As Stockbridge Learns, Swoverland Earns 400
January 28, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
STOCKBRIDGE – The new coach had won a lot of games. He must know what he’s doing, Mason Gee-Montgomery figured.
And that’s all he knew about Randy Swoverland when the latter took over Stockbridge’s boys basketball program two years ago.
But by the end of their first summer workout, Gee-Montgomery realized how hard the Panthers would be working that winter. And although the team finished only 8-13 that first season of 2014-15 (solid, actually, considering the team returned only one player with varsity experience), the now-junior point guard recognized his coach was putting the team in position to win – as long as he and his teammates held to what Swoverland was teaching them, and despite the fact some classmates didn’t stick around to help.
“It’s definitely a lot different than any coach we’ve had,” Gee-Montgomery said. “He takes the intensity to another level, and he expects things done a certain way. And if you don’t get them done that way, he’ll let you know.
“He definitely holds us accountable for the way we play, and I think that style of coaching suits the team we have because we hold each other accountable and he holds us accountable for ourselves. It just makes us play at another level.”
He could’ve been speaking for many of the teams Swoverland has led over the last four decades. And many of those players have been on the coach’s mind since his 400th career win Jan. 19, a 49-47 Stockbridge victory over Lansing Christian.
Swoverland has coached basketball at nine high schools over 37 years, building a record of 402-332. He also coached two seasons of boys and girls tennis, three of football and two seasons of men’s basketball at Adrian College since starting his coaching career in the fall of 1977 at Greenville High.
“When I got the win, I was happy. My guys were excited for me. But I also think back to all of the guys I coached in the 70s, 80s, 90s; they’re as much a part of it as what we’re certainly doing right now,” Swoverland said. “My thoughts and memories go all the way back to all of those teams.”
Although most in his new school’s community probably weren’t familiar with the past successes, Swoverland wasn’t exactly a stranger in a strange land when he picked up the milestone win on his newest team’s home court – Stockbridge is only 17 miles from Dexter, where he lives, has a son in high school and led teams to 245 of those victories.
He certainly has left an imprint on communities all over the Lower Peninsula and Ohio border, with 11 stops combined at those nine high schools and one college.
Stops along the way
Swoverland coached boys and girls tennis and also served as a boys basketball assistant at Greenville after finishing a four-year basketball career at Adrian College, where he was a captain as a senior. After Greenville came his first head coaching job, for a season at Edmore (now Blanchard) Montabella. He spent 1979-80 coaching Deckerville’s boys before heading back to Adrian College as an assistant men’s basketball coach; the head coach got fired and he lost his job there two years in. At the same time, Swoverland had been teaching and coaching football at Evergreen High School in Metamora, Ohio, and took over the girls basketball program there for one season. (He taught mathematics for 38 years total, retiring from the classroom after the 2013-14 school year.)
Swoverland moved on to coach Hudson’s boys basketball varsity from 1983-91, leading the Tigers to a league championship in 1989, a District title in 1991 and a 102-72 record. Then came his first tenure at Dexter from 1992-2001 – his teams finished a combined 131-90 with four league and four District titles and posted a 22-2 record in 1997-98. A need for something new led him to Adrian High School for three seasons from 2002-04 – and realizing Dexter was a better fit led him back to coach the Dreadnaughts from 2005-13, during which time they finished 114-90 and won two District titles.
Swoverland then took 2013-14 off from coaching – and missed it too much. He applied for and received the Stockbridge job that spring, taking over for Joe Wenzel, who also was the school’s athletic director and had coached in the district 11 seasons and the varsity during his last two.
The Panthers finished last winter with four losses over their final five games, but a combined eight points from finishing 12-9 instead. They also handed one of only two league losses to eventual Greater Lansing Activities Conference champion Lake Odessa Lakewood. This winter, the varsity has only nine players – but also nine wins, off to a 9-2 start and tied for second in the GLAC with a championship over holiday break at the Parma Western Holiday Hoops tournament.
“His level of consistency with the kids (impresses me); he’s very organized. Clearly he’s been doing it for a long time, so that helps with areas like that,” Wenzel said. “He has high expectations for the kids, and he holds them to it, and they rise to the occasion.”
But Swoverland gives them that opportunity to rise as well.
Dexter girls basketball coach and athletic director Mike Bavineau got his high school coaching start assisting Swoverland and worked with and around him for more than 20 years, getting a first-hand look at the strategist in action.
“I loved being on the sidelines with him. I watched him develop a system of play that always seemed to maximize his team’s ability,” Bavineau said. “The players may have never known it, but he is such a strategist that he will find a way to put you in the right place at the right time. Dexter and I were very fortunate to have him as a mentor and as a coach.
“You do not find many people who are (more) committed to his players and his program than Coach. I have the utmost respect for him as a coach and a friend.”
The branches of Swoverland’s coaching tree stretch broadly, considering both those who played for and coached under him and also those he’s affected during 31 years running the well-attended summer team camps at Adrian College and Siena Heights University.
His lessons through the years and many stops boil down to a few key points:
He teaches players to compete not against the opponent, but against their own potential – and measure against that, win or lose.
He emphasizes a unified front and working within the group, even when disagreeing with some of the decisions or direction – players aren’t allowed to stick out by wearing things like headbands with their uniforms, and his system isn’t built to create stars on the court, as all five starters this season average between eight and 13 points per game.
Finally, there are the life lessons he hopes they take with them like commitment and hard work – the ones he still hears about from former players when they’ve figured out what he meant years later.
“Coach has the best basketball mind I have encountered in 20 years of coaching. (And) his value system is beyond reproach,” said Brooklyn Columbia Central boys hoops coach Jason Rychener, who played for Swoverland at Hudson in 1989-90 and 1990-91 and coached under him at Dexter from 1995-2005. “I find myself still using the W.W.C.D (What would Coach do?) approach to issues that arise in my own program. In my view, he reached ‘legend’ status long before his 400th win.”
“Kids are still kids. They still want to play basketball. They still want to get something out of it,” Swoverland reflected. “You’re still teaching them life lessons. All of that stuff carries over, whether you’re coaching a Class B team or a Class A team.”
Making another impact
Stockbridge’s most notable sports success of late came on the football field over the last two seasons, as Gee-Montgomery – also a quarterback – set or tied three MHSAA passing records this fall with junior receiver/shooting guard Kolby Canfield hauling in 90 of those tosses and both in position to finish with some of the flashiest career numbers in this state’s history.
The boys basketball program, meanwhile, was coming off four straight sub-.500 seasons when Swoverland was hired and didn’t quite seem like a destination for a coach climbing toward 400 victories.
But he got a lay of the land both from Katherine Kuzma, the girls soccer coach and a former student of his at Dexter, and Josh Nichols, a teacher and former coach at the school who played at the University of Minnesota. Swoverland came away with an impression that Stockbridge athletes were competitive and would work hard, and the scenario has been similar to when he was at Hudson and also had a number of three-sport athletes while coaching in more of a football-type town. He also had a team of only nine players for a season with the Tigers, and has used all of that past experience during this one. He also brought along assistant Rick Weaver, who played for him at Dexter in 1998-99 and 1999-2000.
The biggest challenge has been getting a new school’s athletes to buy in to his “old-fashioned” style which emphasizes man-to-man defense and shot selection, and he’s working to get more offseason buy-in as well so he can help develop their skills. His system is based in large part on conversations with hundreds of coaches over the years, and Swoverland recalls specifically when his Hudson and Dexter teams hit a groove where their experience and execution resulted in wins over more talented opponents. Stockbridge isn’t there yet, but it’s moving in the right direction.
But not during the first half Tuesday. The Panthers were struggling against Jackson Northwest, playing below their potential, and Swoverland let them know – although he didn’t have to say a word. A look his players have come to recognize said it all.
Stockbridge pulled away for a 51-41 win.
“Last year we struggled with some of the things he had us doing, but we returned almost everybody and we’re all more familiar with the system and what he expects of us,” Gee-Montgomery said. “Winning makes everything better, and when we all play well, and we get praise from him, that’s when it feels really good."
Geoff Kimmerly joined the MHSAA as its Media & Content Coordinator in Sept. 2011 after 12 years as Prep Sports Editor of the Lansing State Journal. He has served as Editor of Second Half since its creation in Jan. 2012. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for the Barry, Eaton, Ingham, Livingston, Ionia, Clinton, Shiawassee, Gratiot, Isabella, Clare and Montcalm counties.
PHOTO: Stockbridge boys basketball coach Randy Swoverland huddles with his players during a break in the action this season. (Photo courtesy of Frazzini Photography.)
Erie Mason Climbs to Championship Level
February 15, 2019
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
ERIE – When Kevin Skaggs was named the boys varsity basketball coach at Erie Mason, he immediately got on the phone and started asking questions.
After more than two decades coaching basketball, Skaggs was about to embark on something new – high school basketball.
“All of my 22 years was in college coaching,” he said. “I reached out to a lot of different high school coaches, coaches that I had known over the years. … It’s mind-boggling how you have to fit all of the pieces together to build a program.”
Whatever those coaches told Skaggs, he should box it up and sell it.
Skaggs took over an Erie Mason program that occasionally had success but was often the team on the schedule other schools wanted to face. Those days are just a memory now. In his eighth season, Skaggs has become the school’s all-time winningest coach, recently leading the team to its first-ever outright Lenawee County Athletic Association championship. His team also is in the midst of a 13-game winning streak, the longest in school history.
What’s more is the success doesn’t appear to be a blip on the screen. Mason has had five consecutive winning seasons for the first time in school history and its top scorer – the top scorer in Monroe County – is just a junior.
“I think we are starting to make (other schools) believe,” Skaggs said. “We want to be one of those opponents that when we walk into the gym, other teams say, ‘oh, no,’ instead of ‘oh, boy.’”
Those days are here. Earlier this week, Mason knocked off Petersburg-Summerfield, 64-44, in a non-league game. The Bulldogs came into Erie with a 15-0 record and a top 10 ranking in the Associated Press poll but were handled by the Eagles.
Mason followed that win with an 89-50 victory Thursday over Hudson to clinch the outright LCAA championship, the first since they joined the LCAA in 1988.
Erie Mason has a Saturday date this week with LCAA rival Dundee with a chance to improve to 15-2 on the season. Mason hasn’t won 15 games in a season since 2003-04 and has done so only three times since the school debuted in 1961-62.
All of the wins, high-powered offenses (Mason averages 67 points a game and has made 126 3-pointers as a team) can be traced back to when Skaggs first got to Mason and, on the advice of coaching friends, started a youth basketball program, the Junior Eagles. Those first-year kids eight years ago are now the ones Skaggs sees in the huddle during timeouts.
“They are from that first group of our youth program, and you can get a sense of that,” he said. “They love basketball. That was a big step for us.”
Skaggs, 63, brought together others in the community to put together the youth program for boys and girls. While Mason has had success in other sports – the football team won the Class C championship in 1987 – basketball had lagged behind. Now, he said, that culture has changed. It happened, he said, because student-athletes started loving the game of basketball.
“What you want to teach is to teach them to have fun with the game,” he said. “If you get the kids to fall in love with the sport, they will pursue it. You want to be able to keep kids interested and with a ball in their hands.”
The program aims at teaching the game, making sure kids have fun and, then, around the fifth- and sixth-grade level, increase the competitiveness. By middle school, the basketball players are able to compete with other teams on the Mason schedule. By high school, they are used to success and hungry for more.
“Our eight-grade team had a tremendous year, and our seventh-grade team was pretty good,” Skaggs said. “It’s starting to cycle through, which is wonderful to watch.”
Skaggs also said he’s noticed that athletes aren’t leaving the district to go play for other schools like was once the case.
“We’re keeping our players in our school,” he said.
Skaggs earned his master’s degree in sports administration and bachelor’s degree in social work at Western Michigan University, where he met coach Dick Shilts. He was directing Christian-based basketball camps in Michigan and Ohio before becoming an assistant coach at Kalamazoo Valley Community College under Shilts and enjoying monumental success. After six years there, he became head coach at Alma College from 1995 to 2001, going 53-98. His second Alma team went 14-12 and won a Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association tournament game for the first time in school history. After moving to Erie, Skaggs got an assistant coaching job at Owens Community College in northwest Ohio. He was an assistant five years with the Express, including three years as a volunteer coach, before becoming the head coach.
In 2011, he was named the head coach at Erie Mason, a school just north of the Ohio border that had just a handful of winning seasons in its history.
“Mason was a no-brainer. I was 55 and getting a little tired of getting on a bus and going three to four hours away for a game,” he said. “Plus, my son was playing and I was missing watching him.”
His family has been a major part of his run at Mason. Sons Isaac and Jacob have both either played or coached with him his entire time at Mason.
“What’s a better place to start than with your family?” he said.
He also found community members Tom Banachowski and Brad Liedel to serve as assistant coaches. He delegates what he calls “meaningful responsibility” to his assistants to help the workload and to build continuity in the program. One thing he doesn’t delegate is the Eagles’ offense.
“I’m greedy when it comes to offense,” he said. “That’s mine. There’s nothing like watching an offense that moves the ball and goes. It’s exciting and fun to watch.”
For the past couple of seasons, the Eagle most fun to watch has been Joe Liedel. The 5-foot-11 junior recently moved into second place on the school’s all-time scoring list. With 1,229 points through 16 games this season, he’s well within reach of the school’s career leader, J.P. Horne (1,455 points).
“If Joe Liedel was 6-foot-3, every Division I school would be calling on him,” Skaggs said. “He’s one of the most complete kids I’ve coached in 35 years – and I don’t say that easily.”
Liedel has been sensational this season. He’s the top scorer in the LCAA, and has had games of 41, 37, 37, 34 and 31 while shooting 51.4 percent from the floor, 86.9 percent from the free throw line and leading the team in assists and steals.
“He’s really a complete player, offense and defense,” Skaggs said. “When he thinks there is a weakness in his game, he identifies it and works on it. He’s always been good at shooting, but now he can get to the basket. It adds to his game.”
Liedel isn’t a one-man show, however. Senior Jake Trainor averages 13.6 points a game, while senior brothers Bryan Sweeney (10.6 points a game) and John Sweeney (8.3 points, 6.3 rebounds a game) have played major roles as well.
When they get to the postseason, Erie Mason will be trying to win its first District championship in 46 years. The 1972-73 team won District and Regional championships. It won’t be easy as the Division 3 District at Blissfield is loaded with talented teams, including Summerfield (15-1), perennial power Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central (11-3) and Clinton, which just knocked off 10th-ranked Quincy.
Skaggs is drawing on his college coaching days to keep his players focused on next-level goals.
“Our first goal was to win the LCAA, and we’ve done that,” he said. “Next, it’s the District. Every game we play in now is a test to get ready for the state tournament. You have to keep the focus on one game at a time. We’ve been able to do that. We’re still having fun.”
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: (Top) Joe Liedel moved into second place on the Erie Mason all-time scoring list this season. (Middle) Coach Kevin Skaggs has led the Eagles to rare success including an outright league title this season. (Top photo by Vanessa Ray.)