East Jackson Off to Record-Setting Start
By
Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
August 25, 2017
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
JACKSON –The East Jackson girls golf team is riding an impressive three-tournament streak. And the Trojans have yet to win a title.
In each of East Jackson’s three tournaments this season, it has broken the 18-hole school record, which was 397 coming into the season. Then, the Trojans sliced it to 376, and earlier this week, they shot 364 – a full 33 strokes better than the all-time best coming into the season.
Coach Ray Hill doesn’t pretend to say he knew this was going to happen.
“I really am stunned at what they have accomplished this year,” he said. “All of them worked really hard this summer and played in youth tournaments, and frankly, they didn’t play well. All summer I’ve been trying to calm them down and tell them not to worry if they are shooting 115 in June or 108 in July. That’s not important. We’re focused on the fall.
“I wasn’t sure I was buying it, but I had to convince them, and once the season started, the light turned on and they’ve been getting great scores. All the work they did in the summer paid off.”
Along the way, East Jackson had four girls each break 100 in the same event for the first time in school history. Coach Hill, in his 12th season, already has tabbed this as his best team, but he didn’t expect this much improvement this quickly.
“Before the first tournament, the Northwest coach texted all the coaches coming to the tournament and said all the teams were going to be grouped together and wanted to know what score we anticipated shooting. I said 400, and we shot 392,” Hill said. “The other coaches were giving me a little bit of grief, calling me a sandbagger.”
Tootsie Pops and cookies
At East Jackson, finding girls to play on the golf team takes a little work. There is no feeder program, unless you count Coach Hill handing out Tootsie Pops and cookies to any middle schooler willing to hear about the wonders of playing golf.
“I make a point to talk to every middle school girl in our building at some point,” Hill said. “When I’m asked during a school day to sub for the French teacher, I will spend a few minutes talking about golf.
“I have a meeting every year, and I bring Tootsie Pops and cookies to get them to come to the meeting, and it’s kind of hit and miss. I will hand out Tootsie Pops in the hallways if someone will consider golf. “
Hill gets a lot of disinterested or confused responses. Most of them have never played golf in their lives and plan to try out for the volleyball team. Hill has a ready answer for them.
“They say, ‘I’ve never played before,’ and I say, ‘You’ve never been taught before, and once you’re taught, it comes along,’” Hill said. “The first year you just learn how to hold the golf club and hit a shot here and there, and the second year you’re ready to take off.”
This season, East Jackson has four freshmen on the team, one season after having three freshmen – so the Tootsie Pops and cookies must be hits. But in the end, the game of golf is the selling point.
“If I can get them out to the golf course a time or two, I can usually keep them,” said Hill, who also tells the girls and their parents what they can expect from being an East Jackson golfer.
“One, it has to be fun, and I try to keep things loose,” Hill said. “I buy a lot of ice cream, we have snacks, and we make it fun and keep things light and loose. Number two, they are going to improve. They’re going to get better throughout the season. Every time they come to the golf course, they’re going to be better than they were the day before. It’s not fun to do a sport or anything in life if you’re not getting better.
“Three, I want them to be competitive. It’s a lot more fun if you have a chance to win events, if you have a chance to compete for a league championship, so I want them to get to a point where they are competitive. They are going to work harder if they have a chance to win. And four, as a parent, a teacher and a coach, I think it is important that a kid achieves excellence in something, and for each kid it’s going to be a little bit different.”
Learning the game
While Hill likely would like to bring more experienced girls into his program, he sees a positive side to their relative inexperience.
“I don’t have to unteach everything that Uncle Larry taught them, and as beginners, they are open to instruction,” he said. “They want to get better. I look for athletic kids who are smart.”
Sophomore Alexis Brzezinski has been the No. 1 player so far. She is averaging 88.6 for 18 holes and earlier this week she broke the school record with an 84. She had virtually no experience as an eighth-grader – just two years ago.
“I started playing right before my freshman year,” said Brzezinski, who earned honorable mention on the all-conference team last year. “I got into a lot of junior clinics with Mr. Hill before that and then I took a lesson. I started getting into it when I started getting better.
“I realized that golf is a really hard sport. I didn’t know what I was getting into. I had played volleyball before. It’s a really challenging game, and you are always batting yourself and you’re never satisfied with your score. There is always something you can do better. I love that about it.”
Zoe Swiatlowski, a two-time all-Cascades Conference selection, is one of three seniors on the team, and she is averaging 94.0 for 18 holes. She joined the golf team as a freshman basically because her older sister Savannah was a senior on the team.
“I really wanted to play volleyball instead,” she said. “I got talked into it, and then I ended up loving it. I thought golf was so boring and dumb. I realized there was a lot more to it. I thought that it was probably just really easy, and it was something you do when you’re bored, but it’s really competitive. It’s a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be.”
One of the things she likes best is the ability to get to know opposing golfers.
“You get to meet a lot of new people,” she said. “It’s not like basketball where you just see them for a half a second and they are running away. You can talk to them for like five hours at a time.”
And then there is senior Alessandra Mireles, a senior who was all-conference as a sophomore but missed half of last season after being in a serious car accident. She is playing with a metal rod in her leg. She is averaging 102, and Hill said “her swing is regaining form” as she continues to recover.
Mireles went out for golf, not so much because of the Tootsie Pops, but because she had a good friend who was on the team.
“She really wanted me to play golf,” Mireles said. “I was like, ‘I might as well try something new.’ It was an acquired taste. Not a lot of girls our age play golf, so I didn’t know if it was for me, and I was trying to play volleyball at the same time, so I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.
“Now, I just love my teammates; that’s what makes me want to play. And wherever you go, any golf course, they’re so nice. It’s the environment that I like to be in. I would like to play in college, too, but either way, I’m still going to play golf.”
While those three girls have the top averages on the team this season, East Jackson’s depth is helped by Sami Andrus, Reagan Rudd and Jordan Goostrey.
Future goals
Hill is a realist. He knows the Trojans are not going to break the school record every time out this season, but the girls aren’t as convinced.
“I told them we have to be content with having a blip here or there, and the girls wouldn’t hear of it,” he said. “They all talked about leaving four or five shots on the course, and they felt like they could do better. I see it, I absolutely see it, but I don’t expect it to happen every time.”
While confidence is soaring, a major obstacle keeps the Trojans grounded. It is perennial power Jackson Lumen Christi – the team that finished first in each of the three tournaments this season in which East Jackson set a school record.
The Trojans are very aware of Lumen Christi and that program’s success.
“Lumen Christi has an excellent team and has an excellent program, and they establish a standard in the area and everybody aims for them,” Hill said. “Over the years, our kids have been intimidated by the Lumen Christi aura, and this year, all of my girls have played in summer tournaments with them and they know the Lumen girls.
“They don’t have that intimidation factor, and the Lumen girls are a nice group of girls. Still, we’re gunning for them. I don’t think we have the scores yet to get them, but we’re getting closer.”
The Trojans do not shy away from the topic of Lumen Christi. It is obvious the respect is there.
“It doesn’t make us cocky,” Swiatlowski said of having Lumen Christi in the same area. “It might be overwhelming that we are doing so good, but they kind of knock us down. Even when they have a bad round, someone else steps up, just like we do as a team, but they’re just a little bit better. It helps us work harder.”
East Jackson understands it is all a process.
“We’re used to fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth-place finishes, so second place to one of the top programs in the state is quite an accomplishment,” Hill said. “We’re very proud of that.
“The girls look at all the schools they have beaten and some of them are two or three times larger than we are. They are real excited and proud of that, and we’re trying to maintain it throughout the years.”
Hill concedes that his realistic team goals for this year already have been rewritten because of the excellent start.
“We finished fifth in the Regional, and the top three go to the state meet,” he said. “We’ve never really come close to going to the state meet as a team. I’ve been able to take five girls individually to the state meet over the years. These girls want to go, and if they can sustain the scores they are shooting right now, we’ll be in good shape.
“Qualifying for the state meet as a team would be huge, but Lumen Christi is at our region and Napoleon is in our region, but three teams go, and we feel like we’re in position to do it.”
Along the way, Hill takes pride in seeing the girls learn to play the game of golf and learn to love it.
“I’ve had five girls who had never played golf before their freshman year at East Jackson go on and play in college,” he said. “That’s huge. One of them is an assistant coach now at Siena Heights University, and the opportunity started here. That’s the most rewarding part for me.”
Chip Mundy served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86, and then as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen-Patriot from 1986-2011. He also co-authored Michigan Sports Trivia. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) East Jackson's Zoe Swiatlowski watches a drive during an event this fall. (Middle top) The East Jackson team poses with one of its two tournament runner-up plaques earned this month. (Middle below) Alexis Brzezinski fires from a sand trap during one of her rounds. (Below) Alessandra Mireles watches her approach from the fairway (Photos courtesy of Ray Hill.)
Preview: Legendary Opportunities Await
October 17, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
No doubt, this weekend’s Lower Peninsula Girls Golf Finals will provide unforgettable moments for everyone who takes part.
But there also are a number of storylines heading in that could prove memorable in statewide lore for seasons to come.
At least three reigning champions appear in the hunt to repeat – Traverse City West in Division 1, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern in Division 2 and Harbor Springs in Division 4. But West must fend off Northville – arguably the most impressive team this regular season in any division – while Forest Hills Northern just finished second at its Regional to Muskegon Reeths-Puffer and Harbor Springs faces a Division 4 field that includes reigning Division 3 champion Macomb Lutheran North.
For sure, we’ll say good-bye to two of the most accomplished individuals in state girls golf history. West’s Anika Dy and Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Danielle Staskowski will attempt to finish their high school careers with fourth MHSAA Finals individual championships – they’ve both won titles the last two years after Dy finished runner-up in Division 1 as a freshman and Staskowski began her prep run with a fourth place in Division 3 in 2015.
Only three others have won three Lower Peninsula championships since the first Finals in 1973 – Maple City Glen Lake’s Nichole Cox (2014-16), Okemos’ Elle Nichols (2011-13) and Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Kate Loy (1993-95).
Play begins at 10 a.m. both Friday and Saturday. See below for golfers to watch at all four Finals, and come back Saturday evening for coverage of all four championship tournaments on Second Half. Click for a list of all Finals qualifiers and Regional scores from last week.
LP Division 1 at Battle Creek’s Bedford Valley
Top-ranked: 1. Northville, 2. Bloomfield Hills, 3. Traverse City West.
The Division 1 field is loaded with talented teams, especially representing the southeastern part of the state – 13 of 18 qualifiers are from Livingston, Oakland, Macomb or Wayne counties. But Traverse City West is the reigning Finals champion – and has won two of the last three seasons.
Northville: The Mustangs are undefeated this season playing many of the best teams in Division 1, with an incredible 291 in August setting a program scoring record. All five starters for this weekend were part of last season’s fourth-place Finals finish. Northville tied Hartland with the lowest Regional score in LPD1 last week, shooting a 326 at Travis Pointe in Saline to finish 21 strokes ahead of runner-up and No. 5-ranked Plymouth. Mariella Simoncini is the only senior among the top five, and she was the Regional individual runner-up.
Bloomfield Hills: The Black Hawks finished second by two strokes to No. 8 Clarkston at the Regional at Clarkston’s Pine Knob, shooting a 336, and remain No. 2 in the rankings. They won their second straight Oakland County Division 1 championship earlier this fall and bring back this weekend the four scorers from last season’s seventh-place finisher. Senior Mikaela Schulz was fourth individually a year ago and won the Regional title last week with a 74, four strokes ahead of sophomore teammate and runner-up Sanju Swamy.
Traverse City West: Senior Anika Dy will lead the Titans into this weekend seeking a third straight individual championship to go with a third team title. She won last year’s Final by eight strokes, while now-sophomore sister Anci Dy tied for sixth. Senior Jillian Ellul also returns from last year’s top five, and together they finished first, second and third, respectively as West shot a 335 to win last week’s Regional at The Meadows by 23 strokes.
Other individuals of note: Seven of last season’s top 10 are back this weekend. Rochester junior Savannah Haque was last year’s runner-up and also a key contributor when her team won Division 1 in 2016. Utica Eisenhower sophomore Ariel Chang tied Anci Dy for sixth last season, and Brighton senior Annie Pietila came in eighth and will play at the Finals for the fourth time. Ann Arbor Pioneer sophomore Amaya Melendez also had a big debut in 2017, tying for ninth. She joined Anika Dy and Schulz among Regional champs last week, along with Hartland senior Sydney Bradford, Rochester Hills Stoney Creek senior Domitille Chambon and Grosse Pointe South sophomore Audrey Becker. Brighton sophomore Maggie Pietila came in second to Bradford at Hartland Glen, with her 75 one of the lowest Regional scores division-wide as well.
LP Division 2 at Michigan State's Forest Akers West
Top-ranked: 1. Muskegon Reeths-Puffer, 2. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, 3. Bloomfield Hills Marian.
Forest Hills Northern won its first championship last fall since 1982 and was ranked No. 1 all this season until Monday. Reeths-Puffer is shooting not only for its first championship, but first top-two finish after missing the latter by just a stroke a year ago. Marian was last season’s runner-up, achieving its first top-two finish, and could take another step this weekend as well.
Muskegon Reeths-Puffer: Karina VanDuinen was third at last year’s Final and Avery Howard was sixth, and they with also-returning senior Emma Veihl and junior Abby Fansler give the Rockets one of the most tournament-tested teams in the field. Scarier yet, freshman Karlie VanDuinen led the way at the Regional with her winning 70 the second-lowest score last week in the entire division as the team shot a 310 to best Forest Hills Northern. Older sister Karina won the Division 2 individual championship as a freshman in 2015, and Howard also placed as a sophomore in 2016.
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern: Senior Kay Zubkus and sophomores Lilia Henkel and Anna Fay are back from the team that won last season’s championship by 13 strokes – Henkel finishing seventh and Zubkus tying for 10th individually. The Huskies finished seventh strokes back of Reeths-Puffer last week at Grand Rapids’ Thornapple Pointe, with Zubkus second, Henkel third and Fay tied for sixth. Zubkus’ 72 was the third-lowest Regional score division-wide.
Bloomfield Hills Marian: Reigning Finals individual champion Shannon Kennedy leads four players back from last season’s second-place finisher as they look to make program history. She shot a two-round 146 last season as a freshman to clear the field by three strokes, and she was the Regional medalist at Huron Meadows in Brighton last week by two strokes with a 77. Zink, a senior, and Hudson, a junior, took fifth and tied for sixth, respectively, at the Regional, and sophomore Lauren Sass had the second-best score among the team’s returnees at last year’s Final.
More individuals of note: St. Joseph senior Cailey Rooker finished ninth last season and fourth as a sophomore, and won last week’s Regional at Coldwater Golf Course by seven strokes shooting an 80. Okemos freshman Allison Cui is shooting under par for the season and won last week’s Regional at The Emerald in St. Johns with a 69, 13 strokes ahead of the field. Petoskey junior Ashley Lamb and South Lyon senior Julia Vess also earned Regional championships.
LP Division 3 at Michigan State’s Forest Akers East
Top-ranked: 1. Flint Powers Catholic, 2. Grand Rapids South Christian, 3. Freeland.
Powers is playing for its first championship since 2008, South Christian for its first since 2009, and Freeland for its first title and first top-two finish ever. Last season’s champion, Macomb Lutheran North, is in Division 4 this fall after finishing three strokes better than the Sailors in 2017. Unranked Spring Lake – third last season but champion for three straight from 2014-16 – shot the division’s lowest Regional score last week, 356.
Flint Powers Catholic: The Chargers finished third in 2016 and fifth last season, and return this weekend with four of their top five from a year ago plus a standout freshman. Sophomore Jolie Brochu tied for eighth at last season’s final and junior Maggie Knight missed the individual top 10 by a stroke in 2016. They led Powers to last week’s Regional title at Owosso Country Club, won with a tie-breaker against Freeland. Brochu finished first individually, Knight was third, with senior Gina Canavesio seventh, freshman Allie Sexton ninth and junior Olivia Canaday 10th.
Grand Rapids South Christian: The Sailors are headed to the Finals for the 23rd straight season and just missed another title a year ago as now-senior Natalie Samdal finished fourth individually to lead the way. Junior Maddie Wieringa and senior Ashley Keen also were part of that runner-up Finals effort, and all three finished among the top 10 as South Christian won last week’s Regional at Pigeon Creek in West Olive with a 363.
Freeland: Senior Olivia Pumford took 10th at last season’s Final as an individual qualifier and will be joined this weekend by the rest of the Falcons, who just missed winning the Regional (see above) but still shot what tied for the second-lowest score in the division last week. Pumford took first at the Regional as all five Freeland golfers finished among the top 12; senior Alyssa Argyle was fifth, senior Lily Beyer sixth and sophomore Lydia Beck eighth.
Other individuals of note: Pontiac Notre Dame Prep senior Danielle Staskowski has won the last two Division 3 championships, by eight strokes last fall and in a playoff hole as a sophomore. She shot a 75 last week at Pontiac Country Club to win her Regional by a stroke over Goodrich senior Elizabeth Gibbs. Senior Hannah Klein tied for sixth at the Final last season in leading Spring Lake to its third-place team finish, and she tied for 10th as a sophomore in 2016. She too was a Regional champion last week, as was Hastings junior Rayna Honsowitz, Marshall junior Karlee Malone and Carleton Airport sophomore Kristen Reed.
LP Division 4 at The Meadows at Grand Valley State
Top-ranked: 1. North Muskegon, 2. Harbor Springs, 3. Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian.
Harbor Springs is coming off last season’s first MHSAA girls golf championship, an 11-stroke victory. North Muskegon and NorthPointe Christian both are playing for their first titles – NorthPointe finished runner-up in 2013, while North Muskegon is seeking to place among the top two for the first time. Macomb Lutheran North is unranked but won in 2016 and then took first in 2017 in Division 3 – with three players from that team coming back this weekend.
North Muskegon: The Norsemen finished sixth in 2015, 11th in 2016 and fourth a year ago, and will go after their first title with all five scorers back from last season’s team. Senior Abby Grevel tied for eighth individually at the 2017 Final, and she’s joined by three more seniors and a sophomore. They won last week’s Regional at The Mines in Grand Rapids with a 344, 11 strokes better than the field, with Grevel second, senior Lindsay Bliss third and sophomore Georgie Kersman seventh.
Harbor Springs: Four of last season’s top five are back seeking a repeat run, with senior Madi Bezilla leading after tying for third individually a year ago. The team’s top four last season all shot within 10 strokes of one another at the Final, and that balance reigns as the Rams shot the division’s lowest Regional score last week, 353, with all four scorers between 80-90. Bezilla was first, junior Evie Garver was second, sophomore Jacque O’Neill was third and senior Callie O’Neill came in eighth.
Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian: The Mustangs are looking to make a jump from 13th last season and third at last week’s Regional, which also included No. 5 Kalamazoo Hackett in the runner-up spot after North Muskegon. Three of last season’s top five lead the way, with sophomore Sabrina Langerak coming in fourth and junior Lauren Slottke fifth at the Regional.
Other individuals of note: Six of last season’s top 10 will be back this weekend, led by reigning champion Alissa Fish of Brooklyn Columbia Central. She won by two strokes last year as a junior, and claimed last week’s Regional title at Concord Hills by eight strokes. Jackson Lumen Christi senior Hillary Ziemba tied for third last year, Shepherd senior Morgan Yates tied for sixth, and Kalamazoo Hackett senior Emily Stull was 10th. All three won Regional titles last week, as did Macomb Lutheran North senior Kaity Rittner – who finished fifth in LPD3 in 2017.
PHOTOS: (Top) Traverse City West’s Anika Dy unloads a drive during last season’s LPD1 Final. (Middle) Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Danielle Staskowski stands at the front of the line of top individual finishers in LPD3 in 2017. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)