Staskowski Finds New Home at DeLaSalle
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
December 30, 2016
WARREN – A passion for hockey runs through the Staskowski family.
Craig Staskowski grew up in Sterling Heights playing the sport. For the past five seasons he’s been the successful varsity hockey coach for Rochester Unified, and his eldest son is named after Cam Neely, the former Boston Bruins star forward.
Staskowski, 42, is the vice president of the Michigan High School Hockey Coaches Association, and next season he’ll begin his two-year term as president.
But juggling responsibilities at work and home often leaves little room for outside interests such as coaching. The increasing demands of coaching, notably a growing time commitment, are taking their toll on many coaches in all sports.
Staskowski knows this all too well. He knew, eventually, his stay in Rochester was to be short-lived. His place of business and his home are in Macomb County, and traffic is most often a nightmare going west into Oakland County during peak travel time.
“It’s such a commitment to coach,” he said. “The drive after work was 30 or 35 minutes depending on traffic. I was able to make it work, but how long can you do that? I have two boys, and both will play hockey.”
This past spring Staskowski saw an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. The varsity coaching position at Warren DeLaSalle opened, and Staskowski was hired in May. As difficult as it was to leave Rochester, here was a chance to remain in coaching for years to come.
All in all, Staskowski and his wife, Lindsay, couldn’t be more pleased with the move. His place of business is a mile and a half away from DeLaSalle, and the drive to Mount Clemens Ice Arena where the Pilots practice is a 10-minute drive from his home.
The Staskowskis have two sons and the eldest, Cam, is 8 years old and in his second year playing travel hockey in nearby St. Clair Shores.
“I absolutely have more time to spend with my family,” Staskowski said. “It’s way more convenient. It’s a long-term commitment for me.”
Convenience wasn’t the only factor. Staskowski is a competitive person, and he’s intent on building the program at DeLaSalle to where it can compete on the same level as other members of the Detroit Catholic League like Birmingham Brother Rice, Detroit Catholic Central, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and U-D Jesuit.
Staskowski’s teams at Rochester won four Oakland Activities Association Red titles and twice reached Division 1 Regional Finals.
“Athletics is a big part of the equation at DeLaSalle,” he said. “They’ve have success in other sports. I would like our hockey program to be as good, or better, than those at C.C. and Rice. We want to win a regional and state championship. And so far we’re doing pretty well. We haven’t lost a game in regulation. And we beat U-D for the first time since 2011. And we beat them twice.”
The rivalries within the league are fierce. A team’s success is a measuring stick for how well it can compete at the state level. Staskowski graduated from Sterling Heights High, located a few miles north of DeLaSalle, and one of his best friends in high school was Don DeDonatis, who had two RBI in DeLaSalle’s 14-2 victory over Grand Ledge in the 1993 Class A Baseball Final.
“I always had great respect for the Pilots,” Staskowski said. “One of my assistant coaches, Tom Taylor, is a DeLaSalle alum. Our sons are best friends and play on the same travel team.
“I don’t know what it is about DeLaSalle. It’s something different whether it’s an all-boys school or what. The kids are polite. They’re really good kids. I know the football coach (Mike Giannone). He works at the school, and I’m sure we’ll get to know each other better.”
Giannone just completed his first season at DeLaSalle after he too left a successful local program at Macomb Dakota.
Greg Esler is the longtime basketball coach at DeLaSalle. Esler also cut his teeth coaching at another school (he left St. Clair Shores Lake Shore after the 1993-94 season) before coming to DeLaSalle. Even though Esler said times have changed, one factor remains constant.
“Kids want to be disciplined,” he said. “Whether it’s in a public school or private. There’s so much more going on now with the students with cell phones and social media. The communication is different.
“Giannone and I have a great relationship and we believe we should share kids. There’s so much specialization going on now. (Giannone) has been to our practices, and the kids know we have a good relationship. I’ve met (Staskowski) a few times. All of us want to win. If you have a good program and demand respect, you’ll be successful.”
DeLaSalle was 7-2-1 heading into its holiday break. A Dec. 9-10 trip to Marquette resulted in a loss and a tie, both in overtime.
The Pilots are led by senior left wing Thomas Hernandez, who had 30 points heading into the break. Senior Greg Pine is the center on the top line, and the two are not only best friends, but live next door to one another.
Splitting the duties in goal are junior Brandon Compton and sophomore Andrew Grewette, both of whom were on the junior varsity last season. The top defenseman is junior Jordan Kovacs.
“Pine and Hernandez compliment each other so well,” Staskowski said. “Jordan has been outstanding. You can put him out there against any line.
“I don’t even like to mention individuals because we have a great deal of depth. Yeah, we have that good line, but you have to have depth. Depth is a big part of being good.”
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTO: Craig Staskowski (middle, standing) directs his new Warren DeLaSalle hockey team during a game this season. (Photo courtesy of the Warren DeLaSalle hockey program.)
Clarkston Eying Postseason Possibilities with Challenging Regular-Season Schedule
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
December 20, 2023
It might not be January just yet, but the Clarkston hockey team has probably already felt like it has competed in the MHSAA Tournament for the 2023-24 season.
The Wolves have gone through a gauntlet of a nonleague schedule, with two games against last season’s Division 1 runner-up Brighton, a game against reigning Division 3 ion Flint Powers Catholic and a contest against Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, a Division 1 semifinalist last winter.
However, there has been a method to the madness for a Clarkston team that’s normally not so ambitious with nonleague scheduling.
The Wolves saw a 20-win season end with a 6-1 Regional Final loss to Hartland in March, and the idea is that playing some of the state’s best so early will toughen Clarkston up further for when this season’s playoffs arrive.
“I think we’ve already kind of went through hard times and had moments of adversity,” Clarkston head coach Nathan Bryer said. “We’re already a team that has faced a lot more hardship than our team last year at this point. I think last year at this point, we were still undefeated and had an easier time with it.”
So far, Clarkston has done a good job navigating the tough early slate, with wins over Powers and Forest Hills Central and close defeats to Brighton (4-3 and 3-1).
It’s all in an effort to eventually do something no team in school history or any squad in the Oakland Activities Association has done – win a Division 1 Finals championship.
No OAA squad has reached the championship game in Division 1 since Clarkston did so in 2005, and only two have reached the Division 1 Semifinal round since 2011 (Lake Orion in 2011 and Rochester United in 2019).
Farmington is the only OAA school to ever win a Finals hockey title, doing so in Division 3 in 2014.
Based on who returns from last year’s team, Clarkston likely will be in the conversation and could represent the OAA’s best chance in recent years to have a team make it back to Plymouth and the season’s final weekend, and perhaps do some winning there also.
The Wolves return 15 players off a team that dominated the OAA last season, finishing 8-1-1 in league play.
Junior forward Ron Wade was a first-team all-state performer in Division 1, while defenseman Evan Adams was named second-team all-state.
Those two along with forward Owen Croston are the team’s captains this winter.
The Wolves are 7-2 going into a Thursday night contest against league rival Rochester Hills Stoney Creek.
With so much familiarity among players and coaches, not as much time needed to be spent during the offseason getting to know one another.
“The team is already pretty bonded this year,” Adams said. “We didn’t really have to worry that much about being a big group, or chemistry, this year.”
In January, the toughening-up process won’t end for Clarkston, given the Wolves will have a game against four-time reigning Division 1 champion Detroit Catholic Central.
“We haven’t had a hard (nonleague) schedule before until this year,” Croston said. “We just have to be ready for those games.”
When the MHSAA Tournament does roll around, Clarkston will have to jump over the same hurdles it usually must in its Regional – Hartland and Lake Orion.
Wade said the team still has lessons learned from the playoff loss to Hartland on its mind.
“We just learned that we really have to stick to our identity in those games,” he said. “This year, we have to rely on our forecheck and all of us pushing for the same thing.”
Indeed, it might not be 2024 yet, but Clarkston already has found out a lot about itself as it tries to replicate the postseason in November and December before the real one arrives.
“I think those teams who play a rigorous schedule all year, they are a little bit more battle-tested when Regionals come around,” Bryer said. “That was our goal this year, to have a team that’s played against top-10 opponents consistently all year. I think we’ll be better for it throughout the regular season, and better for it in Regionals.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties
PHOTOS (Top) Clarkston warms up before a recent practice at Detroit Skate Club. (Middle) Clarkston warms up before a recent practice at Detroit Skate Club. (Photos by Keith Dunlap.)