Sontag Inspires Amid 'Miracle' Cancer Fight
January 3, 2020
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
PINCKNEY – Dave Sontag could tell something was wrong.
The gymnasium at Petersburg-Summerfield High School is bigger than most in Monroe County. But when Sontag, a veteran official, was running up and down the floor, he felt unusually tired and began feeling pain in his back.
“I knew something was wrong,” Sontag said. “During a timeout, I told one of the other officials who was in the stands watching that he might have to finish the game.”
Sontag, however, pushed through and made it.
“That’s when it all began,” he said.
A few weeks later, as the Saline varsity baseball coach, Sontag was hitting fly balls to the Hornets’ outfielders.
“I was struggling,” he said. “I called the players in and told them something was wrong. I had to stop.”
Still trying to fight through whatever was wrong, Sontag was coaching third base during a Saline intra-squad scrimmage a short time later.
“I started to see white,” he said.
He had another member of the Saline coaching staff call his wife, Michelle, who came and picked him up and took him to the hospital in Chelsea.
“My blood counts were trash, just trash,” he said. “The doctors said I need to have a blood transfusion.”
He was rushed to a Detroit-area hospital for the transfusion. After tests, Sontag was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, an extremely vigorous, aggressive cancer. That was May 15, 2018.
During the 18 months since, Sontag has gone through chemotherapy and radiation treatments. He’s watched multiple communities respond with fundraisers and benefits and amazing support. He’s had more than one bone marrow transplant. He’s heard from countless friends and ex-players who have continued to lift his spirits day after day via e-mails and text messages. He’s been counted out more than once.
Yet, he’s survived.
“Every day has been a challenge,” he said.
***
Sports and Sontag have gone together from the beginning.
He is a Monroe County native who was The Monroe Evening News Player of the Year in baseball in 1978 and went on to play at the University of Toledo. He taught journalism and English at his alma mater, Monroe Jefferson, before becoming a counselor for another 12 years. He was also the Jefferson director of athletics and recreation for a time.
He coached baseball for the Bears, leading the team to nearly 400 victories and the Division 2 championship in 2002. He stepped down from coaching to follow his kids, who were playing at higher levels; Ryan Sontag played at Arizona State University and in the Chicago Cubs organization. Susan played softball at Bowling Green State University, and Brendan played ball at Indiana Tech University.
Still, the desire to coach never left their dad.
“After my kids were done playing, I coached freshman baseball at Jefferson,” he said. “I missed it and still wanted to be part of it.”
With his wife a principal in the Saline district, Sontag was asked by Scott Theisen, Saline’s head coach, to join his staff in 2015. He was with the Hornets when they captured the Division 1 championship in 2017, then was named head coach before the 2018 season started.
“That was the year I got sick,” he said. “I didn’t even finish the year.”
Sontag also has been a basketball official for years, getting his start in the early 1980s. He’s been a registered MHSAA high school basketball official for 40 years and has trained officials for the Monroe County Basketball Officials’ Association. He’s called four MHSAA Finals championship games.
“My first varsity game ever was when I was 21,” Sontag said. “I refereed a game at Whiteford.”
***
Sontag previously battled non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1995-1996, beating that disease after a nine-month battle.
Although this cancer battle began as he was new to the Saline community, they embraced his fight, selling “Team Tags” T-shirts and painting the youth baseball diamond with a big ribbon. His son, Ryan, was invited to throw out the first pitch before the youth baseball season started in Dave’s honor.
Back home, in Monroe County, Sontag’s school held similar fundraisers and blood drives.
“I had so much support,” he said. “It was quite amazing to see.”
He tried all sorts of treatments, ultimately boarding an airplane and heading to Seattle for a clinical trial. It didn’t work.
“At that point, I didn’t think I was going to live,” Sontag said. “They told me there was nothing more they could do. They just were giving me something to take the pain away. I was miserable.”
Still, Sontag said, he held out hope.
“I felt it wasn’t time yet,” he said. “I have three grandkids. There are things I want to do. There’s so much I haven’t accomplished yet. In Seattle, they didn’t count on me living.”
But, for a still-unexplained reason, a combination of the medicine he was given to “take the pain away,” on his flight home and a different medicine he received when he returned to Michigan, started to change the way he felt. His blood counts started getting better.
“The side effects were lousy, but, for some reason, it threw me into remission. They checked for leukemia and it was not there.
“We called it a miracle.”
***
Sontag, who lives in Pinckney now, is still dealing with the side effects of nearly two years of treatments. He has a tingling sensation in his arms and legs – the feeling people get when their hands or feet ‘fall asleep’ – and he has a weak immune system.
But he gets a little better every day.
“Every day is a blessing,” he said.
In addition to the community support and constant praying, he credits his wife with guiding him through this process.
“Michelle has been a rock through all of this,” he said. “She’s been by my side every single day. Without her, I don’t know if I would have made it.”
Recently, the Monroe County Officials’ Association held a banquet during which Sontag was presented with a “Courage Award.” He isn’t sure if he’ll be able to referee again anytime soon.
“I told them that night that I’d like to do it again, somewhere,” he said. “I don’t care of it’s a seventh-grade game. I just want to get out there again.”
In addition to the outpouring of love from multiple communities, family and friends, Sontag said sports has kept him alive.
“Sports is part of my fabric,” he said. “Baseball and officiating basketball games has given me that motivation I’ve needed to fight through this. I don’t know if I will coach again or referee again. I’m definitely not going to jump into the same schedule. But there are things I would like to do.
“Will I become a head coach again? Probably not. The task of being a head coach is probably too big right now. But I’d like to be involved. I’d still like to run camps and clinics. I’d still like to officiate too. I want to be a part of it. It’s something that’s in my blood.”
His son Ryan lives in Saline and has three children. Ryan coaches his son in a youth baseball league.
“He called me the other day and asked if I’d help him out,” Dave Sontag said. “I told him I think he will get me out there at some point.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: Longtime official and coach Dave Sontag – standing in front row with wife Michelle, daughter-in-law Amy and son Brendan – is presented a “Courage Award” by the Monroe County Officials Association. (Middle) Sontag, formerly baseball coach at Monroe Jefferson and Saline, mans his spot on the baseline. (Below) Sontag with officials, from left, Mike Gaynier, Mike Bitz, Mike Knabusch and Dan Jukuri. (Top and below photos courtesy of Knabusch; middle photo courtesy of the Monroe News.)
Johnson Family Reunion: Tuesday will Bring Together Officiating Brothers, Coaching Cousins
By
Mike Dunn
Special for MHSAA.com
December 12, 2025
GAYLORD – What a night it will be.
The Big North Conference game this Tuesday between visiting Traverse City Central and host Gaylord has a coaching connection that will be a draw in itself. Central is led by former Gaylord hoops standout Luke Johnson, while Gaylord is coached by Luke’s cousin Justin Johnson – another past Blue Devils hoops standout who graduated in 1995 with school records for single-game, single-season and career 3-pointers.
Luke graduated in 1997 as Gaylord’s all-time leading scorer with 1,571 points and went on to play four years at Central Michigan University. He coached the boys at Elk Rapids for 14 seasons and is now in his second year coaching in Traverse City, where he is also an assistant principal at Traverse City East Middle School. Justin, owner and operator of the local Bulldog Painting business, is in his first year as the Blue Devils’ head coach after serving previously as the JV coach.
The cousins were Gaylord teammates on the storied 1994-95 team that captured the District title with a thrilling come-from-behind victory at the old Petoskey gym. They will be facing each other as head coaches on the hardwood for the first time – and Justin’s son Carter, a junior wing, is in his first year on the Gaylord varsity.
On top of that, the Johnson cousins will be coaching against each other in the gymnasium named after Luke’s grandfather Jim Mongeau. Ironically enough, the Jim Mongeau gymnasium was dedicated on December 16, 1994, the same day 31 years before.
If that was solely the storyline for Tuesday’s game, it would make for a memorable occasion.
But there is more to this story … much more.
Three brothers with whistles
As it turns out, the biggest storyline of this memorable night is the officiating crew.
Not only will Luke and Justin be facing off Tuesday with Justin’s son also competing on the floor, but the three men wearing the striped shirts with whistles around their necks will be Johnson brothers Tommy, Steve, and Dave. Tom is Luke’s dad, and Steve is Justin Johnson’s father.
Between them, there is more than 125 years of hardwood officiating experience: Tom is in his 50th year, Steve is in his 45th, and Dave in his 32nd season.
The brothers have worked together more times than they can count over the decades, though not as much in recent years. Tom has had his own crew of officials for a while. Steve and Dave have teamed with Charlie Lovelace to form their own crew.
Tuesday’s game in Gaylord will be the first time any of the brothers have worked a game coached by Luke or Justin.
And it very well could be the final time the three brothers officiate a game together. In fact, this is quite likely given the present circumstances.
Tom’s battle with cancer
Tom has inoperable pancreatic cancer and is undergoing regular chemotherapy treatments. Just the fact that he is still actively officiating this season is remarkable in one way, given his prognosis, and yet not remarkable at all for anyone who knows Tommy and the inner drive and mental toughness that is so much a part of his make-up – character traits he has exhibited since the glory days in the late 1960s when he was a star student-athlete competing for Gaylord in football, basketball, and baseball.
That inner drive and willingness to persevere continue to serve Tom well, especially during this challenging season of life.
As Steve said, “Tommy definitely has the Johnson gift of stubbornness.”
And Dave agreed: “Tommy is fighting this with everything he has. He’s gonna go down swinging, because that’s just who he is.”
Tom has been very open about his battle with cancer. He was diagnosed Nov. 13, 2023, and at one point his weight was down to 138 pounds.
Tom was at home in his favorite chair in February with wife Jenni tending to him – “My wife’s been a saint through all this and the best nurse I’ve ever had,” he noted – when he made a decision.
“I told my wife if I just sit here in this chair, I’m gonna die and I don’t want to just give in to this,” Tom said.
“I made up my mind right then that I’m gonna take the proactive approach to this. I’m gonna live till I die. People think I’m being funny when I say that, but I’m serious. I’m gonna live till I die. I’m not gonna sit out the rest of my life. It’s all in the hands of the good Lord, and He’s the One who’s gonna let me know when my time comes.”
Tom retired as a physical education teacher at Gaylord in 2007 but has continued to coach as well as officiate volleyball, basketball and baseball. Because of recent developments, Tom was initially going to give up coaching the Gaylord boys golf team last spring but opted to stay on, extending his coaching career that dates back 49 years at Gaylord and includes a long stint as the varsity boys hoops coach from 1987-97 and then 2003-07 in addition to being the freshmen football coach for a stint, the baseball coach, and, for the past 16 years, the boys golf coach.
“The golf kids were great to work with,” Tom recalled. “I had some limitations, and they accepted and adapted and it was actually a fun season.”
‘I want to be out there’
Fast forward to the present school year. It would have been easy for Tom to lay down his whistle, but he’s not ready for that. He officiated about 30 nights during the volleyball season, and that went pretty well. Now he plans to continue officiating basketball as long as he is physically able and knows he can still call a good game.
“I just want to be out there doing one of the things God has designed for me to do,” he said. “I still enjoy it. We set a goal at the start of the school year to get through the volleyball season first and make it to Thanksgiving, and we’ve met that goal. The next goal is Christmas. And we’ll set other goals after that. But in the meantime, I plan to stay as active as I can doing things I love doing.”
Tom plans to officiate the full basketball season, as God enables him. The one date he is especially looking forward to, though, is Tuesday, Dec. 16.
“It’ll be a great night,” Tom said. “I’ve reffed numerous games at ‘The Mong’ since it opened in 1995, but this will be a very special night not just for me but for all the Johnson family.
“I only hope in the midst of it I can communicate in some way how much I have appreciated the Gaylord community over the years and how much I’ve loved being a part of this community along with my family, and especially being part of Gaylord schools for so many years.”
Tom has quite a unique history with Gaylord basketball as a player and a coach. Tom played in the final high school game in the old community center during his junior year and played in the first game at the old gym that now serves as the middle school gym. He also coached the final high school game at the old gym during the 1994-95 season and coached the first game played at the newly-dedicated Jim Mongeau Gymnasium in January of 1995 against St. Ignace.
He also coached the amazing District championship game against favored Petoskey in its old gym packed to the rafters that March of 1995, a game that many still talk about to this day. The Blue Devils, with Justin knocking down the long ones and Luke distributing and driving through the lane, narrowly edged the excellent Petoskey team that featured Trevor Huffman and John Flynn.
Brennan Fitzek hit what proved to be the game-winning shot in the waning seconds, and Gaylord made a final stop on defense to secure the hard-earned trophy.
"We had some epic battles with Petoskey in those days," Tom said. "Petoskey had some great teams with Huffman and Flynn and a great coach in Dennis Starkey, who is still a friend to this day. It was tremendous competition."
‘I was just mowing’
It was Dave Johnson, the youngest of the brothers, who first had the idea of officiating the Dec. 16 game together.
“I was just mowing my grass one day soon after Justin was hired as the varsity coach and thinking ahead about the night when Luke comes from T.C. Central to play Gaylord,” Dave recalled. “Here you have the two coaches who are cousins from Gaylord facing each other in the gym named after their grandfather and Justin’s son playing for Gaylord on top of that. Wouldn’t it be cool if we three brothers could officiate the game that night?”
Dave dismounted the mower then and there and made phone calls to Steve and Tommy to see what they thought about the possibility. Then they contacted Luke and Justin and, before very long, everything was set in motion.
“The stars all aligned,” Dave said with a chuckle. “Justin and Luke were both on board with it, and they got the approval of their ADs. Everything that needed to happen for this to come together happened. It’s gonna be a great night and a historic night.”
When the family got together for a meal in September to celebrate Tom’s birthday, all the details about the Dec. 16 game were discussed. By the time the meal was over, everything was ironed out and everyone was in agreement.
“There’s so much nostalgia and history wrapped up in this one night,” Dave noted. “You have Tommy, the son-in-law of Jim Mongeau, in his 50th year officiating. To me, this night is really a tribute to Tommy and Jen and their lives revolving around Gaylord athletics.”
It will be a milestone night in another way.
“This will probably be the final time we three brothers have the chance to officiate a game together,” Dave said. “Steve is working through a knee injury right now, and my health is not what it used to be either. But if this is our final game as an officiating crew, we couldn’t have picked a better one.”
Steve’s knee has been giving him fits lately and, for the first time in 45 seasons, has caused him to miss some games because of an injury. He is hoping to recover well enough to return to the floor in January and resume a normal schedule.
There is only one game Steve will officiate in the whole month of December, and it’s the one game he wouldn’t miss for anything.
“I know it’ll be one of the best nights of my life,” Steve said. “How great it’ll be for Dave and I to get to work with Tommy again and to see all the people there. It’ll be a night for reflecting on so many memories and making some new ones.”
Looking forward
“I’m thrilled with how this has all come together,” Luke said. “This night will not only be a great tribute to my dad but to a family that’s been involved in Gaylord athletics for 50-plus years.
“If you include my grandfather, then you’re going back 70 years or more with Gaylord. I know my dad impacted a lot of lives as a teacher and a coach over the years, and my grandfather had the same kind of legacy before him.”
Luke is naturally excited for the game itself but more excited for the moment, especially given his dad’s health challenges.
“Obviously, the circumstances with my dad create a different perspective for the night,” he added. “My hope is we can just soak in the history and enjoy the moment and not let it rush by. We likely won’t have another night like this one.”
PHOTOS (Top) Brothers, from left, Steve, Dave and Tom Johnson – here at Gaylord High School – will referee the varsity boys basketball game Tuesday between Gaylord and Traverse City Central. (2) Cousins Luke Johnson, left, and Justin Johnson are the varsity coaches for Traverse City Central and Gaylord, respectively. (3) The Johnson brothers, here during their younger days, have a combined 127 yards of officiating to their credit. (4) Tom Johnson is in his 50th season officiating, a run filled with many memories including refereeing his grandson’s game at Elk Rapids (lower left). (5) This collage, from top left, includes longtime coach Jim Mongeau speaking with a Gaylord player during the 1960s, Tom Johnson coaching a player during the 1990s, and Luke now coaching. (Photos courtesy of, in part, RD Sports Photo and Photography by Joanie Moore, with others collected by the Weekly Choice and Charlevoix County News.)