Scholars & Athletes 2018: Class B
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
February 9, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Michigan High School Athletic Association has selected eight student-athletes from Class B member schools to receive scholarships through the MHSAA/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award program.
Farm Bureau Insurance, in its 29th year of sponsoring the award, will give $1,000 college scholarships to 32 individuals who represent their member schools in at least one sport in which the Association sponsors a postseason tournament. The first 30 scholarships are awarded proportionately by school classification and the number of student-athletes involved in those classes; also, there are two at-large honorees who can come from any classification.
Students applying for the Scholar-Athlete Award must be carrying at least a 3.5 (on a 4.0 scale) grade-point average and have previously won a letter in a varsity sport in which the Michigan High School Athletic Association sponsors a postseason tournament. Other requirements for the applicants were to show active participation in other school and community activities and produce an essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.
Each of the scholarship recipients will be honored at a halftime ceremony during the Class C Boys Basketball Final game March 24 at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing. Commemorative medallions will be given to the finalists in recognition of their accomplishments.
The Class B Scholar-Athlete Award honorees are Emily Buska, Saginaw Swan Valley; Mackenzie M. Kalchik, Sault Ste. Marie; Hannah Shorkey, Essexville Garber; Izabella Marie Taylor, Three Rivers; Troy Joseph Distelrath, St. Clair; Hunter Goldensoph, Saginaw Swan Valley; Anthony Reo, Paw Paw; and Justin A. Lyle, Dowagiac.
Overviews of the scholarship recipients of the Class B Scholar-Athlete Award follow. A quote from each recipient's essay also is included:
Emily Buska, Saginaw Swan Valley
Playing third year of varsity basketball and played one each of varsity volleyball and varsity soccer; ran varsity cross country for the third time in the fall and will participate in third season of varsity track & field this spring. Served as captain of volleyball, basketball and cross country teams, and earned all-league honors in volleyball, cross country and track. Also earned all-state in track and all-county in cross country. Earned academic all-state in track and carries a 4.0 grade-point average. Participating in second year of National Honor Society, third as student government class representative and second as executive board treasurer. Performed more than 100 hours of community service and earned Habitat for Humanity Appreciation Award. Participating in fourth year of Business Professionals of America and earned Statesman Torch Award and first and third places in regional competition. Participating in fourth year of Students Against Destructive Decisions and school’s Pay It Forward charity organization, and is the head basketball official for Saginaw Township Parks & Recreation. Will attend Saginaw Valley State University and study pre-medical.
Essay Quote: “Sportsmanship keeps the world running smoothly, whether it is in educational athletics, or in life. We need this generosity in the world to help balance the light and dark.”
Mackenzie M. Kalchik, Sault Ste. Marie
Playing fourth season of varsity basketball, ran four seasons of varsity cross country and played four seasons of varsity soccer; also plans to participate in her first season of varsity track & field this spring. Earned various team awards in cross country, basketball and soccer plus all-conference in cross country and basketball and all-Upper Peninsula recognition in hoops. Captained all three teams. Earned academic all-state in cross country and is participating in her second year of National Honor Society. Serving second year in student government and has served as president and historian; also is serving third year in Students United and has been a group leader. Totaled more than 300 hours of community service and earned a Presidential Service Award. Also participates in her church youth group, Business Professionals of America chapter and is in her third year on Youth Advisory Council. Will attend Lake Superior State University and study pre-medical.
Essay Quote: “My team made history that day, and they did it without me. … I could have pitied myself and not been happy for my team because I didn’t contribute that day of history. But because of my sportsmanship, I made that day what it was really about, my team doing something Sault High had never done before.”
Hannah Shorkey, Essexville Garber
Playing third season of varsity basketball, played two of varsity volleyball, two of varsity softball and will play her second of varsity soccer this spring. Earned softball all-conference recognition and helped that team to multiple District titles, and earned volleyball academic all-state and helped that team to a District championship. Served as basketball team captain. Participating in fourth years of student council and Students Leading Students, serving as vice president of both. Also participating in second year of National Honor Society and National Technical Honor Society. Participating in second year of Health Occupations Students of America and as parliamentary procedure team vice president, and earned regional awards for HOSA and state recognition for student council as well as a Michigan Student Service Award. Participates in a variety of volunteer efforts and served as a Relay for Life senior captain. Will attend Grand Valley State University and study biomedical sciences and chemistry on a pre-medical track.
Essay Quote: “When people think of sportsmanship, they associate it with the idea of being okay with losing. But that’s not what it is. It’s okay to be hurt when you lose; that shows that what you’re doing is important. Sportsmanship is getting back up after that loss, and doing it with dignity and respect towards your opponent.”
Izabella Marie Taylor, Three Rivers
Playing second season of varsity basketball, and will compete in fourth varsity seasons of soccer and track & field this spring; also played two seasons of subvarsity volleyball. Earned soccer all-league, all-District and academic all-state honors and all-league, all-state and academic all-state in track. Captained basketball and soccer teams and helped the basketball team to a District title. Placed at MHSAA Track & Field Finals as a sophomore. Participating in fourth year of student council and this year as treasurer after previously serving as class president. Participating in third year of DECA and as chapter president this year; helped team to district and state championships and national finals. Participating in fourth year of marching and symphony band and has earned top ratings for solo and ensemble. Participating in third year of National Honor Society and volunteers for a number of efforts, and has served as a youth sports coach and referee and school tutor and mentor. Has not decided where she will attend college but will study biomedical sciences and pre-dentistry.
Essay Quote: “True sportsmanship is the summit in the evolution of any great player. To evolve as an athlete is to encompass sportsmanship’s many core values. Knowledge. Honor. Integrity. Discipline. Compassion. Respect.”
Troy Joseph Distelrath, St. Clair
Played four seasons of varsity tennis and two of varsity basketball. Won multiple Regional championships in tennis and helped team to its best Finals finish; earned all-league and all-area honors plus all-league academic honors. Served as captain of both tennis and basketball teams. Participating in third year of National Honor Society and serves on chapter’s executive board; also is serving fourth year on the St. Clair County Youth Advisory Committee and second as executive board member and committee chairperson. Participated in National Youth Leadership Forum’s Law and CSI program in Washington, D.C., and was chosen from 300 students to speak at the closing ceremony. Serving fourth year on student council and second as part of the East China School District Superintendent’s Advisory Council. Will attend Michigan State University and study political theory and constitutional democracy.
Essay Quote: “At its most fundamental level, this is the essence of sportsmanship: the mutual appreciation of one’s dedication and determination, the common understanding that as athletes we make daily sacrifices in order to achieve a similar goal, and the shared mentality that while we strive to reach greatness on our respective fields of play, unspoken boundaries may not be crossed if order and civility are to remain intact.”
Hunter Goldensoph, Saginaw Swan Valley
Played two seasons of varsity soccer, two of varsity basketball and will play his second of varsity baseball and participate in second of varsity track & field this spring. Earned all-league and all-District soccer awards, and served as team captain. Helped soccer team to a league title and soccer and baseball teams to District championships. Participating in second year of National Honor Society and third in Business Professionals of America; helped BPA team to regional title and state placing. Participated three years with church youth group and vacation Bible school; also has served as youth coach and official. Served on Michigan Humanities Council’s “Great Michigan Read” selection committee as a junior and has volunteered two years with Special Olympics. Will attend Eastern Michigan University and study chemistry, biology and business.
Essay Quote: “Sportsmanship is so much more than what everyone believes. It isn’t just shaking the other team’s hands after the game; true sportsmanship is knowing that you need your opponent because without him or her, there is no game. It is acknowledging that your opponent holds the same passion as you, that they have the same drive and determination that brings you back to practice every single day.”
Justin A. Lyle, Dowagiac
Played two seasons of varsity football after moving up as a sophomore, wrestled four seasons and will participate in his third of track & field this spring. Served as captain of the football and wrestling teams, and helped the wrestling team to multiple District championships. Earned all-league honors in both football and wrestling. Participating in fourth year of student government and third of student senate, and has served as class president all four years. Serving as National Honor Society chapter president and president as well of Rotary Interact Club. Also is serving his second term as treasurer of the school’s Chieftain Heart sportsmanship club. Volunteers with his church and has taught three years of Sunday School. Earned the Presidential Bronze Volunteer Service Award and Daughters of the American Revolution scholarship. Will attend Central Michigan University and study broadcasting and cinematic arts.
Essay Quote: “Accountability is an exceptional virtue to those who display sportsmanship. Displaying sportsmanship teaches young athletes that every action they make will directly affect themselves and their peers. Accepting the responsibility for the mistakes one makes can be much tougher than accepting the admiration for the successes achieved; however, facing the mistakes often reveals the athlete’s true character.
Anthony Reo, Paw Paw
Played three seasons of varsity football and wrestled four seasons on varsity. Served as multiple-season captain in both sports and earned all-state honors in wrestling and all-conference in both sports. Placed fifth in his weight class at last season’s MHSAA Individual Finals. Named National Merit Commended Scholar and earned National Honor Society recognition and Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizen Award. Serving fourth year on student council and has held offices of president and executive secretary, and assisted in the drafting of a new constitution. Also participating in fourth year of Key Club and has served as editor and president while helping form the school’s largest club ever. Served as youth coach and official. Co-founded Pillars student-led support group and participating in fourth year of Peer Assistance Leaders. Served as an intern with Servicemembers Civil Relief Act Foundation. Will attend Princeton University and study entrepreneurship.
Essay Quote: “I know that, whether I want it or not, youth in my community are guided by my example and strive to imitate my actions. This is what motivates me to perform both on and off the field. As a student-athlete, I know my actions set a standard for behavior in my community, and I want that behavior to be grounded in excellence.”
Other Class B girls finalists for the Scholar-Athlete Award were: Megan Brooks, Saginaw Swan Valley; Katelyn Brown, Jonesville; Kate Cao, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood; MacKenzie Desloover, Yale; Valeta A. Gage, Sault Ste. Marie; Celia C. Gaynor, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep; Caroline Hirth, Chelsea; Mackenzie Horn, Marshall; Jordyn Kriegl, Kingsford; Mackenzie Luce, Ludington; Lauren Neiheisel, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep; and Grace VerHage, Otsego.
Other Class B boys finalists for the Scholar-Athlete Award were: David Ameriguian, Grosse Ile; Patrick J. Bertoni, Chelsea; Vincent Goyette, Flint Powers Catholic; Anthony Harris, Frankenmuth; Jacob Keener, Ferndale; Jackson Lund, Big Rapids; Lucas Misra, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood; Thomas Otten, Paw Paw; Sawyer Perpich, Kingsford; William Rayner, Marshall; Caleb Schoon, Ludington; and John Stellard, Ferndale.
The Class A scholarship award recipients will be announced Feb. 20. Class C and D honorees were announced Feb. 6.
Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan was founded in 1949 by Michigan farmers who wanted an insurance company that worked as hard as they did. Those values still guide the company today and are a big reason why it is known as Michigan’s Insurance Company, dedicated to protecting the farms, families, and businesses of this great state. Farm Bureau Insurance agents across Michigan provide a full range of insurance services — life, home, auto, farm, business, retirement, Lake Estate®, and more — protecting nearly 500,000 Michigan policyholders.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.
Robichaud 3-Sport Legend Wheatley Selected to National High School Hall of Fame
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 11, 2024
The playing career of 1991 Dearborn Heights Robichaud graduate Tyrone Wheatley remains one of the most storied in Michigan high school sports history. His prestige gained during that early stage of his athletic stardom has been recognized nationally as well, as Wheatley was one of 12 honorees announced today as this year’s inductees into the National High School Hall of Fame by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
Wheatley – who grew up in Inkster and is currently the head football coach at Wayne State University – will be inducted as one of 11 honorees selected for the 41st Hall of Fame class at a ceremony during the NFHS summer meeting July 1 in Boston. The rest of the class is made up of three more athletes, four coaches, two former state association administrators and a game official. Wheatley was nominated by the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
Wheatley will become the Hall of Fame’s 10th inductee from Michigan, joining the MHSAA’s first full-time Executive Director Charles E. Forsythe (inducted 1983), River Rouge boys basketball coach Lofton Greene (1986), Warren Regina athletic director, softball and basketball coach Diane Laffey (2000), Fennville basketball and baseball standout Richie Jordan (2001), Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett boys and girls tennis coach Bob Wood (2005), Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook hockey standout Jim Johnson (2007), Owosso football, basketball and baseball all-stater Brad Van Pelt (2011); Vermontville Maple Valley baseball national record holder Ken Beardslee (2016) and retired MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts (2022).
To the greater public, Wheatley surely is best known as a star running back for University of Michigan who went on to play 10 seasons in the NFL for the New York Giants and Oakland Raiders. However, he is arguably most glorified in Michigan high school athletics for his accomplishments on the track, where as a junior in 1990 he became the first (of still only two) athletes to win four individual events at an MHSAA Lower Peninsula Finals – placing first in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, 110-meter hurdles and long jump. He led Robichaud to the Class B team title that day, scoring 40 of its 49 points. Wheatley completed his high school career in 1991 with three more Class B individual track & field championships and nine total over his final three seasons; he was injured in the 100 during that senior-year meet and could not run his final race to attempt another four-title day.
Wheatley’s meet records of 13.7 seconds in the 100 at the 1991 LP Class B Final and 23-10¾ in long jump in 1989 still stood when the four-Class track & field format was retired after the 1999 season. He also remains the only athlete to win the 100 three times at the prestigious Mehock Relays in Mansfield, Ohio, also finishing first in the 110 hurdles and 200 and runner-up in the long jump at that meet in 1991.
Wheatley was similarly accomplished on the high school football field, leading his team to a state championship in 1990 and earning a Parade All-America honor. Over three varsity seasons total he ran for a combined 4,257 yards and 67 touchdowns, including 2,010 yards and 33 scores on 208 carries as a senior in 1990 – the latter despite playing quarterback half of that season (and throwing five touchdown passes). He played quarterback, running back, defensive back, punter, kicker and returned kicks, and he scored 252 points over 13 games as a senior and 484 over 38 career games.
Wheatley also was a standout on the basketball court for Robichaud, averaging 14 points and 16 rebounds per game as a senior in earning all-state recognition in that sport as well.
“My city where I come from, Inkster, means the world to me. I grew up in an incredible era of sports in Michigan (with successful University of Michigan and Detroit pro teams) … but if you ask me who my idols were, they were the guys I grew up with playing on the playground,” Wheatley said. “After you come from a basketball game where you see Jarvis Walker drop 30, or Earl Jones running the last 200 of a race backwards … you hear people talk about them, you hear their reverence about them, and I just wanted to be put in the conversation of the best to come out of Inkster, forget the state. I can tell you this for sure: I’m not the best athlete to come out of Inkster, just the person who got the recognition. And my foundation was built watching, taking notes, preparing, working out and just trying to be one of the guys.
“(Robichaud was) the step. Because without Robichaud … Michigan, the NFL, me coming back to coach, it doesn’t happen,” Wheatley said. “Without the Robert Yaucks (his football coach at Robichaud), the Coach (Leit) Jones (his Robichaud track coach), the Coach (Mercer) Brysons, the (coach) Wade Cooks, the (coach Jeff) Flounorys, the Millie Hursins (his academic advisor) of the world, this doesn’t happen. Without my high school teammates, none of this happens. So it’s not just a step. What’s the saying – the first impression is the lasting and best impression? Robichaud was it.”
Wheatley returned to Robichaud as its varsity football coach in 2007 and led that team to a 9-2 record and the MHSAA Playoffs for the first time since 1994 – after Robichaud had finished 0-9 the previous season. He has served as an assistant football coach at four college programs including U-M and Syracuse, and with the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and Denver Broncos.
He also served as Morgan State University's head coach from 2019-21 and just completed his first season as head coach at Wayne State, which finished 3-8 – an improvement of two wins from 2022 and the program’s best record since 2019.
Wheatley graduated from University of Michigan in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. He and wife Kimberly have five children: Tyrone Jr., Terius, Tyrique, Tiana and Tamari. Tyrone Jr., an offensive tackle, played this past season for the New England Patriots.
“Many of us who grew up in Michigan grew up as fans of Tyrone Wheatley because of what he accomplished at the college level – but his legendary story begins at Dearborn Heights Robichaud, where his outsized athletic ability was on full display in every sport he played,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “Michigan has produced several professional athletes in a variety of sports and nearly 50 Olympians in track & field alone, and what Tyrone Wheatley achieved as a high school athlete remains a standard few have approached. We are ecstatic that he will deservedly take his place among the all-time elite high school athletes nationally as well.”
The National High School Hall of Fame was started in 1982 by the NFHS. The 11 individuals were chosen after a two-level selection process involving a screening committee composed of active high school state association administrators, coaches and officials, and a final selection committee composed of coaches, former athletes, state association officials, media representatives and educational leaders. Nominations were made through NFHS member associations. Also chosen for this class were athletes Joe Mauer (Minnesota), Takeo Spikes (Georgia) and Dot Ford Burrow (Mississippi); sport coaches Paula Kirkland (South Carolina), Gary Rankin (Tennessee), Roy Snyder (Pennsylvania) and Ronald Vincent (North Carolina); former state association administrators Mike Colbrese (Washington) and Marie Ishida (California), and baseball/football game official David Core (Oklahoma).
For more on this year’s Hall of Fame class, visit the NFHS Website.
PHOTO Tyrone Wheatley crosses the finish line first during one of his nine MHSAA Finals track & field championship victories. (MHSAA file photo.)