Chassell Adds Chapter to Storybook Season

March 15, 2018

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

GRAND RAPIDS – The possibility of a Chassell basketball team playing for an MHSAA championship for the first time since 1958 was within reach with a half remaining Thursday. 

But earning that opportunity would take some work.

The Panthers trailed Waterford Our Lady by nine during their Class D Semifinal at Van Noord Arena – and senior point guard Milly Allen had an uncharacteristic eight turnovers.

“At halftime we realized we needed to push, and that if we played our game we’d be perfectly fine,” Allen said. “We came out in the second half, kept chipping away.

“We worked together as a team. We told each other we need to come out, we need to bounce pass, we need to be smarter with the ball all together.”

Chassell had only three turnovers as a team during the second half. Allen had none. And the ball spent most of the final minutes safely in her hands as Chassell’s girls team continued its longest run in program history with a 55-51 victory.

Chassell (26-1) will play Adrian Lenawee Christian in Saturday’s 10 a.m. championship game.

The Panthers’ Regional title last week was the first won by either the girls or boys basketball programs since the boys won three straight Class D titles from 1956-58.

 “This means the world. They’ve earned it,” Chassell coach Brandi Hainault said. “They’ve worked hard, and we always knew we could get here. … I guess in our minds, this is where we were going to go. For it to happen, it’s just an amazing feeling.”

Some big-time second half efforts made it reality.

Four players combined to score all but two of Chassell’s points – Allen finished with 17, senior center Sydney Danison 15, senior forward Meg Hokenson 10 and junior guard Jenna Pietila 11. But they’d combined for only 24 of those 53 points during the first half.

Allen scored 11 of her 17 during the final two quarters, and also finished with five assists and three steals – and plenty of praise from Our Lady coach Steve Robak.

“(She) was very fast and we didn’t do a good job containing her. She was able to get around us when we’d try to press or trap, and that’s what created the most problems,” he said.

“They tried to get the ball to (Allen) every time and have her try to do her thing, which is use her speed. Maybe in the first half we did a better job containing her, but I felt like most of the game we had trouble with (her) when she had the ball.”

The 6-foot-1 Danison also made an impression during the second half with nine of her points and a strong presence defensively.

The Lakers started off the game hitting 52 percent of their shots during the first two quarters. They then made only 27 percent during the third quarter and 21 percent during the fourth.

Our Lady had only nine turnovers for the game – but along with the tough shooting night was outrebounded 36-25.

Senior Tiffany Senerius had 19 points and four steals to lead Our Lady (20-5), and senior Kayla Sanders added 18 points, 10 rebounds and four steals.

“We had five seniors, three were starters, and I’m extremely proud of the entire team because the entire team had an incredible season,” Robak said. “We had four losses (before Thursday) all year to four really good teams, two of which are still playing. So I’m proud of this team and everything they gave. The seniors gave everything they had.”

Our Lady has had its share of storybook endings lately with three Semifinal runs over the last four seasons and three championships over the last eight.

In Chassell, stories of the 1956-58 boys championship teams continue to be told. Now the girls are carving out their place in local and state history.

“It’s awesome for them. They had three state championships, and that’s something you’re going to talk about for the rest of your time around,” Hainault said. “I guess we want to start our own story.”

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS: (Top) Chassell’s Milly Allen dives for a loose ball during Thursday’s Class D Semifinal. (Middle) Our Lady’s Kayla Sanders puts up a shot over Allen’s reach. 

Few in Number, Tecumseh Pursuing Sizable Success with Zajacs Setting Pace

By Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com

December 5, 2023

TECUMSEH – First, the good news: Nearly everyone on the Tecumseh girls basketball team has aspirations to play college basketball – and several of them at a very high level. 

Southeast & BorderNow, the twist: There are only eight girls in the entire program. 

Tecumseh head coach Kristy Zajac, starting her seventh season, is unfazed by the lack of numbers. Tecumseh will field just a varsity team this season but should contend for a Southeastern Conference White championship and pursue a deep playoff run as well. 

“This is a great group of girls,” Zajac said. “At least six or seven of them want to play college basketball. The basketball IQ is so much higher than we have had in the past. We’ve never had a full team of basketball-first kids.” 

Zajac said that dynamic has changed practices and the approach on the court. 

“We do a lot more high-level skill stuff and high-level thinking,” she said. “We do more read-and-react stuff where they have to play on the fly, which makes us harder to scout. We want to try and give the kids a chance to use that basketball IQ and make opportunities for themselves on the floor so they can score without having to run a set play.” 

The list of college prospects starts with her daughter, 6-foot-2 junior Alli Zajac. She holds about 15 Division I offers, and the list seems to grow daily.  

She’s been receiving recruiting attention since before she played a game in high school. As a freshman, she was the Lenawee County Player of the Year and has been all-state both of her first two seasons. Last winter, she scored 433 points as Tecumseh went 20-5.  

Her sister, Addi Zajac, hasn’t played a varsity game yet but has received a lot of attention as well as a college prospect after several great years of travel ball. She’s 6-foot and a true center. 

“She wears a size 14 shoe,” Zajac said. “We are hoping next year she is 6-3 or 6-4. She has such a strong body; I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone that strong at her age. She can push people around.” 

The sisters are very different types of players. They also are extremely competitive, as witnessed when they play 1-on-1 at home. 

“It usually ends in a fistfight,” Zajac said. “They are both very competitive.” 

Kristy Zajac coaches her team, which finished 20-5 in 2022-23. The team is loaded with more talent than just the Zajac sisters. 

Sophomore Makayla Schlorf made 28 3-pointers last season, and sophomore Chloe Bollinger made 26. Junior Ashlyn Moorhead averaged just under double figures in scoring and averaged 3.7 assists a game last year. Junior Lauren Kilbarger also is back from last season and joined by newcomers Faith Wiedyk, a junior, sophomore Sophia Torres and freshman Amaria Brown.  

Maddie VanBlack is another travel ball veteran but is out this season due to tearing an ACL. 

Tecumseh athletic director Jon Zajac – Kristy’s husband – said it is disappointing Tecumseh won’t field a junior varsity team this year. He said kids playing travel ball in other sports, along with the youth of the current team, are factors. 

“It is frustrating,” he said. “Hopefully this is the only year for that.” 

Kristy (Maska) Zajac grew up near Tecumseh in Britton, played four years on the varsity and scored more than 1,800 career points under coach Bart Bartels, now an assistant on her staff. She played at Eastern Michigan University, where she was one of the top scorers in school history. Jon Zajac, played at EMU and professionally overseas.  

The entire family is crazy about basketball. In addition to Alli and Addi, son Ryder played four years at Tecumseh before heading off to college to play football, and the youngest in the family, Avery, is a budding star in her own right. 

“There were a few travel games this year where my team was short on numbers and Avery got to play with Addi and Alli,” Kristy Zajac said. “That was cool to see. She held her own. She won’t get to play with Alli in high school (Avery is in seventh grade), but she’ll get two years with Addi. I got to play with my sister, and I wouldn’t trade that time for anything.” 

Jon Zajac stops by practice now and then to coach as well. He and Kristy coach Avery’s travel team. 

“He is a great person to have as part of the program,” Kristy Zajac said of her husband. “Anytime I can get him to help with the post players and with the girls is great. He’s a huge help.” 

The family often schedules trips around basketball and is seemingly always pulled in multiple directions as the three girls compete at various levels. 

“It’s pretty much basketball all day, every day,” Zajac said. “It’s fun to see how the kids enjoy it and love the game.” 

Tecumseh, which has won a combined 39 games over the past two seasons, has loaded up its schedule, playing a collection of nonconference teams that made deep tournament runs and won conference championships last season. Tecumseh plays in the Icebreaker event at Ypsilanti Arbor Prep against Detroit Country Day on Saturday and also faces Temperance-Bedford (23-1 last season), reigning Division 3 runner-up Blissfield and Grand Blanc.  

Without a senior on the team and no JV squad, Tecumseh will play essentially this group for the next 50 or more games. It’s a two-year window with virtually the same team. 

“We’re doing what we can to win this year,” Zajac said. “We want this year to be super successful. We are just taking it one game at a time and going from there. We want to keep building and getting better every day, every game. Hopefully by the end of next year, we’ll be where we need to be.”

Doug DonnellyDoug 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 Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Tecumseh’s Alli Zajac makes her move toward the lane last season against Adrian. (Middle) Kristy Zajac coaches her team, which finished 20-5 in 2022-23. (Photos by Deloris Clark-Osborne/Adrian Daily Telegram.)