Frankfort Follows Coach to Title Success

February 16, 2016

By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half

FRANKFORT – When Frankfort captured its first MHSAA Division 4 District wrestling championship in 22 years last Wednesday, Jaime Smith was asked if another first had been achieved that night.

Was she the first woman in MHSAA history to coach a boys wrestling team to a District title?

"I said, 'I'm going to assume so,'" Smith replied.

It's a milestone that might be hard to verify. If it's not a first, it's certainly rare, according to the MHSAA.

Frankfort's feat under Smith might have come as a surprise to some, but not to those at the school.

High school principal Matt Stapleton called Smith “a quality coach and a quality person," who knows how to get the best out of her students and athletes.

“She’s really passionate about wrestling, about family, about teaching and working with kids,” he said. “Those are the type of (attributes) you need to build a program.”

Frankfort defeated Fife Lake Forest Area and Traverse City St. Francis to claim the District. Freshman Kody Michel's win at 152 pounds decided the outcome in the 42-36 finale with St. Francis.

The championship added to what's been quite a winter for boys athletic teams at the small Class D school. Earlier Wednesday, the Frankfort-Benzie Central co-op squad won the Lake Michigan Ski Conference title. Two days later, the state-ranked basketball team inched closer to the Northwest Conference championship by beating Kingsley to improve its record to 13-1.

Such success is not lost on junior wrestler and two-time Regional qualifier Daymian Tabbert.

"We had to do our part," he said.

Smith, who has an extensive wrestling background, took on the task of resurrecting the program four years ago. Frankfort previously participated in a co-op with Onekama. When that dissolved, the Panthers did not have enough wrestlers to field a team.

In fact, when Smith was hired by the district in 2010, she volunteered to help the school's lone tournament wrestler, Jacob Chappell, who was training at Benzie Central and competing as an individual. The following season Smith was named the coach. She started with six wrestlers that first season, and now has 11, including senior captain Brandon Coxe, who has been in the program all four years. The District crown was the exclamation point of his varsity career.

"It was a very special (night) for the entire team," he said. "We all worked very hard for it. We (Frankfort) haven't done anything like this in a long time. We've come a long way."

Coxe (171), Michel, Tabbert, Ben Tiesworth (112), Isaac Dean (130) and Levi Hubbard (140) were all double winners in the District. Michel, a Regional qualifier at 145, provided the most dramatic moment. Smith moved him up a weight class against St. Francis, knowing it would be the swing match of the night. Given little time to think about it, Michel delivered.

"You need enough time to prepare yourself, but not enough time to scare yourself," Smith said.

Perhaps the day's biggest decision came prior to the matches. Frankfort had a snow day, and conditions were so iffy that the athletic department considered not putting the team bus on the road to St. Francis, a near 40-mile drive.

"Fife Lake was going so we would have automatically forfeited had we not gone," Smith said.

After some discussion, the team was allowed to travel. And, as luck would have it, the storm system, which had produced whiteouts earlier in the day, cleared out.

The District win that night created a buzz at school the following morning. Team members, accustomed to anonymity, suddenly became the center of attention, receiving congratulatory praises from students and staff.

"It was a cool experience," Tabbert, who is 27-12, said.

It was an experience Smith hopes to build off as she develops the varsity – there is no feeder program in the junior high.

"I've already had two kids talk to me about coming out (for the team next season)," she said. "That's (District title) monumental. It will make recruiting easier."

Prior to arriving at Frankfort, Smith coached girls and boys soccer at Traverse City Central. She led the girls to two District titles. Smith was a four-year starter and captain of the soccer team at Olivet College.

But wrestling has always been part of her life.

"I grew up (in Alpena) with five brothers," she said. "We wrestled freestyle on Saturday, folkstyle on Sunday. That's what we did since we were old enough to get across the mat."

She eventually wrestled for the high school team until she made the decision to focus on soccer.

In college, she got back into wrestling, competing in open freestyle tournaments. She also started officiating youth tournaments.

It was at Olivet where she met her husband Ethan Smith, who was a four-time MHSAA Finals wrestling qualifier at Traverse City Central.

“People ask me, 'What's your favorite sport?'" Jaime Smith said. "I love soccer, but I was successful at it because of the discipline and characteristics I learned from wrestling."

It was a no-brainer, she said, when Stapleton approached her about the wrestling job, even though it's been almost exclusively a male-dominated position.

"It felt pretty natural," she said. "Wrestling is in my blood, and there's no way I was going to let (the program) die.

"Were there concerns about me being a female? Absolutely. But my boys, my gentlemen, make that really easy. There's a respect, trust and understanding between us. I have never had an issue with one of my athletes. People always ask, 'How do you make that happen?' It's on them. They allow it to be comfortable and appropriate."

She's had a harder time convincing others, though. At coaches meetings, and even at matches, she’s been mistaken as a mother of a wrestler, and not the coach. Another time, after a match, the opposing wrestler came over to shake the Frankfort coach's hand and walked right past Smith.

"He was looking for a male coach," Smith said.

"But it doesn't bother me," she added. "All that matters (on the team) is the respect that we have between each other."

Smith believes there will be more women following her path. For proof, she points to the increased participation of girls in the sport.

"When I was wrestling (in youth and high school tournaments), I was one of the few and far between," she said. "Now, especially in the lower weights, you can show up at a tournament and create a girls bracket if it's a round-robin. I hope, if they're qualified, you'll see more of it in the future."

As for the immediate future, Frankfort will be the decided underdog when it competes in Wednesday's Team Regional at Leroy Pine River. The Panthers open with Charlevoix. Although numbers are improving, Frankfort still voids three weight classes.

The Panthers will have two wrestlers, Tabbert and Michel, in the Individual Regional on Saturday at Rogers City. Both are underclassmen, which bodes well for the Panthers next season.

"If you look at it, numbers (in wrestling) seem to be waning in northern Michigan," Stapleton said. "But certainly, we're gaining momentum."

For Smith, that’s encouraging.

"It's exciting to be talking about the wrestling program again," she said.

Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. He can be reached at dennischase@charter.net 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) Frankfort's Daymian Tabbert wrestles under the watchful eye of coach Jaime Smith, top right-hand corner. (Middle) Smith confers with Ben Tiesworth during a match. (Below) Frankfort poses with its first District title trophy in 22 years. (Photos courtesy of the Frankfort wrestling program.)

Inaugural Wayne County Championships Builds On Girls Wrestling's Rapid Growth

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

January 16, 2025

WAYNE — Dave Kobel said he is a dreamer, but even this was something he probably couldn’t have envisioned.

Greater DetroitThree years ago when Kobel took over as head coach of the Wayne Memorial wrestling program, Kobel said female participation was limited – to say the least.

“We had one for half the season, and then she quit,” Kobel said. “And then we had another girl join up for the second half of the season.”

Fast forward to last Saturday, and it was quite a statement of growth for girls wrestling not just for the Wayne Memorial program, but an entire county.

Kobel and Wayne Memorial hosted the first Wayne County Women’s Wrestling Championships, an event solely for girls that featured 77 participants representing 20 schools.

Even though there were some registered wrestlers who backed out and some weight classes had only four wrestlers, it still was a great seed planted for the future and an example of just how much wrestling has caught on with girls in the area.

The idea was born among Kobel and other coaches in the area last winter as a platform to give the girls a major event in preparation for league and MHSAA Tournament rounds coming up next month.

“It’s something to compete for,” Kobel said as his team was rolling up mats and closing up the gym after the event. “It feels like there are stakes when it’s the county tournament or the (state) Regional tournament. There are some other really big and high-quality wrestling tournaments, but we wanted something where Wayne County schools could fight for a title.”

Participants representing 20 schools stand for a photo.

So the wrestlers descended upon Wayne Memorial, where there were championships decided in all 14 weight classes, and with a majority of classes having six competitors.

“I felt glad to be here and to get the opportunity,” said Wayne Memorial junior Guadalupe Chaparro, who finished first at 190 pounds. “I feel like the atmosphere was different than a usual tournament. I felt like there was more caring and everyone was more spirited.”

Arguably the most high-profile final came at 155 pounds, where a pair of wrestlers who competed at the MHSAA Finals last year – Marissa Richmond of Plymouth and Brooklyn Sage of Southgate Anderson – battled for the title, with Richmond prevailing.

A team champion also was crowned, with Allen Park accumulating 116 points to best second-place Wayne Memorial (81) and third-place Plymouth (78).

Other individual winners were Tierra Taylor of Gibraltar Carlson at 100 pounds, Catherine Warlick of Dearborn Heights Annapolis at 105, Alyssa Campbell of Allen Park at 110, Trinity Munoz of Detroit Voyageur College Prep at 115, Melody Carr of Southgate Anderson at 120, Kerrington Fields-McCurdy of Livonia Stevenson at 125, Brynna Alwell of Allen Park at 130, Adeline Tuccini of Allen Park at 135, Nanda Kibi of Plymouth at 140, Rihanna Venegas of Riverview Gabriel Richard at 145, Blessing Bongi of Westland John Glenn at 170 and Mya Brandenburg of Allen Park at 235 pounds.

The Allen Park girls wrestling team poses with the championship trophy after winning the team title.The big winner was the sport of girls wrestling and its skyrocketing popularity.

Chaparro said she didn’t start wrestling until last year as a sophomore when a friend encouraged her to try out for the team, and she loved the sport immediately.

“The hardest part to learn was the discipline that came with wrestling,” she said. “It’s made me a better wrestler and made me better at school. A lot of things.”

Each winner received a trophy, while all participants received medals.

Of course, Kobel and other coaches hope for bigger things next year and beyond when conducting the event – namely more wrestlers and brackets that can be filled a little more completely.

But you have to start somewhere, and no doubt it was a successful first event for girls wrestlers in the community and the sport as a whole.

Kobel isn’t sure if other counties will replicate it and host girls-only county wrestling championships. (Macomb County hosts one but welcomes schools from other counties to participate.). But he hopes the Wayne County event served as an example.

“I’d love to see other counties follow suit,” Kobel said.

Keith DunlapKeith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at keithdunlap78@gmail.com with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.

PHOTOS (Top) A pair of wrestlers compete during Saturday’s Wayne County Women’s Wrestling Championships at Wayne Memorial. (Middle) Participants representing 20 schools stand for a photo. (Below) The Allen Park girls wrestling team poses with the championship trophy after winning the team title. (Photos by Devin Markowsky, The Picture People LLC.)