Rivals Unite for 'Never Forgotten Games'
January 24, 2018
By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
FENNVILLE – The small West Michigan towns of Fennville and Saugatuck are separated by less than 10 miles, thus sparking a longstanding rivalry that has played out in various sports through the years.
However, for one night, a special event brought the two communities together to help support a worthy cause.
The seventh-annual “Never Forgotten Games” between the neighboring communities were played Friday night at Hope College in honor of Wes Leonard, who died unexpectedly in 2011 after making the game-winning basket in overtime against rival Bridgman.
Leonard, a 16-year-old junior at the time, died from sudden cardiac arrest due to an enlarged heart.
To open the night, Saugatuck’s girls defeated Fennville 55-40. Then, in a back-and-forth affair typical of a rivalry game, Fennville’s boys edged Saugatuck 48-46 and improved to 8-2 on the season.
But Fennville boys basketball coach Joe Rodriguez said the final result paled in comparison to the impact the game had on both schools.
“We circle that game on the calendar because it’s an opportunity to focus your energy on something bigger than us,” he said. “It’s not just a conference game; it’s not just another basketball game or Friday night game. It’s bigger than the game of basketball itself. It’s one of our former players that we look forward to tributing.
“Everyone was there for one reason, and that was to celebrate the legacy of Wes Leonard and to support the cause.”
The two schools joined forces to help make the night a success, including meeting in the days prior to discuss game preparations.
“Some Fennville kids came over to our school and met with some of our kids before to go over cheer and signs and just how we could help out,” Saugatuck boys basketball coach Andy Diaz said. “Our kids showed up early to help set up and help Jocelyn (Leonard, Wes' mother), so it was a real collaborative effort.”
This year Fennville’s student section, recalling some of their experiences taking part in the MHSAA’s “Battle of the Fans” the last two years, invited Saugatuck’s student section to join forces for some cheers during the game. Last week, Fennville student section leaders Kamryn Vandyke, Clay Rosema and Isabella Marquez strategized with Saugatuck’s Reece Schreckengust, Sydney Ayres and Alexa Phillips, designing and planning cheers they could do together.
The schools’ band teachers – Fennville’s Paul Andrews and Saugatuck’s Andrew Holtz – also met and planned the combined bad that played together in the same section for the entirety of Friday’s game.
“Although rival schools, both student bodies have embraced the idea that the cause is an opportunity to be a part of something greater than the game itself,” Fennville athletic director Frank Marietta said. “Both schools are very competitive on the field of play, but there is a positive and strong relationship between the students as a whole. The spirit and heart of the students from each school is what makes it such a great rivalry.”
The close-knit ties between the schools run deep.
“They know each other very well,” Diaz said. “They work at the same places during the summer, and they cross paths all the time. I have a lot of friends in Fennville.”
Rivalry games often are intense and emotional, but this one is different due to the greater significance the night holds.
“That’s the unique part of it,” Rodriguez said. “As a coach you want to talk about how it’s your rivalry game, but this one is a little different. It’s all about the events, and they play a big part in helping.”
“They are our neighbors, and when we went through (Leonard’s death) they showed a lot of support as a community to Fennville, and I think it’s awesome that they are a part of this game as well.”
Rodriguez said competing against another team in that setting just wouldn’t seem fitting.
“Because we are so close it would be weird if it was another community that we were playing,” he said. “It would feel manufactured, where this is more genuine.”
Diaz said the rivalry took on a different meaning after Leonard’s untimely passing.
“I feel very fortunate to be a part of the best small-school rivalry in the state of Michigan,” he said. “That’s our personal opinion, and when Wes passed, it definitely changed the perspective and narrative of the rivalry, especially on that game night.”
Shortly after Leonard’s tragic death, The Wes Leonard Heart Team was formed. The foundation raises money for automated external defibrillator (AED) awareness and donates AEDs to schools throughout the state.
The mission of the foundation is to honor Wes’s life using a team approach, combining the efforts of his loved ones and other existing foundations in the pursuit of a common goal. The foundation “is committed to honoring the children who have lost their lives to Sudden Cardiac Arrest and preventing other families and friends from feeling the pain of losing their loved ones. With this team approach, we feel we can give others a chance at ‘just one more game.’”
More than 260 AEDs have been put into schools through the foundation, and another 4-6 will be donated with money raised Friday.
The Never Forgotten Game hits close to home for Diaz, whose mother survived a scare almost seven years ago.
“My mom was saved by an AED,” Diaz said. “She had a heart attack in church, and one was used to revive her. They had to shock her twice, and without an AED, she’d be gone.”
Diaz, a Saugatuck graduate who coached against Leonard in football and basketball, hopes the money raised by the game can help others who may encounter the same situation.
“I gave my mom a big hug before that game because an AED saved her life, and maybe this game buys the right AED for a school that saves someone else’s life,” Diaz said. “It just put things into perspective. Obviously, we always want to win the game, but at the end of the day what really matters is the cause and Wes.
“We talked before the game about how this game is bigger than any of them. It’s not about us; it’s not about them. It’s about the entire state of Michigan at this point because of the importance of saving lives.”
Dean Holzwarth covered primarily high school sports for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years and more recently served as sports editor of the Ionia Sentinel and as a sports photojournalist for WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Fennville's students cheer as a classmate brings the ball upcourt against Saugatuck on Friday. (Middle) Fennville's student section worked with Saugatuck's to cheer together during the games at Hope College. (Photos by Isabela Marquez/Fennville High School.)
Inspired by Dad, Southland Sons Give Shores Hoops 2nd-Generation Boost
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
March 3, 2021
Drew and Jake Southland now have to help their struggling father onto the basketball court at Mona Shores.
But they know it wasn’t too long ago that Scot Southland was carrying the load for the Sailors’ basketball program.
“People tell me all the time about how good he was,” Drew Southland said of his father, the all-time leading scorer in Mona Shores basketball history with 1,113 career points, who is now battling an even tougher opponent in multiple sclerosis.
“I try to live up to it. He is such an inspiration, with his positive attitude. I try not to complain about anything in my life, that’s for sure.”
Drew, a 6-foot-1 senior, and his team are having a difficult season so far, losing eight in a row before bolting out to a 38-6 halftime lead Tuesday and then cruising to a 64-41 win over visiting Grand Rapids Union. Drew scored a game-high 20 points for the Sailors (2-8).
Jake, a sophomore who is the same height as his brother at 6-1, is the leading scorer and rebounder for the Shores junior varsity, which evened its record at 5-5 on Tuesday, also with a win over GR Union. He scored a season-high 35 points in a loss against Whitehall on Feb. 20.
Win or lose, the Southland boys are always there for their dad, who turned 50 in January. Scot made first-team all-conference in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Red as both a junior and senior, graduating in 1989. He was also a two-time Muskegon Chronicle All-Area selection and averaged better than 20 points per game his senior year.
The first signs of his MS showed up during college, but the symptoms of the progressive nerve disease have become more pronounced in recent years, preventing him from working and even walking on his own. Drew and Jake are always there to help him in and out of his wheelchair and into the family’s van.
“I don’t mind it one bit,” said Jake. “I know he would be taking care of me if it was the other way around. My dad is so good to me and so supportive in everything, so helping him around is really the least I can do.”
Family affair
The Southland family is a fixture at all of Mona Shores’ home games.
Scot is always there at the end of the bleachers on the baseline, with his high school sweetheart and wife, Steffanie, close by his side. Other regulars, when tickets are available with COVID-19 restrictions, are his daughter Mason, his mother Joanne Southland and his mother-in-law Mary Golin.
Joanne has been going to games at Mona Shores for years as her three boys – Ted, Kip and Scot – worked their way through the system. Kip was a standout basketball player, but his best sport was baseball, as he went on to start at shortstop for Central Michigan University during the mid-1980s and later played in the San Francisco Giants farm system.
Scot started some varsity football games at quarterback, but of the three Southland boys, he was the one who left the biggest mark on the hardcourt.
He was a three-year varsity starter at a time when sophomores rarely started on the varsity, especially at a Class A school. As a junior, he led the Sailors to 13 wins and a rare District championship. As a senior, he became the first Mona Shores basketball player to score 1,000 points – a milestone that the humble, quiet standout wasn’t even cognizant of until after the fact.
“He is out there to set the best example he can,” then-Mona Shores coach John Adams told The Muskegon Chronicle in 1989 about Scot, his senior captain. “He is the All-American, apple pie kid. He’s the perfect role model for the program.”
The strong athletic genes run deep in the family, tracing back to Scot’s maternal grandfather Pete Petroskey, a welterweight boxer who won more than 180 professional fights. Petroskey went on to train some of the best boxers to ever come out of Muskegon, including Kenny Lane and Phil Baldwin, and was inducted into the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.
Scot’s athletic achievements continued after high school, as he led the Muskegon Community College basketball team to a runner-up finish at the junior college national tournament in 1990. He later walked on to the University of Arizona football team and made the roster as a backup quarterback.
Scot did some coaching when his kids were younger, but his disease has prevented him from coaching in recent years. He is now the No. 1 fan and encourager for Drew and Jake, as well as Mason, who is having a good year for the Mona Shores eighth-grade girls basketball team.
“The Southland family is very special to Mona Shores basketball,” explained Mona Shores varsity coach Brad Kurth, who missed two games after the death of his mother but returned to guide the Sailors to victory Tuesday night. “Drew and Jake are everything that you can ask for as a coach. They just compete. They go out and give you everything that they have.”
Different perspective
The Mona Shores athletic program has changed drastically since the late 1980s when Scot Southland was leading the Sailors in football and basketball.
Back then, the Sailors struggled to win any games on the football field, but were highly competitive with the likes of Muskegon and Grand Haven in basketball. Now, the Sailors rarely lose a football game and basketball has been looking up at those aforementioned programs over the past 10 years.
Perhaps no single player has been more affected by the unsettled basketball program as Drew, who has had a different varsity head coach in each of his four years at the high school – as the program has had six head coaches over the past eight years.
“It’s been hard with the different coaches, but I hate making excuses,” said Drew, one of just four seniors on the Shores roster. “We can play much better than we have.”
Through it all, Drew has worked tirelessly to improve his game, waking up early to come in and shoot almost every morning, and still hopes to play college basketball.
Jake, who plays wide receiver and defensive back for the Shores football team and was moved up to the varsity for the team’s recent Division 2 championship run, hopes to be part of a basketball resurgence at Shores over the next two years.
The Sailors have plenty of height and youth on their front line in juniors Donovan Russell (6-8) and Ethan Krueger (6-6) and sophomore Parker Swartz (6-4). With Jake and many other talented players set to move up to the varsity full-time next year, he is hoping to engineer a basketball breakthrough – much like his father did during his junior year of high school.
Jake turned some heads when he got moved up to the varsity for Saturday’s game against Wyoming. In less than two minutes of action, he scored five points and grabbed two rebounds.
“Drew and Jake just love to be out on the basketball court,” said Mona Shores junior varsity coach Tyler VanBergen. “The love that their dad has for the game flows through the whole family.”
Love for the game of basketball, along with humility and a strong work ethic, are not the only gifts Scot has given to his children.
Watching their father handle his illness with grace and a positive attitude – while never wallowing in self-pity or taking his frustrations out on them – has given all three of them a perspective on life which most kids their age simply don’t have.
“I’ve learned from watching him that life isn’t fair,” Jake said. “I mean, I would love to be able to play 1-on-1 against him, but instead we have to do other things. We watch a lot of movies together and talk about them. Doing that with him has really given me a passion for movies, and I’d love to work in film or directing someday.”
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) Muskegon Mona Shores’ Drew Southland works to get up a shot during a game against Muskegon last season. (Middle) Scot Southland was a standout for Mona Shores before graduating in 1989. (Below) Scot, as a member of the Sailors, and younger son Jake who is playing this season on junior varsity. (Top photo courtesy of Local Sports Journal; additional photos courtesy of Southland family.)