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.)
Sacred Heart Completes Championship Chase
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
June 4, 2016
KALAMAZOO — After cruising to an MHSAA tennis title last year, Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart eked out a one-point nail-biter over Traverse City St. Francis to repeat Saturday at Kalamazoo College’s Stowe Stadium.
It was the fourth Lower Peninsula Division 4 title in five years for the Gazelles.
“We’ve been chasing Traverse City all season,” Sacred Heart coach Judy Hehs said. “We lost to them in a dual meet early.
“We had to elevate our game in order to compete with them.”
St. Francis finished second with 27 points and Kalamazoo Hackett, with three individual champs, was third with 24 points.
Jackson Lumen Christi (22) was fourth, Ann Arbor Greenhills fifth (17) and Kalamazoo Christian sixth (16).
Hackett, which earned just one point at last year’s MHSAA Final, had winners at No. 1 singles (senior Kate Ketels), No. 2 singles (sophomore Natalie Moyer) and No. 4 doubles (juniors Kelsie Stewart and Maggie Wilson).
Getting so close to the title but losing was hard, St. Francis coach Paul Bandrowski said.
“One point, that is tough, but you can’t second guess,” he said. “We had a player that was injured and had to be replaced at 3 doubles.
“We had some three-setters that came down to the last seconds. We did really well. You can’t get much closer than that. We had at least one state champ in Rosie (Wilson).”
Although she played high school tennis as a freshman, Ketels instead played USTA tournaments the last two years.
Coming back to high school tennis, “It was definitely worth it,” said Ketels, who pulled out a tough 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Kalamazoo Christian senior Lizzie Bauss for the No. 1 singles title.
“It was an awesome team. A lot of us are friends off the court, so we had a really good dynamic. It makes me more excited to go to Gonzaga (in the fall). Being on a team is a lot more fun; it’s a lot more rewarding.”
After dropping the first set, Ketels, the top seed, regrouped.
“Lizzie came out and played really well,” she said. “I was surprised to see that. I knew I had to play better if I wanted to win.
“My teammates really helped me a lot. Everyone was like ‘Come on Kate, you can do it.’ I don’t think I would have won if they weren’t there.
With their schools in the same conference, the two played each other five times this season with Ketels winning all five.
“Kate and I have grown up playing tennis in the same city all our lives, and we actually did not play each other until this year,” said Bauss, the second seed who will play tennis at Indiana Wesleyan in the fall.
“In the first set, I had a good set and she never really let down. She’s a tough player. I was getting a little tired and tried to keep going.”
Hackett coach Aaron Conroy juggled the lineup when Ketels joined the team.
“When you drop a girl the caliber of Kate Ketels at the top of your lineup, it moves everybody else down and that, in itself, is a pretty big deal,” he said.
“Even more so than that, this group of girls gelled well together, they had fun together, they hung out together. That’s what high school tennis is all about.”
At No. 2, top-seeded Moyer defeated K-Christian senior Audrey Bouma, 7-5, 6-1, in the final.
“She came out with different strategies this time and caught me off guard (in the first set), but I got it back,” said Moyer, who played No. 1 singles last year, earning the team’s only championship meet point.
Playing on the court next to Ketels helped, she said.
“We like to motivate each other,” Moyer said. “We look at each other and like, ‘Let’s go.’ Then we’ll pump each other up.”
The Hackett players were easy to spot around the stadium with their bright pink hats, even though their school colors are green and white.
“Last year, we wondered what we could do about hats, what will set us apart from everyone and give us our own little thing,” Moyer said. “We said pink looks pretty good with green and white, and everyone knows us as the Pink Hats now.”
Bouma, the second seed, won the No. 2 singles title last year.
“(Natalie’s) a very strong player, but I think I had a pretty good first set today,” Bouma said. “I played pretty hard. It was a good match.”
She said the key to their team’s success is, “Everyone really encourages each other to do their best, and we have some great coaches that put in a ton of time. Our team has a really positive attitude.”
Although Sacred Heart’s Elizabeth Etterbeek was the sixth seed at No. 2, she lost to Bouma in the semifinals, giving her team an unexpected point.
At No. 4, Sacred Heart’s Victoria Shahnazany was seeded fourth and lost to St. Francis senior Rosie Wilson, 7-5, 6-3, in the final, earning another unexpected point.
“Two singles played beyond her seed and lost in the semis,” Hehs said. “Victoria, our fourth singles, also played beyond her seed. I’d say those two really made a difference for us.”
Shahnazany said she has played Wilson, the third seed, before and knew what to expect.
“It’s been fun playing Rosie throughout the season,” the sophomore said. “She’s great competition, and I’m glad I had the chance to play her at states.
“I think I could have played better today, but I tried my best on the court and that’s what matters.”
Wilson said they have had some tough matches against each other.
“I knew this would be tough because we played each other twice already,” Wilson said. “I won both, but they were very close. I just knew it was going to be tough, but I had to keep going.”
At No. 3 singles, Sacred Heart senior Selina Fuchs, the second seed, defeated St. Francis sophomore Anne Bandrowski, the top seed, 6-3, 6-3.
“I couldn’t find my rhythm at first, and it’s something most tennis players struggle with,” Fuchs said. “After a while I started seeing how she worked. After that, it was good.”
Bandrowski recovered from a medical timeout in the third set to win her semifinal match.
In the semifinal, “My dad (who is the coach) gave me a pep talk and just told me to forget the last two sets and put it all out there,” to defeat Hackett sophomore Maggie Ketels, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.
In the final, “I don’t think I played as well, but she was better, I think,” Bandrowski said. “She made a lot more balls.”
Lumen Christi senior Lauren Reynolds and sophomore Sela Clifford held their top seed at No. 1 doubles with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over St. Francis seniors Carlee McCardel and Jenna Tomczak, seeded second.
“When you come to a venue like this, we (Sacred Heart) needed Jackson Lumen Christi to win that one doubles match,” Hehs said. “That was a swing point.”
Being the top seeds “put an incredible amount of pressure, but it’s good,” Clifford said. “Pressure builds diamonds.
“In the third set, “We just ran with our momentum, and it just took us.”
Although this is their first year as doubles partners, “We work together, we always talk, we always stay up and we always communicate,” Reynolds said.
At No. 2 doubles, Sacred Heart seniors Abby Hildebrand and Gretchen Lemon, seeded second, defeated top seeds Bethany Richey, a senior, and Mary Margaret Sutherland, a sophomore, 6-2, 6-3.
Both Gazelles played singles last year and had a bit of a hard time adjusting to doubles.
“We’re fresh off the singles playing style,” Lemon said. “Coming together as two singles players was really rocky at first. Toward the end, we really found our playing style and found our niche.”
Hildebrand said the two take different styles to their matches.
“She’s really good at the net and I’m better back,” she said. “That really worked out well for us this year and helped us today.”
At No 3 doubles, Sacred Heart’s top seeds, Tate Lehman, a senior, and Kathryn Monahan, a sophomore, defeated St. Francis’ No. 2 seeds, senior Nichole Ehardt and junior A.J. Flannery, 7-5, 6-0.
Flannery started the season on the junior varsity but stepped up when junior Camille Madion was injured.
“It was definitely weird watching,” Madion said. “It was definitely the best for the team for me to be subbed out.”
Paul Bandrowski said: “AJ Flannery is a new player that started this year, played just a few matches. She got all the way to the finals, which was terrific.
”Camille was wonderful, She cheered the entire time, she gave 100 percent of her encouragement to the team and we really wanted to win it for her, too.”
At No. 4 doubles, Wilson and Stewart, the second seeds, defeated Sacred Heart top-seeded juniors Stella Betrus and Meghan Carroll, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
“We kept a positive energy the whole time,” Wilson said. “I don’t think we were pumped up enough for it (in the first set). I don’t think we had the right mindset, energy to really grind it out.
In the second set, “We talked to each other, talked to our coach Lizzie (Oosterbaan) and got really pumped up. We got a positive mindset and just grinded it out. (Winning the title) is even better than we thought.”
Stewart said their friendship extends off the court.
“We work really well together and we communicate really well together (on the court),” she said. “Beyond that, we’re just really good friends.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Kalamazoo Hackett's Katie Ketels returns a shot during her run to the No. 1 singles championship at Kalamazoo College. (Middle) Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart repeated as LP Division 4 champion. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)