Off Top Finish, Somsel Eyes Bright Future
June 23, 2020
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
TECUMSEH – Erin Somsel will be giving her Valedictorian speech to fellow Tecumseh High School graduates next month. Her message will be to not take anything for granted.
“I think that’s a pretty important thing, especially because of what we are all going through right now,” said Somsel. “You just never know.”
Somsel wasn’t one to take anything for granted in the classroom or on the Tecumseh soccer field.
She entered her senior year No. 3 academically in her class but juggled four advanced placement classes to finish first among her classmates with a 4.222 grade point average.
“I made the goal of being Valedictorian my freshman year,” she said. “I didn’t know if it was possible. I was No. 3 in my class my sophomore and junior years and the start of my senior year. I think the extra advanced placement classes helped put me over the top. It was tough, but worth it.”
Somsel, 18, wants to become a neurologist. She will study biology and biochemistry on a pre-med track at Kalamazoo College. Oh, yeah – she plans on playing soccer too.
“I knew I wanted to play at the next level for a while now,” she said. “Soccer has been a year-round sport for me. It’s been my only sport since middle school.”
Somsel picked up the game before going to school. By the age of 7 she was playing club soccer on traveling teams.
“I played on the local club team in Tecumseh for two years and then moved to the Jackson Rush,” she said. “It was through club soccer that we had a camp in which there was some college coaches. The Kalamazoo coach came to the camp year after year. I’ve known him since my freshman year.”
She missed out on her senior season of soccer because of the global pandemic but committed to Kalamazoo recently. She played center back for Tecumseh and the Rush and intends to continue playing defense in college.
“I’ve always just liked defense,” she said. “I was never one of those players that wanted to be up front and to score goals. I gravitated toward defense from the start. At center-mid, I like the fact that you can see the entire field and sort of direct people. That’s where I like to play.”
Somsel has been a captain for both the Rush and her Tecumseh squad. She was named to the all-county and all-District teams in 2018 and 2019 and was honorable mention in the Southeastern Conference. She picked up two “Defender of the Year” honors from Tecumseh.
Over three varsity seasons, she started all 56 games in which she played. She scored seven goals and had 10 assists over her three seasons, taking just 40 shots on goal during her career.
When she wasn’t hitting the books or on the soccer field, Somsel volunteered with the Lenawee County Humane Society and was an active member of the National Honor Society and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions).
Somsel isn’t worried about trying to mix soccer into her college regimen. By now, she’s used to it.
“Soccer really helped me tremendously with my academics,” said the daughter of Jim and Holly Somsel. “It helped me develop a really good work ethic. I had to have a really good study schedule to keep up with everything, and I had to stick to that schedule. Soccer helped me stay on track.”
Taking the advanced placement classes wasn’t an accident.
“I felt it would be a really good idea, especially since I am going into pre-med,” she said. “I thought it would better prepare me for playing sports and studying in college.”
She did a lot of homework during the car rides from her home in Tecumseh to Jackson, the home of her club team.
“My parents and everyone was super supportive,” she said. “My Tecumseh coaches (Thomas Goodman and Matt Twiss) and my Rush coach (Marco Bernardini) really helped me along the way.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Tecumseh’s Erin Somsel lines up a free kick during a game last season. (Middle) Somsel, wearing 2 earlier in her career, controls the ball. (Top photo courtesy of Somsel; middle by Mike Dickie.)
Team of the Month: Grosse Pointe North Girls Soccer
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
June 28, 2023
The Grosse Pointe North girls soccer team won the Division 2 title this month after entering the postseason with just four wins. The Norsemen then became the first eventual champion to advance to a Final with single-digit victories – reaching 10 with a 3-2 shootout clincher over East Grand Rapids at Michigan State’s DeMartin Stadium.
There wasn’t a lot about GPN’s awe-inspiring run that fit the usual template – and no defining “aha” moment when coach Olivia Dallaire knew she had a champion in the making. Instead, the whole season was a building process – but with a clear turning point in the Regional Semifinal.
Coming out of a strong Macomb Area Conference Red, GPN had entered its District the second seed despite its overall record, and with confidence it could win that bracket. But now the Norsemen were facing No. 2-ranked Bloomfield Hills Marian (15-1-2), a nine-time Finals champion, and trailed 2-0 at halftime.
“That (second) half of that game is the turning point the girls still now talk about,” Dallaire said. “We were challenging them that winning the District was not enough; we have more that we can give. I think we came out in the first game of the region satisfied with getting that District title. We were hard on them at halftime. I think they were shell-shocked by Marian, a very good program, and just a little nervous and complacent.”
But Grosse Pointe North – the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” for June – came back to take Marian to a shootout in an eventual 3-2 win, then defeated No. 6 Trenton in the Regional Final and No. 10 Linden in the Semifinal before edging the No. 4 Pioneers at MSU.
A GPN championship run had a built-in storyline already with Dallaire, who as a junior played on the 2008 Norsemen team that finished Division 1 runner-up before playing her college soccer on the field at MSU where she coached this year’s team to the school’s first championship in the sport.
But of course the uncharted path made for even more. The Norsemen were outscored by a combined 21-16 during the regular season, but outscored six playoff opponents by a combined 11-5 (counting two goals that came with winning those shootouts.)
“I don’t know if I had one defining moment where I felt like we could go all the way and win the whole thing, just because we were challenged every step of the way,” Dallaire said. “Our game against Marian in the Regional Semifinal definitely was a big win and confidence booster for the girls and the coaches. Other than that, just when we got to the state Semifinal game, once we got that win (we) felt anything could happen in the final game. We really had to take one at a time.”
Dallaire also had played on North’s 2008 Class A girls basketball championship team and had plenty of experience with the specialness that goes with reaching a season’s final week. Senior Mia Stephanoff had just come off helping the girls basketball team to the Division 1 Quarterfinals this winter and could echo those sentiments. Stephanoff, by the way, scored the championship-clinching shootout goal against EGR.
GPN entered May with a 3-4-2 record, and after another loss ran off five straight draws. But throughout those ups, downs and lateral advances, Dallaire reminded her team their goal was to peak at the end of month – even if no one would have anticipated the team would climb that high.
“The girls were getting frustrated not seeing the success with the wins, and it was a constant weekly thing we had to remind them that as long as we were improving we were not as a coaching staff concerned about the wins and losses,” she said. “I think at some point they started to believe in that towards the end of our regular season, and when we got results against (Division 1 No. 12) Eisenhower and Anchor Bay and those types of teams … that was a good start to that playoff run.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2022-23
May: Gaylord softball - Report
April: Saugatuck girls soccer - Report
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