Tradition, Community Drive Talented Trenton
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
December 14, 2017
TRENTON – There’s something special about the sport of ice hockey in Trenton. There are those who would contend, at the high school level, that Trenton is Hockeytown.
Trenton has won 14 MHSAA titles, second only to Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood’s 17. But the importance of hockey in this downriver community goes beyond winning on the ice. The sport transcends the ice to the lives of people who have never laced up skates.
Chad Clements has experienced this firsthand, first as a fan, then as a player and now as a coach.
Clements was a junior on the 1996 Class A championship team. He also played on two other teams (1995, 1997) that reached the Finals.
Clements played for legendary coach Mike Turner, and it was Clements who replaced Turner in 2014 when Turner retired.
Replacing someone who gave so much to the sport and the Trenton community would be a no-win situation for some. It’s often been said that you don’t want to replace a legend. You want to be that coach who replaced the guy who replaced the legend.
Not Clements. He spent 12 seasons as Turner’s assistant and had no doubts he was the right person for the job.
And Clements was not alone. Turner backed Clements, and so did the administration.
Dr. Michael Doyle is in his 13th year as principal at Trenton High and he had no second thoughts about whom his school district should hire to replace Turner.
“Chad is an educator, a true educator, on the ice and in the classroom,” Doyle said. “That was critical (in the hiring process). He knows his stuff. He’s a great teacher. He’s passionate. You keep it in the family, yes, but when the job opened up, he was the perfect fit.
“(And) as a principal, it’s so helpful to have coaches in the building.”
This is Clements’ 16th season coaching at Trenton, and it’s his 16th year teaching social studies at the high school. A graduate of Michigan State University, Clements, 38, has been groomed for his place in the community.
“As a player, I always had great respect for (Turner),” Clements said. “His son was a year older than me, and he played with my brother who was two years older than me. So I knew (Turner) at an early age. It was always ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir’ when I was around him. He was a quiet guy, at that time, around me. Then my senior year he opened up to me, as a person. He asked me what I was I going to do. What plans did I have for college and after? So when I came back (to teach and coach), I remembered that.
“For me, as a coach, (our relationship) was completely different. Behind closed doors he’d talk and talk and talk about hockey and his family, and I never expected that.
“We’ve been close ever since.”
Turner holds the state record for career hockey coaching victories at 629. He began coaching in 1974, took some time away from the game following the 1981 season and returned to coaching in 1995, Clements’ first season on varsity. Of the program’s 14 MHSAA titles, Turner was on the bench for 11.
Clements said he and Turner talk at least once a week, about hockey and life in general. Turner travels extensively now, to Europe and throughout the U.S., and much of their conversations include capsules of the many sites Turner has seen. But when he’s back in the area, Turner is often seen at Trenton hockey games.
In many ways Clements is the right person at the right time for the program. He knows the expectations are high, yet at the same time he doesn’t place added pressure on himself to win. He was taught that if you do your best, by putting in the time and the work, then you can go home at night, look at yourself in the mirror and be satisfied with the results.
The results have been quite positive so far this season. The Trojans are 5-2 with losses to Detroit Catholic Central and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, two of the top teams in Division 1. Trenton, which will compete in Division 2, has defeated reigning Division 2 champion Birmingham Brother Rice (4-1).
“I’m surprisingly happy with our start,” Clements said. “I knew we would be young. I didn’t know what the expectations would be. I wouldn’t expect to be 5-2 after seven games, I’ll tell you that. The kids just keep working and working and working. We lost a tough one against Cranbrook in overtime, but the kids bounced back.”
Trenton has received a big boost from sophomore goaltender Joey Cormier. The Trojans would be lost without him – if for no other reason than Cormier is the lone goaltender of the roster. Another goalie will back up Cormier, but he won’t be eligible until the second semester.
“I told (Cormier), you’re my guy,” Clements said. “He’s given us a chance to win in every game.”
Last season was a disappointment for Clements and his team. The Trojans were defeated in a Pre-Regional by Livonia Churchill, 4-3 in overtime, and senior center Drew Welsch said some of the problems were internal. His team also is welcoming back the support from classmates.
“We lost our fan base,” he said. “We’re getting more support this season. We got our band back. … I’m good friends with the guys who get the student section going at games, and me and the other seniors are trying to get more to come out. So far it’s been fun. There’s nothing better than playing before a big crowd.”
The Trenton community’s passion for its hockey program certainly is a difference-maker. Some of the state’s top hockey players choose to play travel hockey rather than for their schools. On the travel circuit, players get more games, and against stronger competition.
But fewer fans, mostly family members, attend travel hockey games. School spirit doesn’t exist. And for Welsch, Trenton’s leading scorer last season and so far this winter, the trade-off isn’t worth it.
“This is my favorite team I’ve been a part of,” he said. “It’s the tradition. There’s not a team I’d rather play for.”
It’s a two-way street. The players receive the acclaim from the student body and the community, and they give back, too.
For the past month the players have been collecting cans to raise money to give to a needy family in Trenton for Christmas. The holiday came early this past Sunday for a single parent and her two children when the players presented her with $1,000 worth of gifts including clothes, food, a Lego set, a tablet, and gift cards.
“The support we get is awesome,” Welsch said. “I like doing it. They support us. We have to help them out in any way we can.”
That’s the way it is in Trenton. You grow up there, you go to school there and many, like Clements, return home to work there.
“Community, that’s what we try to sell,” he said. “Whether it’s your classmates in the crowd and when you get a teacher or a staff member there, it means a lot to these guys. To see your teacher in the stands, taking two or three hours out of their lives to watch you play, it means so much. Heck, we’ve had the mayor come out and firemen and police officers. I’ve been able to establish relationships. It’s nice to have that.”
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.
PHOTOS: (Top) Trenton’s Drew Welsch (12) moves the puck up ice with a teammate trailing. (Middle) Goalie Joey Cormier has been an anchor in net for the Trojans. (Below) Trenton’s players also took time this winter to bring an early Christmas to a local family. (Photos by Christine Stawowczyk.)
'Miracle' Comeback, Memorable Finish
February 27, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
At some point, Jay Jones is sure, he and his friends from Traverse City West will reminisce about playing in the second-longest hockey game in MHSAA history.
Erik Anton always will remember sending the shot into the top corner of the net that made the score 2-1 in favor of his team and ended the seven-overtime marathon against Jones and the Traverse City Bay Reps – but there’s no way Anton will be the one bringing it up.
No need. His goal as midnight approached Monday immediately became legendary in the Traverse City area – complete with a captivating back story as well.
Anton’s shot ended the game after 103 minutes and 33 seconds – or 4:33 into the seventh overtime.
A little more than year ago, Anton couldn’t skate, or for that matter walk – he was hospitalized in Grand Rapids, paralyzed from the rib cage down because of a viral infection.
And among his visitors was Jones, a friend since childhood and the Bay Reps goalie Monday who stopped 48 shots before Anton potted the game winner.
“I don’t think it’s something where I’ll be like, ‘Remember that?’ But obviously it will be in our memories,” Anton said. “We were trying for such a long time. (For them) it was such a heart-breaking experience.
“(But) I might tease him about it a little bit.”
Anton and Traverse City West live on, having also beaten Manistee on Wednesday to advance to Saturday’s Division 1 Regional Final against Grand Rapids West Catholic. A trophy-earning win that night surely would add to an incredibly memorable week.
But it already has been an unforgettable year for the Titans junior wing, even as his most “miraculous” feat came against a friend who has been among those rooting him on these last many months.
Suddenly sidelined
Anton has played hockey since he was 3, and he has six goals and eight assists this winter. It’s his number one sport – although he also plays tennis and lacrosse.
Needless to say, he’s always been an active guy.
Until December 2012. Anton contracted transverse myelitis, an infection affecting the spiral cord caused in this case by a virus. His immune system, mistaking that part of his nervous system for the virus, attacked – causing the paralysis that sent him on a trip to Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids.
“How I describe it, I was lying down and somebody just put 1,000 pounds on top of my legs,” Anton said. “You try to move your legs and you can’t.
“(The doctor) would take a pen and touch the bottom of my foot, and it felt like they were taking a lighter to the bottom of my foot.”
His doctor gave him a 33 percent chance of recovering fully. Anton was expected to stay in Grand Rapids at the Mary Free Bed rehabilitation hospital for three months.
That first weekend away from home, Anton was visited by teammates and friends, including Jones. Their travel teams growing up had included about half of the current West team, a few who now play at Traverse City Central and a handful more now on the Bay Reps.
“I was shocked to see him like that,” Jones said, “not being able to move a whole lot.”
Friendly support
Jones, a sophomore, attends St. Francis High School. The Bay Reps are a hockey co-op team comprised of students from seven schools. He and Anton never went to the same one, but their families are friends and they became hockey teammates on the travel circuit when they were 8 or 9.
They also started lacrosse together, played tennis together, golfed and more recently snowboarded together.
Jones first heard of what had befallen his friend in the lockerroom after a practice. Stunned to say the least, Jones didn’t say much for the first day or two before he and their friends made the trip to Grand Rapids.
By Jones’ description, Anton is a funny guy, definitely an extrovert. They together were the talkers on their travel teams growing up. Jones found his friend wasn’t much different in this unusual setting, just a little quieter. “He actually got up and we wheeled him around the hospital area,” Jones said. “We were laughing and making jokes like normal.”
“I just remember being in high spirits,” Anton added. “I always love seeing my friends, and having my friends come down and visit me, just being able to be with them again, especially when I was just laying in the hospital ...”
Anton said he knew from the start that he wouldn’t settle for a three-month hospital stay and surely not for paralysis for life if he could help it. He showed enough improvement to go home after just two weeks. And by the end of the spring lacrosse season, he felt back at full strength.
“It is pretty amazing. Once he got back, everyone pretty much treated him like normal,” Jones said. “He was back to his old self.”
Memorable moment
Anton could feel Jones’ stick jabbing at his skates whenever he came close to the net Monday. Anton laughed to himself at the little unspoken competition between the two.
He felt strong going into the third overtime, but by the fourth his legs were feeling heavy. By the seventh overtime his shifts had shortened substantially as players dug for any energy they could muster.
Meanwhile, Jones would smack his stick at the goal posts between periods, swing it at the net – “pretty much trying to stay awake at that point,” he said.
As the overtimes piled up, Jones also began to consider the significance of being part of such a game. It would be talked about for a long time. Everyone would know it was hard-fought. Win or lose, both teams would feel a sense of accomplishment. But if his team lost, he’d be absolutely crushed.
Both he and Anton saw a similar build-up to Anton’s deciding shot. Anton had been on the ice for about 15 seconds. His team was regrouping in the neutral zone when teammate Caleb Breithaupt ended up with a loose puck and pushed it ahead to forward Nick Schultz at the blue line.
Anton took a pass at the top of a circle in front of the Bay Reps’ net. Jones saw him line up the shot. A defenseman skated between them, but remained just off to a side. Anton fired at the high left corner of the net. Jones never saw the puck go by.
It was the Bay Reps’ fifth overtime loss this season. Jones took a knee staring at the ice in front of him. His teammates skated over and provided some support, but the moment was “surreal” – for a moment, Jones said, the ice was completely silent. And then he looked into the corner and saw number 19, Anton, celebrating. He smiled, just a little.
Traverse City West had lost to the Reps in overtime, 5-4, in a 2013 Pre-Regional opener, and then again earlier this season. Those details provide additional layers to an extraordinary experience players on both sides will tell about in the years to come.
It’s what Anton has learned to relish while recovering from his unfortunate circumstance, even if he’ll let others start this conversation the next time he’s hanging with Jones and his other Bay Reps pals.
“I definitely don’t take anything for granted anymore. I always put all my effort into sports, but after going through that, I really try to enjoy it, make the most of it when I can,” Anton said. “I always had a competitive edge, and I still do. Now I definitely try to enjoy it while I’m out there, enjoy the experience.”
Click to read more about Anton’s initial recovery from the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
PHOTOS: (Top) Traverse City West’s Erik Anton (19) unloads a shot at Bay Reps goalie Jay Jones that Jones stops Monday. (Middle top) Anton, seated, is visited by friends including Jones (gray jacket) during his hospital stay. (Middle below) Anton, left, and Jones take a brief moment from lacrosse during their younger days. (Below) Members of the West and Bay Reps hockey teams hold up Anton’s jersey after a game he could not play in last season. (Photos courtesy of Madelaine Jones.)