Buckley Girls Soccer Back, Dreaming Big Again
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
April 30, 2021
When you sign up to play soccer at Buckley High School, you just don’t join a team. You get a chance to become family and make history.
And, bet on being welcomed into the den.
That’s always been true under coaches John Vermilya and Ryan Jones, who built a single co-ed team into a Division 4 boys soccer contender toward the end of the last decade.
Buckley then added a girls program as well in 2019 – and this spring, with soccer back and players leading the way who were part of the co-ed team’s success and girls team’s start, history-making aspirations are alive again.
“Jonesy and I always tell them, ‘We love you as people more than we love you as players,’” stressed Vermilya, who serves as head coach for both teams. “And, especially before big games, we have them look us in the eyes and say no matter what happens ... win, lose or draw ... we love you.
“Whether you perform well or don’t perform well when you join our team, you join our family.”
And it was family — his own — that got Vermilya back into coaching in 2013. Buckley struggled its first few years under Vermilya, including a winless season. But, after ending that 2013 season in the District Final against a storied Leland program, Buckley has reached Regionals multiple times and even advanced to the Division 4 Semifinals in 2017. No Buckley soccer team had made it that far before.
Vermilya, a former college and professional soccer player, had been on the coaching staff of the Charlotte Eagles USSL pro team and head-coached Buckley in the early 2000s. The Bears varsity boys leadership slot opened up again as his daughter, Isabell, entered high school.
“She’s the reason I am in coaching today,” Vermilya acknowledged. “She came home from school in the eighth grade in May and said to me, ‘Dad, I just found out girls can play on the boys team so I am playing boys soccer next fall.’
“I knew the coaching position was vacant, so if my daughter is going to play I am going back to coaching.”
Vermilya treated all the Bears like family, but especially his daughters. Isabell played four years at Buckley and went on to college soccer. Daughter Lily played four years and recorded two goals and three assists in boys competition. Daughter Sophie is in her fourth year playing for the Bears. Youngest daughter Gabrielle is a freshman on the girls varsity this spring.
The girls team started as a club in the Spring of 2018. The Bears went 4-6-2 in 2019, their first official year, losing to Houghton Lake in their first-ever District game. (The Lakers went on to the Regional Final.)
The girls are off to a 1-4 start heading into tonight’s conference game with a rebuilding Kingsley team. But they stand perched to make history. COVID-19 took away the junior seasons for the current seniors, and this spring they’re hoping to win their first-ever District match. The Bears are hosting the District tournament and also have thoughts of winning the title. Big Rapids Crossroads Academy, Hart, Mason County Central, and McBain Northern Michigan Christian also will be in that field.
Twin sisters Jordan and Taylor Emery earned Regional championship medals as freshmen along with Sophie Vermilya. Buckley had eight girls on that co-ed team, including one of John Vermilya’s assistant coaches today, Joy Nolf.
The three girls remaining as part of this season’s team will never forget their start in high school soccer.
“It was super cool because nobody at Buckley (had) made it that far before,” noted Taylor Emery. “The boys basketball team also made it that same year.
“It was something being able to be a part of one of the teams (at) Buckley (that) made history.”
Known in Buckley’s history as the “Fab 5,” Austin Harris, Joey Weber, Denver Cade, Brock Beeman and Ridge Beeman led Buckley on the 2017 run that included shootout wins in the Regionals. They set a school record with 20 wins. That group also led the Bears boys basketball team to the 2017 and 2018 Class D Finals.
“When you play with the boys all those years, you don’t think you’re a very good player,” Sophie Vermilya admitted. “But then you play with the girls, you find out you are actually a pretty decent player.”
Jordan Emery enjoyed her time with the boys team but is thrilled Buckley now has enough girls for a team.
“Guys and girls play completely different,” she pointed out. “When you’re watching you don’t realize it, but when you play it (you) see a really big difference and you feel a really big difference.
“I was just super happy to see all the girls come out, get together and put a team together for the first time.”
Coach Vermilya has only four other players with experience on this year’s girls squad, but they are all very coachable. He loves coaching boys, but finds the girls even more rewarding.
“What I find with the girls is they are way more apt to play soccer properly than boys are,” he said. “You usually only have to tell girls once what you want the shape of the team to look like or how you want them to play, and maybe a reminder.
“In a lot of ways it is much more rewarding to coach them because the vision the coach has of how (he) wants them to play, they’ll go out and execute that to the best of their ability.”
Vermilya, who played soccer as a kid in Haiti and in college at Indiana Wesleyan University, has five children with his wife, Darcy. He is likely to get a chance to coach his son, Benjamin, who played on Buckley’s middle school team this fall.
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: Buckley is led by seniors Taylor Emery (2), Sophie Vermilya (18) and Jordan Emery (13), with head coach John Vermilya (far left) and assistant Joy Nolf. (Photos by Tom Spencer.)
Soccer Dream Coming True for Suttons Bay's U'Ren Sisters, Coach Dad
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
April 21, 2023
Dreams came true for at least one Northern Michigan soccer mom when the spring season got underway.
It was really more of a plan. But it’s quickly becoming more a nightmare for some of Suttons Bay’s opponents.
The dream part belongs to Sarah U’Ren, who gets to watch her daughters, senior Dani and freshman Megan, play on the same high school pitch. The sisters are wreaking havoc on their opponents already.
Both U’Ren girls are already on the scoreboard this young season. Dani, a center back, has one goal. Megan, who plays center mid and striker for the Norse, has five goals despite sitting out a game due to injury.
The plan component may belong pretty much to their coach Randy U’Ren. He took over the girls program just before the 2020 season lost to COVID-19 in anticipation of coaching his daughters. He returned to coaching high school after successful six-year run at the helm of the Suttons Bay boys program. Under U’Ren, the Norsemen played deep into the postseason regularly, reaching MHSAA Semifinals twice.
The Suttons Bay boys team compiled a 102-29-12 record with U’Ren coaching. When he stepped down after the 2011 season ended with a loss in the Regional, U’Ren began dreaming of a potential day his girls played soccer together at Suttons Bay and he was the coach.
“Ever since both girls started playing and enjoying soccer around 5 years old, we thought how fun it would be for them to have one season together on the same team,” the coach recalled. “As my girls kept playing, I stepped down from the boys to coach their youth and travel teams.
“But they were too far apart in age to be on the same team,” he continued. “And when the girls job opens up, I knew it was the perfect time for me to step in.”
U’Ren notes it really wasn’t a plan though.
“It was still a distant vision of coaching them both at the same time, and now that is here, I am so happy it all worked out,” he continued. “I feel so fortunate that one of the things they love and are excelling at is the same thing I have loved as a player, fan and coach.”
The sisters are thrilled to have their father as a coach and pleased to be playing together. Over the years, they say, their dad has brought out the best in them.
“I have had my dad as a coach for many years, and I think he has pushed me at home and at practice to be the best athlete I can be and to go above and beyond what most players do,” said Dani. “He has always been my favorite coach, and I had been waiting to play with my sister on the same team.
“Having my dad coach these past few years was very fun for me, but I am so excited to be able to have my last year with my sister playing too,” Dani continued. “The best part is having my sister to hang out with and play against; she always pushes me to be better.”
This season was in sight for quite some time for Megan, the high-scoring freshman. She’s planning to make the best of the only year she’ll have this situation.
“We have been thinking about this one season for a very long time, and I love playing on the same team with my sister because I can look up to her as a leader on the team and in my life,” Megan said. “The best part for me is that it’s super fun listening, and learning, to all of the strategy at home, practices, and games.”
Dani agreed.
“We have the same ideas about the game, we can bounce ideas off of each other and if he is explaining something new I usually get it right away,” she said.
Coach U’Ren’s belief the team will benefit from having sisters playing together stems from what he saw in his playing and previous coaching experience. Brothers and sisters tend to have each others’ backs, including back when his younger brother Ryan played with him at Alma.
This year’s Norse teams have another pair of sisters, Sophia and Clarice Bardenhagen.
“The sibling bond has always been strong,” the veteran coach pointed out. “A lot of times they just know what the other will do before anyone else — I've seen that same thing with every set of siblings I've coached.”
U’Ren admitted he tends to be harder on his own girls and reminds himself regularly to switch back to “Dad” mode from time to time.
“Coaching your own girls is a fun challenge,” he said. “I try to treat them like I do all the other girls.
“I often have to remind myself to coach them as if they weren't my girls,” he continued. “The other thing is to really try to switch back to ‘Dad’ mode after practices and games.”
U’Ren has hopes of returning Suttons Bay to prominence in league and postseason play. The Norse have won few postseason games since the coaching days of Ryan Defoe and Leland starting its own girls program. Leland had been in a co-op with Suttons Bay.
Today, Suttons Bay has a co-op with Northport and Leelanau St. Mary’s that has been in place since 2015.
The Norseman are preparing to take on Buckley this evening and have high hopes of evening their record at 3-3-1.
“As with any season, we want to improve each week,” Coach U’Ren said. “If we do that, the results start to speak for themselves.”
The U’Ren sisters believes the team enjoys playing with them and for their dad.
“The team loves it,” said Dani. “They always tease us and sometimes get our names mixed, but they love it.”
Megan summed it up.
“The team thinks it’s really cool,” she said.
Coach U’Ren, though, is trying to keep a perspective that goes beyond soccer and winning.
“I will always cherish just being able to spend more time with Dani and Megan,” he said. “Kids are so busy, and time just flies.
“Having these couple extra hours together each day is priceless.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Dani (15) and Megan (10) U’Ren have grown up in Suttons Bay soccer and now play for their father, coach Randy U’Ren. (Middle) Dani and Megan U’Ren defend against Kingsley and Moira Martz (8). (Below) Randy U’Ren organizes his team during a game this spring. (Photos by Ron Kramer; except family photo courtesy of the U’Ren family.)