Manistee Catholic Central's Excellence Bolstered by Experience

By Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com

January 6, 2023

Playing three guards happens probably most at the high school level, but still may be considered an uncommon lineup. 

And it’s unlikely more than one Michigan high school girls basketball team can boast of having all three guards on the court playing at least their fifth seasons at the varsity level.

Manistee Catholic Central can. And these guards, playing more like a family as some say, are ready to undo the feeling of last year’s season-ending loss to Brethren in the District Semifinal.

Due to the school’s tiny enrollment, MCC is allowed under MHSAA rules to have seventh and eighth graders on the roster as they’ve had for some time. So when the Sabres gather around the seniors including Leah Stickney, Kaylyn Johnson, Emily Miller, Abbey Logan and Ashley VanAelst during their pregame warm-up, they fire up around a lot of experience.

MCC went 14-5 last year and shared the West Michigan D League championship. They’re off to a 7-2 start as they host Walkerville tonight. Both losses this season were by just one point.

VanAelst is one of the guards and captains in the starting lineup. She joined the Sabres late in her in eighth grade season.

“I’ve grown up with this team,” VanAelst said. “They have been (there) for me throughout everything.  

“I see them as the best family I could ever have,” she continued. “I love to call them my family.” 

Being so much a part of each other’s lives, including school days, has bode well for the Sabres, VanAelst said.

“We have such a good bonding aspect,” she said. “When we’re on the court, we forget about all of our troubles and we come together.  

“I like when we’re on the court, we’re all one.”

Stickney, a 5-foot-5 senior guard, is the team’s leading rebounder. She regularly starts in the three-guard formation with VanAelst and junior Grace Kidd. Johnson, the team’s leading scorer at 12.2 points per game, starts in the post.

MCC coach Todd Erickson talks things over with Leah Stickney (3). Stickney, Johnson, Kidd, and junior Elizabeth Logan all played on the varsity team prior to entering the high school. The experienced lineup has coach Todd Erickson looking for an extended postseason run.

“They got the court time over the year to play at this level,” Erickson said. “We’ve been waiting for this team to come into their own.  

“We’re not where we think we can be yet.”

The Sabres are moving south to Walkerville to start the postseason this year. They will vie for the District title there with Walkerville, Baldwin, Mason County Eastern, McBain Northern Michigan Christian and Pentwater. 

MCC picked up a 44-18 win this week over Pentwater, a potential District opponent.

Summer camps in Petoskey and Gaylord, along with a summer YMCA league in Traverse City, helped the Sabres prepare for this season. VanAelst was one of the players leading the charge.

“I wanted to do something great,” VanAelst said. “I just really wanted to make myself better and be a leader out on the court and help my teammates along the way.  

“It was more a team building aspect and how we can work together and become a better team,” she continued. “Instead of working on ourselves individually, we worked together.”

Over the years, Erickson’s teams have won a dozen District championships and three Regionals. His Sabers advanced to the Semifinals in 1999 before falling to eventual Class D champion Portland St. Patrick. The Sabres had only eight players on that roster.

Erickson took over the Sabers girls program during the middle of the 1992 season when the head coach at the time suddenly stepped down. Erickson coached both varsity and JV for the remainder of the year.

He left Manistee Catholic briefly to coach Manistee High for two seasons, posting a combined 45-3 record there with two District titles and a Regional championship. He later returned to Catholic Central after taking a year off.

Last winter, his players and the school honored Erickson for reaching the 400-win milestone.

With this postseason in mind, Erickson now has his team working on rebounding and free throw shooting.

“Our rebounding has to change,” Erickson. “When you’ve got three guards leading your rebounding, we have a problem.

“There is no reason for a 5-foot-5 guard leading your rebounding.”

Erickson noted his players responded to the rebounding focus in their latest win. And, he loves the growth in his guards.

Ashley VanAelst (11) considers her options on offense against Central Lake.“All three of those guards — Leah, Ashley and Grace — the have learned to play really well together,” he said. “Every time they play, they are getting stronger and stronger to each other. 

“They look out for each other on the floor,” he went on. “They always know where the other two are.”

The Sabres also improved their free throw shooting in the win over Pentwater, especially Johnson.

“Kaylin took it to heart,” Erickson said. “She turned around to me at the end and she goes, ‘Coach, I was 4 for 4 at the free throw line.’  

“I said, ‘That’s where you should be, 3-for-4 or 4-for-4.’”

Erickson’s coaching has spanned five decades, and he’s not the only coach in his family. His wife Jan has done some coaching. His daughters, Kelly and Katie, currently serve as assistant coaches for St. Joseph Our Lady of the Lake Catholic and Traverse City St. Francis, respectively.

The Sabres’ success has not gone unnoticed. Among those taking note is Mike Kanitz, who serves now as assistant coach at St. Francis with Katie Erickson.  

Kanitz coached against Manistee Catholic when he was the head coach at Traverse City Christian. The Gladiators also saw the Sabres at camp and the YMCA league this summer.

“Coach (Todd) Erickson takes the talent that he has each year and makes them more talented,” Kanitz said. “He does a great job of developing teams.

“His teams are always competitive.”

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) Manistee Catholic Central’s Kaylyn Johnson lines up for a free throw. (Middle) MCC coach Todd Erickson talks things over with Leah Stickney (3). (Below) Ashley VanAelst (11) considers her options on offense against Central Lake. (Photos by Mitch Vosburg/Manistee News Advocate.)

Signature 2nd Quarter Surge Sends Kingston into 1st Girls Hoops Final

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

March 21, 2024

EAST LANSING — It was hard for even Kingston head coach Jay Green to come up with an explanation. 

For some reason this year, the second quarter has often been big for his team. 

“It’s just kind of been our quarter,” Green said. 

That proved to be the case again Thursday in the second Division 4 Semifinal at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center. While the other three quarters against Frankfort were pretty much even, Kingston dominated the second quarter en route to a 56-33 win. 

The Cardinals advanced to Saturday’s 10 a.m. championship game against Ishpeming,  a matchup of teams making their first appearances in a Final.  

Trailing 12-11 at the end of the first quarter, Kingston began turning a close game into a lopsided one.

The Cardinals scored 24 of the first 26 points of the second period, forced seven turnovers and made 7 of 9 shots from the field in outscoring Frankfort 24-4 over those eight minutes to take a 35-16 halftime lead.  

 Kingston’s Gracy Walker makes a move to the basket with Savina Anhalt defending.“They just rose to the occasion,” Green said. “We’ve had a lot of good second quarters over the year. We just kept the pressure on defensively. We got a lot of offensive rebounds, and when you are getting extra shots time after time, it’s just kind of a snowball effect. Sometimes that happens in basketball. We got on a nice run.”

Frankfort couldn’t cut the deficit during the third quarter and went into the fourth trailing 48-25. 

“We’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” Green said. “We were excited Tuesday to break that Quarterfinal hurdle and get down here. There’s just that overall desire to do the best you can, do your best and be relentless throughout.”

Sophomore Molly Walker scored 22 points, and senior Delaney St. George added 11 to lead Kingston, which had a 33-18 rebounding advantage. 

“We just had to come out fast, and if we played hard defensively, things would happen offensively,” Walker said. “It started to come together for us.”

Junior Savina Anhalt scored nine points to lead the way for Frankfort, which finished 22-6. 

“(Kingston’s) a great team,” Panthers head coach Tim Reznich said. “They’re really physical, they’re really strong and they wore us down.

“We had a great start. When they gained their composure, they really started pounding the glass and took over there. That’s where it got us. Once we dug that hole, we just didn’t have the energy to come out of it. But they’re a great team, and I wish them the best.” 

Kingston will turn its attention to Ishpeming, which also enters Saturday with a 27-1 record and was ranked No. 1 in Division 4 entering the postseason. 

“It will be a great challenge,” Green said. “They are the type of team with height and this and that. But we’ll be ready, and we’ll give them our best shot.”

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS (Top) Kingston players celebrate their Division 4 Semifinal win Thursday night at Breslin Center. (Middle) Kingston’s Gracy Walker makes a move to the basket with Savina Anhalt defending. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)