Missing McKenney Provides St. Mary's Another Opportunity to Grow
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
February 27, 2025
Such a situation certainly wouldn’t be ideal for Todd Covert and his Orchard Lake St. Mary’s boys basketball team.
But from now on during the MHSAA Tournament, if star guard Trey McKenney gets into foul trouble or has to miss extended game time for another reason, it might not be as nightmarish of a scenario as once thought.
On Jan. 9, during a game against IMG Academy (Fla.), McKenney suffered a broken bone in the top of his shooting hand.
He didn’t return until Feb. 8. But that month without McKenney ended up producing a revelation for Covert and his team.
Essentially, the sky didn’t fall and the reigning Division 1 champion showed it could still be one of the top teams in the state.
“Of course, when he’s with us I think we’re a lot better,” said St. Mary’s senior Jayden Savoury, who has signed with Michigan State for football but also is an important member of the basketball team. “But when he was down, a lot of guys had to step up. I think that built us up and made us better.”
During that stretch, St. Mary’s went 4-2, with the losses by one point to No. 1 East Lansing and two to No. 5 Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice. One of the wins was over Grand Rapids Northview, which received votes in the final rankings of the regular season.
“Kids had to take on new roles and hit some big shots,” Covert said. “Obviously with Trey we missed his scoring. It took us a couple of games to rebound. He rebounds. He goes and gets it. We were blocking out the same, but we weren’t going to get it. That’s how East Lansing hurt us early, and they ended up beating us. It took us a minute (to adjust).”
McKenny, a Michigan signee, averaged 22.9 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists as a junior and is a finalist for the Mr. Basketball Award this season. The Eaglets this winter also returned two more starters and a top sub from last season’s championship-winning team, but losing McKenney provided them another opportunity to grow.
Covert said Savoury was one of the players who stepped up and filled an expanded role, as did senior and Western Michigan signee Sharod Barnes, and senior Isaiah Hines.
“In a weird way, it really made Trey appreciate what he had,” Covert said.
While watching from the bench during that stretch, McKenney constantly nodded his head in approval of what his teammates were doing.
“We have such a deep team, I think the next man is always going to be ready whenever somebody is hurt or whenever somebody is in foul trouble,” McKenney said. “Everybody was ready and everybody took the challenge on. I was happy to see the game from a different aspect.”
McKenney returned Feb. 8 in a Catholic High School League Bishop quarterfinal, then helped lead the Eaglets past Brother Rice in a semifinal game and then to another Catholic League title with a 58-57 win over Detroit U-D Jesuit in the Feb. 14 final.
With him back in the fold, St. Mary’s seems fully stocked to repeat as Division 1 champion entering a District Final game Friday against West Bloomfield.
Even more reassuring for St. Mary’s than having McKenney back is that if he got into foul trouble or had to miss extended time again, all hope wouldn’t be lost thanks to how St. Mary’s developed during the month he was out.
“Definitely,” Savoury said. “When he’s in foul trouble, we’ll be all right.”
Keith 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 [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Trey McKenney holds up a banner celebrating his becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer during a win over Toledo Whitmer on Dec. 28. (Middle) Quincy Wright (5) dunks against East Lansing on Jan. 11. (Photos courtesy of the State Champs! Sports Network.)
Sizable Fremont Has Big-Time Aspirations
December 5, 2018
By Tom Kendra
Special for Second Half
Fremont is synonymous with babies, as the founding home of Gerber Products and host of the National Baby Food Festival each July.
Some of those babies grow up to be giants – as evidenced by this year’s Fremont Packers boys basketball team.
Senior Logan Karnemaat (6-foot-10) and junior Tristan Campbell (6-8) are the twin towers whose presence sets the tone on both ends of the court for the Packers, who are off to a 2-0 start and have high hopes for the rest of the season.
“I guess you could say we ate all of our baby food, and someone must have put some Miracle-Gro in there, too,” Karnemaat said with a laugh.
Karnemaat knows all about fertilizer as a third-generation farmer. He spends much of his time when he’s not in school or playing basketball working on his family’s 3,000-acre farm operation, which includes crops and livestock.
His life goal has always been to get a business degree and return to run the family farm, with playing basketball almost an afterthought.
When pressed on the subject, he said that both Grace Christian and Calvin College in Grand Rapids have shown interest in him, then quickly added: “There are two more I can’t think of off the top of my head.”
Karnemaat is clearly more focused on making the most out of his senior basketball season, which shows signs of great promise after an impressive 45-35 win Tuesday night at Ludington, which made it all the way to the MHSAA Class B Final in 2017.
“I’d say that was our biggest road win in 10-12 years,” said Fremont coach Peter Zerfas, who is now in his 19th year. “It was how we did it. Ludington is a very good team, but we came out with confidence and we were the more aggressive team.”
The scorebook does not tell the true story of the game, as Campbell scored only seven points and Karnemaat just five. The real story was the rebounding and shot-blocking of the twin towers – Karnemaat finished with 10 rebounds and Campbell had five blocked shots, with both of them altering and contesting countless others.
As a result of their presence, Ludington suffered through one of its worst offensive nights in recent memory, scoring just 18 total points over the first three quarters. Senior standout Josh Laman, who nailed the memorable 3-pointer in the Class B Semifinals two seasons ago to send the Orioles to the championship game, had no field goals in the first half and just 10 total points.
Fremont senior forwards Calvin Miller (11 points) and Julian Echavarria, who also have good size at 6-5 and 6-3, respectively, also contributed on both ends of the court.
Zerfas said the key to the big win was the play of his young guards, particularly junior starters Carter Moon (13 points) and Jaxx Miller, who held up under Ludington’s relentless full-court pressure during the second half.
“We have four young guards, and how well they develop will be the key for us this season,” said Zerfas, whose youngest son, sophomore Joshua Zerfas, is one of those young backcourt players. “We have the size and we have some depth, so if those guards keep coming like they are, we have a chance to be really good.”
Zerfas has the Packers competing at a championship level after back-to-back down years in 2015-16 (6-16) and 2016-17 (13-8). Basketball is a big deal in this small town, which has had some great runs in cross country but for the most part is known for baby food, farming and hoops.
Fremont has won a pack of conference and District championships, but Regionals has generally been the end of the road. In fact, the last time Fremont won a Regional championship was 1956, before losing to Stephenson that winter in the Class B Quarterfinals.
Shortly after Zerfas took over as coach in 2000, Fremont had a string of five consecutive District titles, with longtime nemesis Muskegon Heights ending the Packers’ run at the regional level in four of those five years.
Fremont fought its way back to Regionals last winter, before being humbled by Grand Rapids South Christian and finishing with a 17-7 record.
The Packers feel like they have even more pieces in place this winter and are eager to start work towards their first goal, a Central States Activities Association Gold championship, when they open league play Friday night at Reed City.
Karnemaat, who led Fremont with 14 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots per game last season, can’t wait for back-to-back home games next week against Montague and Sparta.
While he spends much of his time working in relative solitude on the family farm, there’s nothing he enjoys more than the contrast of playing basketball in front of a rowdy home crowd.
“Our students and our community come out and supports us, and it really helps,” Karnemaat said. “We have a good team, but then to have 2,000 fans behind you and get you going, I love it.”
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Fremont 6-10 senior center Logan Karnemaat holds the ball up high, well out of the reach of two Shelby defenders, during a 75-50 season-opening win Nov. 27. (Middle) Fremont sophomore Braiden McDonald, one of the contributors off the Packers' deep bench, drives to the basket. (Photos by Russell Tindall.)