Traverse City Athletes Taking LEAP into Coaching, Officiating
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
March 18, 2022
Set. Spike. Jump – rather maybe leap?
Nothing new to many female high school student-athletes.
But this spring, Abigail Hicks, Keira Castle, Madeline Bildeaux and Honorae Shore made THE LEAP — as in Learning, Enrichment and Athletic Programs (LEAP). They actually leaped into coaching and officiating roles.
Hicks, Castle and Shore stepped into LEAP as coaches for Willow Hill Elementary School’s volleyball team. Bildeaux became a referee for LEAP’s 4th and 5th grade volleyball program.
All four girls are part of the North Shore traveling volleyball club. And, all four are a part of Future Coaches, its 4-year-old program preparing athletes to become effective coaches through LEAP, which is operated through Traverse City Area Public Schools.
Bildeaux and Castle played their first high school volleyball seasons last fall at Traverse City West. Hicks did the same at Traverse City St. Francis. Shore attends Greenspire, a Grand Valley State University-sponsored charter school located in Traverse City.
Parents, grandparents and school administrators love having the high school girls on the sidelines. The girls may love it even more though.
“The most rewarding aspect of teaching young girls is seeing the excitement they get when they get the hang of playing or when they win a game,” noted Castle, who started with the coaching program as an eighth grader. “I also love knowing that I've helped some of these girls fall in love with a sport.”
There may not be anyone more thrilled with the girls taking the leap than David Payne, elementary sports manager for LEAP. The student coaches help LEAP meet its vision of providing preschool through 12th-grade students with increased opportunities for engagement beyond the school day with activities to improve learning, health and wellness.
“The high school girls have a love and knowledge of the game that they share with the elementary kids,” Payne said. “Parents that were not comfortable or able to coach are finding the excitement and interaction between the high school girls and the elementary kids is very positive.
“At times the high school coaches look like cheerleaders on the sidelines,” he continued. “They keep the energy level high while supporting their team.”
The four ninth graders are the latest to make the “leap.” Jordan Bates, founder of the Future Coaches program, first connected the players as coaches with LEAP as COVD-19 shortened the 2020 season. The very first high school volleyball player to make the leap was Phoebe Humphrey, now a Traverse City Central sophomore. Humphrey coached Cherry Knoll as an eighth grader during the 2020 brief season. She is now coaching Eastern Elementary.
The pandemic also resulted in the cancellation of the 2021 elementary season. This season will conclude next week.
“The opportunities for these athletes to coach their own teams is extraordinary,” Bates said. “It would not have happened without David Payne.
“His support, scheduling acumen, and love of sports has made this program pretty amazing.”
Veronika Caughran, who plays for Traverse City Central, is helping Cherry Knoll Elementary in Traverse City. Anissa Wille, Suttons Bay High School; Jenna Flick, TC West; and TC Central’s Natalie Bourdo and Lily Briggs have coached North Shore travel teams. Briggs, Bourdo and Humphrey have been coaching in North Shore’s beach program for the past three years.
Hicks, who recalls Gladiators varsity players helping coach her in volleyball as a fifth grader, said the girls can’t go it alone. She’s found the Willow Hill school community to be extremely supportive.
“We have received lots of positive feedback from parents, our coaches, our team, and other LEAP coaches,” she said. “All the parents have been very kind and grateful and always willing to support the team by bringing in snacks for after the game — not only for our players but for the opposing team — along with being willing to help line judge and run the scoreboard.”
The high school players-turning-coaches have been attending classes with Bates and guest coaches mostly from the North Shore club. Topics covered include coaching philosophy, how to be a great referee, practice planning, tournament preparation and health and wellness.
Bates said the program benefits go beyond the participants.
“Perhaps the biggest struggle is for athletes and parents to realize how valuable coaching is to an athlete,” he said. “It not only helps them with communication, structure, planning, and strategizing, but also it makes them better athletes earlier in their journey.”
Adding fun too is important, Hicks noted.
“I hope I help make practices a fun environment and for them not to worry about making mistakes and helping them know that not everything is their fault,” she said. “And … how to learn from their mistakes.”
Castle, who started playing volleyball as a fourth grader at Willow Hill, agreed. She recalls fondly the difference past coaches have made in her life, including Bates.
“While I've been coaching I've also noticed how (Willow Hill players) interact with each other and cheer each other on, and it's been such a great experience,” she said.
“I remember the feeling I felt when a coach made me love volleyball, and from coaching these girls I'm starting to see what that's like from a coaching point of view.”
Bates created the program with interscholastic competition and the student-athlete in mind.
“There is also the coaching shortage, so creating opportunities for these athletes to coach, and ref, just made sense,” Bates said.
Castle is preparing to meet the growing needs.
“I plan to continue coaching volleyball until the end of high school,” Castle said. “In a year or two, I want to start coaching middle school volleyball.
“When I get to college I plan to either continue coaching or find a job as a ref.”
Hicks indicated her experience has increased her love for the game of volleyball and respect for coaches.
“I learned that coaching is a little more complex than it looks, and you have to plan practice and be prepared for them to have a bad attitude or unfocused after a long day of school,” she said. “You, as the coach, have to have a good attitude, have lots of patience, be ready to problem solve and get them back on track.”
Teamwork, sportsmanship and the value of hard work are among the strengths Castle and the other future coaches bring to the table.
“We had our girls practice sportsmanship by saying ‘good game’ and waving to the other team,” Castle said. “In practice, we have taught them to work as a team and to always give it your all.”
Hicks recommends coaching to all high school athletes.
“I’ve learned a lot,” she said, “and this has been a positive, fun experience that I definitely recommend.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] 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) From left, Honorae Shore, Abigail Hicks and Kiera Castle coach their Willow Hill elementary volleyball team this season. (Middle) Madeline Bildeaux, far left, also has joined Castle, Hicks and Shore as part of the LEAP coaching and officiating program. (Top photo by Tom Spencer, middle photo courtesy of Allie Walters.)
Marysville, St. Clair Join Together to Honor Beloved Coach with Rivalry Trophy
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
October 11, 2023
Denny White brought quite a bit to the Marysville and St. Clair communities.
In 1961, as a junior in high school, White was part of the first team to bring a football state title to Marysville.
Fifty years later, as an assistant coach, he played a vital role in bringing St. Clair its first MHSAA Finals title in baseball.
During the years in between, and decade after, White brought his knowledge of and passion for those sports to hundreds of student athletes.
But most recently, he brought the two communities together.
This past Friday night, the rival schools played for the Denny White Trophy, an award created to honor the late coach and connect the two communities where he was most revered.
“I’m so happy with all the support that has been around the project,” said Brady Beedon, a family friend who helped to create the trophy and was in the booth calling Friday night’s game for Get Stuck On Sports. “It’s the least we could’ve done for a man who helped so many athletes. His legacy deserves to be preserved.”
In a fitting tribute to White, who died Jan. 22 of this year following a long battle with cancer, the two teams played a hard-fought game at East China Stadium, with White’s alma mater Marysville coming away with a 25-20 victory.
Both teams featured players who had been coached by White at some point in one or both of the sports, as his time on the bench lasted through the fall of 2022.
That season, he coached the JV B football team at Marysville. Most recently before that, he had been the varsity baseball coach at St. Clair from 2015-21.
“Not much can unify rivals, but Coach White’s influence goes beyond that rivalry,” Marysville football coach Derrick Meier said at a press conference unveiling the trophy. “He’s affected thousands of local athletes. … It is awesome that someone had such an influence across the board with all local athletes (in multiple) sports. I contacted him my first year coaching varsity, and he was not willing to leave where he was at. I called him three subsequent years; he graciously declined. The last year he did accept, we added a JV B team, his wisdom and knowledge went well beyond just coaching on the field. We’re all lucky for his influence.
“Heroes get remembered. Coach White will be remembered.”
White was a 1963 graduate of Marysville, who then attended Ferris State and Central Michigan. His coaching journey did not begin in the area where he grew up, however, as he coached baseball and football at Newaygo High School before coming to St. Clair.
He spent 35 years in the Saints athletic program, coaching baseball and multiple levels of football.
Much of his time was spent as the pitching coach for St. Clair for coaches Richie Mallewitz and Bill McElreath. That included the 2011 season, when his pitching staff included current major leaguer Jacob Cronenworth, who now plays second base for the San Diego Padres.
Also on that staff were Joel Seddon, who was drafted twice – once out of high school and again after college – and would go on to be the closer at South Carolina; and Jared Tobey, who pitched at Wayne State and was drafted by the Detroit Tigers, playing four years in their minor league system.
While White coached nearly 1,000 baseball games in his career, he was involved with more than just high school sports. He also coached a 13-year-old Little League team to a state title and the semifinals of the Great Lakes Regional in 2015.
No matter the level, White poured all he had into coaching, and that included his final season on the sidelines at Marysville, just months prior to his passing.
“Every single kid that he touched with that team, you could just tell, gravitated toward him immediately,” said Travis Disser, who coached with White that final year at Marysville. “His lessons and his light-hearted humor are just something that you can’t replace, or ever hope to. I was lucky enough to learn pitching from Coach White when I was a younger kid, as well. He was the exact same Denny White as he was all those years ago, as he was last year during his battle with cancer. Coach White was a warrior in every sense of the term. His lessons, both on the field and off the field from him, are something that I’ll never, ever forget.”
The idea to create the trophy honoring White came about not long after his death, as Beedon worked with Meier, former St. Clair athletic director Denny Borse and St. Clair assistant football coach T.J. Schindler to create and design the trophy.
The final product is a two-tiered trophy topped with a pair White’s hats – one from St. Clair, the other from Marysville – that have been bronzed. It includes the years in which he won his state titles at his respective schools, and a passage about his life. There is also room to list the yearly winners, as it is planned to represent the rivalry and shared respect for White in the two communities for years to come.
“Whether it was Little League kids over the last 20 years, or some of the football players and baseball players that he coached over the decades that he coached, all of them when they get together have great stories and fondness for all the memories that (White and his fellow coaches) helped them create,” said Sandy Rutledge, the current St. Clair athletic director and a longtime friend and colleague of White. “I think it’s awesome that now as we play for this trophy every year, it will give our coaches a chance to kind of explain who Coach was. The next generation, maybe they didn’t even know him, will know that he is a legend, and he’ll always be remembered.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) From left: St. Clair’s Larry Wawryzniak, Liam Nesbitt and Peyton Ellis, Denny White’s wife Karen White, and Marysville’s Bryce Smith, Carter Saccucci and Caz Carty stand with the first-year traveling trophy celebrating Denny White’s coaching career. (Middle) White was a mainstay in the area’s sports community for more than six decades. (Below) The trophy celebrates his contributions to both schools and will list the winners of their annual football game. (Trophy photos courtesy of Brady Beedon. Headshot courtesy of the White family.)