Team of the Month: Saugatuck Girls Soccer

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

May 12, 2023

As mid-May approached two years ago, girls soccer was nowhere to be found in the Saugatuck trophy case, and the team’s championship banner hung blank in the school’s gym next to well-populated celebrations for cross country, track & field and other programs with histories of success.

Just less than 24 months later, things have changed – and are still accelerating as the Trailblazers are putting up numbers from the pitch now as well.

The Saugatuck girls soccer program capped its 2021 season by winning its first District title, then repeated last season. And just over a week ago, the Trailblazers clinched their first league championship in the sport, claiming the Southwestern Athletic Conference Lakeshore title with a 3-0 win over Holland Black River.

Saugatuck’s girls soccer team – the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” for April – is undefeated since suffering its lone loss of the season March 27. The Trailblazers are 14-1, up to No. 9 in the Division 4 coaches poll, and show no signs of slowing down with 10 shutouts including five over their last six games.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm, especially because soccer hasn’t been big in our school … so to actually get some notice for what we’re doing in soccer, I think our girls are just really super excited about all the attention they’ve received,” said Trailblazers coach Jordan Campbell, who took over the girls soccer program in 2014. “But I think they are also a pretty confident group. I think they expected to be able to compete really well, and last year we lost six games and I think our seniors this year took that all a little personally because they felt that we were better than some of those teams.

“It’s kind of like we want to make sure that (Saugatuck girls) soccer is not just a team that’s just around and can be competitive, but it’s a team that you’ve got to be prepared for.”

After the 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19, Saugatuck won 12 games both of the last two. The Trailblazers finished 12-6-3 last year, and already this spring has avenged three of those losses and turned the three draws into three victories.

A group of seven seniors has set things in motion again after helping make the charge over the last two seasons. Senior Adele Nieuwsma moved to Saugatuck from out of state before the 2021 season and made the Division 4 all-state third team a year ago. Haley Rivera, Erin Moerler and Eva Kierzek join her as captains and came up through the Saugatuck recreation and community programs. Iris Kuipers, Ellen Martinsson and Mia Zerfas further bolster the senior class – Kuipers, along with sophomore keeper Kennedy Gustafson, earned all-state honorable mention in 2022.

The team is surging, and the program is growing. The Trailblazers are up about 10 players over totals from the last two seasons, to 35 this spring, which has allowed for varsity and junior varsity teams.

It was a memorable moment for sure when the “2021” was added to the girls soccer banner in the gym, signifying that first District title. These seniors may need to return to celebrate the “2023” for the league title – and perhaps more – that could be part of this memorable run before it finishes next month.

“We’ve had really solid core seniors, and they’ve really stepped up and I almost feel like we’re on autopilot with this group because they do everything on their own and they push each other, and they work to get each other involved and they care about the younger kids and try to get them involved,” Campbell said. “I think it’s a huge thing we’ve seen with this group coming up and getting some experience and building, and seeing where we were when they started as freshman to the last couple of years.”

Past Teams of the Month, 2022-23

March: Croswell-Lexington competitive cheer - Report
February:
Hart girls & boys basketball - Report
January:
Taylor Trillium Academy girls bowling - Report
December:
Byron Center hockey - Report
November:
Martin football - Report
October:
Gladwin volleyball - Report
September:
Negaunee girls tennis - Report

PHOTO courtesy of the Saugatuck athletic department. 

Kalamazoo Christian Building on Lessons Learned during 2022 Finals Run

By Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com

May 16, 2023

KALAMAZOO — During her freshman year, Elizabeth Netz was settling in on the Kalamazoo Christian junior varsity soccer team as a defender, gelling with her teammates with thoughts of one day playing on varsity.

Southwest CorridorThose days came sooner than the now-junior expected.

“When she was a freshman, we had no goalkeeper,” varsity head coach Jay Allen said. “JV had no goalkeeper either and would rotate kids in goal. One day I watched her in net and asked her if she would like to be the varsity goalkeeper.

“Elizabeth is very quiet and she probably, deep down inside, said ‘No.’ Since she didn’t outwardly say ‘No,’ I drafted her and she has been the varsity goalkeeper since her freshman year and has grown and kept us in games.”

Each game was a learning experience for Netz, who had no real experience in goal.

“I was very, very nervous,” she said of that first year. “I’m a very quiet, introverted person, but on the field I’m more confident to say ‘Hey, do this, do that’ and yell through the whole game.

“I definitely got better at yelling.”

After falling just short in the Division 4 championship game last season, a 1-0 heartbreaker to Royal Oak Shrine Catholic, Netz and her teammates are learning from that experience.

The Comets have allowed just 13 goals so far this year and take a 12-4 record into the final weeks of the regular season.

Senior Taylor Leonard, the team’s leading scorer with 25 goals, said a key is team cohesiveness.

“The team isn’t going to thrive off of one person,” she said. “Everybody has a super pivotal role, even if they don’t get in a lot, as long as they’re on the bench and encouraging.

“That’s huge for the overall success of the team.”

Allen said Leonard, who hopes to play soccer at Hope College, leads by example.

Taylor Leonard leads the Comets’ charge upfield. “When there’s an issue on or off the field, you see her leading the way,” he said. “She’s a little reserved, but for those of us who know her, she’s a go-getter.”

Sophomore Jordyn Bonnema sets up many of Leonard’s goals.

“Jordyn’s talent is she can see things happening before they even happen,” Allen said.

“When the ball’s played to her, Jordyn’s already seen where that ball’s going to be three plays later. She may get rid of the ball, but three plays later the ball’s back at her feet.”

Bonnema has come a long way from the days when her parents signed her up for youth soccer.

“I think I was really bad when I was young,” she said. “My parents said I usually just stood and watched the ball.”

She has blossomed since then, not only becoming a force in soccer, but earning first-team all-state honors this year in both golf and basketball.

One thing she said the team learned from last season’s run to the Final is “the work you put in at the beginning of the season is really something that really pays off at the end.

“We all push each other and have the integrity to hold each other accountable – to be able to know we’re all working toward the same goal. At the end of the day, you’re working for the people that are next to you.”

Netz said that encouragement is a big motivator.

“Letting people know it’s ok to make mistakes. We just need to turn around and give everything into it,” she said. “We play for the glory of the team and for the glory of God.”

Tough competition always pays off

Allen always sets a competitive schedule to get the players prepared for postseason play.

“We play a tough out-of-conference schedule,” he said. “We take (a few lumps). We’ve played against some stronger Division 3 teams that, although the score doesn’t reflect it, we played really well.

“Having a very young back line and lineup, it shows our weaknesses, which then we can then tweak.”

Kalamazoo Christian girls soccer coach Jay Allen.In spite of the “lumps,” Leonard said the team never gives up.

“In those games, we’re known to be relentless, even though we’re playing in these super competitive games with these strong teams,” she said.

“Everybody gives 110-percent effort. That also contributes at how well we do at the end of the season because we had to face many tough games throughout the season.”

The Comets have a three-pronged attack in Leonard, Bonnema and senior Chloe Lehman.

“When the three of them work together, it forces the rest of the team to fall into different spots,” Allen said. “We have some very good players like (senior) Annika Sytsma, (junior) Mackenzie Ling, (freshman) Izzy Suloff, (sophomore) Maysen Steensma, who all raise their level of play when the energy is high for the other three.

“This is truly a team. You can say Taylor, Jordyn and Chloe are the backbone, but the others are the muscle. They are what truly allows the other three to have the kind of success they have.”

Other seniors on the team are Maggie de Jong, Rylan Smith, Lillian Klooster and Halee Taylor.

Juniors are Sophia Nash, Phoebe Zeyl and Kate Watson.

The young team also includes sophomores Hannah Hoeksema, Annelise de Jong, Alaina Klooster, Rachel Miller and Kailey Triemstra plus freshmen Aubrie Lehman and Emilee Dyk.

Good fun, great lessons

All of Allen’s assistants are former K-Christian players and no doubt had a hand in some of the traditional pranks the girls play on him.

“It actually started with Jordyn’s mom (Candace Bonnema) when she Saran-wrapped my car and  covered it in flour 28 years ago,” Allen laughed.

“She leads the school in yellow cards in a season with nine, and she started everything. Every year since, somebody has done something to me.”

Jordyn Bonnema (7) navigates among Hackett defenders.The coach takes it all in good fun.

“Either they make a T-shirt of me with a funny face or they put raccoons in my car, and I’m deathly afraid of raccoons. I don’t know what they’re planning to do this year.”

Allen, who is a self-confessed Army brat, grew up in Madrid, Spain, and came to the United States when he was 18 to attend Western Michigan University.

He became an assistant to Comets coach Ron Smilanich 28 years ago, then took over the head coaching job 10 years ago.

He began coaching the boys team in 2010 and still keeps in touch with many former players.

“I average about three weddings and a baptism a year,” he said. “The impact I get to have on both the young ladies and men in this environment is fantastic.

Included in that group are current assistants Sarah Onderlinde, Emma Bertrand, Jenna Blackwell, Maegan Kilgus and Lauryn Mohney.

“One of the big things I like to do is teach them teamwork, teach them responsibility, being on time, working to those positions, how to deal with different personalities,” Allen said.

“One day, your boss is going to be ‘me,’ my generation, and you’re going to have to know how to deal with ‘me.’ How do you resolve a conflict on the team, how do you work together? We provide them with different tools.”

Pam ShebestPam 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) Kalamazoo Christian keeper Elizabeth Netz puts the ball back in play during a game against Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep. (2) Taylor Leonard leads the Comets’ charge upfield. (3) Kalamazoo Christian girls soccer coach Jay Allen. (4) Jordyn Bonnema (7) navigates among Hackett defenders. (Action photos by Dan Cooke; head shot by Pam Shebest.)