K-United Enjoying Dream Turnaround

By Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com

January 24, 2017

KALAMAZOO — When Mitch Kihm was a freshman, his Kalamazoo United hockey team posted a 1-9 record in league play.

A year later, the team went 0-10, and his junior season, 5-5.

The goaltender said he was confident things would get better – and his patience has paid off.

“In my dreams freshman year, I was thinking of my senior year but never expected us to be this good,” Kihm said.

United is currently 5-1-0 in the Southwest Michigan High School Hockey League, losing for the first time last week, 4-3, to the Kalamazoo Eagles. United is 14-1-1 overall.

“This is cool this year,” league commissioner Frank Noonan said. “In the 18 years I’ve been doing this. they’ve never been a powerhouse team.

“I think a lot of it is their coaching. They’ve got a young guy (Tyler Kindle) in there who’s a former professional player and now he’s taking that energy as a player and turning it into coaching.”

Kihm added that experience is also a key.

“I knew from my freshman year that we might not have been that good but we all bonded, and now our entire team has really come together and has nice chemistry,” the Hackett Catholic Prep senior said.

“Everything’s a lot different in the locker room, attitude-wise, now from our first two years.”

Hackett senior Hunter Taplin agrees.

“My sophomore year, the attitudes weren’t that good,” he added. “We were expecting to lose. That’s slowly going away. This year it’s all positive.”

United is a co-op team with players from K-Central, Loy Norrix and Hackett. Norrix’s Andrew Laboe is the team’s athletic director.

Next month, the team will host an MHSAA Division 1 Pre-Regional at Wings West which includes East Kentwood, the team that knocked United out of the postseason last year. Lowell is the other opponent.

Not having all his teammates as classmates has its good side, Taplin said.

“It can be for the better because if you’re having problems with someone at school, that can transfer over,” he said. “Here, it’s just hockey.”

Loy Norrix senior Jake Remelius blends two of the schools.

Although he and senior Noel Cavey are the only two from Norrix, Remelius attended K-Central the previous three years.

In addition, “Most of the Hackett guys, the seniors, I’ve been playing with them since I was 10. So we’ve grown up together, and we’ve gotten a lot closer over the years.”

The seniors have stepped into leadership roles and are the team’s top point-getters.
Cavey leads United with 44 points on 21 goals and 23 assists.

Hackett’s James Amat (5 goals-21 assists) and Taplin (10-16) are next with 26 points each. Hackett’s Quentin Cerutti has 25 points (14-11), and Remelius rounds out the top five with 24 (8-16).

Remelius is team captain.

“He does everything for us,” Kindle said. “He plays nearly half the game. He contributes offensively for us and is really stout defensively.

“He’s one of our biggest hitters. He takes the body well and is strong on his feet. He makes smart plays.”

Cavey and Kihm are the only four-year players on the team.

“Noel Cavey’s been through it all,” Kindle said. “He’s seen all the ups and downs and it’s fun to see him have a good season. He’s leading the team in goals right now.

“James Amat has been playing really well, especially lately, and Q’s (Cerutti) a really big kid and he’s a force out on the ice. He can shoot the puck. When he’s playing well, we’re tough to stop.”

Kindle said he has confidence in his netminders.

“Both Mitch and Jake Gerhard (Kalamazoo Central sophomore) have done a real good job back there when they’ve been in.

“They’ve really stepped up and are stalwarts back there.”

Kihm has eight wins and Gerhard has five. K-Central senior Jenna Stanley, playing her first year of high school hockey, was in goal for one win.

Taplin is a two-play player.

“He’s having a really good year,” Kindle said. “He’s a forward but he also drops back on D. 

“He’s been kind of our utility guy. He plays wherever we need him.”

Cerutti’s first year with the team was the 0-10 season.

“Just the fact that we knew we had a great, great core and all of our ‘stars’ were sophomores at the time while all these other schools had juniors and seniors leading them,” he said. 

“We were thinking just another year, another two years and we’re gonna be that team that everyone looks up to. This year we came in with sky-high confidence, and we just keep going.”

Kihm said being the team’s last line of defense is not easy.

“The mental part before the games is tough,” he said. “It does seem like a lot is riding on you. It feels like if you let a goal in, it’s all your fault.

“But you can’t think that way or it’s gonna make the whole game, for you at least, pretty bad. 

“The fun part is definitely making the big save that helps the team, gets them motivated and then go score a goal. Winning games is the most fun part.”

Remelius said the worst part of the six-team SWMHSHL is “Our team is actually the only team in the league without a rivalry, without a Cup. All the other teams have one and then there’s us.

“There’s Mattawan and Portage Central, Central and Portage Northern. Eagles and Blades have a rivalry cup so we’re left out. The only trophy we’re playing for is the league championship trophy.”

Kindle took over as coach three years ago and his first year was the winless one. From there, he started building a winner.

“We have a saying, “Nine years in the pros,” Taplin said of the coach. “He actually does bring experience.”

“He’s a fun guy, too. He’s the right coach for our team.”

One of Kindle’s pro seasons included a stint with the minor league Kalamazoo Wings.

He took over United when he retired.

“I got old and started to slow down a bit,” said the 38-year-old who is a civil engineer at Kingscott Associates. “The minors aren’t always glamorous.

“It was a lot of fun, but it got to a point where it’s time to let the younger kids play. I would never trade anything. I have no regrets.”

When he took over the team the biggest problem was motivation, Kindle said.

“When I first got here, there was a lot of just standing around on the ice,” he said. “I would see the puck and I would be like ‘Go get it, just go get the puck. That’s all you have to do. It’s easier to score if you have the puck.’”

Forwards include K-Central sophomores Topher Strunk and Tony Schirripa and freshman Jack Kirschensteiner, plus Hackett juniors Dominic Monendo, Brenden Warner and Matthew Romano and freshman Garrett Warner.

Defensemen are K-Central junior Michael Schirripa and freshman Brandon Murray and Hackett juniors Eric Smith, Nathan Carr and Andrew Burke.

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 pamkzoo@aol.com with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.

PHOTOS: (Top) Kalamazoo United players (from left) Noel Cavey, Quentin Cerutti and Hunter Taplin celebrate a goal. (Middle) Clockwise, from top left, coach Tyler Kindle, Mitch Kihm, Jake Remelius and Hunter Taplin. (Below) Cerutti scores one of his 14 goals this season. (Action photos by Rob Carr/Action Shots Photography.)

EGR's Newton Returns to Rink Amid Speedy Recovery from Double Lung Transplant

By Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com

January 22, 2025

EAST GRAND RAPIDS – The last thing Chris Newton wanted to do was miss any time away from the hockey rink this season.

West MichiganBut when the East Grand Rapids hockey coach received a 3 a.m. phone call last month, he knew it was inevitable.

Newton also knew he would be receiving the possibility for a longer life and an opportunity to continue his lifelong passion.

Newton, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at 4 months old, received news that a set of donor lungs was available, and he began the process of undergoing a second double lung transplant. 

“I get a call and it was a 616 number so I knew exactly what it was, but I was totally shocked,” Newton, 35, said. “I definitely didn’t go back to sleep after that, and my mom was there visiting and everyone was surprised that it happened so quickly. If they find a good set, you can’t pass on it.”

Newton, a former Farmington High School goalie and assistant coach, had his first double lung transplant eight years ago.

“It was always in the cards that I would need one,” said Newton, a senior on the 2007-08 team that reached the Division 2 Semifinals and later an assistant coach for his dad, the late Bill Newton, with the 2013-14 Falcons squad that won the Division 3 title.

“I have a weird CF gene, and I don't qualify for the really good medicine they make that has made a difference in a lot of people's lives. A transplant was my only option as my health was decreasing pretty rapidly. And then, after eight years, you get rejection and they call it CLAD (chronic lung allograft dysfunction). The body starts rejecting lungs even though they had been good for like six years.” 

Newton directs his players on the bench during a game.Newton was diagnosed with CLAD two years ago, and it started slowly progressing.

He re-listed for another transplant in November, and 14 days later received the good news. It was two days after he collected his 100th career coaching victory.

“In comparison, the first time it was a 3½ month wait,” Newton said. “I had surgery on Dec. 10 at Corewell Health, and I came back to practice on Jan. 6. I missed two weeks of hockey with the three-week break we had, so it worked out.

“I feel great, and it's crazy to be back so quickly, but I feel good. The other sickness I have is coaching. I’m almost addicted to it when it's hockey season, and it’s really the only thing I think about. It’s what I do during these months, and it’s how I’m wired. When it happened, it was like this is perfect timing. I’m barely going to miss anything.”

The EGR hockey community has supported Newton throughout his transplant and recovery, and his players were motivated to give their best effort with their coach on the mend.

“Obviously it's been a long road for him, and it’s not the first time he has had this double lung transplant,” EGR senior center James Albers said. “It’s been pretty incredible, and all the guy wants to do is just coach hockey. He puts in all the fight, so I think the guys rally around him and want to do it for him, get big wins.

“We didn’t talk about it, but we wanted to play our best hockey for him because all he wants to do is show up at the rink for us. I have people at school ask me all the time how he’s doing, and it’s awesome to tell them that he looks incredible and is back on the ice after only a month.”

Senior Owen Stropkai has been on the varsity since his freshman year and has become close with his beloved coach.

“It’s great to have him back, and the positivity that he brings is awesome,” Stropkai said. “Every day it's a new level, and our team pushes for him. What he's been going through is horrible, but we think of him every day and grind together for him. He’s a great guy.”

Grant Newton, EGR’s associate head coach and no relation, took over the program in Chris Newton’s absence.

“We have a really good relationship, and we are close off the ice,” Chris Newton said. “I coached him at Farmington when we won a state championship, and he has helped me get the program to where it is.

“I went to him this summer, and we had a plan in place. I made sure he was comfortable taking over for me, and he did a great job.”

Chris Newton, whose family includes wife Jessie and sons Liam (6) and Carter (3), has transformed EGR into a perennial powerhouse the past few years.

Newton takes a photo with members of this season’s EGR team.The Pioneers have made back-to-back appearances in the Division 3 Final. They lost to Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood 3-2 in triple overtime last year and suffered a 3-2 loss to Flint Powers Catholic in 2023. 

EGR reeled off seven straight wins to open this season and is currently 12-3-1 and tied for first in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Rue despite heavy graduation losses last spring.

“The one thing that is great about this team is we haven’t stopped what we've been doing the last two years when we’ve had success,” Chris Newton said. “We’re sticking to details and making it more about the program than individuals.

“Our motto this year is being uncommon. I wanted that way back in the summer before this even happened. The motto has stuck to me, that I'm uncommon, but I wanted our kids to compete and be uncommon daily, and they’ve done that. It’s been a great group to be around and a group I wanted to get back to as quickly as I could.”

Chris Newton was blessed to have a superb transplant team help him navigate the process.

“The people there were great, and my surgeon was absolutely incredible,” he said. “They are good and talented people, and the nursing staff made it way easier than I expected.

“Obviously, no guarantees or anything, and everything is going well right now,” he added. “I’m still being seen a lot and being tested, but no number can be put on it. Eight years was a good run with the first set, but you just don’t know. I don’t have a crystal ball as to what will happen.”

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 dream100@comcast.net with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties. 

PHOTOS (Top) East Grand Rapids hockey coach Chris Newton instructs his team during a practice. (Middle) Newton directs his players on the bench during a game. (Below) Newton takes a photo with members of this season’s EGR team. (Photos by Grant Newton.)