Blissfield's Miller Set for Senior Success After 3 Junior-Year Finals Trips
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
August 15, 2023
BLISSFIELD – Last fall, June Miller raced for an MHSAA cross country title at Michigan International Speedway. During the winter she played in the Division 3 Basketball Final at the Breslin Center. In the spring, she competed at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 track & field championships in Kent City.
As she embarks on her senior year at Blissfield Community Schools in southeast Michigan, Miller isn’t concerned about an encore.
“I don’t worry about topping my junior season,” she said. “I don’t feel the need to. I’ll fight for it to the best of my ability, but if I don’t make it that’s okay. There were a lot of factors that went into last year, and I can’t control all of them this year.
“I’ll leave my best out there and know that I gave it my all, and in the end that’s the true accomplishment. If it takes me that far or further, then great. If not, that’s okay.”
Miller’s remarkable run to MHSAA Finals in three sports remains even more impressive when considering she had eight goals and five assists playing defense for the Royals soccer team.
“Shows up to work, busts her tail every practice, every game,” said Blissfield girls basketball coach Ryan Gilbert. “Never have to worry about June Miller.”
Miller is as steady an athlete as they come, never getting too high or too low in pressure situations. In basketball, Gilbert said Miller never met a shot she didn’t like. Miller started all 29 games last season, leading the team in 3-pointers.
Gilbert said Miller is even-keeled.
“It takes a while to get into the ‘June Miller circle,’ but I’m almost in,” he said. “This is her senior year; this is my year. She’s very funny when you get to know her and has a brilliant mind.
“She wants to win over everything,” Gilbert said.
Miller wasn’t the fastest runner on the cross country team last fall – that spot would belong to her younger sister, Hope. June has no problem with that.
“I love running with my sister,” she said. “She’s an amazing and incredibly kind person. Her dedication to running inspires me and keeps me fighting for it. We train together sometimes and she’s the one that pushes me, and I love that.
“I always knew she’d be faster than me someday, and I couldn’t be prouder of how fast she’s become and how much she’s achieved. (People might) think I’d hold some resentment for her beating me while I’m older, but she’s lived in my shadow for years and I’m so glad she’s been able to find her place that she can dominate.”
Blissfield is eyeing a big season in cross country after winning a Regional and just missing the top 10 at the Final a year ago. The Miller sisters are a big reason for the giddiness.
“I’m ready to leave it all out there,” Miller said. “It’s my senior season, and I want to go out strong. I think the end goal for all of us is to really push it this season and improve with each race so by the time we hit Regionals we’re in the best shape physically and mentally so we can leave it all on the course to get to states again.”
Because of her work schedule this summer, Miller missed some of the team workouts but was able to get the details from her sister and went out on her own time and trained to build up her mileage in preparation for the season.
“I think the experience from last year will give us something to fight for,” she said. “It allows us to look at the season with our end goal being the state meet. It gives us a passion and something to fight for.”
Blissfield cross country coach Ryan Bills called Miller a strong competitor.
“She is fun kid,” he said. “You never know which June you’re going to get – funny, chatty June or serious, no-nonsense June. Either way she always gives it her all during competition, which is why she has seen so much success the past year.”
The four-sport athlete spent the first couple of weeks of summer refreshing her body before kicking it into high gear.
She did take some time to reflect on all the places she got to play and compete last year and is grateful to be part of a team that helped her reach those places.
“It was a unique experience,” she said. “When I’m playing basketball or running track and cross country, I’m not focused on where I am physically – instead I’m in my head focused on what I need to do.
“Once you get to someplace, you stop thinking about getting there and you move on to the next step of being there and doing what you need to there.”
Miller is one of the top students in her class. She’s currently trying to decide whether she wants to pursue playing soccer in college. She wants to major in business and minor in sustainability, eventually getting a master’s degree in architecture.
“I want to be a sustainable design architect,” she said, “who can better the world through the art of architecture.”
Miller’s future looks bright, as does the outlook for this athletic year. In all three sports for which she reached the Finals last year, the Royals have enough returning talent to make lengthy runs again.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Miller said, about four days before the first cross country event of the season. “I want to make it to all those state tournaments again, but I want to do it with my teammates because they’re the ones that make it memorable and something to remember forever.”
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 Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Blissfield’s June Miller (750) races during a cross country meet last fall. (Middle) Miller pulls up for a jumper during last season’s basketball postseason run. (Cross country photo by Deloris Clark-Osborne; basketball photo by Gary Sullivan.)
Kelsey Carries Well Richards' Legacy
January 9, 2020
By Tom Kendra
Special for Second Half
Kelsey Richards is constantly compared to her older sisters, which doesn’t bother her one bit.
“They were both amazing players, so I’ll take it,” Kelsey said with her big smile, which is on display seemingly everywhere – except during her basketball games.
“I feel like it’s my time. It’s my time to show my senior leadership and my love for Christ as we play.”
Kelsey, a 6-0 senior, like older sisters Taylor and Allyson before her, is a fifth-year varsity starter for Fruitport Calvary Christian, a school of just 72 students which the Richards girls – with the help of their father and 10th-year coach Brad Richards – have transformed into a Division 4 powerhouse in West Michigan.
Fruitport Calvary has averaged 20 wins per season over the past nine years, with seven consecutive Alliance League championships and six straight MHSAA District titles. In five of those seasons, Calvary’s tournament run ended at the hands of state power Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart in Regional Finals.
But last year, the Eagles flew south for Regionals and Kelsey scored 21 points as they broke through with a 49-46 victory over Mendon for the school’s first-ever Regional championship in any sport. Calvary lost in the Quarterfinals to eventual Division 4 champion Adrian Lenawee Christian.
“It’s just a real blessing,” Coach Richards explained after a lopsided victory Tuesday night over visiting Hudsonville Libertas Christian. “We put God first, family second and basketball third. This school has allowed us to do all three of those things at one time, and we are so thankful for that.”
This year, the Eagles are off to a 6-2 start, with losses coming against Division 3 opponents Muskegon Western Michigan Christian and Hart, and the most notable win 50-46 over Division 2 Central Montcalm last week at the Cornerstone University Holiday Tournament. Richards matched her jersey number with 33 points in that game.
Fruitport Calvary will be shooting for its 51st consecutive Alliance League victory when it opens conference play Friday night at Byron Center Zion Christian.
The first constant for the Eagles over the past nine years is an ultra-aggressive style of play, using relentless full-court pressure to break teams down. As a result, Calvary gets to the free-throw line often, with the goal every game to make more free throws than the other team attempts.
The second constant is the dominating play of the Richards sisters.
Taylor Richards put Calvary girls basketball on the map before graduating in 2014. She remains the school’s all-time career leader in points (2,455), rebounds (1,541) and assists (381). Taylor went on to a standout career at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids and now coaches eighth-grade girls basketball at Northern Hills Middle School.
Allyson Richards had an amazing prep career of her own, graduating in 2017 as the school’s second-leading career scorer (1,951) and rebounder (1,167). She is now a junior forward for Cornerstone, but has played less than half the team’s games this season due to injuries.
Kelsey, who like her sisters has the ability to play every position on the court, is moving up the school’s record book. The two-time all-stater has scored 1,879 points and needs just 73 to surpass Allyson for second place on the school record list.
Some of Calvary’s best seasons came when the Richards sisters played together. While the three never played varsity at the same time, Taylor and Allyson played together for three years, while Allyson and Kelsey played together for two years.
Kelsey has not had a sibling on the roster for the past three years, but filling that void admirably has been 6-0 senior Lizzie Cammenga. Richards and Cammenga are the only seniors on Calvary’s 10-player roster, and both are fifth-year varsity players and returning all-staters, who can play any position based on the opponent. (Schools with fewer than 100 students may play eighth graders on high school teams, although only their statistics from grades 9-12 count toward MHSAA record book consideration.)
“This team is a joy to coach,” explained Brad Richards, who previously coached girls basketball for 12 years at Ravenna and was named The Associated Press Class C state Coach of the Year in 2002. “Lizzie and Kelsey are our leaders, but all of these girls come from great families and are self-motivated to keep getting better.”
The final piece of the Richards basketball puzzle is younger brother Bradley, a 6-foot-3 seventh grader at Calvary. Coach Richards is considering switching over to boys basketball after this season for the opportunity to coach his son.
Richards retired from teaching history at Ravenna in 2018, which gives him more time to devote to coaching, his second career as a realtor and now an unexpected “mid-life adventure” which has made him a national television figure.
Richards is one of the researchers in “The Curse of Civil War Gold,” a series which premiered on The History Channel in the spring of 2018 and has reached an estimated 24.2 million viewers.
The show theorizes that Union soldiers confiscated millions of dollars in Confederate gold and silver during the final stages of the Civil War, then carried out a plot to smuggle the loot back to Michigan using the railway system and then laundered it through the banking system. According to a lighthouse keeper's deathbed confession years later, part of the stolen Confederate treasury was put into a train car on a barge and pushed off a ferry into Lake Michigan.
“It’s been a lot of fun and people from all over come up to me and talk about it,” said Richards, who has traveled as far away as Utah and Georgia to do research. “I am grateful to be a part of this project. I've been blessed by the Lord through this mid-life adventure.”
On the court, Kelsey and her father are focused on getting better each game to try and make another postseason run.
Kelsey is much happier talking about her teammates than herself, pointing out the improvement of the team’s other three starters – junior Kyra Hamilton, sophomore Cate Anhalt and freshman McKena Wilson.
“Each of the teams I’ve played on has been very different, but I’ve been really surprised how well some of our younger girls have played this year,” said Kelsey, noting Anhalt’s improved shooting and Wilson’s ability to stay calm in pressure situations.
Kelsey does plan to break one family tradition by not going to Cornerstone University, opting instead to play basketball at Spring Arbor College, an evangelical Christian school near Jackson. Brad played basketball at Cornerstone, her mother, Joy, played volleyball there and her two older sisters played basketball – but she chose a different path.
“I felt very comfortable when I visited Spring Arbor and I really like the girls on the team and Coach (Ryan) Frost,” said Kelsey, 17, who plans to sign with Spring Arbor on Jan. 28.
But first, she is determined to make the most of her final prep basketball season and the final five months of high school, where she is one of just 14 seniors.
“I really enjoy that we are small, because we are more like a family here,” said Kelsey, who runs track in the spring. “As big as basketball is for me, I really love being a chapel leader at school and a worship leader for youth group. A lot of people know me as a basketball player, but that part of my life is really important to me.”
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Kelsey Richards defends during a game earlier this season against Hart. (Middle) Richards works to get past a Muskegon Catholic Central defender last season. (Below) The Richards children, from left: Kelsey Richards, Allyson Richards (junior at Cornerstone), Bradley Richards (6-3 seventh grader at Fruitport Calvary Christian) and Taylor Richards (Cornerstone graduate). (Action photos courtesy of Dr. Tom Watkins; family photo courtesy of the Richards family.)