Aggies Dig Success Under New Coach
October 5, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The first time first-year Beal City volleyball coach Kelly David met with her new team, which actually is her old one too, the room was silent.
David is 20 years old, and starred for the Aggies only three seasons ago. Two of her seniors were freshman call-ups to varsity at the end of her final high school season, and one is her younger sister Monica. Those factors alone made this a rare situation.
“I think they were nervous,” Kelly David said. “They didn’t know what to expect from me.”
So far, it’s been more of the same for one of Michigan’s small-school volleyball powers, which has made the MHSAA Quarterfinals six of the last 11 seasons and the Semifinals twice during that time.
Beal City is 26-5-1 and ranked No. 3 in Class D. Four of those losses were to Class C teams: No. 2 St. Louis, No. 6 Morley Stanwood, No. 9 Pewamo-Westphalia and honorable mention Concord. The Aggies get a Second Half High 5 this week after avenging two of those losses by beating P-W and St. Louis en route to winning the Sharks’ Invitational on Saturday.
David is quick to explain that she’s merely picking up where previous coaches, including predecessor Randy Gallagher and his predecessor Kelly Knuth, left off. Beal City was a great landing spot for a first-time varsity coach.
But under David, the Aggies haven't missed a beat.
Beal City won its District last season despite moving into Class C, beating St. Louis in that final before losing to Morley-Stanwood in the Regional. But the Aggies graduated all-state second-team outside hitter Heather Griffis and then lost their coach of the last six seasons.
They're back on a roll. Until falling to St. Louis in pool play Saturday, Beal City hadn't lost since falling to Concord three weeks ago. The Aggies also own a win over rival Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart – the team that eliminated them from the postseason in 2010, and another over Class A Mount Pleasant.
Beal City came back to beat St. Louis 25-19, 25-19 in the championship match Saturday, perhaps its most impressive win so far.
“We got used to the fast-paced game, and that helped us out,” David said of avenging the day’s earlier loss. “We gained confidence through it. Learning has a lot to do with believing in yourself and knowing you can win.”
David was a standout setter in high school after moving up to varsity at the end of her freshman season and served as a captain as both a junior and senior. Setters run a volleyball team on the court, and during that time her coaching interest began to take root.
She played two seasons at St. Clair Community College before transferring as a student only to Central Michigan University, where she’s studying to become an elementary school teacher. David coached a seventh grade team and also club ball while at St. Clair, and when Gallagher didn’t return, she applied to take over.
The talent she inherited eased the transition. Senior setter Jade Kennedy was one of those freshmen who moved up when David was a senior, and she took over as setter the next season and made all-region in 2011. She’s surrounded by a number of players who have made contributions; among them, Monica David and junior Addie Schumacher give the Aggies two talented blockers in the middle, and junior outside hitter Melanie Schafer has been dynamic particularly on defense.
Better blocking was a main thing Kelly David noticed when she moved on to the college level, and that’s been a point of emphasis in her first season as coach. So has increasing her players’ knowledge of the game, how to position themselves and place the ball and use their athleticism to the best of their abilities.
The St. Louis win produced a surge in confidence that should carry through into the playoffs later this month. Despite its high ranking, Beal City probably wasn’t the favorite entering the day.
“The whole team was pulling for each other. Everyone wanted to win, and no one was tired,” David said. “We had confidence, and once we got that far, we pretty much refused to lose.”
PHOTO: Beal City's Nicole Gross sends the ball over the net during a win over Shepherd earlier this season. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com).
Mruzik Set for Season of Opportunities
August 15, 2019
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
FARMINGTON HILLS – Like a lot of seniors, Jess Mruzik of Farmington Hills Mercy will enjoy a lot of perks that come with the final year of high school.
The first such perk will be that she will get to miss almost three weeks from late August to mid-September.
A member of the United States Under-18 Girls Youth National volleyball team, Mruzik and the rest of the U.S. squad will be heading to Egypt from Sept. 5-14 to compete at the World Championships.
Mruzik actually will head first to Anaheim, Calif., on Aug. 28 for a couple of days of training before the team flies over to Cairo.
But don’t worry, there will still be a way for her to keep up with what’s going on in her classrooms at Mercy.
“A lot of our stuff for where we turn in our homework, that’s all online,” she said. “So it should be pretty easy for me to keep up.”
But if Mruzik has her way and achieves all that she wants, getting to represent her country and go for a gold medal won’t be the only perk she’ll enjoy over the coming months.
There are rightfully a lot of expectations for Mercy on the volleyball court, since the Marlins return nine players from last year’s team that finished 52-3 and reached the Division 1 Semifinals before falling to eventual champion Lake Orion.
Leading the way will be Mruzik, who is almost like having nine returning players all in one.
“Obviously the national team will be fun playing with girls all across the country, but I’m really excited for this high school season,” Mruzik said. “Everybody is so much better. We are all super hungry this year.”
Having the wondrously talented Mruzik already is a boon for Mercy. But add that she and the rest of the team are beyond motivated to bring home the first volleyball title in school history, and that’s a bad outlook for opponents.
A 6-foot-2 outside hitter who brings thunder from all sides of the net, Mruzik was named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year last year after collecting 420 kills, a .514 kill percentage, 165 digs and 65 aces.
“Jess is just the real thing,” Mercy head coach Loretta Vogel said. “Her athleticism, she’s just a natural.”
Mruzik comes from a basketball family but found out her gifts were in volleyball after taking up the sport in fourth grade. She already has built up a diverse volleyball resume with her experiences on the world, national, club and high school stages.
Mruzik last year captained the national team that won a gold medal at the NORCECA Continental Championships in Honduras, and she was named MVP of the tournament.
“People really take volleyball serious overseas,” Mruzik said. “Playing with Team USA, you get a taste of that. It’s not the club world. These people are playing for money and will do whatever it takes to win. A lot of times in club, you play the same people over and over again. You know how one girl is going to play and how one team is going to play. Internationally, you have to make changes on the fly because they play volleyball differently than you.”
Vogel said she first saw Mruzik at one of the coach’s camps. But after seeing her perform so well at the camp, Vogel was disappointed to learn that Mruzik was still in eighth grade at the time and not an incoming freshman.
Vogel has seen Mruzik get better and better during her first three years at Mercy.
“She had a very complete package for a young lady,” Vogel said. “But I think the strength of her game each year when she comes back to me in the fall, everything she does is stronger. Her attacking is stronger and very precise on everything she wants to do.”
Mruzik will be graduating early, in December, and will attempt to enroll at University of Michigan in January.
If she can’t enroll early – the university can take only a limited number of athletes who wish to do so – she’ll take classes at a community college and start training with her future Michigan teammates.
Even with her national team opportunities, Mruzik loves the high school experience too much to not play her final season, even adding that if Mercy had won the Division 1 championship last year she still would have come back to play high school as a senior.
“High school season is a fun time of the year,” Mruzik said. “I’m super close with the girls on our team, and we all mesh really well. That’s definitely something that helps, and there’s not a lot of team drama.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Farmington Hills Mercy’s Jess Mruzik takes a big swing during her team’s Division 1 Semifinal last season against Lake Orion. (Middle) Mruzik (33) and her teammates huddle after a point at Kellogg Arena.