'Girls Night Out' Takes over Stadium
September 19, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
A crowd of roughly 1,200 fans – including more than 700 students – loaded into Muskegon Mona Shores' football stadium on Sept. 5.
Batman, Captain America and the Cat in the Hat were there among cheering sections out in full force. Festivities included plenty of sun and live music to keep the crowd rolling.
It was a typical football night. And this was a typical football crowd. But Sept. 5 was a Wednesday. And the four teams playing on this night were a little bit "outside" of their natural element.
Mona Shores hosted the Grand Haven, Fruitport and Spring Lake volleyball teams for "Girls Night Out," a quad match that began with two rounds on portable courts in the football stadium and finished before a raucous crowd inside the Sailors' gym.
“The energy was outstanding. The student athletes playing loved the fact they were treated like football players on a Friday night,” Mona Shores athletic director Ryan Portenga said. “We had the adults in the bleachers facing the kids, and portable bleachers closed off (the court) with student sections yelling back and forth. It was wild.”
The idea was sparked some by a similar match between Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central and Grand Rapids Christian last season, when those teams played on a portable court on top of a high jump area.
But the additional challenge at Mona Shores was building two courts so four teams could play, sitting mostly on the track but also partly on the grass near the football sideline. The 12-by-12 inch plastic tiles, supplied by Illinois-based NetLynx, were pieced together like a puzzle by a crew that worked until 10 p.m. the night before.
Organizers waited out a forecast calling for thunderstorms. And given the significance of these matches, conditions had to be as close as possible to perfect – at the time, Grand Haven and Mona Shores were honorable mentions in Class A, while Fruitport (in A this fall) is the reigning Class B MHSAA champion and Spring Lake was a semifinalist in Fruitport’s district last season.
But it came off with barely a hitch. The first matches began at 6 p.m., and the football stadium lights were turned on about an hour later. The third matches were played in the school’s gym in front of all four student sections cheering throughout the final points.
Mona Shores finished 3-0, while Grand Haven was 2-1. Fruitport ended 1-2 and Spring Lake fell in their three matches.
With the help of a forklift and workers who stayed late, the courts were cleared from the football field by 1 a.m.
“It takes a lot of parental involvement to pull of that kind of event,” Portenga said. “We had a lot of helping hands.”
Click for additional match coverage from the Muskegon Chronicle.
PHOTOS courtesy of the Muskegon Mona Shores athletic department.
Performance: Camden-Frontier's Jordan Stump
November 2, 2018
Jordan Stump
Camden-Frontier junior – Volleyball
Stump did a lot of many things well in leading Camden-Frontier on Saturday to clinch its first league championship in more than a decade, filling the stat sheet with 36 kills, 46 assists, six aces and 38 digs during the Southern Central Athletic Association Tournament. The Redskins, then ranked No. 5 in Division 4, beat rival North Adams-Jerome in the semifinal and No. 3 Battle Creek St. Philip in the championship match, earning Stump the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week.”
The 5-foot-6 junior joins sophomore Heather Shaw as a setter in Camden-Frontier’s 6-2 alignment, allowing both to direct the offense and pile up kills as well. Stump is averaging 4.8 assists and 3.1 kills per game with a .322 hitting efficiency and .897 serving percentage. The win over St. Philip avenged an earlier sweep by the Tigers at the start of October, when the Redskins were ranked No. 1 in Division 4 by the state coaches association. Saturday’s win and the league title are just the latest highlights from an impressive run for a team that started this season with eight players and has seen three, including Stump, work through ankle injuries. Camden-Frontier is 38-5-4 heading into tonight’s District Final against Pittsford, and moved up to No. 3 in the Division 4 rankings heading into the postseason.
Stump is a second-generation player for longtime Redskins coach Dawn Follis. Jordan’s mother Heather played for Follis and came back for a second run as junior varsity coach this fall, and she stepped in to guide the team during Saturday’s SCAA championship run. It was the first time Jordan had played for her mom – Jordan has been on varsity all three years of high school and is a three-time all-league first-team selection. She also has begun coaching, at the club level, and spends much of her off-court time and energy raising and showing livestock at the statewide level with her family. Stump is considering studying agri-nutrition or criminal justice after high school – but has plenty of time to decide and plenty of volleyball left to play with this season’s run and high expectations for next fall as well.
Coach Dawn Follis said: “Jordan, as well as many of her teammates, have put in endless years of extra work and dedication to make this year possible, and it has been such a joy to see all of their work come full round. Jordan started in the third grade playing club ball as well as managing my varsity team. Ironically, her mother was my first setter when I came to Camden-Frontier 29 years ago, so setting runs in her blood. Jordan not only has very good volleyball skills, but she has a high IQ of the game. She will come off the court often with great suggestions of how to beat the defense or score against the blockers. She doesn't power the ball through, but has a great court sense and knows where the holes are and can place the ball in those areas. Jordan not only sets and hits well, but many times has turned games around for us at the serving line. She is my floor general and has led her team this year to an unforgettable season.”
Performance Point: “Our team is really small, and I really enjoy that because we'll walk into a gym and everyone underestimates us. Our coach wasn't there on Saturday because her daughter's Senior Night was that night (Kasey Follis plays at Spring Arbor University), so as a team it was cool because we all just stepped up because we knew what needed to be done. And it was kind’ve a now-or-never situation. As a manager, I've always watched the older girls almost beat St. Phil, and they’ve come up just a little bit short. So I was like, you know, it's our time to do it. And when we played, it never crossed my mind, ‘What happens if we don't win this?’ It was just pure determination, and I think my adrenaline was so high. We just kept going, and it was a blast.”
‘Coolest mom of all-time’: “It was pretty cool to have my mom alongside and experience that with her. She's what got me into (volleyball). When I was littler – we live in a log cabin that has a tall ceiling – she kinda started me in the house, and we played there. Then she became the (JV) coach my eighth grade year, so it's just been really fun to watch her grow. We've kinda grown together – she'll bounce drills off of me, be like what do you think about this, and I'll go to her and be like, how do you think we should run this? It's just been really fun to experience that with my mom. … Passing, setting, and then it got to the point because our ceiling comes together at an arch, and I'd be jump-serving at the ceiling. Many broken blinds ... but she says, ‘Oh well.’ – it's made me a better player. It was just fun growing up. She started me in the third grade, just peppering back and forth. … We didn’t really tell my dad. It actually taught me a lot of control, because I didn't want to break stuff, so that's where I think I got a lot of my ball control from – so I didn't break things in the house.”
Building for something big: “It’s just been a great experience, coming from a small school, and having all the support behind us, and just watching us grow. I think that's one cool thing about volleyball, is watching the team and watching them grow and improve as time goes on. It's just been really fun, especially bringing up newer players and getting them into the group. When it all comes together, it's just a great experience. I love it. … Our overall goal is just to go as far as we can and work as hard as we can. Initially yes, it would be great to go all the way, but we're just going to keep on doing what we're doing and work every day and work super hard and see how far that takes us.”
Making the offense go: “I love setting, because when you get that perfect set, and your hitter puts it in, it's just a great feeling. Hitting is kinda secondary (for me), I'd say, because I'm not super tall. So I do have to find my way around the court and be smart about where I place the balls, because I can't go up and just go out swinging. But I still enjoy both very much.”
Family show: “We have a small farm; it's kinda my farm. I really want to raise show cattle when I get older, so when I turned 9 we started buying some cows and grew that little farm. We have 11 commercial cows that calve every year and we raise them and we sell them. My parents are a big help with everything that I do. My sister is involved. … We're big on family help and doing it together. My parents enjoy it do, so they support me in whatever I want to do, and that's pretty great.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2018-19 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Past 2018-19 honorees
October 25: Danielle Staskowski, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep golf - Read
October 18: Adam Bruce, Gladstone cross country - Read
October 11: Ericka VanderLende, Rockford cross country - Read
October 4: Kobe Clark, Schoolcraft football - Read
September 27: Jonathan Kliewer, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern soccer - Read
September 20: Kiera Lasky, Bronson volleyball - Read
September 13: Judy Rector, Hanover-Horton cross country - Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Camden-Frontier’s Jordan Stump prepares to serve during a match this season. (Middle) Stump, right, works to put the ball past a block. (Photos courtesy of the Camden-Frontier athletic department.)