Schmitz Makes Most of Many Opportunities
January 12, 2018
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
MORENCI – When Madysen Schmitz was a freshman in high school, she told Morenci athletic director Kay Johnson she was going to earn 16 varsity letters with the Bulldogs.
Schmitz was wrong. If all goes as planned, she’ll earn 18.
“I’m used to being involved,” Schmitz said.
Her to-do calendar leaves little time for anything else.
A senior, Schmitz has never played a sport at the junior varsity level. She already has completed four years of varsity volleyball and this past fall was part of Morenci’s club equestrian team. This winter, she is not only one of the top scorers in Lenawee County in basketball, she’s a member of the competitive cheerleading team. Later this year she plans to be a dual-sport athlete for the fourth straight spring, playing softball and competing as part of the Bulldogs track & field squad. She also has been a sideline cheerleader for Morenci.
“Mady is naturally talented,” Johnson said. “She is fast and jumps so well. She’s been doing all of the cheer moves for some time now. She’s just very athletic.”
Morenci allows athletes to compete in multiple sports during one season as long as they abide by the guidelines set forth by the district. One of those rules is to pick a predominate sport that takes precedent in any season. Last spring, for example, it was track & field instead of softball. Schmitz qualified for the MHSAA Finals in the long jump. After the event was over, she drove back to southeast Michigan to play in a Division 4 District Final for the softball team.
“My coaches work with me and around my schedule,” Schmitz said. “If they know I have basketball practice after school, we’ll have cheer practice in the morning. Or, if there is a game one night, we won’t have practice in another sport that day. They work with me.”
Johnson, who is also the Morenci softball coach, said the district supports dual-sport athletes.
“We allow it, but not many athletes do it,” Johnson said. “It’s tough to compete in multiple sports at the same time. With our enrollment (just more than 100 girls at last count), if we have an athlete that wants to do two sports, we’ll let them.”
Schmitz helped Morenci’s softball team into the MHSAA Semifinals as a sophomore. She’s an outfielder who covers a lot of ground because of her speed.
Success is nothing new to Schmitz, who moved from Evergreen Schools in Ohio to Morenci before her freshman year. She’s leaving quite a legacy on the ultra-successful Morenci athletic program. She’s received numerous honors from the Tri-County Conference, was second team all-county in basketball last season and enters Friday’s home game against co-TCC basketball leader Ottawa Lake Whiteford with 987 career points. The only other Morenci girl to reach 1,000 career points is Kylene Spiegel, now in her first season as head women’s basketball coach at Lawrence Tech.
The Bulldogs have won 13 games each of the past two seasons and are off to a 7-2 start heading into the game with Whiteford. Larry Bruce is in his fourth year as the head varsity girls basketball coach after a long and successful run as the Bulldogs boys coach in the 1970s and 1980s. Bruce had a heart attack in July and, while still going through regular rehabilitation exercises, is back on the bench.
“I had four bypasses in August,” he said. “I’m good now. I work out a couple days a week. I feel normal.”
His return to the basketball court, he said, was never in doubt.
“Some other people may have doubted it, but I didn’t,” the veteran coach said.
The Bulldogs won four straight TCC basketball titles from 1985 to 1988 and four more from 2001-2004, but none since. They are trying to end Adrian Madison’s six-year reign at the top of the league. Whiteford and Morenci are both 5-0 in league play entering tonight.
“He’s awesome,” Schmitz said of Bruce. “He helps us a lot. We have really good team chemistry this year. We are all happy he is back.”
This season, Schmitz was sluggish to start the season while shaking off some effects of an ankle injury suffered in volleyball. But, after scoring 34 points against Clinton, 28 against Reading and 23 against Pittsford, her game appears to be back on track.
“She’s a durable kid,” Bruce said. “She’s jumps so high and is so fast. It’s kind of scary when she goes up in traffic to get a rebound. She’s always flying down the floor. She goes all out. That’s the only way she knows. She’s been that way since she was a freshman.”
Bruce recalls the time Schmitz was injured and did have to miss a couple of games.
“She’s left-handed,” he said. “She had her left arm in a sling, but was in the gym at night, shooting with her right hand. That is when she was a freshman. She wanted to get better shooting with her right hand. She’s worked pretty hard at the game.”
Schmitz isn’t the only high scorer on the Bulldogs’ roster. Junior Daelyn Merillat has more than 800 career points.
Bruce supports Schmitz’s choice to play multiple sports.
“It really hasn’t been an issue,” he said. “There was one night where she missed a practice because she had a cheerleading event. It wasn’t a big deal. The coaches work with her.”
In addition to her athletic ability, she also gets it done in the classroom. Schmitz is a National Honor Society student with a cumulative 3.49 grade-point average.
"There are definitely some late nights just trying to keep up with it all," Schmitz said. "You just have to manage your time and stay on top of everything. I'm used to it though. I've been this way my whole life. It's all worth it. I love sports.”
Doug 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 Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTO: (Top) Morenci’s Madysen Schmitz looks for an opportunity on offense against Pittsford on Jan. 3. (Middle) Schmitz goes hard to the basket during the 68-56 loss, one of only two defeats this season for the Bulldogs. (Photos by Mike Dickie.)
Breslin Bound: Girls Report Week 1
December 9, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
This Michigan high school girls basketball season will be played out over 16 weeks, concluding with MHSAA Finals on March 21 at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.
A number of teams with their eyes fixed on that destination didn’t wait long during the first week to see how they might match up with other contenders this winter.
Below is our first “Breslin Bound” report of the girls season, powered by MI Student Aid and based on results and schedules posted for each school at MHSAA.com. Those results have become much more vital this winter – for the first time, there will be limited seeding of the top two teams at the District level based on their Michigan Power Rating (MPR). Check out how every team in the state ranks, and send corrections or scores we’re missing to [email protected].
Week in Review
The countdown of last week’s five most intriguing results:
1. East Lansing 40, Pewamo-Westphalia 27 – Both teams have title aspirations again this winter, East Lansing in Division 1 and P-W looking to repeat in Division 3, and are led by multiple future college hoops talents.
2. Dearborn Heights Crestwood 44, Detroit Country Day 43 (OT) – Any win over always-successful Country Day is going to make a statement, and Crestwood’s was loud as it seeks to build off last year’s run to the Regional Finals.
3. Pewamo-Westphalia 43, Southfield Arts & Technology 31 – The Pirates bounced back from the East Lansing loss to get past last season’s Division 1 runner-up A&T at the Arbor Prep Ice Breaker Challenge.
4. Hartland 61, Adrian Lenawee Christian 40 – The Cougars’ Bree Salenbien is one of the state’s top players no matter the division, so Hartland’s big win over the reigning Division 4 champions, also at Arbor Prep, is a great sign for the Division 1 Eagles.
5. Flint Carman-Ainsworth 57, Flint Kearsley 51 – We needed just a week to see the Flint area is loaded in girls basketball again this winter; Carman-Ainsworth went on to beat Flushing to end the week, while Kearsley downed reigning Class C runner-up Hamady by 11.
Watch List
With an eye toward March, here are two teams in each division making sparks:
DIVISION 1
Dexter (2-0) The teams the Dreadnaughts beat last week – Ann Arbor Skyline and Manchester – were also among those they defeated last season in finishing 9-11. But after winning those games by a combined 13 points in 2018-19, Dexter opened by downing Skyline by 41 and followed by defeating Manchester by 50.
Eastpointe (3-0) Last season’s 7-14 finish included six losses by five points or fewer and three determined by just a basket. The Shamrocks are nearly halfway to equaling their 2018-19 win total after a week, with Friday’s 39-31 defeat of Roseville (15-6 last season) the most impressive of the opening run.
DIVISION 2
Bay City John Glenn (2-0) The Bobcats are no strangers to the mix of the best in the Saginaw/Bay City/Flint/Midland area. And they’re off to another solid start opening with a 52-33 win over Saginaw Swan Valley and 52-49 victory over Essexville Garber, the latter a league champion last winter.
Chelsea (2-0) The Bulldogs are rolling again coming off last season’s 24-2 finish and trip to the Division 2 Quarterfinals. Like last year, they opened with wins over Marshall and Dearborn Divine Child – the former by 20 after winning by two a year ago, and the latter on a game-winning basket during the final seconds.
DIVISION 3
Grass Lake (2-0) The Warriors’ first game coming off last winter’s 21-2 finish was against Division 1 Ann Arbor Pioneer, a 19-game winner last season – and Grass Lake pulled away 60-54. A tough schedule also sees Carman-Ainsworth, Michigan Center and Pewamo-Westphalia coming up over the next few weeks.
Hart (2-0) The Pirates – a solid 13-11 a year ago – tuned up with a big win over Pentwater before handing eight-time reigning West Michigan Conference champion Muskegon Oakridge a 56-34 defeat on Friday. Oakridge downed Hart by 17 and 38 in their meetings last season.
DIVISION 4
L'Anse (2-0) The Purple Hornets closed last regular season on a 4-1 run and finished 11-10, but the end had to sting some as they fell 36-30 in a District opener to a Chassell team they had beaten by 15 the week before. L’Anse avenged that defeat to open this winter, 48-34, and added a 39-point win over Lake Linden-Hubbell.
Marion (2-0) A rough start turned into a 6-13 finish last season for the Eagles. But a one-point win over Grand Traverse Academy and 25-pointer against Bear Lake last week put them on a better track. The latter avenged a 14-point loss last winter as Bear Lake went on to win the West Michigan D League title.
Can't-Miss Contests
Be on the lookout for results of these games coming up:
Tuesday – East Lansing (1-0) at Williamston (2-0) – East Lansing won last season’s meeting 59-55, and the Hornets join the Trojans with big-time hopes again this winter.
Thursday – Ann Arbor Huron (2-0) at Ypsilanti Arbor Prep (3-0) – These annual powers had big first weeks again, both winning all of their games by double digits over notable opponents.
Friday – Wayne Memorial (0-0) at Detroit Renaissance (1-0) at Detroit Edison – The Best of Michigan Classic is loaded with big-time matchups, and this one opens the event with Wayne coming off last season’s trip to the Division 1 Semifinals and Renaissance a league co-champ in 2018-19.
Saturday – Adrian Lenawee Christian (1-1) vs. Kalamazoo Central (1-1) at Belleville – This is another of the most intriguing matchups from the Best of Michigan Classic, matching up the reigning Division 4 champ with a Division 1 team looking to rise.
Saturday – Detroit Renaissance (1-0) vs. East Kentwood (2-0) at Belleville – Renaissance must come back immediately after facing Wayne to take on another possible Division 1 contender in the Falcons.
Second Half’s weekly “Breslin Bound” reports are powered by MI Student Aid, a part of the Office of Postsecondary Financial Planning located within the Michigan Department of Treasury. MI Student Aid encourages students to pursue postsecondary education by providing access to student financial resources and information. MI Student Aid administers the state’s 529 college savings programs (MET/MESP), as well as scholarship and grant programs that help make college Accessible, Affordable and Attainable for you. Connect with MI Student Aid at www.michigan.gov/mistudentaid and find more information on Facebook and Twitter @mistudentaid.
PHOTO: Byron opened last week with an impressive 61-43 win on the road at Goodrich. (Photo by Terry Lyons.)