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Veteran Coach, Huskies Eye Comeback
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
December 21, 2015
PORTAGE — Although his hockey team skidded to the worst start during his 30-year coaching career, JD Kalleward and his Portage Northern Huskies still have that positive vibe going.
“We don’t want to keep losing,” senior co-captain Jack Budnick said last week after the team opened 0-7. “We want to turn it around as soon as we can.
“We’ve had a lot of close games where it’s just come down to a couple mistakes, and we’re working on them in practice.”
Portage Northern closed the 2015 portion of this season's schedule with its first win, 4-2 over Manistee on Friday, to move to 1-8 heading into the new year. And Kalleward is one reason the players are staying positive and focused, said senior co-captain Austin Killman.
“He’s been very vehement about hockey,” Killman said. “If he sees anybody slacking in practice, he’ll get them going.
“He’s been around the game for so long that he knows a lot about hockey and what systems will work in different situations. I have a lot of faith in his style.”
Kalleward said he honed his coaching style while working as an assistant to Art Missias, who passed away from cancer in 2010.
A netminder, Kalleward graduated from Northern in 1980. During his high school years, he helped coach goalies for his uncle, John Kalleward, Sr., and Missias with their squirt and peewee house teams.
It didn’t take long for JD to catch the coaching bug.
When Missias took over the head coaching job at Portage Northern 30 years ago, he tapped JD Kalleward to be his assistant. Thirteen years ago when Missias retired, Kalleward took his mentor’s place.
One of the lessons learned from Missias is helping Kalleward deal with his team’s record so far this year: “You may have a down game, but it’s just one game.
“You’ve got to move on, learn from your mistakes and take the positives from it. Try and hope in the next game you do better.”
After losing nine seniors to graduation from a team that went 18-9-0 overall, 8-2 in the Southwest Michigan High School Hockey League last season, Kalleward knew this would be a rebuilding season. But he didn’t expect such a challenging start, including 0-2 in the league.
“Six of our (first) seven games have been on the road against very good programs including Traverse City, Forest Hills, East Kentwood, so we’ve had some pretty stiff competition,” Kalleward said.
Besides Budnick and Killman, the Huskies have just two other seniors: forward Scott Verduzco and goalie Tim Fitzgerald.
Scoring other successes
Although the Huskies have struggled early on the ice, Kalleward is most proud of their academic performance.
In his 13 years as head coach, his team has earned academic all-state every season.
“The last two years we were the top academic team out of 160 hockey teams in Michigan,” he said. “Two years ago, our team’s (grade-point average) was 3.94. Last year, it was 3.96
‘We have a number of kids who are academically gifted. Of the nine who graduated last year, we had just one beneath a 3.0; the other eight were above 3.5.”
Last season, Joe Mancina, with a 4.65 GPA, became the Huskies’ third top state scholar athlete in the last six years, as measured by grade-point average.
One main reason Kalleward stresses academics is, “quite frankly, there aren’t too many who are going to sign NHL contracts,” he said. “We know that life after high school means doing well.
“Every Thursday we meet with the players after practice to talk about where they are at school, their grades. We offer tutoring with those who are struggling.”
Over the last 30 years, Kalleward has seen several changes to both the game and the players.
“Relative to talent, you used to have a lot more kids going the route of playing high school,” he said. “Now they have so many options for players depending on what they want to do with their hockey careers.”
He also said players don’t seem as independent as they were in past years.
“What we find is sometimes it’s hard for kids to make their own decisions or make good decisions on their own,” he said. “As a coach, besides the X’s and O’s, we try to help them with that.”
As an assistant coach, Kalleward took note of what worked especially well and wrote a manual of expectations for coaches, parents and players that he distributes every season.
“We have an agreement signed by both parents and players saying they’ve read and understood the 16 points of emphasis, everything in the agreement: ice time, player behavior on the ice, behavior off the ice, academics, and so on,” he said.
Among team requirements are wearing khakis, a shirt and tie when going to games, “The same apparel they’d wear for a job interview,” he said.
“We eat together quite a bit and have rules on behavior. There’s probably a good three pages of rules.”
Turnaround time
Killman said it’s up to the captains to help turn the team around.
“You have to get your guys motivated for games, and if they’re getting down on themselves, try to get them back up,” he said. “If they’re coming to practice slacking, you’ve got to push them.
“(Being captain) gives me more responsibility and I love responsibility.”
Budnick said Killman is one spark on the team.
“Out on the ice before we go to opening faceoff, we gather around the net and we talk about the key aspects that we want to work on in the game,” Budnick said. “Austin is always taking the responsibility and says exactly what we need to do.
“Austin is definitely the hardest worker on the team, and that’s a great leadership quality from my perspective. It pushes everybody else.”
Kalleward’s three assistants include two Portage Northern alums. Steve Stanley, who works with the forwards, graduated in 1983, and Ken Rogers, who works with the defense, in 1975.
Tom Askey, who played pro hockey, including with the NHL Anaheim Mighty Ducks in 1997-98 and the then-United Hockey League Kalamazoo Wings in 2006-07, works with the goalies.
In 1975, the Huskies made it to the Tier II MHSAA Final before losing to Lansing Catholic Central. They made at least the Semifinals four times under Missias.
In spite of this year’s start, the future looks promising for the Huskies with four juniors, 10 sophomores and two freshmen mixing with the senior leaders.
Juniors are forwards Spencer Brown, Andrew Fitzgerald, Jesse Liebert and defenseman Calvin Voss.
Sophomores are forwards Grant Ernst, Mason Seiferlein, Tyler Simon; blueliners Griffin McLoed, Roarke Ross, Leon Fieber, Dakota Meadmore; two-way players Will Todd, Caleb Martin and goalie Zach Bossch.
The freshmen are forwards Zonjic Singleton-Julian and Connor Sorge.
Northern picks back up this season’s schedule Jan. 2 against Okemos.
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 continues to freelance for MLive.com covering mainly Kalamazoo Wings hockey and can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Coach JD Kalleward has spent 30 seasons behind the Portage Northern bench. (Middle) Joe Mancina, center, was last season's top state academic athlete with a 4.65 GPA. He is joined by, from left, all-state team selection Mitchell Kalleward, former NHL player Mike Knuble, Northern all-stater Matty Seiferlien and Coach JD Kalleward. (Below) The Huskies' locker room door. (Head shots) From left: JD Kalleward, Jack Budnick and Austin Killman. (Top two photos courtesy of JD Kalleward; bottom photo and head shots by Pam Shebest.)
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Pro Stars Cherishing St Clair Roots, Support
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 11, 2020
It’s been nearly 10 years since Jacob Cronenworth and Tyler Motte were teammates at St. Clair High School, but the pair still managed to energize their hometown in 2020.
Cronenworth tied for second in the official National League Rookie of the Year voting, which was announced Monday – and won several Rookie of the Year honors from other organizations, including his fellow players – after a standout first season with the San Diego Padres.
Motte was a key cog for the Canucks as they made a run to the Western Conference semifinals, scoring four goals and adding an assist in 17 playoff games, and earning himself a two-year contract extension in October.
And as the folks back home were reveling in that success, both were happy to have the support.
“The support of our town has been crazy throughout my career, even back when I was at Michigan,” Motte said. “When you have the support of not just your friends, family and loved ones, to have it go to an even bigger population where you grew up, that’s cool to see.”
Motte and Cronenworth provided plenty of great memories while students in St. Clair, most notably helping the Saints win the 2011 MHSAA Division 2 baseball championship. Cronenworth was the winning pitcher in the title game, while Motte had two hits and scored what turned out to be the winning run against Grand Rapids Christian.
“Obviously, that was an incredible team,” said Cronenworth, who was a junior that season. “We only lost one game the whole year. It was just a special group of guys. We were all friends, we all played little league together. We’d all play street hockey and basketball together in the summers. It was a great way to cap off our childhood.”
That team featured 10 players who would go on to play college athletics. Two – Joel Seddon and Jared Tobey – joined Cronenworth and Motte as professional draft picks, as they were both selected in the MLB Draft. Another, Jeremy Carrell, is now the Detroit Tigers bullpen catcher.
Most of the players on the title team had been playing together since Little League, where they also had plenty of success, taking second in the state in 2006 before a handful of them came back and took third the next year. As they stayed together, the wins kept coming.
“I think at the time (2011), with that group of people, our eyes were on a state championship,” Motte said. “I was in more of a supporting role, because we had a lot of good baseball players. Just looking back, it was kind of crazy.
“Going through with those guys and how much fun we had in Little League really made the camaraderie we had in high school so much stronger. We had guys that really cared about each other, and that’s what made it really fun.”
The 2011 Division 2 Final was Motte’s final competitive baseball game, as after his sophomore year he joined the USA Hockey National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor. He had planned to continue playing baseball while going to school at Ann Arbor Pioneer, but said that it didn’t work out.
“If there was a way to go out, that’s the way to do it,” he said.
Baseball was a big part of Motte’s athletic upbringing, just like hockey was a big part of Cronenworth’s. The two had played travel hockey together locally in Port Huron, and Cronenworth continued to play the sport through high school. By that time, baseball had started to look like his path forward, but he was still a star on the ice, winning the Macomb Area Conference Red MVP.
“It was one of those things, I think Tyler wanted to play both in college, but it was a decision that we kind of had to make – I always wanted to play hockey,” Cronenworth said. “I think probably my sophomore year of high school, maybe freshman year when I got called up to the varsity in baseball, that was the turning point. But (hockey season) was huge. It just gave me a rest from baseball. When we were younger, yeah, you’re playing street hockey in the summer, but when it was baseball season, we played baseball, and when it was hockey season, we played hockey.”
Both went to University of Michigan to continue their academic and athletic careers and took winding professional paths before getting the opportunities they’re currently enjoying.
Both already have been part of multiple pro organizations. Cronenworth was dealt to San Diego after beginning his career as a Tampa Bay Rays draft pick. Motte was a Chicago Blackhawks draft selection and after his first season was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets, who later sent him to Vancouver.
But while they may both be out west now, their biggest fans remain in St. Clair – unless you count each other.
“I got to watch him play basically every single game besides,” Cronenworth said. “He had that game where he scored two short-handed goals, and I’m in my living room at 10:30 in the morning screaming at the TV. We have a group chat with the guys we played with in high school. We’re like one big family. We grew up together.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Former high school teammates Jacob Cronenworth (left) and Tyler Motte meet up while Cronenworth plays minor league baseball for the Bowling Green Hot Rods in 2016. (Middle) Cronenworth shows his support for Motte during the latter’s time suiting up for USA Hockey. (Below) Cronenworth holds the trophy and Motte is bottom row, second from right, as St. Clair celebrates its 2011 Division 2 baseball championship. (Photos of Cronenworth and Motte together courtesy of Tyler Motte; head shots courtesy of MLB.com and NHL.com, respectively.)