St Catherine's Hehs Earns NFHS Honor

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

January 25, 2021

Longtime Detroit-area girls tennis coach Judy Hehs has been named one of 23 National Coaches of the Year for 2019-20 by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NHFS) Coaches Association.

Hehs was selected first at the state level and then from among the eight sections that make up the NFHS – Michigan is part of Section 4 with Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin. She previously had been named national Coach of the Year for girls tennis for 2014-15.

The following brief bio includes an excerpt from Hehs’ coaching philosophy, which nominees were asked to submit after being identified as candidates for the awards.

Judy Hehs coached girls tennis at Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart from Fall 1996 through Spring 2019 and served as co-coach of six MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 championship teams over her last eight seasons with the program. She was slated to coach the girls team at Wixom St. Catherine in Spring 2020, but that season was canceled due to COVID-19. She also coached Sacred Heart’s varsity girls basketball team from 1988-95 and two sports at Detroit Country Day – field hockey in fall 1987 and then junior varsity boys tennis (while also serving as the varsity assistant) from spring 1988-2000. Hehs was inducted in 2015 into the Michigan High School Tennis Coaches Association Hall of Fame and her girls tennis teams have a record of 169-80-18. She is principal at Wixom St. Catherine and in her 34th year as an educator.

“Let me share my ‘why do I coach’ philosophy: Do I coach to ‘give back?’ Do I coach to ‘make a difference?’ Do I coach for ‘selfish reasons?’ Do I coach because I ‘love it?’ I coach for all those reasons and more. The tennis court is my classroom now; it’s the place where I can teach tennis and valuable life lessons. The challenge isn’t in making great tennis players. It is about building great people. And building great people doesn’t mean we’re looking at wins and losses. Don’t get me wrong, winning is great and fun and helps to build a great team and program. But there is no better place than a tennis court to teach real life lessons – lessons about work ethic, teamwork, problem solving, independence, and the moment when effort turns into belief and belief turns into accomplishment. Athletics is a vehicle to becoming a better version of one’s self. I believe that participating in athletics can change lives, and not just the lives of the athletes whom we coach, but also the person whom we become through coaching. I had coaches in a variety of sports from elementary school through college who inspired me and motivated me to become a better version of myself. Every time I step on that tennis court, I hope to be that person in the lives of my players who inspires and motivates, and helps them become better versions of themselves. That’s why I coach.”

Four more Michigan coaches earned honors in Section 4. Dean Blackledge was honored in boys cross country after leading Hanover-Horton to its second Lower Peninsula Division 3 championship in three seasons in 2019. Kent Graves was the honoree for girls golf after leading Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern to its third-straight LP Division 2 championship that fall. Livionia Stevenson’s David Mitchell was honored in ice hockey; Stevenson most recently won the Division 2 championship in 2012 and finished runner-up in 2015 and 2016. Dexter’s Michael McHugh was honored in boys swimming & diving; although the 2019-20 Lower Peninsula boys season didn’t conclude because of COVID-19, his teams have won four straight Division 2 championships.

The NFHS has been recognizing coaches through an awards program since 1982.

Holland West Ottawa Remains Unmatched in Duals with 35-Win Streak

By Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com

May 18, 2023

HOLLAND – The West Ottawa girls tennis team has experienced unbridled success in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Red over the last six years.

West MichiganThe Panthers own an impressive streak of 35 consecutive dual wins dating back to 2017.

And while several factors have contributed to West Ottawa’s dominance, a devotion to reaching its full potential has been a mainstay.

“The girls have been terrifically dedicated,” said Panthers coach Pete Schwallier, who’s been at the helm of the program for 16 years.

“They've had access to all these different coaches helping them. It’s one thing to have it, it’s another thing to really take it in and use it and they have just 100-percent committed themselves to doing all of these things.

“Whether it be the strength training, the mental side of it or the on-court training. Just all of it. They’ve been doing so much.”

The Panthers will compete in a Lower Peninsula Division 1 Regional today at Hudsonville and chase a fifth-consecutive title. The LPD1 Finals are slated for June 2-3.

The last time West Ottawa lost a dual match to an O-K Red school was May 8, 2017, against Rockford.

Three days later, the Panthers avenged that loss by winning the conference tournament. They’ve won six straight O-K Red championships, including four outright.

“There’s a lot of pride in that, but I think it’s been earned with a lot of hard work,” West Ottawa sophomore Jessica Zhang said. “We put a lot of hard work into these matches. A lot of physical strength and effort along with the mental aspect of the game.”

Despite recently extending their current dual winning streak, the Panthers did finish second to Rockford in this week’s conference tournament by a single point, 60-59 – resulting in a shared league title.

Schwallier said the setback won’t change his team’s intense focus as the Panthers embark on the final two weeks of the season. 

“These girls have worked really hard to not use wins and losses as a motivator,” he said. “Their core values are to be people of integrity and to give their very best. They are very adamant about that.

“They want to win very badly, but they do have this belief that the best way to get there is to not focus on how many wins we've had or which teams we’ve been beating this year. They maintain a strong character and work ethic on the court, and they have a belief that wins will be the result of that.”

The success of the program has been fueled by several people behind the scenes, as well as the team’s local club, the DeWitt Tennis Center.

Andy Blake is the team’s strength and conditioning coach and works with West Ottawa consistently throughout the season, while Hope College junior Kayla Wolma is looking toward a career in sports psychology and has been the Panthers’ mental training coach. 

West Ottawa boys coach and girls assistant Brian Metz and past Kalamazoo College All-American David Borski also have played vital roles.

“It’s been a gradual ramp-up in the amount of community members who have been willing to volunteer as assistant coaches on our staff, and their expertise in particular areas has helped the girls’ development,” Schwallier said. “They are examples of individuals who have helped us make big gains.”

Sophomore Eden Hamilton said Blake and Wolma have been instrumental in assisting the team.

“He helps us do lifts and cardio drills to help with footwork and upper-body strength,” she said. “He also helps with nutrition, and it helps us play better throughout the season. Kayla helps us with our mental state, and we feel like we can play to our full potential because we are preparing ourselves mentally and physically.”

Former players Chloe Karp and Kennedy Dumas also helped set the bar.

Karp graduated in 2019, and according to Schwallier, was the best player to go through the program.

“A lot of young girls in middle school and the underclassmen watched what she did and how she trained and how she got good,” Schwallier said. “The girls started copying her training regiment, and now we have several Chloes. She was the catalyst, and then it was Kennedy Dumas, who was part of the young crew watching Chloe and then took it to the next level.”

Those who have benefited from looking up to past standouts include current singles players Chloe Duckworth and Kam Dumas, both seniors, junior Megan Blake and sophomore Danielle Lebster.

“This next group is continuing that,” Schwallier said. “These four have many young players in middle school who are watching them just as closely as they watched the girls before them. It just shows the power of role models and the value of having good role models.”

This year’s senior group also has influenced younger ones.

“The upperclassmen on our team have definitely set an example for me, starting in middle school,” Zhang said. “They’ve always been around, and I've always looked up to them when it comes to not only tennis but mindset, and how to carry yourself as a person.”

Dean HolzwarthDean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for five years after serving at the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years along with shorter stints at the Ionia Sentinel and WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties. 

PHOTO courtesy of the Holland West Ottawa girls tennis program.