Breslin Bound: Girls District Preview
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 2, 2020
The season begins anew tonight for more than 700 girls basketball teams across Michigan.
This week will end with 128 taking a giant first step as they pursue championship opportunities at Breslin Center later this month.
District tournaments tip off all over the state, and again, for the first time, with the top two seeded teams separated on opposite sides of the bracket. Check out “Tracking the Tournament” on MHSAA.com for every matchup from all of them, and see below for some of last week’s most eye-catching scores and three Districts in each division that could play especially important roles in who makes those trips to East Lansing later down this tournament road.
“Breslin Bound” is powered by MI Student Aid and based on results and schedules posted for each school at MHSAA.com. Send corrections or missing scores to [email protected].
Week in Review
The countdown of last week’s five most intriguing results:
1. Detroit Renaissance 44, Farmington Hills Mercy 32 – The Detroit Public School League champion Phoenix (18-2) defeated the Detroit Catholic League Bishop champion Marlins (17-3) in the annual Operation Friendship game.
2. Hartland 32, Brighton 30 – The Eagles (19-1) added this two-point victory to a previous three-pointer over the Bulldogs (17-3) to claim the overall Kensington Lakes Activities Association title.
3. Hemlock 41, Ithaca 39 – The Huskies won the matchup of teams both 18-2 overall to clinch the Tri-Valley Conference West title outright.
4. Charlevoix 45, Traverse City St. Francis 11 – Expectations could have sunk preseason when all-stater Elise Stuck was ruled out for the winter with an injury; instead Charlevoix (15-5) won the Lake Michigan Conference, clinching the title outright against the second-place Gladiators (16-4). And Stuck has returned for the postseason
5. Grass Lake 62, Adrian Lenawee Christian 57 (2OT) – Defeating the reigning Division 4 champ should be a major confidence booster for Grass Lake entering the postseason, with the unfortunate sidebar that Lenawee Christian star Bree Salenbien was lost for the playoffs with a knee injury during the first overtime.
Districts at a Glance
These could be among our most competitive brackets. Host sites are in bold:
DIVISION 1
Bloomfield Hills Marian
1. Bloomfield Hills Marian (15-5), 2. Southfield Arts & Technology (13-7), Birmingham Groves (10-10), Berkley (15-4), Royal Oak (9-11), Birmingham Seaholm (8-12).
Marian capped its toughest stretch of the season with a win over Detroit Cass Tech 45-36 on Thursday, and the Mustangs enter the postseason with the No. 8 MPR in all of Division 1. They face Seaholm first, with Berkley (No. 50 in Division 1) awaiting the winner. On the other side of the bracket, Southfield A&T has the No. 20 MPR after facing many of the state’s best in Divisions 1, 2 and 3, and the Warriors rode a four-game league winning streak to a shared title in the Oakland Activities Association Red. Last season’s Division 1 runner-up will be plenty prepared for its toughest matchups to come, with a 59-47 victory over Carman-Ainsworth on Jan. 28 showing its potential.
Caledonia
1. East Grand Rapids (19-1), 2. East Kentwood (16-3), Byron Center (19-1), Middleville Thornapple Kellogg (11-9), Wyoming (6-14), Caledonia (4-16), Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills (3-17).
This loaded District features three of the top teams statewide by Division 1 MPR, with East Grand Rapids No. 5, East Kentwood No. 9 and Byron Center No. 21. EGR won the Ottawa-Kent Conference Gold and a Dec. 17 meeting with East Kentwood 50-43, before the Falcons went 14-1 the rest of the way and claimed the O-K Red title. East Kentwood opens play tonight against O-K Green champion Byron Center, also in a rematch. The Falcons handed the Bulldogs their lone loss of the winter in the season opener, 48-43.
Swartz Creek
1. Flint Carman-Ainsworth (16-4), 2. Saginaw Heritage (12-8), Flushing (15-5), Swartz Creek (13-7), Saginaw (0-18).
Carman-Ainsworth enters the postseason with the fourth-highest MPR in all of Division 1, with Heritage 26th and Flushing 46th. All three are league champions, Flushing in the Flint Metro League Stripes where Swartz Creek finished third. The Raiders and Cavaliers meet in an opener tonight in a rematch of a Dec. 6 meeting won by Carman-Ainsworth 38-30 before it started its march to the Saginaw Valley League Blue title. SVL Red co-champ Heritage awaits on the other side of the bracket, and Carman-Ainsworth also won their lone meeting 58-39 on Jan. 7.
DIVISION 2
Buchanan
1. Edwardsburg (19-1), 2. Three Rivers (17-3), Niles (11-9), Buchanan (15-5), Berrien Springs (8-12), Dowagiac (2-18)
The Wolverine Conference South co-champions top this District, having split their matchups this season – Three Rivers won 62-44 on Dec. 20, and Edwardsburg then won 56-32 on Jan. 31. On the way to a possible third meeting, Three Rivers will have to go through Buchanan and Niles. The Bucks finished second in the Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph Conference Red to Niles Brandywine, one of the most highly-regarded teams in Division 4. Niles, meanwhile, was runner-up in the Division 1-dominated Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference West.
Cadillac
1. Big Rapids (19-1), 2. Cadillac (19-1), Benzie Central (11-9), Ludington (16-4), Manistee (7-12), Reed City (4-16).
The first four all are top-45 in Division 2 MPR. Big Rapids made a huge jump from 6-14 last season to share the title in a Central State Activities Association Gold that featured five of eight teams with at least 11 wins. After losing to co-champ Fremont by six on Dec. 20, the Cardinals (No. 18 MPR) have won 14 straight. Cadillac’s only loss came to Division 3 contender Maple City Glen Lake by six Feb. 10, as the Vikings (No. 14) otherwise cruised to a Big North Conference championship and also earned a six-point win from Ludington on Feb. 18. Those two face off in an opener tonight; Ludington’s only losses this winter were nonleague as it finished a perfect run through the Lakes 8 Activities Conference and built the No. 41 MPR. Benzie Central will be upset-minded on the other side of the bracket after building a No. 45 MPR by coming in third in a Northwest Conference featuring co-champs Glen Lake and Kingsley.
Chelsea
1. Chelsea (17-3), 2. Parma Western (18-2), Eaton Rapids (14-6), Onsted (13-7), Hillsdale (4-16).
The first four teams listed above all are top-50 by MPR, with Parma Western the second seed but moving past Chelsea over the last two weeks for the District’s highest rating at No. 8 in Division 2. The Panthers are carrying an eight-game winning streak and defeated second-place Battle Creek Harper Creek 51-35 on Friday to claim the outright Interstate 8 Athletic Conference title. Chelsea, No. 11 in MPR, shared the Southeastern Conference White title with Dexter and got a nice test Friday in a 10-point loss to Division 1 No. 1 Ann Arbor Huron. The Bulldogs open with Eaton Rapids (No. 40), which has lost three of its last four but tied for second in a loaded Capital Area Activities Conference White. Onsted (No. 43) awaits the winner of Chelsea/Eaton Rapids.
DIVISION 3
Centreville
1. Centreville (19-1), 2. Schoolcraft (18-2), White Pigeon (15-4), Constantine (7-13), Marcellus (7-11).
Centreville has won the Southwest 10 Conference title all three seasons of its existence and will look to build on last year’s Regional Final run. But the Bulldogs’ only loss this winter came Feb. 7 in the second regular-season meeting against White Pigeon, which tied for second in the SW10 and will be awaiting in a District Semifinal the winner of tonight’s Centreville/Constantine opener. On the other side of the bracket, Schoolcraft won the Southwestern Athletic Conference Valley title for the third-straight year, and is likely further motivated after last year’s first-game District exit. Centreville is No. 6, Schoolcraft No. 9 and White Pigeon No. 29 in Division 3 MPR.
Grass Lake
1. Brooklyn Columbia Central (18-2), 2. Grass Lake (18-2), Michigan Center (17-3), East Jackson (10-10), Vandercook Lake (0-20).
Grass Lake has been considered a championship contender nearly all of this season with wins over reigning Division 3 title winner Pewamo-Westphalia plus Parma Western, Michigan Center and more recently reigning Division 4 champ Adrian Lenawee Christian to its credit. But the Warriors did fall in a rematch to Michigan Center, 65-55 on Feb. 4, and the two shared the Cascades Conference title. Grass Lake is up to No. 7 in Division 3 MPR and Michigan Center No. 11, and they face off in a District Semifinal on Wednesday. On the other side of the bracket, Columbia Central is No. 4 in MPR and the top seed after claiming the Lenawee County Athletic Association title. BCC’s losses came to Parma Western in the season opener and Lenawee Christian on Feb. 7, but it swept Division 2 No. 17 Ida.
Lake City
1. Manton (18-2), 2. Lake City (19-1), McBain (13-7), Houghton Lake (12-8), Roscommon (2-18).
Lake City moved all the way up to No. 5 in the final Division 3 MPR with wins over second-place Manton and third-place McBain over the last two weeks to win the Highland Conference. The Trojans – Division 3 semifinalists a year ago – then closed the regular season by handing Bellaire its only loss. The Highland might have been the toughest Division 3 league in the state; Manton finished No. 10 in MPR, McBain No. 30 and fourth-place Houghton Lake No. 53. Manton opens with Houghton Lake tonight, while McBain and Lake City face off in a Wednesday District Semifinal.
DIVISION 4
DeTour
St. Ignace (17-2), Pickford (16-3), Cedarville (12-6), DeTour (7-13), Mackinac Island (7-8).
This District features the Nos. 2, 10 and 14 teams in Division 4 MPR, although the Saints are the reigning Division 4 runners-up and enter with a 22-point win over Pickford and 24 and 36-point wins over Cedarville to their credit. St. Ignace also has wins over Division 1 No. 1 Ann Arbor Huron and Division 2 No. 6 Sault Ste. Marie and No. 20 Goodrich. But all of that said, the Pickford win came Jan. 15 and the rematch was canceled – so the Panthers should be raring for this one if the teams meet in Friday’s District Final.
Hillsdale Academy
1. Camden-Frontier (18-2), 2. Hillsdale Academy (15-5), Pittsford (17-3), Waldron (2-17), Morenci (3-17), Hillsdale Will Carleton Academy (7-10).
Camden-Frontier finished first, Pittsford second and Hillsdale Academy third in a loaded Southern Central Athletic Association East, and they finished Nos. 13, 23 and 33, respectively in Division 4 MPR. Camden-Frontier and Pittsford meet tonight; the Redskins won the regular-season meetings 54-34 and 56-46. C-F split with Hillsdale Academy, losing the first 52-45 but winning the second 45-37. If Pittsford upsets C-F tonight and reaches a Friday matchup with Hillsdale Academy, they too split during the regular season – Hillsdale Academy winning 45-34 on Feb. 15 and Pittsford winning 44-43 five days later.
Lansing Christian
Fowler (16-4), Portland St. Patrick (16-4), Morrice (14-5), Lansing Christian (10-10), Webberville (3-17).
Fowler finished second and Portland St. Patrick third in the Central Michigan Athletic Conference behind reigning Division 3 champion Pewamo-Westphalia, and now they’ll have the opportunity to surge like Fowler did in making the Semifinals last season. Similarly, Morrice finished second in the Genesee Area Conference to reigning Division 3 runner-up Flint Hamady. The Orioles see St. Patrick in a District Semifinal on Wednesday – St. Patrick won a Jan. 22 game with Morrice 52-13, and a repeat would set up a possible Friday rematch with Fowler. The Eagles took both meetings with the Shamrocks this season, but they were close – Fowler won 52-49 on Dec. 18 and then 61-53 in double overtime Jan. 30. Fowler is No. 4, St. Patrick No. 17 and Morrice No. 29 in Division 4 MPR.
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PHOTO: Detroit Edison in Division 2 and Flint Carman-Ainsworth in Division 1 met Feb. 25 and are among favorites in Divisions 2 and 1, respectively. Edison won 73-50. (Photo by Terry Lyons.)
2005 Miss Basketball DeHaan Cherishing Newest Title: 1st-Time Mom
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
July 25, 2022
JENISON – Allyssa DeHaan-Clark remains one of the greatest shot blockers in national high school and college basketball history.
Recently, the former Grandville High School and Michigan State University standout became a mother for the first time.
DeHaan-Clark, and her husband Aaron, adopted a baby girl last September.
Bradley Noelle Clark was born on Sept. 29, 2021, at 36 weeks.
When the Clarks found out about the impending delivery, they drove straight to the hospital from their vacation in Tennessee to meet her. They took her home a few days later.
“Parenthood is awesome, hard, wonderful and beautiful,” DeHaan-Clark said. “She’s 9½ months old, and she just lost her first tooth and is starting to crawl. She says, ‘Da, Da’ a lot, even though I’m with her most of the time during the day.”
DeHaan-Clark, who turned 34 last month, married in 2012. She and her husband had aspirations to raise a family.
Unfortunately, the road to parenthood was more difficult than they envisioned.
“We tried to get pregnant for six years,” DeHaan-Clark said. “We went through a lot of testing and different fertility procedures, but nothing took. We never had one positive pregnancy test.”
Although disappointed and frustrated, the Clarks pursued another avenue.
“Adoption was always in the back of our mind, and it came to a point where I didn’t know what to do,” DeHaan-Clark said. “One night we prayed to God for clarity and wisdom and just some direction. He answered that prayer the next morning with a text message, and that put us on a fast track to adoption.”
The Clarks went through the application process last June. Four months later, Bradley was born. She officially became a Clark in May.
“It was awesome for God to answer that prayer so quickly,” DeHaan-Clark said. “After six years of struggle, she was meant to be in our family. We love her so much and adore her to pieces.
“She’s loved by so many, and we are very thankful that the birth family chose us. After all that pain and suffering, God made something beautiful through that.”
DeHaan-Clark was a four-year towering presence at Grandville. As a junior in 2004, she set the MHSAA record for blocks in a single season with 236 and averaged nearly a triple-double (27 points, 13 rebounds and 9.5 blocks per game).
As a senior, she helped lead the Bulldogs to a 25-2 record and their first Class A Semifinal appearance. She was named the 2005 Miss Basketball Award winner by the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan.
DeHaan-Clark grew six inches during middle school and entered her high school freshman year at 6-foot-6. She was 6-9 as a senior before taking her talents to East Lansing.
“Middle school was tough for everyone, but it was extremely tough for me,” DeHaan-Clark said. “I was entering a new school system, and I had just started playing basketball a year or two before that and had a huge growth spurt. Learning how to be coordinated and play the game took a while.”
DeHaan-Clark was a part of three consecutive Ottawa-Kent Conference Red championship teams. The Bulldogs won District and Regional titles in 2005 before defeating previously-unbeaten Benton Harbor in a Class A Quarterfinal. Grandville’s run ended with an overtime loss to Southfield-Lathrup in the Semifinal at Breslin Center.
“My senior year was the best,” DeHaan-Clark said. “It was so much fun with the championships and all the wins. Playing with the same girls for four years and then finally having a successful team was amazing.”
DeHaan-Clark made the MHSAA’s single-season scoring list as a senior with 710 points, having averaged 26.3 per game that fall. She also finished with 718 career blocks, setting an MHSAA record later broken by Kalamazoo Central’s Asia Robeson (723) in 2014. Still, DeHaan-Clark remains seventh all-time nationally for career blocks, with Robeson sixth on the list.
DeHaan-Clark arrived at Michigan State with high aspirations.
“I had big goals of playing in the Olympics and playing professionally, but obviously those didn’t come to fruition,” she said. “I learned to dream big, so I set big goals from the beginning.”
DeHaan-Clark emerged as a dominating shot blocker for the Spartans, and was Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2006-07 as she set the conference record with 145 blocks.
As a sophomore she re-established the Big Ten record for single-season blocks with 150. She was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year as a senior in 2009-10.
She ended her career as Michigan State’s all-time blocks leader with 503 – with that total also second in Division I history at that time and now third on the NCAA DI list – to go with career averages of 12.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
“It was a big transition from high school to college, but I wanted to be a contributor,” DeHaan-Clark said. “I had amazing coaches and teammates, and my freshman year turned out better than I thought it would.
“My big goal was to be a key defensive player and break as many records as I could with blocked shots because of my height.”
In 2009, DeHaan-Clark was the catalyst in Michigan State’s run to the Sweet 16. The Spartans upset top-ranked Duke in the second round before losing to Iowa State, 69-68.
But DeHaan-Clark suffered a back injury during the Big Ten Tournament that winter which ultimately ended her hopes of playing beyond college.
“I never recovered from that, so I didn’t enter the WNBA draft,” DeHaan-Clark said. “I ended up having back surgery and finished my remaining classes before graduating.”
DeHaan-Clark returned home and worked in the medical field while also helping lead a sports ministry program at Grand Valley State University.
She received an intriguing opportunity to continue playing college sports as part of the Lakers volleyball program.
“I needed to take more graduate classes, and I had one more season of college eligibility other than basketball,” she said. “My skill level wasn’t to the level of basketball, but it was still really fun to play and compete and be a part of a team because those are things I still love doing today.”
DeHaan-Clark changed her focus from medicine to continuing her work in sports ministry, as well as for a non-profit organization.
She also got her real estate license in 2015, and she and her husband began flipping houses on the side.
“It brings me a lot of joy to cast a vision of what a home could look like after a lot of blood, sweat and tears,” she said. “I love that kind of work.”
The projects allowed the Clarks to spend meaningful time together.
“It was a lot of nights and weekends, and we just had to learn things as we went,” DeHaan-Clark said. “The one thing we learned is we cannot do drywall. It’s not our skill set, so in order to save our marriage and our relationship we would hire it out.
“We did a lot of it ourselves, and we like seeing the transformation from old to new. It’s really fun, and hopefully we can do it again.”
The Clarks currently reside in Jenison and have been embraced by their community and friends. They live on a lake, enjoying water sports in their free time. Allyssa was inducted into the Grandville High School Athletic Hall of Fame in March.
As for the future, DeHaan-Clark said nothing is set in stone.
“We take it one day at a time,” she said. “I still have my real estate license, so we’re hoping to renovate and invest. I’m sure in the future there will be more kids added to the Clark clan, but right now we’re very happy and content with just one.”
2021-22 Made in Michigan
July 21: Championship Memories Still Resonate with St. Thomas Star Lillard - Read
July 14: Portage Central Champ Rolls to Vanderbilt, Writing Next Chapter in Alabama - Read
July 12: Coaching Couple Passing On Knowledge, Providing Opportunities for Frankfort Wrestlers - Read
June 30: Hrynewich's Star Continuing to Rise with Olympic, Pro Sports Arrivals - Read
PHOTOS (Top) At left, Allyssa DeHaan puts up a shot during Grandville’s 2005 Class A Semifinal against Southfield-Lathrup. At right, the Clark family including Allyssa, husband Aaron Clark and daughter Bradley. (Middle) DeHaan looks for an open teammate while playing her high school finale at her future college home, the Breslin Center. (Below) The Clarks enjoy a moment together. (Basketball photos from MHSAA archives; Clark photos courtesy of Allyssa DeHaan-Clark.)