Marian Rallies, Achieves Perfection
June 16, 2017
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
WILLIAMSTON – Ellie Deconinck couldn’t have seen her high school career come more full circle Friday at Williamston High School.
The last time Bloomfield Hills Marian was in the Division 2 girls soccer championship game in 2014, Deconinck as a freshman scored its lone goal in a 2-1 loss to Richland Gull Lake.
Now a senior who made a return trip with Marian to Williamston for the 2017 title game, Deconinck heard Marian coach Barry Brodsky remind her of that goal as Marian trailed Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern 1-0 at halftime.
“We both said, ‘That’s your goal down there,’” Brodsky said.
In her last high school game, it certainly was Deconinck’s goal, as she scored twice during the second half to lift Marian to a 2-1 win and its sixth MHSAA championship since 2003.
This title actually ended a five-year drought that was long by Marian’s standards.
Brodsky also said of those six championships, this was the first time a team of his had rallied in the title game.
“People think that just because you have a lot of talent that you are automatically going to win,” Brodsky said. “It doesn’t work that way. The teams we play have a lot of talent. You have to have some luck with you.”
After Marian dominated the scoring chances and play for most of the half, Forest Hills Northern stunned the Mustangs by taking a 1-0 lead with 15:59 left in the first half on a goal by freshman Addie Brown. She got loose just outside the box and fired a perfect shot that hit the bottom of the crossbar and went in.
Marian finally capitalized on a chance 1:15 into the second half, tying the game on Deconinck’s first goal, blasted home from point-blank range after another scoring chance hit the crossbar.
Deconinck struck again with 20:07 remaining, taking a pass in the middle of the box from freshman teammate Anna Leonard and fighting off a couple of defenders to chip a shot into the net and give Marian a 2-1 lead.
“I thought the first half of the game was some of the best soccer our team played all season,” said Deconinck, one of just six seniors on Marian’s roster. “Going into halftime, the seniors and captains were trying to keep everyone’s heads up. We were really proud of how we were playing. We were a touch off. To come back in the second half and play so well to get our team this victory is unbelievable.”
Marian, which hadn’t given up a goal in the MHSAA Tournament before Brown’s first-half tally for Forest Hills Northern, didn’t allow a serious scoring chance the rest of the way.
The Mustangs finished 24-0, their second unbeaten season in school history. The 2004 championship team went 25-0.
“They are very deep, and with a lot of bodies they can rotate,” Forest Hills Northern coach Daniel Siminski said. “They kind of wore us down a bit, and gaps opened up.”
It was the second straight Finals loss for Forest Hills Northern (20-1-4), which fell in last year’s to Pontiac Notre Dame Prep in a shootout (2-1).
“You can’t get too upset when you go undefeated and your first loss is in the state finals,” Siminski said. “That was a helluva game. They kind of wore us down in the second half. If you are going to lose, you lose to the best team. They played better than us today, and they earned it. They deserve it.”
Click for the full scoring summary.
PHOTOS: (Top) Forest Hills Northern’s Lauren Kozal tries to outrun a Marian player to the ball during Friday’s Division 2 Final. (Middle) Marian keeper Isabel Hayes gathers a shot.
Lessons from Multi-Sport Experience Guide Person in Leading New Team
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
August 1, 2024
PARCHMENT — When Amanda Person was in sixth grade, her family hosted an international student from Japan.
Until then, soccer was the main sport for her family – but that soon changed.
“Naoki wanted to play tennis,” Person said. “He started playing and then my sister (Marissa) started playing, and then I started playing.”
That passion for both sports only increased during her four years at Parchment High School.
“Soccer was really fun, but when I look back on my high school career, tennis was the most prominent thing I remember,” the 2008 grad said. “I think it’s because I played year-round: our regular tennis season and then our summer tennis program and winter tennis program.”
Although it has been 16 years since her glory days at Parchment ended, Person has no trouble recalling the best parts of her Panthers sports career.
In fact, coming up with memories from those days is no problem — she has a folder full of photos called “I Miss Team Sports” on her Facebook page.
Playing intramural soccer at Michigan State University, she graduated with a degree in social work, then stayed in the Big Ten. She is the campus tours and ambassador coordinator at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., where she supervises 80 to 100 student tour guides who provide information for families considering the school.
Her ties to the Spartans sometime makes for interesting conversations with her colleagues.
“They give me a hard time,” she said with a quick laugh. “I say Michigan State will always be my No. 1. That’s my alma mater I spent four years of time, tears and money at Michigan State. But I really love Purdue, so I’ll root for the Boilermakers second.”
She is also working on her master’s degree in higher education at Purdue.
Her office in the welcome center shares space with the alumni association, leading to an unforgettable experience.
During a lunch break, she went home to let out her dog, Tessa. When she returned, a trophy and a bucket were sitting on her desk.
Confused, she asked what they were doing there.
“The tour guides I was working with said (during an event) they had to put them somewhere before putting them out (to the public), so they just put them on my desk,” she said.
Turns out, one trophy was the NCAA Final Four runner-up men’s basketball trophy the Boilermakers took home last year after losing to Connecticut in the championship game.
The other was the Old Oaken Bucket, the trophy that goes to the winner between Purdue and Indiana University’s annual football grudge match.
“I didn’t know anything about the Old Oaken Bucket,” she said. “They were like, what do you mean ‘what is this?’ Then they told me the story behind it.”
Creating core memories
Recalling her years at Parchment, Person becomes animated, smiling and laughing at all the memories.
“The first thing I remember is that my sister was really, really good at soccer,” she said. "I was always trying to keep up with her a bit.”
Her dad, Dave Person, noted that “all of our kids (Adam, Marissa, Amanda) had some success in sports during high school while realizing that it was secondary to their education.
“My only input was that I insisted they treat officials, coaches and opponents with respect, which they did. I always thought that while Marissa did very well in tennis, she was a natural at soccer. Amanda, on the other hand, was very good at soccer, but was a natural at tennis.”
Amanda said her soccer memories come down to “we might not have won a lot, but it was still a lot of fun.”
She said while several on the team, including herself, had years of soccer experience, players also welcomed those who wanted to try the sport for the first time.
“Our team had a home for those people, too,” she said. “The games were always fun, but I feel like a lot of being on a team like that is the outside things you do together: the team dinners, the traveling on the bus, even practices.”
Her freshman year, the team advanced to the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Girls Tennis Finals, finishing 19th.
Her senior year was a transition when several sports seasons were switched, putting girls soccer and tennis at the same time during the spring.
Person and the other three two-sport seniors juggled both.
“All of a sudden we were playing soccer and tennis in the spring,” she said. “Thankfully they let us do both, and our coaches were very good in terms (of) making sure nothing important overlapped.”
Person played doubles all four years and was at No. 1 with Kelly Drummond her final two seasons.
“If my memory serves me correctly, I believe we only lost two matches the whole (senior) year, so it was a good year for us,” she said.
It was a very good year.
She and Drummond won their Regional Final, but that ended her prep career since the team did not qualify for championship weekend.
Preparing for life
The best thing about high school tennis, she said, was that it was a combination team and individual sport.
“You can do really well individually and maybe the team doesn’t do well, or maybe the team does well and you don’t do well personally,” she said. “It has the aspect of wanting the entire team to do good.”
Competing in both sports prepared her for the “real” world, she said.
“Playing soccer and tennis and being part of a team helped me cheer other people on,” she said. “The world is a competitive place, so having that foundation of team sports is really good to teach a plethora of things you can use in the real world.
“Even at work, you have your individual job but you’re also part of a team. If one person isn’t doing well, then your whole team isn’t doing well. If someone else is having a hard time, helping them out is helping the team.”
She added that losing also teaches important lessons.
“You’re going to lose at things your entire life,” she said. “Being able to handle losing, handle rejection, is a good skill to have for anything in life. I’ve learned it’s not what happens to you but how you respond to it. That’s a huge lesson. There are a lot of life lessons you can get from playing team sports in high school.”
Her advice to high school athletes today: “Enjoy it, first of all. Don’t take it too seriously in wins and losses.
“When I look back, most of my core memories are being part of a team, having fun with the team, having fun playing the sport. Enjoy your time,” she said.
“Now I miss it.”
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PHOTOS (Top) At left, Parchment’s Amanda Person plays a 2008 tennis match with doubles partner Kelly Drummond; at right, Person and her dog Tessa. (Middle) A pair of beloved trophies sit temporarily on Person’s desk at Purdue. (Below) Person also was a soccer standout at Parchment. (Photos courtesy of Amanda Person.)