Frankfort Hoops Staff Bolstered by Past Stars Giving Back in Banktson, Kreski
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
July 18, 2023
Veteran Frankfort girls basketball coach Tim Reznich will have a couple of true superstars on his bench this winter.
They don’t have MHSAA eligibility remaining, but they should really help the Panthers. They’ve used up their college eligibility as well.
They are Lindsey (Pettit) Banktson, a 2008 graduate of Portland High School and all-state forward, and Presley (Hudson) Kreski, a 2014 product of Wayland High School and all-state guard. And, they are now serving as assistant coaches for Frankfort.
Banktson has been on Reznich’s bench 10 years, and Kreski is headed for her first at Frankfort. Kreski has been on women’s basketball coaching staffs at Western Michigan University and Central Michigan University since her playing days.
“I have always felt very fortunate in my situation at Frankfort,” Reznich said. “I have felt like we have always been able to provide our players with the resources and opportunities to excel at basketball, if that is what they wanted to do.
“When Lindsey came those resources increased, and now adding Presley to the mix just brings everything over the top,” he continued. “Our players are already starting to realize it.”
Kreski, who will be teaching health and physical education at Frankfort, and Banktson, now a physician assistant with Crystal Lake Clinic, are excited to work together and with Reznich this winter as he begins his 22nd season at the helm of the Panthers.
“I’ve loved coaching with Rez the past 10 seasons and am just as excited for season number 11,” said Banktson, who went on to play basketball and softball at Ferris State University. “Every year, the night before our first day of practice, is always like Christmas Eve for me.
“I can’t sleep and I can’t wait for my alarm to go off to head to the gym to start our 2-a-days,” she continued. “I am so grateful to coach with Rez and learn from him.”
Kreske too is eager to work with Rez after getting involved with the Panthers in summer ball.
After Wayland, Kreski went on to an illustrious playing career Central Michigan where she won the NCAA 3-point contest in 2019. She also played with the Seattle Storm of the WNBA before playing professionally overseas in Poland.
“I am really excited to be at Frankfort and helping the team out,” Kreski said. “The girls work really hard and want to get better.
“Tim is a great coach, and I am looking forward to working with him and sharing my knowledge of the game as well as learning from him.”
Frankfort is coming off a District championship in 2022 and a District title loss to eventual Division 4 champion Glen Lake in 2023.
Reznich says the Panthers have already noted keys to success just by being around Kreski and Banktson. Reznich, who guided Frankfort to back-to-back Class D championships in 2005 and 2006, admits he may have softened up a bit on his players over the years. Conditioning will be a top priority this year.
“They (Kreski and Banktson) have the first-hand experience of the benefits of pushing yourself hard and not cutting corners,” Reznich said. “Our players will be in the best shape of their lives when those two are finished with them.”
And Banktson is happy to pass on her high school experience to the Panthers. She graduated in 2008 as the Lansing State Journal’s “Female Prep Athlete of the Year” after shining in three sports and leading Portland to the season’s final weekend in two.
“As a player, high school athletics taught me a lot about hard work and dedication,” she said. “High school sports taught me that you have to put in the extra work if you want to be great.
“You have to be in the gym getting extra shots outside of practice, you have to be at the field getting extra reps on the weekends,” she continued. “If you work hard and give everything you’ve got to develop your game, you will be successful.”
Kreski recalls fondly her high school days working hard and having fun with her friends and teammates, along with making deep runs in the tournament.
“High school sports is the truest form of competition,” Kreski said. “It starts with a community who supports everyone from a young age and involves all the friends and family you grew up with.
“High school sports help guide young people into leaders, teaching them how to work hard and be disciplined.”
Kreski led CMU to Sweet 16 her junior year. She is the all-time leading scorer at CMU (2,309) and career assist leader (643). Central won the Mid-American Conference three times during her days with the Chippewas. She married Gage Kreski after that chapter of her career was done.
Banktson met her husband Max Banktson at Ferris State, where he played football. They moved to Frankfort, where Max was born and raised. They have a 3-year-old son named Briggs and a 6-month old daughter named Landyn.
Both Reznich and Banktson express respect and appreciation for their coaching together. They’ve been on the same page with game plans and scouting reports, and they expect it will continued with Kreski aboard.
“Rez and I really work well together,” Banktson said. “He has always respected me as a player and coach and has given me so much autonomy with our teams.
“He is always open to my input when it comes to running certain drills in practice, putting in new offenses, or adding defensive schemes,” she continued. “He trusts me to handle our subbing during games.”
Reznich agrees.
“I have always appreciated Lindsey’s perspective on what the girls are doing on the court,” he said. “It is going to be a lot of fun and exciting to add Presley’s ideas.
“We have always treated the regular season as practice for the tournament, making adjustments and tweaking things,” he continued. “I can’t wait to see the end product this year.”
Banktson was a three-sport, four-year varsity player at Portland earning a combined 12 varsity letters in basketball, softball and volleyball. She helped the Raiders win league, District and Regional titles. Her teams reached MHSAA Semifinals for softball twice and basketball once.
It doesn’t take much to get her back in game mode.
“I can still remember the feeling of adrenaline getting ready in the locker room with my teammates, running out to our warm up music, and battling on the court each game,” she said. “I am thankful for my teammates who, when on the court, were so unselfish. We just wanted to win.”
She hopes to continue to instill greatness in the Panthers.
“I always tell the girls, ‘We were tough’ — not just physically but mentally,” she said. “We had a type of swagger – we played like we knew the bullseyes were on our back, and every game we had to fight to stay at the top.
“We took pride in wearing that Portland Raider jersey,” she continued. “I just want to instill that same mental toughness and swagger into my girls here at Frankfort.”
Having a pair of women who played now coaching and serving as mentors is beneficial on a personal level as well.
“I feel like I can relate to players on a personal level,” Banktson said. “I always try to be a good role model for them and someone they can come to with anything.
“I’m their biggest cheerleader but also not afraid to hold them accountable and help steer them down the right paths of life.”
And Banktson has learned how she might have coached herself.
“I would push myself to continue to work on my right hand, because everyone in the gym knows I’m a lefty,” she said with a smile.
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PHOTOS (Top) Lindsey Banktson plays at Portland in 2008 and stands for a celebratory photo with Frankfort’s District champion last season. Presley Kreski plays for Wayland in 2014 and more recently served on Central Michigan's coaching staff. (Middle) Kreski directs the offense during her time at CMU. (Below) The Banktson family: From left, Landyn, Max, Lindsey and Briggs. (Photos of Banktson courtesy of Lindsey Banktson. CMU photo courtesy of CMU sports information. Wayland photo courtesy of Joel Bissell, MLive.com)
Marysville, St. Clair Join Together to Honor Beloved Coach with Rivalry Trophy
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
October 11, 2023
Denny White brought quite a bit to the Marysville and St. Clair communities.
In 1961, as a junior in high school, White was part of the first team to bring a football state title to Marysville.
Fifty years later, as an assistant coach, he played a vital role in bringing St. Clair its first MHSAA Finals title in baseball.
During the years in between, and decade after, White brought his knowledge of and passion for those sports to hundreds of student athletes.
But most recently, he brought the two communities together.
This past Friday night, the rival schools played for the Denny White Trophy, an award created to honor the late coach and connect the two communities where he was most revered.
“I’m so happy with all the support that has been around the project,” said Brady Beedon, a family friend who helped to create the trophy and was in the booth calling Friday night’s game for Get Stuck On Sports. “It’s the least we could’ve done for a man who helped so many athletes. His legacy deserves to be preserved.”
In a fitting tribute to White, who died Jan. 22 of this year following a long battle with cancer, the two teams played a hard-fought game at East China Stadium, with White’s alma mater Marysville coming away with a 25-20 victory.
Both teams featured players who had been coached by White at some point in one or both of the sports, as his time on the bench lasted through the fall of 2022.
That season, he coached the JV B football team at Marysville. Most recently before that, he had been the varsity baseball coach at St. Clair from 2015-21.
“Not much can unify rivals, but Coach White’s influence goes beyond that rivalry,” Marysville football coach Derrick Meier said at a press conference unveiling the trophy. “He’s affected thousands of local athletes. … It is awesome that someone had such an influence across the board with all local athletes (in multiple) sports. I contacted him my first year coaching varsity, and he was not willing to leave where he was at. I called him three subsequent years; he graciously declined. The last year he did accept, we added a JV B team, his wisdom and knowledge went well beyond just coaching on the field. We’re all lucky for his influence.
“Heroes get remembered. Coach White will be remembered.”
White was a 1963 graduate of Marysville, who then attended Ferris State and Central Michigan. His coaching journey did not begin in the area where he grew up, however, as he coached baseball and football at Newaygo High School before coming to St. Clair.
He spent 35 years in the Saints athletic program, coaching baseball and multiple levels of football.
Much of his time was spent as the pitching coach for St. Clair for coaches Richie Mallewitz and Bill McElreath. That included the 2011 season, when his pitching staff included current major leaguer Jacob Cronenworth, who now plays second base for the San Diego Padres.
Also on that staff were Joel Seddon, who was drafted twice – once out of high school and again after college – and would go on to be the closer at South Carolina; and Jared Tobey, who pitched at Wayne State and was drafted by the Detroit Tigers, playing four years in their minor league system.
While White coached nearly 1,000 baseball games in his career, he was involved with more than just high school sports. He also coached a 13-year-old Little League team to a state title and the semifinals of the Great Lakes Regional in 2015.
No matter the level, White poured all he had into coaching, and that included his final season on the sidelines at Marysville, just months prior to his passing.
“Every single kid that he touched with that team, you could just tell, gravitated toward him immediately,” said Travis Disser, who coached with White that final year at Marysville. “His lessons and his light-hearted humor are just something that you can’t replace, or ever hope to. I was lucky enough to learn pitching from Coach White when I was a younger kid, as well. He was the exact same Denny White as he was all those years ago, as he was last year during his battle with cancer. Coach White was a warrior in every sense of the term. His lessons, both on the field and off the field from him, are something that I’ll never, ever forget.”
The idea to create the trophy honoring White came about not long after his death, as Beedon worked with Meier, former St. Clair athletic director Denny Borse and St. Clair assistant football coach T.J. Schindler to create and design the trophy.
The final product is a two-tiered trophy topped with a pair White’s hats – one from St. Clair, the other from Marysville – that have been bronzed. It includes the years in which he won his state titles at his respective schools, and a passage about his life. There is also room to list the yearly winners, as it is planned to represent the rivalry and shared respect for White in the two communities for years to come.
“Whether it was Little League kids over the last 20 years, or some of the football players and baseball players that he coached over the decades that he coached, all of them when they get together have great stories and fondness for all the memories that (White and his fellow coaches) helped them create,” said Sandy Rutledge, the current St. Clair athletic director and a longtime friend and colleague of White. “I think it’s awesome that now as we play for this trophy every year, it will give our coaches a chance to kind of explain who Coach was. The next generation, maybe they didn’t even know him, will know that he is a legend, and he’ll always be remembered.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) From left: St. Clair’s Larry Wawryzniak, Liam Nesbitt and Peyton Ellis, Denny White’s wife Karen White, and Marysville’s Bryce Smith, Carter Saccucci and Caz Carty stand with the first-year traveling trophy celebrating Denny White’s coaching career. (Middle) White was a mainstay in the area’s sports community for more than six decades. (Below) The trophy celebrates his contributions to both schools and will list the winners of their annual football game. (Trophy photos courtesy of Brady Beedon. Headshot courtesy of the White family.)