Kubiak Comes Back, Twice, to Lead Mustangs
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
September 20, 2016
PORTAGE — Mikaela Kubiak is a fierce competitor on the volleyball court. But the Portage Central senior setter had an even harder fight off the court her first two seasons.
Kubiak, who has been instrumental in the Mustangs’ run to a 23-3 start and No. 5 ranking in Class A, spent her first two seasons rehabbing from injury.
A starter on varsity as a freshman and sophomore, Kubiak tore her anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, not once but twice, and endured two separate stints of grueling physical therapy.
Looking back, the personable Kubiak remembers every detail.
“It was our first home match against Kalamazoo Central and all my family and friends were here watching,” said Kubiak, who came to Portage from Central as a freshman and whose father Bob Kubiak had coached Kalamazoo Central football from 1993-2003.
But her first home volleyball match wasn’t even close to what she envisioned.
“It was in warm-ups and the second ball I hit, I came down and I blew my knee,” she said.
“Not a very good start. It was our first home varsity match, and I think it was the first or second week of school.”
Her first thoughts were that she could walk it off and continue to warm up.
“Then I was like, whoa, this is way more serious than I thought,” she said. “I couldn’t get up. I kept walking, then I just sat down on the ground. It was throbbing and I was in pain.
“I was just super mad, super mad at myself that it happened. Of course, that game it would have to happen to me.”
She had knee surgery and spent nine months in recovery, including physical therapy at least three times per week.
“I wasn’t surprised she came back (after the first injury). I was surprised she got hurt again,” said Dawn Jaqua, who has coached the Mustangs for the last 18 years. “I was actually surprised she got hurt the first time because she’s such a strong kid, physically, so that was a shock.
“She is hugely determined and loves the sport. You can’t help but beat yourself up when you’re a coach and any kid gets hurt on your watch.”
After missing her first season, Kubiak was raring to go as a sophomore.
The team’s setter was Madison Jaqua, who earned all-state first-team honors that year, so Kubiak was once again a hitter.
“Mattawan was like our big rival,” Kubiak said. “We were in the middle of our third set. It was a nitty-gritty, tight match. It was point after point after point, back and forth.
“Madison set me a ball and I came down and just overran it too much and I blew it out again. I knew right away because my knee moved on me.
“I was like, ‘Oh great.’ I think I was even more mad at that. It was like a pin dropped in the room and I was so frustrated. I technically tore it twice in the same year. I actually tore it on 9-11 my freshman year and 9-9 my sophomore year.”
Once again, Kubiak missed the rest of the season. But this time she knew what to expect from the physical therapy and did a lot of work on her own to supplement the workouts.
Giving up volleyball was not an option.
“I was more comfortable going back my junior season because I was back in my original position (as a setter with Madison Jaqua graduating) and I had a huge brace on. I didn’t have a brace my sophomore year.”
Dawn Jaqua said Kubiak’s role changed as a junior.
“She was setting for us,” she said. “The biomechanics are way different. We didn’t have her play front row last year. She set from the back row. We ran a kind of modified system for that.
“Then she started playing front row a little bit for us at the end of the season. We let her block in controlled situations, and by the end of the season last year, we were running a 5-1 with her.”
The coach’s daughter, senior Devin Jaqua, who has been playing volleyball with Kubiak since seventh grade, was not surprised she returned stronger than ever.
“She’s always been a strong leader, and she’s always worked really hard,” the senior said. “She has a really big passion for the game, so I knew she’d always come back.
“She leads almost like the team mom. You can always depend on her, and she always plays her best. She always knows what to do and when to do it.”
In spite of losing two seasons of both high school and club volleyball, Kubiak earned Class A all-state honorable mention last season.
In November, she will sign to play collegiately with Division II Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Dawn Jaqua said Kubiak is the complete package.
“It’s all the components: her athleticism, her consistency, her decision making,” she said. “But at the end of the day, it’s about her will to want to win. She’s a great leader.
“She is a great problem solver. She’s demanding, but she does it in a very calming way. She’s very controlled. When things aren’t going well, she does a great job figuring out a different way to win. That’s her job.”
Devin Jaqua said this is a special year for the seniors.
“There’s five seniors, and it’s our last year,” she said. “Mikaela and Janell (Williams) are the only two so far going to play in college, so the rest of us really want to make it a memorable last year.”
Williams will sign with Western Michigan University. Jaqua will play soccer collegiately at Michigan State.
Talking from experience, Kubiak offers some advice: “For any other volleyball players out there, work hard all the time because you never know when it can be taken from you.
“Cherish every moment you have on the court with your teammates because it really does fly by.”
Other seniors on the team are Rebecca Barnes and Maddie Goodman. Juniors are Maddie Wojcik, Sara Denison, Olivia Harning, MacKenzie Zook and Jessie Zesiger. The sophomore is Ryann Jaqua and the freshman is Maizie Brown.
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 can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Mikaela Kubiak tips the ball over the net during a recent match against Richland Gull Lake. (Middle) Kubiak and Portage Central coach Dawn Jaqua. (Below) Kubiak sets for teammate Janell Williams. (Photos by Pam Shebest.)
Wroubel Continues to Champion Athletics
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 20, 2016
Betty Wroubel still remembers the first pop fly she caught 57 years ago.
Perhaps fleeting for most, it was one of the earliest memorable moments that eventually led to a career stretching four decades and impacting thousands of high school athletes across our state.
Wroubel – one of Michigan’s winningest high school coaches in both volleyball and softball with more than 2,000 combined victories – also has served as an athletic director and in various other leadership positions since beginning her educational career in 1975. Her contributions to educational athletics over the last 40 years will be celebrated Sunday, Feb. 7, when she receives the MHSAA’s 29th Women In Sports Leadership Award during the WISL banquet at the Crowne Plaza Lansing West.
“When I look at all of those names (of past WISL winners), knowing what they meant to the advancement of girls sports in schools and the total sports culture, it boggles my mind that I can be mentioned in those,” Wroubel said. “I’m not so sure I belong in there. I’ve had great leaders; my high school teachers and coaches were great leaders. I know nothing more than to work hard to make things better, sometimes inch by inch, sometimes two inches forward and one back – and sometimes leaps forward.”
The honor, given annually by the MHSAA Representative Council, recognizes the achievements of women coaches, officials and athletic administrators affiliated with the MHSAA who show exemplary leadership capabilities and positive contributions to athletics.
Wroubel, a 1971 graduate of Clawson High School, first returned to teach and coach at her alma mater, and currently serves as the athletic director, varsity volleyball and softball coach at Pontiac Notre Dame Prep. She also continues to teach sports medicine and leadership classes at the school.
She’s served in the athletic department at Notre Dame Prep since the school opened in 1994 and also coached and served as athletic director at the former Pontiac and then Oakland Catholic high schools after her stint as a coach and teacher at Clawson. She’s third on the MHSAA coaching victories list for volleyball with a record of 1,306-290-122. In 2015, she became the 14th coach in MHSAA softball history to win at least 800 games and sits 12th on that career wins list with a record of 826-293-3.
Wroubel also has been a registered MHSAA official in both volleyball and softball since the 1975-76 school year and has held numerous leadership positions as part of the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, her sports’ coaches associations and the Detroit Catholic High School League. She’s hosted numerous MHSAA Coaches Advancement Program sessions and mentored young officials as part of the MHSAA Legacy Program.
“Betty Wroubel has dedicated much of the last four decades to assisting student-athletes and is passionate about the mission of educational athletics,” MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts said. “Education is her life’s work, and that remains clear in her emphasis on coaches training and desire to continue teaching students as well – both in the classroom and on the volleyball court and softball diamond. We’re pleased to honor her with the Women In Sports Leadership Award.”
Wroubel earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Central Michigan University and her master’s in classroom teaching from Michigan State University. She was a five-sport athlete at Clawson High School – participating in basketball, volleyball, track & field, tennis and softball – and went on to play volleyball, tennis and field hockey at CMU.
Among those who provided Wroubel early mentorship was Judy Hacker, a teacher and coach at Clawson from 1962-95 who died in 2011 and like Wroubel was a pioneer in girls athletics during their early growth in the 1970s and 80s. Wroubel also was impacted athletically by her parents Marshall and Lucille; Marshall was a recognized youth baseball coach in Clawson and with Lucille provided opportunities for Betty to compete during an era when they were only first starting to emerge.
During her early years coaching and teaching at Clawson, Wroubel also worked as an assistant athletic director at Pontiac Catholic. She then took over as fulltime athletic director there, leaving her alma mater, but continued to pass on those many lessons learned to another generation including her Pontiac Catholic volleyball coach at the time, Dianne Phillips – who has gone on to rank 11th on the MHSAA volleyball coaching wins list with 986 victories mostly over the last 17 seasons at Dearborn High.
“Betty has dedicated her expertise, time and energy to coaching hundreds of young women in more than just sport, but in life lessons as well,” Phillips said. “Betty’s leadership skills and grounded philosophies are a model to all who aspire to teach and coach. The positive impact Betty has made on the lives of so many young people can never be overestimated.”
Wroubel led teams to MHSAA championships in two decades; her Pontiac Catholic softball team won the Class C title in 1983, and her Notre Dame Prep volleyball teams won Class B titles in fall 2007 and 2013. In 2010, Notre Dame Prep dedicated its new athletic facility in her name: the Betty A. Wroubel Athletic Performance Center.
She is a member of various Halls of Fame – she’s been inducted by the Detroit Catholic League, Michigan High School Softball Coaches Association, Michigan High School Coaches Association, Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association and the Michigan chapter of the United States Specialty Sports Association. She received the MHSAA’s Allen W. Bush Award in 2010 for her continuing service to high school athletics, with the WISL Award her second from the association.
Her administrative efforts were recognized twice by the Detroit Catholic League with its Tom Kelly Athletic Director of the Year Award in 1994 and 2007. Wroubel also was named National High School Coach of the Year by the American Volleyball Coaches Association in 2007 and state coach of the year by MIVCA for Class B in 2007, 2013 and 2014. She also was named Michigan High School Coaches Association Volleyball Coach of the Year in 2014.
Wroubel served on the Catholic League’s executive board and as an officer for more than 30 years and on a variety of MHSAA committees during her long tenure as an athletic director. She has served on boards for the statewide volleyball coaches association for more than 30 years and statewide softball coaches association for more than 25.
As would be expected by a coach with such success across multiple sports, Wroubel remains an ardent supporter of athletes playing as many as possible despite a recent shift toward specialization.
“By (coaching both), I hope it sends a nonverbal message that if I can coach, they can certainly play multiple sports,” Wroubel said. “That’s been the biggest change; kids are so specialized. The pressure is on us (coaches) to do more and more training. But during the school year, we don’t do anything; I don’t get out a softball. That tells them to go play basketball, ski, go cheer, go bowl.”
Wroubel also volunteers for her church and the American Red Cross, and with a local food bank and soup kitchen.
The first Women In Sports Leadership Award was presented in 1990.
Past recipients
1990 – Carol Seavoy, L’Anse
1991 – Diane Laffey, Harper Woods
1992 – Patricia Ashby, Scotts
1993 – Jo Lake, Grosse Pointe
1994 – Brenda Gatlin, Detroit
1995 – Jane Bennett, Ann Arbor
1996 – Cheryl Amos-Helmicki, Huntington Woods
1997 – Delores L. Elswick, Detroit
1998 – Karen S. Leinaar, Delton
1999 – Kathy McGee, Flint
2000 – Pat Richardson, Grass Lake
2001 – Suzanne Martin, East Lansing
2002 – Susan Barthold, Kentwood
2003 – Nancy Clark, Flint
2004 – Kathy Vruggink Westdorp, Grand Rapids
2005 – Barbara Redding, Capac
2006 – Melanie Miller, Lansing
2007 – Jan Sander, Warren Woods
2008 – Jane Bos, Grand Rapids
2009 – Gail Ganakas, Flint; Deb VanKuiken, Holly
2010 – Gina Mazzolini, Lansing
2011 – Ellen Pugh, West Branch; Patti Tibaldi, Traverse City
2012 – Janet Gillette, Comstock Park
2013 – Barbara Beckett, Traverse City
2014 – Teri Reyburn, DeWitt
2015 – Jean LaClair, Bronson
PHOTOS: (Top) Pontiac Notre Dame Prep volleyball coach Betty Wroubel, left, celebrates the 2013 Class B championship with her team. (Middle) Wroubel instructs her players during the Semifinal match that season.