Beaverton Volleyball Makes History Twice
November 10, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Beaverton’s dream volleyball season ended Thursday with a Class C Regional Final loss to Shelby.
But the Beavers never will forget how they fulfilled aspirations and inspired future generations by winning multiple first-time championships this fall.
The MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” for October clinched its first league and District championships in program history, earning a banner-sized place on the gym wall alongside a number of Beaverton programs that have had success over the decades.
The Beavers claimed the Jack Pine Conference title during the final week of October with a 13-1 league record and by two victories over runner-up Houghton Lake. They then hosted and won their Class C District, sweeping both matches of the tournament including the final against Coleman on Nov. 2.
“We really wanted to win that banner. We really tried to win that banner. We hoped we’d win it,” Beaverton coach Scott Evans said. “Now we’ll be more hungry for it, and now that we’ve been there we’ll be more confident.
“When I first came here, the team I had had a lot of talent. But we would go to tournaments and not win a set. I’d say, ‘How did we not win a set? We’re better than some of these teams.’ What we realized is they didn’t know how to win, didn’t know they deserved to win. Once we tasted winning, we didn’t need to teach it anymore. We’ve tasted winning a conference, winning a District, and we can definitely do it again.”
Evans finished his ninth season leading the program, and surely the Beavers have come a long way – when they won 12 matches his first season, he was told that was the program record for wins.
This fall, Beaverton finished 35-11 for its second-most victories behind a 38-12 run a few seasons ago – but with this one against a more competitive slate of opponents. The Beavers won tournament matches early against Rogers City (still alive in Class D) and Muskegon Catholic Central (which lost Thursday) and took competitive losses to Corunna (still alive in Class B) and Saginaw Swan Valley (which lost to Corunna during their Regional).
“I just realized that even when we lost to these good teams, there was no let up, no quit,” Evans said. “A lot of times when you play ranked teams above you, you’re just in line – this is just happening (to us) – and this team didn’t have that. They’d just fight, no matter what the score was. We could be down a set and they’d fight. We could be down 10 points and they’d fight. And if teams let up on us, we could come back and get them.”
Beaverton had finished second in the Jack Pine three times under Evans and third twice, including last fall. The Beavers also had made District Finals twice during his tenure, most recently in 2013.
There definitely were expectations this fall. Three years ago the team had no seniors, forcing Evans to bring up sophomores who were talented enough to play but could’ve also benefitted from more time on the junior varsity.
That said, he’d noticed in the past a big jump in players’ understanding of the team’s system after their second seasons on varsity – a good sign with this the third for those seniors who came up as sophomores. Seniors this fall filled all but one starting spot.
Left-side hitter Ali Aldrich led the Beavers in kills for the second straight season, this fall with 461 to top a balanced attack that included four on the outside capable of killing points plus two middles who often were forgotten by defenses because of that outside attack. Another senior hitter – Reiss Faber – also spent half her time setting the offense, and senior libero Dallas Longstreth set season (803) and career (1,467) records for digs in keying the defense.
Evans doesn’t expect another eternity to pass before Beaverton earns more hardware. Two freshmen came up this season and made big contributions – Molly Gerow was the second-leading hitter with 295 kills, and Taylor Inscho handled setting when Faber was not.
Having those freshmen as part of this run was by design. Evans preaches for his players to hand down a legacy and tries to get younger players on the roster to soak up some of that experience.
The legacy these seniors are leaving behind just happens to include a couple of championships.
“Our gym doesn’t have a volleyball banner, and we always talk about let’s be the team that puts them up,” Evans said. “Our goal is always that, but it’s not our focus – we focus on what we do, the things we can control, who we are playing, and doing our jobs. (But) they’re excited. This team has had energy all year. I’m still playing videos over and over of our last points when we win, when we won the conference, when we won the District. Just the excitement level of the players and fans, it is just fun to watch. It was just contagious this year, the excitement and emotion they put into the game.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2017-18
September: Shepherd girls golf - Report
PHOTOS: (Top) Beaverton poses with its Jack Pine Conference championship trophy Oct. 25 to celebrate its first league title. (Middle) Senior Reiss Faber serves during a match this fall. (Top photo by Stephanie Johnston, middle photo by Bob Frei.)
Forest Area's Stremlow Never Far from Serving School Sports Community
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
February 4, 2022
He hasn’t met a sport he can’t coach. And, he probably hasn’t turned down a team he’s met – yet.
Many of the coaching jobs he’s taken were actually offered to him by him.
Whenever he’s started a new sport, he’s sought mentors in the form of successful veteran coaches. But make no mistake, if they made a movie in Northern Michigan called “The Mentor” – this Hall of Fame coach would be the star of the show.
He’s technically retired today. The teams he coaches don’t get TV cameras and other media present. He’s a middle school track and volleyball coach for Fife Lake Forest Area Community Schools.
He’s perhaps most well-known as the past volleyball coach at Forest Area. Don’t be surprised if you hear of graduated athletes – and current student-athletes – from Glen Lake, Manton, Kingsley and even McBain Northern Michigan Christian happily call him “Coach.”
Name the coach? Ron Stremlow. He’s a retired physical education teacher, athletic director and coach. He came out of retirement to return as the part-time athletic director for Forest Area, a district he served 32 years as a teacher.
He’s also coaching a couple of middle school sports, just like he did when he was working full-time. Athletic directors often need to put themselves in tough-to-fill coaching slots.
“Ron Stremlow has been a tremendous ambassador of high school sports in Northern Michigan,” said Dave Jackson, athletic director of Frankfort-Alberta Schools. “The number of coaches, parents and athletes Ron has encouraged during his years of service are too many to count.
“He is an athletic administrator that has always been about service and what (he) can do to help.”
Help is exactly what he did once upon a time for then-new volleyball coach at McBain Northern Michigan Christian, Diane Eisenga. The call for help came from Eisenga’s players.
Today, Eisenga is an athletic assistant for the Comets and mother of five boys, her youngest still attending NMC. Like Stremlow, she has built a very successful program. Back then, she was just getting started, pregnant and a mother of two children, and unable to coach her team during a Ferris State University tournament that Stremlow had planned to scout with longtime friend and Kingsley 1,000-win volleyball coach Dave Hall.
Stremlow actually was planning to watch NMC at the tournament, anticipating the Comets would be a potential roadblock to a District title that upcoming season. (He was right: Forest Area would end up losing to NMC in a District Final as the Comets reached the Class D Quarterfinals.)
What Stremlow did not anticipate was being asked by the Comets players to step in and coach them at the Ferris tourney. Stremlow was told Eisenga was not feeling well enough to guide the team at that moment.
Stremlow did not hesitate to help. He had previously leant his wisdom to the former Dordt University (Iowa) athlete with tryouts, cutting decisions and NMC’s summer camp.
“I had played in high school and college, but I was green,” Eisenga acknowledged. “He was a good mentor.”
She recalls her players asking for Stremlow’s help.
“I got real light-headed and wasn’t feeling well,” she said. “Because the girls had known him, he took over for me that day.”
It wasn’t a surprise for Eisenga to witness Stremlow’s contribution to her team’s success that year.
“I always saw him as more of a mentor and more of a friend (than an opposing coach),” Eisenga said. “He was happy with anyone’s success.
“He was always happy for any team that played well,” she continued. “Of course, he always wanted his own to win. … He was always respectful, and you never saw him cross the line.”
Stremlow, who jokes about maybe not having the most wins among hall of fame volleyball coaches while claiming the most losses amongst the elite group (he still ranks 17th in MHSAA history with 944 volleyball wins despite retiring from the Forest Area varsity after the 2018 season), spends his days taking care of Forest Area boys and girls basketball, completive cheer and the Warriors co-ed wresting teams. Many a night he does whatever it takes to run an event, including running the scoreboard for basketball.
In the fall, Forest Area offers 8-player football, cross country and volleyball. He’s in the midst of finalizing spring softball, track and baseball.
Basketball is perhaps his favorite sport, but he loves the change of seasons.
“Once that season’s up, I am ready to rock and roll and get into another,” Stremlow noted.
Giving back is what keeps the 62-year-old Stremlow going. He sees at least three years of involvement ahead.
“A lot of kids do not get good role models or good coaches. And I thought if I can help kids out, I am going to,” Stremlow said.
Today Stremlow wears many school colors, especially the Warriors’ forest green. You also often can find him in Kingsley orange, or perhaps it is actually the Manton orange.
You will definitely find him in his favorite, maize and blue. His forest green should never be confused with the Michigan State green. The Wolverines became the favorite of the Central Michigan grad when he got into the Big House as a high school student with a $2 ticket to watch Michigan take on Navy.
“I have green, but it is not the Michigan State green,” Stremlow said he often jokes with fans of the Spartans and Warriors.
Stremlow uses all his team colors as he follows another passion, photography. He got a camera for college graduation, and student-athletes all over Northern Michigan have benefited.
“There are thousands of former players from Forest Area and Kingsley that can point to pictures in their homes that Ron has taken of them playing sports,” Jackson said. “These pictures are not just cute shots, but pictures that were used to teach form and techniques.”
Stremlow takes satisfaction from capturing sports on film, rather digitally, as he does today.
“I take a lot of pictures – I‘ve always liked it,” he said. “That’s the best gift you can give any kid and parents – just getting pictures.
“It really helps, plus I like doing it.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Fife Lake Forest Area athletic director Ron Stremlow talks with official Chuck Bott (right) before a basketball game against Indian River Inland Lakes this season. (Middle) Stremlow shows support for his favorite college team while prepping before a game against Johannesburg-Lewiston. (Top photo by Tom Spencer; middle photo by Andrew Fish/Gaylord Herald-Times.)