Schoolcraft Making Most of Every Moment
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
November 3, 2020
SCHOOLCRAFT — First it was the tennis courts, then the softball field.
Finally the Schoolcraft volleyball team got back to its familiar digs in the gym to start this unusual season.
In spite of the unorthodox beginning, the girls were just happy to be playing, said senior libero Kelby Goldschmeding.
After losing in five sets to perennial power Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central in the MHSAA Division 3 Final a year ago, the Eagles are hoping for a rematch down the line.
St. Mary has been ranked No. 1 and Schoolcraft No. 2 in the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association poll all season.
The 31-3 Eagles started their postseason with a 3-0 win against Decatur on Monday and will face White Pigeon on Wednesday in the District Semifinal at Schoolcraft.
“The biggest thing this year is don’t take a thing for granted,” Schoolcraft coach Erin Onken said. “Nothing is a given. It’s day-by-day, and you live or die.
“I think we are successful because we have really great, hard-working kids, too. We play for each other and respect what we’re trying to do.”
The Eagles graduated “a huge player” from last season in Andelyn Simkins, now playing volleyball at Western Michigan University.
“The question early on that everybody asked was how do you replace that,” Onken said.
“I said you don’t replace that, you hope that the qualities that were instilled in the group carry over, like being grateful and working hard.”
In her ninth year coaching the Eagles, Onken has taken her team to the Finals twice, losing to St. Mary both times.
Last year, “we tried to keep everything in perspective: if we win, we win. if we lose, we lose, but we want to go down the way we did,” she said.
“It was hard. Just getting there was pressure enough, then going five sets, I think they were just grateful for the experience and that definitely transferred over to this year, having so many return.”
Four starters are back from last year’s team: Allie Goldschmeding, Maggie Morris, Kayla Onken and Anna Schuppel. All are seniors.
Setter Kayla Onken said making it to the Finals last year gave her perspective.
“You have to take every moment in, soak it in, and make the most out of every situation,” she said. “Whether it’s a win or a loss, it’s still a very big part of my playing career.
“It teaches you to give your full-out effort, no matter what, even if you’re exhausted mentally, physically. It’s emotionally draining because it’s such a big atmosphere.”
Special bonds
A four-year starter, Kayla Onken said being the coach’s daughter was a challenge her freshman and sophomore years.
“I definitely got more backlash from it, mostly my freshman year, being the new kid and being the coach’s daughter,” she said. “It taught me you have to work for what you get, and I’ve always wanted to prove myself because I knew that this is what I wanted, this is what I have to do to get there.
“I thought I had to prove myself even more because of my position. There was some resentment sometimes, but that got me to where I am today.”
Erin Onken said her daughter overcame some teammates who did not feel she should play because she did not earn it.
“The thing I respect the most about (Kayla) is that she has absolutely made that her point,” Erin Onken said. “I want to start, I know I can, I know I’m talented, and if that’s who I have to beat out, then I’m going to go beat them out.”
Kayla Onken said having that special bond with her coach mom is something a lot of people never experience, but “It’s definitely a topic of conversation at the house.
“I don’t really get an off moment from being a coach’s kid,” she added. “It’s nice, but it can be draining sometimes, too.”
Talking about these seniors, the coach gets a bit wistful, more so than other years.
“It’s hard because I have seven seniors now and they’re (Kayla’s) friends,” she said. “It’s always hard to say good-bye to a group of seniors.
“These kids I know even more because I see them all the time.”
Taking nothing for granted
Kayla Onken joined Simkins on the all-state first team last season, while Morris and Schuppel made the second team and Kelby Goldschmeding earned honorable mention.
Looking back to the start of theis season, Goldschmeding said she is just happy they are having one this fall.
“First we practiced on the tennis courts, and then our maintenance crew made a court on the softball field for us, in the grass in the outfield,” she said.
“We were all happy just to be out there playing again, but we were doing a bunch of ball control and all that. We were just happy to have an actual net and actual court lines because then we could serve and hit.”
Goldschmeding has an additional reason to be grateful for this opportunity. As a sophomore, she sat out after suffering minor concussions.
“It was really hard for me,” she said. “I think I just came back stronger from them, knowing that I’m just thankful to be back on the court and be able to play still.”
Onken said Goldschmeding is mentally tough.
“She never came back timid,” she said. “The team is always so supportive and happy to have her back. I think that helped.
“It was never from getting hit from an attack. It was always from hustle play. She’ll run through these bleachers to get a ball and even now, there’s no hesitation in her, which is really cool.”
Senior middle Maggie Morris also missed a year after suffering a broken ankle her freshman season, and she said it was an eye-opener.
“It helped me as a player realizing that I can’t take anything for granted,” she said.
Getting back to the Final has been the team’s goal all year.
“Having the chance to play at Kellogg (Arena in Battle Creek) was an amazing experience,” Morris said. “We’ve been working at it every day off and on the court.”
She said a key to the team’s success is the team identity: “Grateful, family over everything, nothing is a given, positive and constant communication and holding each other reliable and accountable.”
Other seniors on the team are Lilli Curtis and Hannah Grochowski.
The lone junior is Sophie Ridge and sophomores are Abbi Curtis, Allison Bailey, Camden Bruner and Cassidy Bruner.
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) Schoolcraft’s Allie Goldschmeding digs a ball during a match this fall. (Middle) Anna Schuppel gets high over the net to send back a volley. (Below) Clockwise, from top left: Kelby Goldschmeding, Maggie Morris, coach Erin Onken, Kayla Onken. (Action photos by John Curtis; head shots by Pam Shebest.)
Eye of a Tiger, Will of a Champion
November 6, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The game was supposed to be fun with a little competition mixed in. That’s the general idea behind students vs. staff volleyball games like the one Vicky Groat stopped to watch during Battle Creek’s Catholic Schools week a few years ago.
But the tallest girl on the court, eighth-grader Amanda McKinzie, showed a little something extra that day – a desire the seven-time MHSAA champion coach continues to admire.
"There were some other kids in her class that were playing that were volleyball players, but (I thought) ‘She’s got it,’” Groat remembered last week. “She understands the game. She knows it’s joking around. But there’s that serious side to her, that competitive side. That’s cool.
“I remember sitting back (later), standing there going, that’s the competitive drive that I saw in her in eighth grade. Hopefully that continues for years to come.”
The 6-foot outside hitter enters the final two weeks of her high school career tonight ranking among the MHSAA all-time leaders in kills and aces, and as one of 10 candidates for this season’s Miss Volleyball Award handed out by the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association. The Second Half High 5 recipient this week has helped the Tigers to the last three Class D championships and is a big part why they are considered the state’s best team in any class as they pursue one more title before she heads off next season to Virginia Tech.
That’s a mouthful. But this is a season – and career – that McKinzie began preparing for in first grade.
Like most girls who come through the Tigers’ program, that’s when McKinzie first became part of the St. Phil volleyball family. The eventual stars start early and follow the varsity growing up, attending MHSAA Finals and having their shirts autographed by the players they look up to and someday might replace.
By her admission, McKinzie looked up to everyone who played on those teams – although it was hard for the emerging hitter to not pay special attention to Allison Doyle, who graduated from St. Phil in 2006 and went on to an All-America career at Western Michigan.
The game that sticks out most was Doyle’s last, a five-set loss to eventual Miss Volleyball Alisha Glass and Leland in the 2006 Class D Final. St. Phil has won every Class D title since.
“I just remember that game, how crazy it was,” McKinzie said. “I never really thought, ‘Wow, some day that’s going to be me.’”
But Groat had an idea. She’d watched McKinzie during summer camps and as the junior high athletic director, and brought the then 5-9 hitter up to varsity as a freshman. McKinzie was a little erratic at that point – “I’d have games where I’d hit one out, get frustrated and keep swinging harder and it would not go where I wanted it to,” she said – but has turned into a kill machine.
She’s connecting on 49 percent of her kill attempts for the second straight season – a far cry from her 22 percent efficiency as a freshman – and is approaching her best season of 699 kills. She already has posted career highs of 429 digs, 41 blocks and 130 aces.
And it’s not like she’s built her numbers against meager competition. No small-school team in any sport takes on the biggest powers like the Tigers do each fall. They are 68-2-1, with those losses coming during the second weekend of the season to Class A No. 9 Livonia Churchill and then two weeks ago to Class A No. 1 Richland Gull Lake after St. Phil had beaten the Blue Devils the week before. The tie came against Class B No. 6 Wayland.
McKinzie also played basketball through her sophomore season, and started, before focusing solely on volleyball. The drive to win that Groat noticed long ago stretches into just about everything, even “the little things.” McKinzie joked that she’d like to win more at ping-pong – but then explained, ‘No, I’m pretty good at that too.”
That scenario mentioned by McKinzie above – the shots sailing beyond her control – still happens sometimes. But she’s learned control. She’s tough to stop because she’s so powerful. Groat said “she’s kinda mean” before laughing immediately. But the confidence McKinzie has built over the last four seasons is obvious every time she takes the floor.
“I just feel it. I kinda get nervous in a way, a nervous exciting feeling,” McKinzie said. “That’s my favorite way to play.”
PHOTO: Battle Creek’s St. Philip’s Amanda McKinzie blocks a hit during last season’s Class D Semifinals at Kellogg Arena.