Freshman Flynn Has Harbor Springs Hoops Taking Flight Again
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
December 17, 2021
Kalkaska and the rest of the Lake Michigan Conference may not know much of the basketball family history of Harbor Springs point guard Olivia Flynn.
But likely they know all of her high school basketball history.
Flynn, just a freshman for the Rams, has already racked up three 30-point plus performances – over just five career games – entering tonight’s LMC game at home with the Blazers. The Rams are off to a 5-0 start under first year coach Amy Flynn, also the mother of the Rams’ emerging star.
And, the Harbor Spring boys are off to a 3-1 start under first year coach John Flynn, Olivia’s father. The boys suffered their first loss Thursday, to Kalkaska, 51-48.
Last year, Olivia was an eighth grader at Petoskey. She transferred to Harbor to be a part of the growing Flynn family basketball history. Her grandfather, Joe Flynn, is a member of the Harbor Springs High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
Joe Flynn began working for Harbor Springs schools in 1968 as a middle school social studies teacher. He left a lasting impression shaping and molding many Harbor student athletes’ lives during a career spanning more than 30 years.
John Flynn starred for the Petoskey boys basketball team for three years and coached the Northmen the last three seasons. He’s a member of the Petoskey High School Athletic Hall of Fame and the Northmen went 43-16 under his guidance. But he grew up and spent most of his years in Harbor Springs.
The Rams girls varsity helm is Amy Flynn’s first high school head coaching job. But she’s no stranger to coaching youth basketball, and both she and John played at Grand Valley State. She and her husband also coached at East Grand Rapids High School.
Olivia urged her mom to apply for the Rams vacancy, knowing of her 1995-1999 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference record-setting basketball career and all the knowledge she had gained from her mother’s previous experience.
“I wouldn’t want anyone else besides my mom coaching,” Olivia said matter-of-factly. “My mom’s always been there to help me get better.
“She has high expectations of me, so there is no other coach I would want.”
The 30-point performances, the most recent 38 in a lopsided win over Harbor Light Christian, is putting a little pressure on the freshman star. But the first-year coach is not feeling it.
“I don’t feel like there is pressure, just because when Olivia gets out there on the court it’s just so natural,” Amy Flynn said. “There is nothing forced. The game comes to her.”
Credit for Olivia’s fast start in high school also needs to go AAU coaches Rob Ruhstorfer, Jermain Smith and Jake Voelker, both Olivia and Amy noted.
“They had a huge impact on Olivia’s career,” Amy said. “The (Michigan) Mystics have been a great team for her and all the experiences.”
Amy Flynn has watched her daughter’s growth and feels blessed to have a team of players wanting to grow in the game of basketball. Athletes with a winning attitude and desire to learn were awaiting when she took over the Rams.
“Whether she continues to score 30 points or not, her game just will come along and she will bring her teammates along with her,” Amy said. “These girls are amazing – it was all there for me — already set more or less.”
Making the move to Harbor for the Flynn coaches was the best thing for their family, which also includes their second-grade son and boys team manager Johnny, fifth-grade daughter and girls team manager Alaina, and eighth-grade son and member of the Harbor middle school basketball team, Braeden. Another factor was the boys coach’s fond memories of playing for his father.
“I was apprehensive to take this position just because I didn’t know how Olivia would feel about it,” Amy Flynn said. “When she came to me a said, ‘Mom there is a girls opening in Harbor Springs and I want you to take it,’ I said, ‘You want to transfer from Petoskey and you want me to coach … are your sure about this?’ And she said, ‘Yep, and I will learn more from you and this is something we’ll never forget.’
“My husband (John) was on the same page,” the girls coach continued. “He said, ‘These are going to be four short years of her life and our lives. We’re going to do this as a family. If you want this, we’re all in.’”
So far, Olivia is loving high school basketball at Harbor. She’s expecting more difficult challenges ahead though, as she steps on the court each night sporting her No. 33 jersey.
“I am excited I started off on this foot, but I know we have some bigger games coming up too,” she said. “So I have to dial in and focus and get prepared for those games.
“They are going to be tougher competition, so I have to get ready for those.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Harbor Springs’ Olivia Flynn (33) has a spring in her step as she comes off the floor during last Friday’s win over Grayling. (Middle) The Flynn family, from left: Alaina, Amy, Olivia, Braeden, John and Johnny. (Below) Olivia and Alaina share a fun moment. (Photos by Sarah Sheperd.)
'Me to We' Kingsley Could Make History
February 1, 2018
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
KINGSLEY – It might have been the most thrilling shot of the season for the Kingsley girls basketball team.
It was certainly the most telling.
The memorable moment happened a couple weeks ago when junior guard Jacie King hit a buzzer-beating, half-court shot to give Kingsley an 11-10 lead over Maple City Glen Lake after the first quarter.
Kingsley went on to capture the battle of unbeatens, 61-45.
“They didn’t beat us one quarter (because of that shot),” King said.
Well, nobody has beaten 14-0 Kingsley in a quarter this season. Heading into Thursday’s contest with Onekama, that was 56 quarters and counting.
Not surprisingly, Kingsley, ranked No. 2 in this week’s Associated Press Class B poll, had won 13 of its first 14 games by 34 points or more.
“We’ve been pretty dominant,” said Matt Schelich, now in his 20th season as head coach.
With three weeks to go, Kingsley is within reach of what would be the program’s first 20-0 regular season.
The schedule ahead includes a rematch with once-beaten and reigning Northwest Conference champion Glen Lake, this time on the road Feb. 20.
But the Stags are more concerned about the present than the future.
“We’re taking a one day at a time approach,” Schelich said. “I tell the kids try to win every day, whether it’s in the classroom, at practice, whatever. Keep focused and win every day.”
That’s what his players are doing.
Schelich, who led Kingsley to the Class C Semifinals in 2008, returned the nucleus of last season’s 18-4 squad. It was a season that ended in the District Finals with a loss to Kalkaska, a team the Stags had beaten during the regular season.
“Last year ended in disappointment,” Schelich said. “We felt we had a legitimate shot to win the league and the District. In the long run, it might have been the best thing that happened. It was eye-opening. We didn’t have a focus on what was right in front of us.”
Schelich went to work in the offseason to change the team mindset from “me to we.” His intent was to get his players on the same page and help them “learn to play together,” senior guard Kelsie Bies said.
“If we use all our resources, all our talent, we can be that much better,” Bies said. “I love that about this team. We’ve learned how to trust each other.”
“Nothing we do is for ourselves,” junior forward Marie Pierson added. “It’s about team and how much better we can get (working together). Our motto is “All Heart.” We have to love each other, trust each other because we’re all in it together. We’re working really well together.”
It helps that there’s a strong chemistry between the players.
“What makes this team so special, so awesome, is that we all get along,” King said. “There’s hardly any arguments.”
Schelich rotates as many as eight players – Jalynn Brumfield, Lindsey Boyajian, Brittany Bowman, Bekah Crosby, Maddie Bies, Kelsie Bies, Jacie King and Marie Pierson. Brumfield has signed with Ferris State University, Boyajian with Lakeland University in Wisconsin.
“A majority of these kids could be averaging 20 a game, here or anywhere else,” Schelich said. “Basically, what we have, are eight kids averaging 8 to 12 a game.
“Balance is hard to beat. Balance with depth is really hard to beat. The kids have bought into the we. They don’t worry about who is getting credit.”
Schelich admits it’s a “competitive” group, and often practices are tougher than the games, especially when he can also draw from a 13-1 JV team.
“We divide our kids so we have two good varsity teams going at it in practice,” he said. “How many coaches can divide their team up, have it be competitive and have their players get better? Not many. Most teams, boys and girls, have two or three kids that have to get it done for the team to have a chance.”
The players like the competitive challenge at practice.
“We don’t go easy on each other,” Bies said. “We push each other. Most of the time, our games are not as intense as our practices.”
For Kingsley, it all starts with pressure defense.
“We create a lot of offense with our defense,” Schelich said. “As a group, we are very athletic. I talk about playing defense in waves. That first wave, well, it’s a pain to play against our guards. They are quick and relentless. If you think you’ve got one beat, here comes another one.”
Kelsie Bies is the catalyst on the press.
“She can really move her feet and make people uncomfortable,” Schelich said. “She can go baseline to baseline to make plays. It’s like a beagle on a bunny. It’s her defensive energy, tenacity, that gets us going.”
Bies has stepped up her offensive game as well. Through the first 10 games, she was hitting 49 percent of her 3-pointers.
Kingsley is currently without Boyajian, who has been battling knee injuries.
“She’s had both knees repaired, and one is acting up right now,” Schelich said. “She just had an MRI. We hope to have her back soon.”
But that’s where the depth pays off.
“It’s been a luxury,” Schelich admitted.
Much to the chagrin of opposing coaches.
Frankfort coach Tim Reznich, who has led the Panthers to two Class D titles, is a believer.
“They’re good,” he said. “They have a legitimate shot at being a Final Four team. They have great depth. I think (Schelich) has 9 or 10 kids that could start on any given night. When he’s making substitutions, it’s nothing to look forward to as an opposing coach. They keep the pressure on and, in some cases, turn it up more.
“They have all the tools. They have good perimeter play, solid posts, and they’re good in transition. If you slow them down, they have girls who score in the halfcourt set. It’s a complete team.
“I told Matt (earlier in the season) that he has a special group and to enjoy them while he can. They’re making the best of it. They’re all in rhythm on the court. It’s a fun team to watch.”
And it’s also a team that is starting to get more recognition in the polls.
“It’s definitely exciting to be ranked that high because most people don’t even know where Kingsley is,” Bies said. “But we don’t talk about it. We don’t focus on it.”
Instead, the focus is on improving every day.
“It’s February – we have to get better (for the MHSAA tournament),” Schelich said. “We can’t be content.”
That’s not good news for opponents in the north, especially since this run could last awhile.
“Our 10th, 11th and 12th grades are loaded,” Schelich said. “Three groups in a row, it’s awesome.”
Schelich has two sophomores on varsity in Bowman and Maddie Bies. Plus, more are on the way.
That’s not what opposing coaches want to hear.
“There will be a learning curve for some of the young players when they get there (to varsity),” Reznich said. “But, no question, they’re just reloading the next couple years.”
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Kingsley’s Marie Pierson drives to the basket against Benzie Central last month. (Middle) Jalynn Brumfield cuts through defenders in the Stags’ 67-30 win over the Huskies, who are 12-2. (Photos by Ron Stremlow.)