Team of the Month: Gladwin Volleyball
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
November 15, 2022
Tony Wetmore hadn’t arrived yet the last time Gladwin’s varsity volleyball team won a Jack Pine Conference championship. But he had a trustworthy witness able to give a first-hand account of what his Flying G’s have been chasing over the last 40+ years.
Wetmore’s mother and junior varsity coach Jane Wetmore, then Jane Huber – played on that last league championship volleyball team. She also was the one who got her son into coaching; he started his Gladwin tenure as the freshman volleyball coach teaching a sport he admittedly didn’t know much about himself.
But Mom clearly was onto something.
Less than a decade later, Wetmore has just finished up his sixth season as Gladwin’s varsity coach – and his team has finished its first league championship season since 1978, earning the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” honor for October.
Gladwin has been hovering in contention much of the last decade, but this team had all the ingredients to end the drought. Start with senior outside hitter Erin Breault and senior setter Delaney Reynolds – Breault broke the school’s single-season and career kills records this season, and Reynolds broke the same records for assists. Additionally, Breault led the JPC in kills, and junior middle Lizzie Haines led the league in hitting percentage.
But that high-caliber talent also was surrounded by several contributors who helped Gladwin push past longtime nemesis Beaverton and into the top spot.
“I felt like the whole season I could split the team in half, and one team could take first in the conference and the other team could take like fourth. I just felt like we were that deep where we were good and we could practice at a pretty high level, which was really cool,” Wetmore said.
“It’s obviously linked together, the assist record breaker and the kill record breaker on the same team,” he added. “And I think the thing that really pushed us over the edge this year is we had so many different attackers that were really, really good. My outside hitter Erin broke the record, she led the league in kills. My middle hitter led the league in hitting percentage. Both of those are reflective of our ability to get the ball to our attackers, which is the setter’s main job – but our back row played really well also all season, so a super-big team effort for all of them.”
The Flying G’s were able to win the Jack Pine in large part because they became the first league opponent since 2018 to defeat annual power Beaverton – Gladwin swept the pair of matches against its rival, and those remain Beaverton’s only league defeats over the last five seasons.
The Flying G’s had been building toward this. They won their District in 2018, and then finished second in the JPC in 2019. The team was only .500 in 2020, but came back to finish 29-5 last season and 29-10 this fall.
Wetmore brought Breault, Reynolds and senior libero Delaney Conley up to varsity as sophomores that 2020 season. Breault, Reynolds and Haines earned all-region honors this season, and Wetmore was named his region’s Coach of the Year by the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association. (Conley, a standout softball player, has signed to continue playing that sport at Saginaw Valley State.)
More quickly than hoped, of course, Gladwin made its season-ending exit in District play again. But the Flying G’s don’t plan on the prior good times coming to an end.
True, the seniors who will graduate are part of a class that’s been long-anticipated across all sports – another example this fall has been the football team, 12-0 and playing in a Division 5 Semifinal on Saturday.
Wetmore expects his volleyball seniors’ impact to last as younger players who watched them succeed this fall take their turns on the court with a larger idea of what’s possible.
“(It’s) just getting over the hump. Talk about our goals – every year trying to win the conference championship but we can’t get there. Every year since 2018, trying to beat Beaverton but we can’t do it. Districts, we’d won every once in a while … we won in 2011, so from 2011-15 we couldn’t get over it, but in (20)16 we got a District and then we got the next two,” Wetmore said. “When you break that barrier, it makes it easier to realize you can do things.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2022-23
September: Negaunee girls tennis - Report
Matchup of 1 vs 2 Goes to St Mary in 5
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 23, 2019
BATTLE CREEK – The Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central volleyball team didn’t mean to be prophetic when it made “I’ve got your six” its season motto.
But on Saturday, the saying’s original intent – that each team member had the other’s back – gained a new meaning as the Kestrels brought home the school’s sixth MHSAA Volleyball Finals title with a five-set victory against Schoolcraft.
St. Mary (50-2) won 25-27, 25-21, 19-25, 25-18, 15-12 at Kellogg Arena to claim the Division 3 championship, the program’s first since 2014.
“Being here last year and going through a five-set loss (in the Semifinals) really fueled us,” St. Mary coach Karen O’Brien said. “I just think to have that experience of playing in that gym with the lights and the fans helped us. We wanted this from Day 1. We knew this was our goal to be here. It’s great for the four seniors to be able to come back and win our sixth. I know the reporter Jeff Mead (Friday) asked, ‘Does that six mean the sixth state title?’ It never was intended to be that way. But it might be a coincidence.”
It’s the first title for the Kestrels under O’Brien, who previously coached at Eastern Michigan University. O’Brien underwent treatment earlier in the season for her third battle with ovarian cancer.
“I don’t want to do anything but coach them when I’m going through treatment,” O’Brien said. “Because it’s something to look forward to, and I can leave cancer (to the side).”
While going through treatment, O’Brien lost her hair and had a temporary tattoo on her forehead that symbolized the team’s other saying, “Allow your faith to be stronger than your fears.” She had one on her wrist Saturday, along with every member of the team.
“Last year when we were here, the fears got the best of us,” O’Brien said. “The tattoo is just a reminder to have faith, not only in God, but in our players and the coaches and the program. And it was really just a reminder of that.”
The Kestrels had to have faith Saturday, as the much-anticipated battle between the top two teams in the Division 3 rankings lived up to its billing. The teams proved to be very evenly matched, and any multi-point run seemed like a major victory.
“I think we played a great game, and if we play them again, maybe we beat them in five,” Schoolcraft coach Erin Onken said. “I think that matchup goes more sets than three every single time. We have a ton of respect for them, and we knew it was going to be tough.”
It was the No. 2 Kestrels who made the final run, winning the final three points. St. Mary senior Samantha Michael and junior Mikayla Haut combined for a block on Schoolcraft star Andelyn Simkins to close out the match.
“Coach O’Brien always says if you see a hitter moving in, you’ve gotta move with her,” Michael said. “We just got our hands up, we pressed the six and we got her. It was just like the best feeling. It felt unreal.”
Simkins led all players with 28 kills in her final match. She also had a team-high 23 digs for the Eagles (48-7-1).
“It’s definitely not easy (defending Simkins),” Michael said.
Schoolcraft raced to an 11-4 lead in the first set, but St. Mary came all the back and even led 20-19. A Simkins kill ended a back-and-forth finish to the set and gave Schoolcraft the initial match lead.
The second set was following the same back-and-forth path, until SMCC was able to open up a four-point lead at 19-15, forcing a Schoolcraft timeout. While the Eagles were able to match SMCC the rest of the way, they couldn’t get closer than three points and the Kestrels tied the match at a set apiece.
Simkins was a force in the third set, helping her team get a little bit of separation midway through. She had eight kills in the set, but that didn’t even cover the impact she made, as on multiple points she fired more than one spike at the SMCC defense to keep the Kestrels off balance. She closed out the set with a deft tip and put her team one set from a title.
The Kestrels had different plans, however, racing out to a 9-4 lead in the fourth set to force a Schoolcraft timeout. The Eagles fought back to within one at 14-13, as Simkins had four kills in a five-point stretch. But SMCC was able to stretch the lead back out and force the fifth and deciding set.
Haut led St. Mary with 27 kills and 24 digs, while junior Anna Dean added 12 kills. Senior Payton Osborne had 24 digs, junior Grace Lipford had 26 assists, and senior Sarah Reicker had 24 assists.
Schoolcraft junior Kayla Onken had 53 assists and 15 digs, while junior Anna Schuppel had 13 kills. Juniors Kelby Goldschmeding and Allie Goldschmeding added 21 and 16 digs, respectively.
PHOTOS: (Top) St. Mary’s Abby Costlow (4) winds up for a kill attempt during Saturday’s Division 3 Final. (Middle) Schoolcraft’s Maggie Morris (9) blocks a St. Mary attempt.