Shrine Makes Best of 'Promising' Spring

June 15, 2019

By Jason Schmitt
Special for Second Half

EAST LANSING – Royal Oak Shrine Catholic girls soccer coach Mark Soma knew when he made a promise to Chloe Woodbeck, he’d have to do his best to keep it.

“Chloe and I were texting each other early in the year and I told her ‘If you come play for us, I promise you we will win a state title,’” the coach recalled.

On Saturday afternoon at DeMartin Stadium, the coach made good on his assurance to his Purdue-bound senior. His Knights scored a pair of goals in each half en route to a dominating 4-0 victory over Kalamazoo Christian in the Division 4 championship game, bringing home the school’s first team championship in any sport since 1974.

“He said it and I was like, ‘OK, we’ll see. We’ll see what happens. If we can do it, great. If not, it is what it is,’” Woodbeck said. “So I took the chance and I came out and played, and I’m so happy I did. It’s amazing to be out here with my classmates. It’s something I’ve never been able to do before. I’m so happy I can end my high school career doing this.”

It was Woodbeck, who has attended Shrine but played high-level club soccer with the Michigan Hawks up until this spring, who actually got things going for the Knights. She capitalized on a free kick with 24:11 to play in the first half. Drawing the penalty just moments earlier, Woodbeck sent a shot curling up and over Kalamazoo Christian goalkeeper Jenna Blackwell’s outstretched hands to break the ice for her team.

It proved to be the game-winning goal. But it was just the start for a potent Shrine team which defeated Saginaw Nouvel 6-0 in the Semifinal to earn a berth in its first-ever championship game.

Just under 11 minutes after Woodbeck’s score, junior Lily Hotts took a cross from junior Jess Reaume and redirected it for a 2-0 lead.

As good as the Knights’ offense was, it might have been an even more impressive showing by their defense with the play of junior goalkeeper Allison LaPoint. Trailing by a goal with just under 17 minutes to play in the first half, Kalamazoo Christian junior Lauryn Mohney broke in down the right side. She took a shot from 12 yards out but was thwarted by LaPoint, who made a diving save to her left. LaPoint did the same with 27:30 left in the second half and the Knights leading 2-0. Again it was Mohney on another breakaway. And again, it was LaPoint who made a diving save to preserve the two-goal cushion for her team.

“I rely a lot on my defense because they’re amazing and I trust them. But it is important to be able to make those key saves in tough situations like that,” said LaPoint, who finished the game with four saves.

Shrine (23-3-3) fed off of the defensive energy, scoring to make it 3-0 just five minutes later. Comets head coach Jay Allen felt that was a critical play for his team.

“If Mohney scores that one in the second half, it’s 2-1. That changes the whole complexion of the game,” Allen said. “(LaPoint) makes that save, they come back and it’s 3-0; now we’re in a bigger hole. That keeper is just outstanding. When you have that kind of game, just like hockey, a keeper that can keep you in (the game), that’s half the battle.”

It was freshman Bridgette Drouillard who gave Shrine the three-goal lead, taking a crossing pass from Hotts and punching it home.

Shrine capped off the scoring with 10:24 remaining as junior Regan Robinson took a pass from Drouillard and drilled a shot from 30 yards out.

Despite falling in the Division 4 Final for the third straight season, Allen was proud of his team for achieving what so few get a chance to do.

“We worked hard, from Day 1. When they came in for preseason conditioning, our goal was to be playing here today,” the coach said. “We knew what we needed to do, but (Woodbeck) snuck that one in early on us and we just couldn’t recover from that. My seniors left it all out on the field today. We were just that one pass away, that one shot.”

Kalamazoo Christian finished the season 21-3-2.

Woodbeck has won high-level club championships over the years, but said Saturday’s title was sweet in its own way.

“The difference about playing for your school is the crowd, the amount of people that are here,”  Woodbeck said. “I’ve played in a national championship (game) in San Diego, and there are just parents. It was great, but just having my entire community here and like people I don’t even know who are coming to me, cheering me on. The stands were packed, and I’ve never seen that in club.”

Woodbeck is one of just three seniors on the Shrine roster, along with Katie Norton and Mia Ciarlone. With all the talent returning next year, she’s confident her teammates can do it all over again in 2020.

“I think after this year, the confidence level is so high,” she said. “Even when we were standing in line receiving our medals, everyone was like, ‘Wow, we just did that.’ I think they can do it again. We’ve got like 11 juniors, and they’re all really strong and can carry our midfield. So I think they’re going to be just fine.”

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS: (Top) Royal Oak Shrine Catholic players prepare to accept their first Finals championship trophy in any sport since 1974. (Middle) Shrine’s Hanna Groth looks to score with Kalamazoo Christian’s Elise Van Sparrentak (15) and Jenna Blackwell defending.

Longtime Cheboygan Coach Stormzand Continues Giving to Game as Official

By Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com

April 10, 2023

Twenty-five years ago, Cheboygan girls soccer started by storm.

Northern Lower PeninsulaActually, “Stormy” is more accurate.

As another girls soccer season gets rolling across Northern Michigan this month, the pitch will frequently experience a storm, er Stormy, again.

Stormy is Mark Stormzand, and he may be joined often by his regular referee partner, Alan Granger. Stormzand, one of many members in his family nicknamed Stormy, got the Chiefs girls soccer program started in 1997 after one year as a club. At the time, he was also an assistant coach on the school’s boys team.

His career included 217 total victories, seven District titles, six conference titles, and eight players who went on to play college soccer. He spent two seasons assisting the boys.

But he started another career in 1999. He became a soccer referee. He is still doing it today, which is why the Chiefs definitely will see him on their home field or somewhere else nearby this season.

Like many officials, Stormzand started using the whistle because he really just wanted to be a part of the game.

“I started with just boys soccer because I was coaching the girls,” Stormzand recalled. “I just wanted to be part of the game when I wasn’t coaching. 

Stormzand, now with more than two decades as an official. “I love being around young athletes,” he continued. “And, I enjoy helping.”

Now at 69 years young, Stormzand plans to stay with officiating as long as most officials try.

“Like all of us, until my body won’t,” he says of his when he’ll leave the pitch. “Every year I keep thinking I am surprised I am still doing this.”

Stormzand is glad he started officiating. It has helped fill a void after coaching. It also helped fill a void in his personal life.

In 2015, his wife Gail died after battling breast cancer.

“We had been together since we were 15 years old,” said Stormy. “She was inspirational for my coaching … my kids loved her, and she was always a part of our team.”

Stormzand noted he’s had many great players and great teams over the years — all of which he credits with teaching him more than he taught — but the team from the spring of 2015 is at the top of the list. His wife’s passing came two months before the start of practice.

That team filled the greatest void in his life.

“I kept telling myself if I could make it to soccer season, I can make it,” Stormzand recalled. “They were my life ring by a long shot.

“The team that year was unbelievable with their sensitivity and concern and respect,” he continued. “I was just awestruck of how mature this group of 20 girls were dealing with me and my situation. … I will never forget them.”

Stormzand went on to coach the girls team three more springs as he officiated boys in the fall. He remarried in September of 2018, right after giving up the helm of the program he started.

“It was a dark day for Cheboygan girls soccer when Mark resigned,” said Jason Friday, Cheboygan’s athletic director. “He was one-of-a-kind.

“He just had a way of making every player, no matter what role they had, feel special,” Friday went on. “Year after year, the team chemistry and camaraderie was second to none.”

Stormzand also retired from 45 years in the forestry business. He’s seen a lot of changes in high school soccer, and he admits he picked up things officiating that made him a better coach.

The 2015 team always will hold a place close to Stormzand’s heart.“When I ref’d, I’d see stuff other coaches did and I’d incorporate that into my thinking and coaching,” he said. “Ref’ing made me a better coach, and coaching me a better ref.”

Among his favorite places to referee now are Cheboygan and Mackinac Island. He and Granger have taken the ferry to Mackinac Island for Friday evening and Saturday morning contests for about 10 years.

They’ve enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the Islanders on the pitch as well as the visiting team’s players. Many teams have middle schoolers on the roster, allowing the teams, coaches and referees to become more familiar with each other than they would during just the high school years.

Stormzand and Granger love the spirit of the game on the Island, especially when rivals are in town. Most all the games feature co-ed squads.

“It’s all the positive parts of sports,” Stormy said. “It is just fun — pure sport.

“You can learn the kids’ names, and you’re with them for six years and all their brothers and sisters,” he said. “It’s a very fun community place to ref, especially on a Friday night when they’re playing rivals like Beaver Island.”

Stormy admits he has enjoyed coaching more than officiating so far. But he doesn’t miss sitting on the sidelines in less-than-desirable spring weather. He recalls one season of wearing a raincoat for every match until the District Final.

Running on the pitch helps deal with the difficult weather. He’s seen many officials, players and coaches struggle with the weather conditions, especially when the Chiefs occasionally played at the Coast Guard Cutter Station field.

“We would play there periodically because the high school field had too much snow on it,” he said.  “The Straits (of Mackinac) would still be frozen, and you’d have this mist coming off the Straits. 

‘Some teams would show up without warmups, and it would be like 32 degrees and cold fog.”

Tom SpencerTom 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) Mark Stormzand talks things over with his 2017 team during his time leading the Cheboygan girls soccer program. (Middle) Stormzand, now with more than two decades as an official. (Below) The 2015 team always will hold a place close to Stormzand’s heart. (Top photo courtesy of the Cheboygan Daily Tribune; middle and below photos submitted by Mark Stormzand.)