Soodsma
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
February 15, 2023
HUDSONVILLE – The pep band is blaring the school fight song, the boisterous crowd of a couple of thousand fans has long grown weary waiting for the opening tip-off, and the antsy players are crowded behind the locker room doors ready to spring like a pack of lions.
It's like the scene from the epic basketball movie "Hoosiers" where coach Norman Dale pauses before entering a rollicking and packed Friday night gymnasium to mutter to himself, "Welcome to Indiana basketball."
Scott Soodsma not only grasps the significance of that scene firsthand, it's why after four decades he still loves coaching.
"The fierce competition, the band, your heart pounding like a dog – it's still like it was 30 years ago," said Soodsma, the Hudsonville Unity Christian coach and dean of West Michigan basketball coaches in his 41st season of a run that’s included two states and three schools.
"How does it get any better than that? I'm always telling the kids to live for the moment. You can't replace all that; I still get the shivers. I've had so many moments like that."
Among those highlight moments are being one of just two Michigan coaches to win both girls and boys MHSAA Finals championships (Paul Cook of Lansing Eastern was the other), and the moment he claims is easily No. 1 on his all-time personal list: coaching his daughter Amber as part of the 2006 Class B champ. Unity Christian also won a 2019 boys state title. He also won a third Finals championship with the boys at McBain Northern Michigan Christian.
Soodsma, 63, admits there have been myriad changes in coaching basketball since his first season at North Dakota's James Valley Christian High School in 1983 and coming to Unity Christian in 1993. For starters, players are bigger and stronger and are more schooled in the game through AAU and offseason programs. In addition, the influence of parents – for better or worse – has increased dramatically. As for the on-court game, Soodsma unabashedly admits he at first fought the institution of the 3-point shot. And the emphasis on winning has definitely only increased pressure on many coaches.
Soodsma, a member of the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan Hall of Fame who ranks ninth on the state's all-time boys wins list with 635, said he's adapted to the times. He wants to win as much as he ever has, still broods for days after losses and still considers himself receptive to the changing Xs and Os aspect of coaching.
But where his booming voice routinely used to resonate loudly into the middle sections of the Unity Christian bleachers, most of those comments now are only audible to fans perched in the first couple rows of the stands. Which is probably a good thing, Soodsma adds sheepishly.
Coaching, he readily contends, is still coaching – and winning still heads the list of priorities. He does add one disclaimer, however, in terms of winning. Whereas it used to be about a young coach building a resume through wins, it's now about what winning can do for today's teenager athlete. An old-school coach? Yeah, probably. But one who has learned much about himself, players and parents after 41 years.
"I've learned to enjoy the kids more; I'm definitely a different kind of person in the ’90s as opposed to now in the 2000s," he said. "I am a stubborn man, and it took a long time (to change). But winning? Oh, yeah. I've never backed down. The winning and losing hasn't changed, and I make no excuses that I still want to win."
Which is then strange, perhaps, that he doesn't list being just one of two coaches to win Finals titles in both girls and boys basketball as the zenith of coaching for 41 seasons. That honor goes to having his daughter, who went on to a stellar career at Dort College, on the state championship club.
"It's not that big of a deal," he said of being on the bench for what likely will never happen again as boys and girls basketball are now in the same season. "To me it's not an accomplishment I would rank (at the top). I'm just being honest. Winning a state title with Amber, and the picture I have of her and me in my office, that's the best."
How well has Soodsma adapted his coaching style over the years? Two people in a position to know offer their own opinions on the topic, including 22-year assistant Bruce Capel and Randy Oosterheert, who with son Rylan are the only father/son combination that Soodsma has coached.
"Scott has always been vocal on the sidelines as a coach. As I sit in the stands and watch as a spectator, same Scott," said Randy Oosterheert who played for Soodsma in 1992-93 and 1993-94 and whose son is a current Unity Christian player. "I will say that my son and I agree, if you do something wrong on the floor, he is the first person to greet you on the sidelines and point out your failure. However, if you do good, he is the first person to greet you on the sidelines and tell you good job.
"The latter is done at a little lower decibel level than the offense, and those with a watchful eye from up in the stands unfortunately (don’t) get to hear the praise, only the punishment. Scott is obviously very competitive, then and now. He expects a lot but gives a lot."
As far as the competitive side, Capel hasn’t seen much of a difference over their two decades together.
"Certainly, coaching is a lot different in how you approach kids from more than 20 years ago," he said. "There's a difference in society and you have to change with it, and he's done that. I don't think it's as much life and death with Scott anymore. But in terms of winning, I haven't seen that go away."
It's a coin flip as for how much longer Soodsma will be directing traffic from the sidelines. He broke into the top 10 among the all-time winningest boys coaches in Michigan history by passing Warren De La Salle's Bernie Holowicki and Ray Lauwers of Morley Stanwood last season. Next on the list is Big Rapids' Kent Ingles (644). When you factor in Soodsma's win total as both boys and girls coach, the 742-and-counting combined wins rank eighth in state history.
He does admit the desire to spend more time with wife Mary, the longtime away scorekeeper for the program, and 11 grandkids scattered from Denver to Seattle to San Diego. Retirement could strike when this season ends in March, or it could still be several Marches away. But when the end comes he anticipates making a contented transition from arguing with officials, coming to an "understanding" with parents and devising new Xs and Os. Soon, he mused, will come time for much-anticipated passions such as hunting, fishing and pickleball.
"For the first time I've contemplated it," he said. "There are a lot of things I'd like to do. I'm not a basketball junkie."
That may be true. But it'll still be tough to surrender those noisy pep bands, bright gymnasium lights and the din of Friday night crowds.
PHOTOS (Top) Hudsonville Unity Christian boys basketball coach Scott Soodsma stands in front of a portion of the school’s trophy case, which he’s helped fill over decades coaching basketball. (Middle) Soodsma and daughter Amber embrace during their team’s 2006 Class B Final victory. (Top photo by Steve Vedder. Middle photo courtesy of the Soodsma family.)