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.)
TC West Standout Renews Ties to Titans, Cheers Past Teammates' Gold Pursuit
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
July 16, 2021
Savanna Wojtanowski was made here. She played here. She stayed here — except for stints in Washington, D.C., where international soccer players joined her.
Now she’s back as a high school soccer coach.
While lots of faces familiar to United States and Canadian television viewers and soccer fans are expected at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, some of those players will be personally familiar to Wojtanowski.
Wojtanowski played alongside a handful of current and recent players on the U.S. and Canadian women’s teams after serving as four-year starting goalie for Traverse City West and during a college career that began with two seasons at Ferris State and concluded with her final two at Michigan State in 2016 and 2017. During her time with the Spartans, Wojtanowski spent two offseasons with the reserve team for the Washington Spirit, one of the original eight teams when the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) was formed in 2012.
At West, Wojtanowski was named second team all-conference as a junior and senior, as well as first team all-district, first team all-region and all-state honorable mention her senior season in 2013. West winning the Big North Conference title that spring remains her favorite memory from high school soccer – and she quickly has matched that achievement as a coach, leading West to the BNC championship this past spring in her first season after taking over the program.
Wojtanowski is looking for the U.S. national team to come out with a vengeance after the disappointment of the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. There the U.S. fell to Sweden in a semifinal shootout, which meant failing to reach the gold medal match for the first time since women’s soccer was introduced to the Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta.
Sweden is the U.S.’s opening-game opponent July 21 in Tokyo.
“I believe there is a lot of revenge being chased after the Rio Olympics,” the 25-year-old former keeper said. “I was with the Spirit during Rio, and when the team returned from the Olympics, the sense of disappointment was felt for a long time.
“I believe going into this year's Olympics, we will see a different type of fire displayed from the USWNT.”
Wojtanowski won’t see former Washington Spirit teammate Diana Matheson of Canadian fame and Estelle Johnson of Cameroon playing in Tokyo. Matheson recently announced her retirement after 18 years representing Canada’s national team. Johnson and her teammates lost a playoff with Chile for the last of 16 slots in the Olympics.
Wojtanowski feels fortunate that she had the chance to compete with and against the women trying to claim gold at Tokyo.
“During college I was able to play two years on the Washington Spirit reserves, which opened the door to the pro side of the game,” she said. “I was fortunate enough to be one of two college players training full-time with the pro squad for those two summers.
“Having the opportunity to play alongside some USWNT women and the Canada women was such a great experience.”
Wojtanowski played with current U.S. roster players Crystal Dunn and Kristie Mewis. The current Canadians she played with are Stephanie Labbe and Shelina Zadorsky. Labbe was Canada’s starting goalkeeper in Rio.
Dunn, though, stands out most to Wojtanowski. Dunn was with the Spirit but now plays for Portland. She has 24 goals and 19 assists in 116 appearances for the USWNT as primarily a defender.
“(Dunn) was such a treat to play with …. her humor, attitude, and training mentality is something I will forever remember,” Wojtanowski said. “She was constantly dancing, laughing, and having a great time at training, but when it was time to get serious she would get the job done.”
Wojtanowski also had the tough job of trying to stop U.S. standout Rose Lavelle during Lavelle’s time starring for Wisconsin. The past Badgers standout and now-Washington Spirit midfielder has 14 goals and nine assists in 56 appearances for the U.S.
Wojtanowski began her collegiate career with two seasons at Ferris State University. After transferring to MSU, she played two more seasons and as a junior in 2016 tied the MSU single-game record with 14 saves against then-No. 16 Penn State. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business with a focus on administration and management and a master’s certificate in supply chain management and procurement. She returned home to start the next chapters of life, and she works as a supply chain buyer fulltime along with her guidance of the Titans.
She’s thrilled to be back at her high school alma mater, which she guided to an overall 10-4-1 record this spring, with the Titans eventually falling to Midland Dow in a Division 1 District Final.
“I wanted to give back to the community,” said Wojtanowski, who previously had coached at the club level in Lansing. “West has always had a very special place in my heart ever since graduation.
“When this opportunity presented itself, I knew I had to take the opportunity to be a Titan again,” she continued. “It has been a special experience to coach the program that I grew up with.”
Wojtanowski wants to instill a family-based culture in the Titans program, something she came to know and love while at Michigan State.
“The biggest thing for me is growing them as individuals both on and off the soccer field,” she said.
Wojtanowski believes girls high school and women’s soccer in this country have changed for the better since she played. And, she’s not the least bit surprised by the consistent success of the USWNT.
“The women's game in the US has grown significantly since I started playing soccer in 2000,” Wojtanowski noted. “Our farm systems here in the U.S. along with club, college, and other programs feed a constantly-elite level of players through the USWNT system.”
2020-21 Made in Michigan
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PHOTOS: (Top) Savanna Wojtanowski leads a halftime discussion this spring with her Traverse City West varsity. (Middle) Wojtanowski, second row standing far right in group photo, trained two seasons with the Washington Spirit’s reserves; the Spirit first team included U.S. national teamer Crystal Dunn (left in second photo) and Cameroon national teamer Estelle Johnson (far right). (Below) Wojtanowski makes a save for West against Traverse City Central in 2012. (Top photo by Daisy Kinney, middle courtesy of Savanna Wojtanowski and below courtesy of the Traverse City Record-Eagle.)