Detroit Powers Succeed Amid Lower Numbers
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
April 20, 2016
Participation in spring sports, following a similar decline in student-aged population in Michigan, has been on a decline statewide over the last decade.
But while some like baseball have experienced a slight bounce-back over the last few seasons, softball in particular has seen its numbers continue to fall.
Coaches and administrators in the Detroit area point to a number of factors intertwined that produced a snowball-like effect – and now it seems to have come to a head.
Three softball programs in the Catholic League Central, a division that competes at a high level statewide, don’t have sufficient numbers to field a junior varsity this spring. Many programs don’t sponsor freshmen teams for the same reason.
But for schools like Birmingham Marian, Farmington Hills Mercy and Livonia Ladywood not to have a junior varsity softball team is quite shocking to some – especially considering that Mercy enters this season ranked No. 3 in Division 1 and Ladywood is No. 2 in Division 2.
Specialization fallout
Marian athletic director Dave Feldman isn’t among those stunned. He saw this coming. Feldman points to the 2007-08 school year when the Michigan High School Athletic Association was forced, by court decision, to switch the volleyball season from the winter to the fall and the girls basketball season from the fall to the winter.
Feldman has a daughter, a freshman at Marian, who participated on the junior varsity volleyball team this fall. When that season was over she joined a club volleyball team. Feldman said the club volleyball season begins in December and continues on into June.
“It’s not AAU,” Feldman said. “But you need to be an AAU member (to play). They play all of the time. Heck, they played on Easter Sunday. And every club is filled.”
The pressure on athletes to play year-round is arguably greater now than it ever has been, and can come from coaches, peers and family – based on a frequent misconception that if athletes want to earn a scholarship, they better keep up with the Joneses or be left behind.
Feldman said he’ll back his daughter with whatever decision she makes. If she wants to play volleyball nine or 10 months a year, he’ll support that. But Feldman said, financially, it’s getting out of hand. He estimated between the cost of airfare, hotels and meals that he’ll spend $6,500 in support of his daughter playing club volleyball.
And, according to Feldman, the increase in attention on volleyball is affecting participation in other sports.
“(Girls) basketball is fighting for its life,” he said. “Our field hockey program (a fall sport) is fine. Our lacrosse teams are fine.
“We have 15 playing volleyball at all three levels. We had 16 (total) try out for softball and we made two cuts. We haven’t had a JV the last two years. The last time we had a freshman (softball) team was in 2004 or 2005. The last few years the numbers have dropped off. It’s the specialization.”
Simply signs of change?
Warren Regina is another member of the Catholic League Central. Regina athletic director Diane Laffey also is the head coach for softball and basketball, and she said she thinks lacrosse has drawn some athletes away from softball – which makes sense, although the total number of girls playing high school lacrosse in Michigan has increased only about 1,000 over the last decade, while softball participation is down 4,000 athletes over the same time.
One should not use Regina as an example of decline – Laffey’s team won the Division 1 championship last spring and fields a softball team at all three levels. At the same time, Regina also has seen a rise in participation in lacrosse. There are 18 playing for both the varsity and junior varsity this spring, the highest participation in school history.
Mercy varsity softball coach Alec Lesko said, simply, that times have changed. Mercy reached the Division 1 Semifinals last season, just as Ladywood did in Division 2 the year before – yet despite this success, Mercy’s number of softball players also has declined.
“(The students) have many more options,” Lesko said. “In addition to their school work there’s band, theatre, honors society clubs. In the past kids would play three sports and be in the band. All of my daughters were multi-sport athletes. By their sophomore year they had to make a decision (on which sport they would concentrate).
“It’s also economics. They want to earn a scholarship. You hear horror stories about (the cost of) student loans. Even the big schools have trouble getting the (students to play softball).
“As far as college, and I can only speak about softball, the Big Ten coaches want the player they recruit to play other sports,” Lesko added. “I hope to have a JV program next year. A player that misses 30 JV games, we will feel that crunch later. There are those who think JV softball is a waste of time, that you should just compete in travel (during the summer). We will get some of those kids. Those who compete in travel then come to us as sophomores.”
Reasons for optimism
Don Peters is the softball coach at Clarkston, and between coaching travel and at the high school level he’s put in 35 years. He coached travel before taking over the Clarkston program. Peters said the two complement each another, or at least they should.
“I know some disagree,” he said. “The girls have a lot of choices in the spring. Look at all of the sports they can play. I don’t think lacrosse has cut into the numbers. Not yet, but it’s probably going to. We haven’t been affected. We have 45 (covering three teams) in our program. We really push softball in our community because it’s been established.”
Peters said coaches in softball and baseball need to make the game enjoyable, and one way is to reward those who chose to participate by playing them on a regular basis. A student who is No. 14 or 15 on a squad often will play once a week and, with all of the options available, isn’t willing to put in the practice time for limited game action.
Mercy senior first baseman Abby Krzywiecki played a variety of sports before her freshman year. It was then she decided that softball would be her main sport and she chose to pour all of her energy into it.
She said it’s not all gloom and doom for her sport.
“We had a small freshmen class (last year),” she said. “When I came in we had a large class. It was one of the biggest. It’s not that we’re not getting softball players. In the travel world, it’s becoming more intense. We have more younger people playing. The sport is getting more intense. The talent level is getting higher.”
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) A Farmington Hills Mercy hitters prepares to connect during last season's Division 1 Semifinal against Caledonia. (Middle) Warren Regina coach Diane Laffey hoists her team's championship trophy after the Saddlelites downed Caledonia in the Final last spring.
No More Surprises: Marysville Brings Back Talent, Experience from 2021 Run
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 27, 2022
Kate Westmiller and her Marysville softball teammates proved a year ago what most coaches preach –rankings don’t matter.
The Vikings weren’t even an honorable mention entering the 2021 season, and entered the postseason outside of the top 10, before making a run to the MHSAA Division 2 Final.
Despite that run, and returning the vast majority of players from last year’s team, the Vikings find themselves outside the top 10 of the preseason Michigan High School Softball Coaches Association Division 2 poll.
They’re happy to prove everyone wrong again.
“We’ve kind of always been used to that,” said Westmiller, a senior infielder. “You say ‘Marysville’ and people say, ‘Who’s that? Where’s that?’ But we definitely can compete. Last year, it was our own little Cinderella story. But it’s better to be the underdogs because nobody expects you to do well. We definitely hope we start to get on people’s radars a little bit.”
It’s a bit of a surprise the Vikings aren’t on the radar already after making their first Semifinal appearance since 2007 and first Final appearance since 1991. They’re received honorable mention in the preseason poll, but 10 of the 14 players from last year’s Final – an 8-5 loss to Owosso – are back.
“I wasn’t necessarily looking for the rankings, but a couple people sent it to me,” Marysville coach Ryan Rathje said. “We did lose some important pieces from last year, but we don’t really worry about (the rankings) because we can’t control it. We’re not going to lose any sleep over that, but it’s definitely motivation.”
The graduated losses – Kristen Smith, Calle Perrin and Mackenzie Smith – are certainly big ones. Both Kristen Smith and Perrin started the Final and had home runs. Kristen Smith also served as the Vikings’ main pitcher throughout last year, although the returning Megan Liniarski has plenty of experience in that regard, as well.
One unexpected loss was that of sophomore Avery Woodard, who is out for the year with an injury. Woodard was a starter for the Vikings as a freshman.
But that still leaves six starters from the 2021 Final – Westmiller, Kaitlyn Cain, Avery Wolters, Anna Oles, Brandi Bassett and Meghan Winston. When you add Emma Curtis and Kylie Parent, the Vikings bring back eight players who hit better than .380 a year ago.
“We were really surprised and excited with how we did last year, and we had a lot of important girls who left, and we’re definitely going to miss them,” Westmiller said. “But if we all work together, we can reach some of the goals we set. We want to try and win our District, and potentially win the Regional. In the (Macomb Area Conference White) we’re facing a little harder competition, as far as our league, but I think that will definitely help us during the postseason. During our postseason run last year, we were just so close, so I think one of the biggest goals is to become that close again.”
Marysville is 4-2 to start the year, and has battled the elements to simply get on the field. Rathje said that as of Monday night, he had not had one regular practice outside with his entire team.
While the weather has played the biggest role in that, Rathje and a handful of his players had a hand in it, as well.
The Vikings basketball team made its first run to the Division 2 Quarterfinals this winter. Rathje is also the girls basketball coach at Marysville, and five players – Cain, Winston, Oles, Wolter and Kara Miller – play on both teams. Ryan Quain, who also plays softball, joined the basketball team for the postseason.
“I think that’s a big credit to the girls we have,” Rathje said. “The girls are obviously athletic, hard-working and super smart. They don’t shy away from the moment. They know how to play the right way and just go out there with confidence. It’s been a lot of fun to be along for the ride with them. I’ve been blessed with some fantastic athletes.”
Rathje, who has been coaching both sports at the varsity level for 19 years, also gave credit to his assistant coaches, many of whom have head coaching experience in basketball or baseball/softball, such as Tom Valko, Ryan Biewer, Mark Dickinson and Shawn Winston.
That didn’t surprise Westmiller, who said her coach never shines the spotlight on himself, even though he deserves it.
“He’s taught me so much,” she said. “He’s teaching us life lessons and how to be better for your community and society. He’s helped me grow as a student and an athlete. He’s been a mentor for me. He’s very shy. He doesn’t like to take a lot of the credit for things. In reality, he’s doing a lot. He’s allowing us to come in early if we want to. He takes no time for himself – this man is so selfless. He’s amazing. I can definitely say he’s turned into an amazing mentor for me, and I will keep this coach/player relationship for the rest of my life.”
Westmiller and several of her teammates have just one season left with Rathje, and they’re hoping to end on another high note. Having done it before, together, certainly should help.
“These girls in volleyball and basketball and softball last year, I think that no moment is too big for them,” Rathje said. “That’s a really big part of it. A lot of times, it’s mistakes that are the difference in those games. I always tell them to go in there and control what you can control. I think that experience is priceless, and to have that confidence that they have, you can’t really duplicate that.”
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) Kaitlyn Cain sprints to first base during last season’s Division 1 Final against Owosso. (Middle) Kate Westmiller, here warming up before the start of an inning last year, is another key contributor back for the reigning Division 1 runner-up. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)