![Dani (15) and Megan (10) U’Ren have grown up in Suttons Bay soccer and now play for their father, coach Randy U’Ren.](/sites/default/files/2023-04/230421_SuttonsBay_2H4.jpg)
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.)
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Gull Lakes Builds on Variety of Experiences
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
April 25, 2016
RICHLAND — Military training is not the usual workout for the Richland Gull Lake soccer team.
But that was just one of the girls’ team-building exercises this month to prepare for their run at a fourth consecutive MHSAA Division 2 title.
The players, along with the Portage Northern soccer team, traveled to Fort Custer in Battle Creek where they were put through a rigorous 3½-hour Leadership Reaction Course led by soldiers from the Michigan Army National Guard.
“The LRC challenged the mental and physical abilities of the players,” Gull Lake coach Jeff Corstange said. “The situations tested the players’ problem-solving abilities and leadership skills.
“It was great to see how each team worked together to complete each task as a team.”
Team bonding exercises are a way of making the players a family. That’s one of the keys to the team’s success, said Corstange, now in his fifth season.
If the Blue Devils win a fourth straight title, the seniors will graduate without a season-ending loss. But they insist that’s not their focus.
“It’s not what I need,” said Blue Devils senior goalkeeper Regan Troff, who has committed to play collegiate soccer at Davenport University in Grand Rapids. “We have goals, just like every team.
“Winning a fourth straight title would be awesome … but it’s not something I need to happen to have fun my senior year.”
Strength of community
This was the second year at Fort Custer for the Gull Lake players.
“The coaches divided us into groups with girls we usually aren’t with,” Troff said. “We all worked well together so there wasn’t any fighting.”
On the first of two courses, the girls worked in groups of six or seven, rotating through five stations in a timed exercise, Corstange said.
At each station, they had to move a 50-gallon drum or 40-pound box, along with other equipment such as ropes or boards, over various obstacle courses.
“The second was a land obstacle course which tested individual strength and speed,” he added. “Each athlete completed two courses which ranged from hurdles, rope swings, climbing to balance and speed.”
Gull Lake will give back to the military when the Blue Devils face Portage Northern in Richland on May 9 for a Military Appreciation Night. The 110th Attack Wing Honor Guard will present the colors at halftime, and active and veteran military personnel including those representing American Legion posts, the Michigan Army National Guard, Air Force, Blue Star and Gold Star mothers will be honored.
“We will serve dinner during the varsity game to the military and their families,” Corstange said. “Each team will wear special jerseys along with a military name on the jersey to honor the military.”
But that will be just one way Gull Lake gets involved with the community this spring.
A week ago, the players hosted several Special Olympians for practice and drills. On Friday, prior to Gull Lake’s game with Kalamazoo Central, the Special Olympians warmed up with the team and each player walked out with one of the Blue Devils with her name announced over the public address system.
At halftime, the Special Olympians played the Blue Devils’ junior varsity team.
Gull Lake’s varsity defeated Kalamazoo Central, 8-0, and takes a 5-1 record into this week’s action. The only loss so far was 3-1 to DeWitt, ranked second in Division 2. Gull Lake is ranked fifth.
Many ways to win
Gull Lake’s girls won each of their MHSAA championships in a different way.
Taking a 25-1-1 record into the Division 2 Final last year, the Blue Devils faced Fenton – with regulation ending 0-0. Gull Lake finally won 1-0 on penalty kicks.
Choosing which girls to take penalty kicks does not come by happenstance.
“We do a drill toward the end of practice,” Corstange said. “The girls come up to me and tell me and the assistant coaches where (into the net) they’re going to shoot their PKs.
“One of the reasons we do that is to put pressure on them because if they miss, the entire team has to run. If they tell us where they’re going to place their PK and do put it there most of the time, then we know who are our good PK shooters.”
Troff said last year’s title was most stressful, especially with PKs deciding the game
However, “They are all special,” she said. “I remember every single one.
“I can tell you when people scored, when there was a breakaway, how many corner kicks. I have it all written down. I have the videos.”
For the team’s first MHSAA title, the Blue Devils defeated Bloomfield Hills Marian, 1-0, in two overtimes.
Corstange knew the players would have targets on their backs in 2014, and once again scheduled a tough nonconference schedule.
“We took it game by game in the regular season, setting out to win the (Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference) first before thinking of the postseason,” he said.
Gull Lake faced Marian again in the 2014 Final, winning 2-1 in regulation.
Emma Hanna, a freshman on this year’s squad, said the younger players feel some pressure to keep the winning trend alive.
“I do feel a little pressure. But I do feel like if we do win it, it will be good. But if we don’t win it, it will still be a good time,” she said.
“I’m having a lot of fun. I’m glad for the experience and what happens, happens.”
Hanna, who plays midfield, said the older players help out a lot.
“The older girls give you a lot of advice,” she said. “I like (practicing against senior) Maddie Fouts, and that helps me a lot.
“They talk to you and let you know what you need to do better. You look up to them because they’ve been doing this for four years, and it helps you a lot prepare for the other teams.”
Like previous champs, this year’s team has its share of interesting back stories.
Senior Lauren Nusbaum broke her foot her sophomore year and was team manager. Her junior season, “I sat,” she said. “It was very nerve-wracking (watching the MHSAA Final) but I knew we were in control.
“When you’re not playing you can see everything, the little mistakes that are made, and you can think, ‘Oh I would have done this or I would have done that.’ I really trusted those girls who were playing.”
And the last line of defense, Troff, was a forward until high school.
“I wanted to try something new,” she said. “I was athletic enough. I didn’t have the technical skills per se, but because I was so athletic I seem to fit pretty well into it.
“I think playing forward helps me now because I know where they’re going to shoot. I know what I would do so I judge what other people will do.”
After losing eight seniors to graduation, this year’s varsity again features eight seniors, four juniors, three sophomores and six freshmen.
Other seniors are Chloe Lipovsky, Lucy Sandell, Anya Jennette, Kenzie Harney and Braedan Snow.
Fouts, Sandell and Troff are team captains. Juniors are Grace Clancy, Elise Blakely, Grace Lehman and Autumn Hoyt. Sophomores are Nicole Miller, Taylor Wesley and Kelsey Jacobs; and other freshmen are Mackenzie Wank, Sophie Tilbury, Avery Cook, Lindsey Buckhout and Maddie Rossen.
“The talent here at Gull Lake, we’ve been gifted with athletes and with (local clubs) Midwest United and Kingdom in the area, for them establishing the girls to where, when they come into the high school season, they are excited about playing,” Corstange said. “We continue to grow soccer players.”
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Gull Lake's Lucy Sandell (9) works for control of the ball. (Middle) Jeff Corstange and Regan Troff, Lauren Nusbaum and Emma Hanna. (Below) Nusbaum prepares to move the ball upfield for the Blue Devils. (Action photos by Cindy Corstange, The Open Shutter.)