Stuck Family Success Lives On at Charlevoix
February 3, 2017
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
CHARLEVOIX – Elise Stuck burst on to the scene with a 21-point, 11-rebound effort in Charlevoix’s season-opening win over Petoskey.
That was two months ago, but it was a harbinger of things to come.
Stuck, an athletic 6-foot-1 freshman, has registered seven double-doubles and one triple-double for the 9-4 Rayders, who are trending toward their best season since a 21-win campaign in 2008-09. Charlevoix was 3-19 a year ago.
The Rayders are achieving this with a lineup that features two freshmen and three juniors. Stuck – who “plays everywhere,” including the point – is the leader, averaging 18.7 points and 11 rebounds per game. She had 10 assists in a win over Gaylord last month.
“She’s the real deal,” Charlevoix coach Liz Shaw said. “She’s so fun to watch. She plays well beyond her years. One of her great attributes is passing. She sees the court so well. She makes everybody around her better. As a team, I think that’s why we’ve been so successful. And not only is she a great player, but she’s a great kid.”
Stuck struggled with her shot Wednesday in a 53-47 setback to Class A Traverse City Central. She still finished with 18 points (all in the second half) and eight rebounds. The Rayders could not contain Central junior guard Margot Woughter, who tossed in 27.
Shaw said Stuck’s struggle was an aberration.
“All players struggle, but great players figure it out,” she said.
Stuck, who turned 15 on New Year’s Eve, comes from a basketball family. Her parents, Erica (Hall) and Matt, combined to score nearly 4,100 points during their all-state careers at Manton. In fact, Matt is seventh in MHSAA career scoring with 2,449 points. He went on to play four years at Oakland University and two years professionally overseas. He’s now in his first season as the Charlevoix boys varsity coach. Erica’s 1,649 points rank second all-time at Manton. She’s in the MHSAA record book twice for hitting 15 free throws in a game.
But those feats are seldom discussed now. Their focus is on the present – and their kids.
And the kids keep them busy playing multiple sports. In addition to basketball, Elise competes in volleyball (honorable mention all-state), soccer and track. Her twin brother, Luke, who’s been battling injuries, plays basketball, football and baseball. Caleb, a seventh-grader, is also a basketball player, although baseball is his preferred sport.
“We always wanted them to love sports,” Erica said. “We’re super excited that they share that same passion.
“Otherwise,” she added with a laugh, “I don’t know what we would do.”
Elise is an emerging talent on the court. She’s a difference-maker, even though she’s still learning the nuances of the game. The more experience she gains, the more she’ll improve, her father said.
“I’m a dad and a coach so I always say she’s doing well, but she has a long way to go,” Matt said. “She has a very good athletic skill set. She’s tall, can run, can jump. She’s a good athlete who’s becoming a good basketball player.”
She’s also a leader.
That’s a role Matt didn’t have to take on when he was a freshman at Manton. Although he was a double-digit scorer on a team that reached the Class C Quarterfinals that season, the Rangers’ roster was stocked with strong senior leadership in Jeff Spalding, Cage Butcher and Chris Herndon. Spalding was an all-state guard.
By contrast, Charlevoix has just one senior on its girls roster this season.
“For me, the transition was easier,” Matt said. “I could just go play. Elise has had a bigger impact (as a freshman).”
Others have taken notice. Ron Stremlow, who coached Erica at Manton, compares Elise’s court presence to two former area standouts who went on to play at Michigan State.
“Elise is a Liz Shimek, Jasmine Hines type player,” Stremlow said. “She plays a different position, but she catches your eye as soon as the game starts.”
Stremlow saw Stuck play in a loss last month to unbeaten Kalkaska. He was not the only one impressed.
“Explosive,” Kalkaska coach Dave Dalton said in describing Stuck. “She can drive the ball, take it the length of the court, left or right. She’s big, strong, fast. She can play with her back to the basket. And she’s a really good passer.”
That’s why Shaw utilizes her all over the court, including the point.
“I don’t want to handcuff her,” she said.
Stuck’s game is still a work in progress, particularly on the perimeter. She acknowledges that.
“Coming into the season I had never played point guard or on the outside,” she said. “I was an inside player, and in crunch time I go to my inside game because that’s what I’m used to.
“I worked this summer on being able to take (defenders) one-on-one off the dribble. My outside shooting, shooting off the dribble, shooting under pressure, can definitely get better. That’s something I want to work on.”
Now that her players are settling into roles, Shaw said the Rayders “are getting better and better every game.” Abby Cunningham, a 5-11 freshman, has taken over at center, joining juniors Olivia Jeakle and sisters Rachel and Natalie Nesburg in the lineup. Shaw said last week’s 57-35 win over East Jordan was the team’s most “in sync” game of the season. Jeakle hit two 3-pointers early en route to a 14-point night. Natalie Nesburg chipped in eight points, six rebounds, five steals and five assists while Rachel added seven points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Cunningham is a close friend of Elise’s, and they have helped each other make the transition from middle school to varsity basketball.
“It’s fun to watch them have this kind of success together,” Erica said. “They love their team.”
Shaw is hoping this nucleus can help put Charlevoix girls basketball back on the map.
Charlevoix finished runner-up in the 2004 MHSAA Class C Final to Detroit St. Martin dePorres. That team was coached by Keith Haske, Shaw’s mentor. Haske is now at Traverse City St. Francis, where he led the Gladiators to the Class C Final last season.
Meanwhile, Matt, who runs his own construction company, took over the varsity boys job this season.
“I thought if I can help or contribute in any way,” he said, “why not?”
First, he had to make sure the added responsibilities wouldn’t drastically take away time from watching his kids play.
“Schedule-wise we decided as a family that it would work, that I wouldn’t miss any more games than I would have if I wasn’t coaching,” he said. “On Tuesday nights in our league (Lake Michigan Conference), the boys go one way, the girls the other. We were going to have to divide and conquer anyway.”
Stuck inherited a team short on varsity experience. The Rayders dropped to 3-8 after Wednesday’s night’s 58-45 loss to Gaylord.
But the coach sees improvement. He’s continually stressing fundamentals in practice, giving his players a base to become a better team.
Charlevoix has nine juniors on the varsity, plus a solid group at the JV level, so the future looks promising.
Luke, who has been dealing with kneecap tracking issues and a sprained LCL, returned to JV practice this week. The kneecap problem, he suffered last March, severely curtailed his baseball and football seasons. He was ready to go for basketball, but then sprained his LCL (lateral cruciate ligament) in gym class.
“He’s had a long year,” Matt said.
At 6-2, 210 pounds, Luke is a solidly built forward, whose strengths are rebounding and defense.
“He’s a pretty good leader on the court, too,” his father said. “He knows where everybody needs to be – and he’s pretty vocal. About four or five of those guys play travel ball together. It’s a good group.”
Luke was eager to get back in action.
“It was interesting to see the other side of the game (sitting out while injured),” he said. “But it was really (disappointing) to not participate, knowing that you could be out there (contributing).”
Matt and Erica have coached their kids over the years. Both coached the girls 8th grade team last year. Then, Matt and Boyne City’s Randy Calcaterra, a Wayne State grad who played against Matt in college, coached 7th and 8th grade AAU teams that their sons played on.
Getting a handle on that dynamic is not as easy as it sounds, Matt said.
“That’s the hard part of having parents that have played and are coaches,” he said. “Randy and I would always say that coaching is hard, parenting is harder and being a parent-coach is hardest.”
As a parent, Stuck said he’s applies a rule he learned from his father.
“I ask my kids: Do you want me to tell you one thing that you need to work on?” he said. “That’s the rule my dad had when I was going through school. If you want to hear it, I’ll tell you. I apply that same rule. If they want to open it up for more, we discuss more.”
Do they ask?
“They do,” he said.
“Sometimes they might regret it,” he added with a chuckle.
Stuck averaged 24.7 points a game in his 99 varsity starts at Manton. He was coached by Rene LaFreniere.
LaFreniere said the 6-4 Stuck was more than a scorer and rebounder.
“The thing people didn’t realize is that he was such a good passer,” LaFreniere said. “He would get double- and triple-teamed and would always find the open man.”
For as good a ballplayer as he was, LaFreniere said Stuck’s an even better person.
“Special person, incredible parents,” he said. “Humble, never gloated. It was like, ‘I’ve got a job to do.’ And he did it.”
Whereas Matt could use his size in the paint, Erica made her mark from the perimeter.
“She could shoot,” Stremlow said. “Her range was about 25 feet.
“Good upbringing, a coachable player, a team player who understood the game and really pushed herself. When I watch her daughter, I see those similarities.”
Erica, a math teacher in the Ellsworth school system, said the value of hard work was preached when she played.
“People always told me the harder you work, the more determined you are, that will determine how good you end up being,” she said.
The gym is still a home away from home for the Stucks. Countless hours are spent there on a daily basis.
It’s a lifestyle that works for the family. And they wouldn’t want it any other way.
“We don’t think anything of it,” Matt said. “We think of it as a regular day. We enjoy it. That’s all there is to it.”
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Charlevoix’s Elise Stuck blocks a shot this season, her first in high school. (Middle) The versatile Stuck brings the ball upcourt. (Below) Matt Stuck, right, is Elise’s father and the Charlevoix first-year boys coach. (Photos courtesy of the Petoskey News-Review.)
Cancer Free, Haske Pulls Double Duty
March 3, 2016
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
TRAVERSE CITY – Keith Haske calls coaching basketball “therapeutic.”
It’s a term that now holds more meaning for the 58-year-old Traverse City St. Francis basketball coach, who is recovering from a stage four throat cancer diagnosis two years ago.
“When you’re coaching you just kind of lose yourself,” he said. “You don’t think about how you’re feeling or what you went through.”
Coaching has been a major part of Haske’s life for 32 years – 13 at St. Johns, 13 at Charlevoix and six at St. Francis. Even when he felt weak and tired last season, Haske continued as the boys coach, using an amplified headset at practice to lessen the strain on his throat.
His health, he said, is continually improving. He’s cancer free. His energy and strength are returning – so much so that he added to his workload this season by taking on the girls varsity coaching duties, too.
“When you go through this stuff you almost have a renewed energy,” he said. “Your body fights so hard to beat the cancer, and you go through so much suffering, that when you come out the other side things really don’t faze you as much.”
This is a time of the year that will test Haske’s stamina because his schedule is busier than ever. He coached three doubleheaders last week. With the girls reaching Friday’s MHSAA Class C District Final, he’ll coach five games in five days this week. It could be a repeat next week if the boys and girls advance along the tournament trail.
“I can’t tell you how much fun that would be,” Haske said.
Another tough District matchup awaits, though. The girls team (21-1) played Elk Rapids (15-6) on Wednesday and will next face host Glen Lake (20-2). The boys (12-7) will face Johannesburg-Lewiston (16-2) – the team that knocked the Gladiators out last season– in their District opener Monday.
It’s a challenging schedule. But Haske, who’s taken four teams to the MHSAA Finals, is accustomed to challenges. None bigger than his battle with cancer.
The diagnosis came the day after Easter in 2014. Haske, who kept physically fit, couldn’t believe what the doctor was telling him.
“I said, ‘There’s no way,’” he recalled. “I never smoked, never chewed tobacco, things you would attribute (to throat cancer).”
He wasn’t the only one stunned.
“Most of the team started breaking down crying,” senior Dylan Sheehy-Guiseppi remembered when Haske broke the news. “We were so shocked. We couldn’t understand how it happened to him.”
Neither could Haske’s close friends.
“Your first take is that it’s pretty devastating because you don’t know (what to expect),” Adam Wood, who played for and coached under Haske at Charlevoix, said. “Cancer can run the gamut as far as severity. The one thing I did know is that he would fight it as hard as he could.”
Haske took his fight to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He, and his wife Barb, spent most of the summer there as Haske underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatment.
It was on a return trip to Houston a few months later – he still goes back every four months for scans – when he learned he was cancer free.
“When I left (in July) they were still worried about one of the lymph nodes, whether they got it or not,” Haske said. “Sometimes it gets inflamed from the radiation, and they can’t tell.”
Turns out, it was inflammation. No cancer was detected.
On the way home, Haske received a call from principal Eric Chittle, who then revealed the good news at a school assembly.
“The whole student body went crazy,” Haske said. “It was cool.”
For Haske, the dean of students at the high school, it was a big hurdle to clear. But there was a side effect – Haske’s throat was still inflamed, and he struggled to eat.
“When I came back I went six months without eating a single morsel of food,” he said. “I lived on Ensure and ice cream.”
He ended up losing 53 pounds – and at one point inquired about a feeding tube.
“He (doctor) said, ‘You don’t need it. You’ve been through the worst. You’ll be all right,’” Haske recalled. “He was right. A couple weeks later it started to turn around.”
After the boys basketball season concluded last March, and as Haske’s health improved, the girls basketball job opened up. Haske had coached girls basketball at Charlevoix for three seasons, leading the Rayders to a 27-1 record and a Finals appearance in 2004. He stepped down when the girls season was switched from fall to winter.
St. Francis athletic director Tom Hardy thought about the possibilities and approached Haske, a member of the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan Hall of Fame, about adding a second coaching job. After consulting with Barb, who he said has been “unbelievable” in his recovery process, Haske accepted.
Wood, who is now the boys basketball coach and athletic director at Lake Michigan Conference rival Harbor Springs, was among the first to call his former coach.
“He asked, ‘Adam, am I crazy?’” Wood said laughing. “My response was ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘I’ve been getting a lot of that lately.’
“For him to take that on was beyond impressive. It was all about the kids.”
What about physically?
“When I saw him this year I told him he looked great,” Wood said. “He said he felt great. The difference between this year and last is quite dramatic.”
Haske – who is mentoring two young coaches in the system, Tyler Sanborn and Stephanie DeNoyelles – said the casual fan might not even realize what he’s been through.
“If you were looking at me across the gym you wouldn’t have any idea,” Haske said. “If you get closer, I still have some swelling in my jaw, and I talk a little funny sometimes.”
But he’s enjoying every minute.
“The kids here are great, and that makes it so much easier,” he said. “You just don’t have many problems.”
The players are thankful to see their coach returning to his old self.
“He’s not only a basketball coach, he’s a mentor,” Sheehy-Guiseppi said. “He wants to make sure you’re taking care of stuff outside the game of basketball first. He really cares about you as a person, and he looks forward to helping you grow as a person.”
St. Francis officials adjusted Haske’s work schedule during the winter to accommodate his coaching, and Hardy had to work out arrangements with league members to schedule more varsity doubleheaders.
“All the schools were great about it,” Hardy said. “We have not had an issue with Keith having to be at two spots at the same time.”
Now comes the challenge of March Madness. And for the girls, that means a showdown with Glen Lake.
“They’re a lot like us,” Haske said, when asked about the Lakers. “They don’t have any one person you can key on. They have five or six girls that all share the ball and are dangerous. They’re tough in the paint and they can shoot. They’re very balanced, very sound.”
So are the Gladiators, who have won 19 in a row. Senior Annie Lyman is the leader, averaging 14 points, eight rebounds, five steals and five assists per game.
“She does it all,” Haske said. “She’s a tough, aggressive player.”
Juliana Phillips, a 6-foot-4 junior who has committed to play volleyball at St. Louis University, and 6-foot senior Lauren McDonnell also average in double figures.
Haske likes the growth he’s seen in his team.
“I think we’ve made great strides in understanding the system and what we’re trying to do,” he said. “We have some pretty talented kids. We have some size, some quickness, some kids who can shoot it. It’s a well-rounded team.”
The boys, meanwhile, are trying to find some consistency. Haske thought the Gladiators were turning the corner when Gabe Callery hit a mid-court shot at the buzzer to stun previously unbeaten East Jordan earlier this year. But St. Francis dropped three consecutive road games in February.
“A lot of it is shooting,” Haske said. “There are nights we just don’t shoot it well. When we do shoot it well, we’re a really good team.”
How good will be determined in March.
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Traverse City St. Francis coach Keith Haske huddles with his boys basketball team during a game against Grayling. (Middle) St. Francis' girls team, here against Kalkaska, will play for a District title Friday. (Below) Haske speaks with a few of his players during a District game against Grand Traverse Academy. (Photos by Julie English.)