Flashback 100: Before TV Stardom, Kerwin Excelled as All-State Skier

February 21, 2025

Natalie Kerwin made a name for herself long before appearing on your TV as a broadcaster for FanDuel Sports Network (formerly Bally Sports Detroit).

Now, she covers the Pistons, Red Wings, and Tigers, along with the MHSAA Basketball and Football Finals, for FDSN.

Growing up, she was a standout athlete at Milford High School, inducted into the Milford Athletic Hall of Fame for her achievements.

On the ski slopes, Kerwin was a six-time all-stater — three times each in slalom and giant slalom — competing all four years for Milford. In 2016, she helped lead the Mavericks to a fifth-place Division 1 Finals team finish, the highest during her tenure. Beyond skiing, Kerwin excelled in volleyball and lacrosse, and served as captain for both the ski and lacrosse teams.

Kerwin continued her journey at Michigan State University before launching her broadcast career at WILX in Lansing. After two years there, she joined Bally Sports Detroit.

Previous "Flashback 100" Features

Feb. 14: Detroit Central Star Voted into Pro Football Hall of Fame - Read
Feb. 6: Multi-Sport Star Look Becomes Super Bowl Officiating Legend - Read
Jan. 31: Johnson Family Put Magical Stamp on Michigan High School Hoops - Read
Jan. 24: Future Hall of Famers Face Off First in MHSAA Class A Final - Read
Jan. 17: First-Ever WNBA Draft Pick Rocked at Salem, Won Titles at Tennessee - Read
Jan. 10: Despite Launching Before 3-Point Line, Smith Still Tops Scoring List - Read
Jan. 3: Edison's Jackson Earns Place Among State's All-Time Elite - Read
Dec. 20: Future Olympian Piper Leads Grosse Pointe North to Historic Heights - Read
Dec. 13: 
The Other Mr. Forsythe in Michigan School Sports - Read
Dec. 6: 
Coleman's Legendary Heroics Carry Harrison Through Repeat - Read
Nov. 29: Harbaugh Brothers' Football Roots Planted in Part at Pioneer - Read
Nov. 22: 8-Player Football Finals Right at Home at Superior Dome - Read
Nov. 15: 
Leland Career Helps Set Stage for Glass' International Stardom - Read
Nov. 8: Future Baseball Pro Led Escanaba's Legendary Football Title Run - Read
Nov. 1: Michigan High School Baseball Trio Provide World Series Voices - Read
Oct. 25: Before Leading Free World, Ford Starred for Champion GR South - Read
Oct. 18: Mercy Links Legend Becomes World Golf Hall of Famer - Read
Oct. 11: Fisher Races to Finals Stardom on Way to U.S. Olympic First - Read
Oct. 4: Lalas Leaves High School Legacies on Ice & Pitch - Read
Sept. 27: Tamer's History-Making Run Starts in Dexter, Continues to Paris - Read
Sept. 20: 
Todd Martin’s Road to Greatness Starts at East Lansing - Read
Sept. 13: 
James Earl Jones, Dickson High Hoops to Hollywood Legend - Read
Sept. 6: 
Pioneers' Unstoppable Streak Stretches 9 Seasons - Read
Aug. 30: Detroit dePorres Rushes to 1995 Class CC Football Championship - Read 

PHOTOS (Top) At left, FDSN/s Natalie Kerwin interviews the Detroit Pistons' Cade Cunningham. At top right, Kerwin skis for Milford, and below celebrates a championship with her teammates. (Photos courtesy of Natalie Kerwin.)

TC West Girls Repeat, FHNE's Grzelak Adds Sweep to Family's Success

By James Cook
Special for MHSAA.com

February 26, 2024

HARBOR SPRINGS – A Grzelak state champion seems to be the norm.

Katie Grzelak became the latest in the family to etch her name into the Michigan record books, becoming the third to claim an MHSAA Ski Finals championship over the last five years.

Her older sister Holly won the 2021 Division 1 slalom title also for Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern, while cousin Anna (who skied for Marquette) shared the slalom title with Traverse City Central’s Quinn Gerber a season ago.

Katie one-upped them both, sweeping the slalom and giant slalom titles this time around at Boyne Highlands.

“It’s a family tradition,” Katie Grzelak said. “I've been working towards it for a while now. It just felt good to finally put it together.”

Last year, she took second behind Rochester Adams’ Katie Fodale in GS and third in slalom. She’s been all-state six times in three seasons.

“It pretty cool,” said Marquette junior Sam Dehlin, a former teammate of Anna Grzelak who won the 2024 boys slalom title. “They really have a good thing going with the Grzelaks.”

Katie Grzelak said she was already receiving texts from relatives from all over asking if she extended the family tradition.

“I wasn't really expecting it, but I was really happy in the end,” she said. “I probably could have gone harder. I was happy with it, so I didn't feel the need to put too much down.”

Traverse City West's girls repeated as team champion, going back-to-back for the first time since the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. TC West's girls also won the state's top spot in the academic all-state awards, with a team grade-point average of 3.886.

West junior Olivia Bageris came out of the fourth flight to place second in both the slalom and giant slalom.

The five-time all-stater leads a Titans team that's aiming to extend its Finals championship streak at least another year, despite losing three of its top six skiers after this one.

Traverse City Central's Olivia Bageris completes a run for the eventual team champion."The goal is obviously to make it a three-peat," Bageris said. "Central, our best friends but our biggest rivals. It always comes down to the day of the race. Conference races are always different than the state meet, but the goal would be to make it a three-peat."

West also gets freshman Sarah Shapiro back from injury next season.

"It means a lot," Bageris said. "It hasn't happened in a while. The boys have done it, and we've kind of always been like the underdogs and overlooked compared to our boys. They had a great day, too. So that was exciting. But it means a lot to be able to do this two years in a row. Our freshman year, we come in runner-up and it was exciting because we were kind of unexpected to get that high up. But in the end, we really all wanted to win."

The Titans led by a single point (19-20) after the morning giant slalom session, but felt confident because the team's strength all season has been slalom. West outpointed Central 19-32 in slalom.

"We were only ahead by one point, so we knew we had to go for it," Bageris said. "My friend Ellie (Gruber), she had a really great day, came out skied really amazing. She definitely helped. It was a team sport today."

Gruber took seventh in GS, with Lila Warren 10th. Erinn Hale, Kellan Kudary and Quinn Gerber took eighth, fifth and fourth for Central.

West won the girls title with 38 points, compared to Central's runner-up total of 52. The rest of the field consisted of Clarkston (110), Marquette (158.5), Birmingham United (203), Milford (231), West Bloomfield (243), Brighton (242.5) and White Lake Lakeland (290).

Bageris was joined by Titans teammates Gruber (seventh), Dillyn Mohr (eighth) and Warren (ninth) in the slalom top 10, with Central represented by Gerber (third) and Cady Madion (10th), with Hale just behind in 11th.

West head coach Ed Johnson said he thinks the Titans can seriously make a run at three in a row next season.

"I think we can," Johnson said. "We're losing a couple, but we'll be back pretty strong."

Gerber took third in giant slalom and fourth in slalom to earn her third and fourth all-state spots in two seasons on varsity.

"West has a really good team, and we definitely wanted to show that we could compete," Gerber said. "We scared them a little bit, but they ended up with it."

Central brings back its entire varsity team next season and has several talented middle schoolers coming up as well.

"We want to get it, so we'll be working all offseason," Gerber said.

Traverse City as a whole was the day's big winner.

The Trojans and Titans took first and second in both boys and girls. Traverse City accomplished the same feat last year, although West won two championships and Central took runner-up honors in both.

"It's good for Traverse City to bring that clean sweep again," TC West head coach Ed Johnson said. "That's one of the things I'm most excited about is to see that clean sweep for Traverse City. One-two for the boys, one-two for the girls. It goes from one side of town to the other, but it's all good."

Traverse City Central and West have combined to win the last four Division 1 titles in both boys and girls.

Twenty-three of the 40 first-team all-state spots went to skiers from Traverse City, with another 17 on the second team.

Only four spots in the slalom top-10 didn’t go to Central or West. After Grzelak, Grand Haven’s Neave Rewa was fourth, Birmingham’s Blanca Srock fifth and Clarkston’s Cameron Thomas sixth.

The same applied to GS, where Holly’s Finley DeCubber placed third, Berkley’s Tessa Rontal was sixth and Rewa placed ninth.

Click for full results.

PHOTOS (Top) Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern's Katie Grzelak skis a championship run Monday at Boyne Highlands. (Middle) Traverse City Central's Olivia Bageris completes a run for the eventual team champion. (Photos by Tori Burley. Click for more; photos will be added throughout this week.)