Pittsford Pair Leads Repeat Title Charge
March 18, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – They could make left-handed layups as second graders. That just doesn’t happen. This was bound to be a special group.
Chris Hodos made that observation and prediction a decade ago, five seasons before taking over the Pittsford girls basketball program. He proved to be quite right – but never could’ve expected to say good-bye Saturday to a senior class including the most victorious pair in MHSAA girls basketball history.
The Wildcats finished a second straight Class D championship run Saturday and extended a two-season winning streak to 55 straight victories with a 71-31 title clincher over Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary at the Breslin Center.
Pittsford students chanted “automatic” after Maddie Clark’s first basket of the fourth quarter, and the Wildcats nearly have been the last four seasons. Four seniors played their last game Saturday morning – Clark, Jaycie Burger, Katelyn Kafer and Katie Clement – and after tying the record in Thursday’s Semifinal, Clark and Burger ended their careers 103-2 over their four varsity seasons – and with the MHSAA girls basketball record for career victories.
“I’m just so thankful to have been able to do this with all my best friends in the whole world. I love this team so much,” Burger said. “I’m sad this is our last game ever in a Pittsford uniform, but I wouldn’t have wanted it to go any other way. A running block in the state championship is pretty special, and I’m just happy that I got to take part in that. It’s sad, but it’s happy.”
This season’s Pittsford team finished 28-0, to go with a 27-0 record in 2015-16. The Wildcats fell in overtime to St. Ignace in the Class D championship game to close 2014-15, as their only loss of 2013-14 came in a Class C District Final to Adrian Madison.
Clark was named Class C Player of the Year this winter by The Associated Press, and Burger also was selected to the all-state first team. Both started during all three trips to Breslin, and Kafer saw the floor briefly in both the 2015 and 2016 Finals before starting Saturday.
“They’re winners up and down the line,” Hodos said. “They’re all 4.0 students, or close to it. We were academic all-state as a team last year and we’ll be close again this year. They’re all active in the community; they do a lot of good things off the court. They’re not just winners on the basketball court.”
As Burger drove into the lane two minutes in, saw the defense shift toward her and dropped a pass to an open Clark under the basket for two points, it was surely familiar to anyone who has followed the final weekend of girls basketball the last few years. Clark and Burger combined to score their team’s first 11 points against the Cardinals and 14 total during the first quarter as Pittsford took a 16-6 lead into the second.
Certainly to its credit, MLS (18-10) stuck within 10 of the Wildcats past the middle of the second quarter – something many teams have not been able to accomplish the last few seasons. And it was a memorable weekend as well for a Cardinals program that played in both its first Semifinal and championship game.
MLS kept within 30-17 heading into halftime. But Pittsford came out on a 26-6 run during the third quarter and pushed the lead further in the fourth.
Junior guard Reese VanLue led MLS with 13 points and nine rebounds.
“I’m definitely proud of our team. We achieved so much,” Cardinals senior center Rylee Pankow said. “It really does actually hurt, but we let our light shine on the court. It may not have been the score we wanted it to be, but I think we’re a better team than that but we didn’t play our best today.”
“We have a great group of leaders on this team. They played for each other all season, and they kept battling and battling,” MLS coach Brian Blaine added. “Our goal was to make a tournament run, and I know it hurt for these girls because they didn’t want it to end. But definitely when they get some time to take a look at this, they’ll realize it’s been a pretty magical run.”
Clark (29) and Burger (27) scored 56 of their team’s 71 points before coming off the court together as the clock ran under 30 seconds. Clark made 11 of 15 shots from the floor and all seven of her free throws, and also grabbed 10 rebounds. Burger added three assists and three steals, and junior guards Sydni Brunette and Marissa Shaw had six and four steals, respectively. Shaw finished this winter with 175 steals, tied for sixth most in MHSAA history for one season.
“We know our roles as a team,” Clark said. “I know a couple times Sydni had a wide-open look but she passed it to Jaycie because Jaycie was feeling it. We’re very unselfish and we know what our roles are, and that’s very important. And these girls are really special. … These last two seasons we have been perfect, and that doesn’t happen very often. And I’m thankful for my team, because they make me a better player.”
To answer again a question that’s been frequently asked this weekend, Pittsford is located southeast of Hillsdale and just west of U.S. 127, about 12 miles from the Ohio border.
The high school has a few more than 200 students, and friendships go back generations – this team certainly adding to that bond.
“We’re a pretty close group. Jaycie’s dad didn’t go to Pittsford, but him and I were friends in high school – actually, we hated playing against each other, but we loved it,” Hodos said. “And Mad’s dad and I were good friends in high school.
“And a lot of the other girls too; it started in kindergarten, and they’ve grown so much.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Pittsford’s players, coaches and fans celebrate at the end of Saturday’s Class D championship game win. (Middle) The Wildcats’ Jaycie Burger maneuvers to put up a shot over Michigan Lutheran Seminary’s Rylee Pankow.
Western Wins Big as Emert Shows Way
January 16, 2019
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
WALLED LAKE – The past two holiday seasons, there has been more trash-talking than usual among Steve Emert and his family.
Two years ago, Emert was offered and accepted the girls basketball head coaching job at Walled Lake Western. But there was one intriguing family twist to that decision.
His granddaughter, Olivia Emert, was a varsity basketball player at rival Walled Lake Central.
For that reason, cue the trash talking around the thanksgiving and Christmas dinner tables, although it was obviously good-natured.
“Just a little trash talking back and forth,” Emert said with a laugh. “The trash talking takes place more with my sons. But that’s OK. It’s all in jest and fun.”
Truth be told, if it wasn’t for Olivia, Steve wouldn’t be coaching at Western – where as of Jan. 16, he had amassed a 31-2 record over the last 1½ seasons.
Now a senior at Central, Olivia wasn’t shy about lending her opinion when Steve told her he had been approached about the job at rival Western.
“I sat down with her and told her I had been approached to coach another team,” Steve Emert recalls. “But if you said, ‘Grandpa, I want you at my games,’ then I’m going to be at your games. I’m not going to coach. She said, ‘Grandpa, go do what your passion is. Go coach.’ So that’s what I did.”
As a result, Emert, his family and the entire Walled Lake community got to celebrate a significant milestone Dec. 20.
That night, Western beat Milford, 68-39, to give Emert his 400th career win.
“It’s a big accomplishment,” Emert said. “It’s nice to have, but as I tell a lot of people, it just means I’m getting old and I’ve been around a long time. But I’m proud of it and I’m proud of the fact I’ve had the opportunity to work with so many good student-athletes and parents.”
He started his coaching career in the Walled Lake school district in 1979, with the highlight of his time on the bench coming in 1995 when he helped lead Walled Lake Central to the Class A championship game. Central was defeated by Flint Northern, 59-40.
A few years later, Emert gave up coaching to take on an administration role in the Walled Lake district, which prohibited administrators from being coaches. He did, however, serve as coach of the Oakland Community College women’s team from 1999-2001.
>Emert retired as an administrator in 2009, but got back into coaching less than three years later when he was offered and accepted the varsity girls basketball coaching job at Oxford.
“When I retired, basically my wife said, ‘You’ve got to get out of the house. You’re driving me crazy,’” Emert said.
Emert quickly turned around the Oxford program, leading the Wildcats to an Oakland Activities Association White title in 2014-15 before resigning the following season after five years on the job.
The big motivation leaving Oxford was spending more time watching Olivia, who at the time was a part-time starter for Central.
Now a senior for the Vikings, Olivia gave her grandfather her blessing to take over at the rival school, and Western has become one of the top teams in the Detroit area with a 9-0 record. Western went 22-2 last season.
Led by senior guard Kailee Ford (20 ppg), junior forward Jenna Galecki (18 ppg) and senior forward Sarah Rachiele (16 ppg), the Warriors are thriving in the up-tempo system that Emert employs, which includes constant trapping on defense and running at every offensive opportunity.
Rachiele, who was a member of the varsity team before Emert arrived, said the difference in philosophy has been like night and day since he took over.
“Our two coaches were old-fashioned, pull-it-back out, and they were perfectly fine winning a game 24-23,” Rachiele said. “Although we were winning games, I don’t feel any girls on the team were enjoying it. It was an adjustment at first (to become fast-paced), but I think all of us knew that is what was best for us as a team and we adapted to it pretty quickly.”
There will be plenty more time for trash-talk between the Emerts, since Central and Western still have to play twice during the regular season in Lakes Valley Conference play and have drawn each other in the first round of District play March 4.
But no matter what happens, the community is certainly happy that Emert is continuing to add to his coaching legacy in Walled Lake – and on the state’s landscape as well.
“He is such a humble guy, and he really doesn’t want to own up to all the accomplishments he has,” Rachiele said. “We know now what an impact he’s had on high school basketball.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Walled Lake Western girls basketball coach Steve Emert huddles with his players during a break. (Middle) Emert and his team celebrate his 400th career victory Dec. 20. (Photos courtesy of the Walled Lake Western girls basketball program.