Boyne Mountain Invitational Welcomes 29 Teams, Multiple 2025 Finals Champions
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
August 28, 2026
Boyne Mountain has provided memorable championship experiences over several years as a regular host of the MHSAA’s Girls & Boys Ski Finals.
Now it’s become the field of dreams for boys soccer as well.
Since 2023, some of the state’s top soccer programs have started the season at Boyne, participating in the Boyne Mountain Invitational. This year’s event featured 29 teams, including two 2025 Finals champions.
“It's a massive state – from Marquette to Monroe, Leland to Hartford – we spanned all of it, and undoubtedly we had a 2026 state champion in attendance … or four,” said Jeff Suffolk, tournament director and boys soccer coach of Harbor Springs, the official tournament host. “I have this innate desire as a coach to teach kids how to believe in themselves. A lot of these kids that live this far north never get to see those teams that they may see in the Finals in November.”
Boyne first hosted soccer in 2022 as preseason scrimmages. Twenty-two teams competed last August, including Leland and Warren De La Salle Collegiate, the eventual champions of Divisions 4 and 2, respectively.
“I think we had 12 teams up there for it,” Suffolk recalled of the first soccer played at the Boyne Mountain Sports Complex. “It's a really nice venue to host everybody, and the legend of the of the kids' experience kept growing and parents wanted to be a part of it. So that was kind of how we got to where we're at now.”
Leland is one of the many programs benefiting from the tournament’s popularity. The Comets, also Division 4 champions in 2018, have been a part of it the past two years.
“We actively go off and always try to find the best teams to play,” Leland coach Rob Sirrine said. “I think it's just a fun event, and the teams keep coming back. Special thanks to Jeff Suffolk, because it takes a tremendous effort to pull this off.”
This year Leland sandwiched a 2-0 loss to Detroit Country Day, last year’s Division 3 champ, between ties with Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood and Plymouth Christian Academy.
“You have to score goals to win, and I think we learned we don’t have to get the perfect shot to score,” Sirrine said of the Comets’ games at Boyne. “And I do think defensively we’re solid.”
Leland will now move on to the Elk Rapids Cherry-Kee tournament this weekend playing Muskegon Western Michigan Christian. Elk Rapids also will play WMC along with Williamston.
The Elks, who fell 3-2 to Pontiac Notre Dame Prep in the 2024 Division 3 Final and ended last season in the Regionals, played Grand Rapids South Christian, Eaton Rapids, and Country Day at Boyne this time. They tied Country Day and won their other two matches.
Host Harbor Springs, having capped last season with a 4-1 Regional loss, got off to a rough start at the tournament – but it didn’t discourage Suffolk.
The Rams tied 2001 Division 3 champ Ludington, 0-0, dropped a 3-0 decision to Country Day and fell 4-0 to Cranbrook.
Harbor was playing without senior all-stater Henry Juneau, who broke his shoulder during preseason football while planning to dual-sport this fall. Also, standout sophomore center back and captain Alex Marquardt left the Rams’ first game early with a broken nose after being accidentally kicked in the face. Marquardt and Juneau are expected to miss a good portion of the fall season.
Juneau scored 48 goals last year for the Rams and added 16 assists. With 141 career goals, he ranks among the MHSAA’s all-time leading scorers.
“The boys learned how to play low block, and they did it really, really well,” Suffolk said of the Rams’ adjusting to the losses of Marquardt and Juneau. “By the end of the weekend, they were phenomenal at it, and they held Notre Dame to zero, and we even actually had chances to beat Notre Dame. I thought Notre Dame was one of the better teams there, … They beat Country Day. They beat De La Salle. They beat Marquette.”
Suffolk, who quickly added Romeo or Birmingham Seaholm also were among the best in the tournament, if not the best, received considerable positive feedback on Northern Michigan also offering tremendous team-building activities for teams with its rivers, lakes and campgrounds.
Those extra activities will be available next year, even if the tournament ends up being played right in Harbor Springs, home of Ottawa Stadium.
“This is six years of the making, and we look forward to next year,” Suffolk said. “I kind of want to move into Harbor Springs because I think the experience would be cooler … having the town right there would be great for the parents and Ottawa Stadium is such a cool venue. A lot of people have never seen that place before. I'd like to expose them to that as well. too.”
More credit, too, goes to the school district’s administration, especially athletic director Chris Gallagher.
“I give the administration a lot of credit for being brave and trusting me to produce something like this,” Suffolk said. “There has been tons of support from the administration.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. 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) Clockwise from top left: Harbor Springs keeper Turner Schultz dives to his right to stop a shot. Monroe players enjoy some time by the fire. Marshall players and their coach huddle during a break in their tournament schedule. Pontiac Notre Dame Prep supporters tailgate. (Middle) Visiting players take advantage of a chance to go canoeing. (Below) Harbor Springs coach Jeff Suffolk talks things over with his team. (Harbor Springs photos by Drew Kochanny/Petoskey News-Review. All other photos courtesy of Jeff Suffolk.)
Unity Lead Scorer Raring to Return
September 20, 2019
By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
HUDSONVILLE – Unity Christian soccer standout Kadin Shaban isn’t accustomed to standing on the sidelines and helplessly watching his teammates compete.
Unfortunately, that’s Shaban’s current role after suffering an ankle injury two weeks ago during a game against Zeeland West.
“It’s hard to watch,” Shaban admitted. “I’ve kind of been losing my mind watching.”
Shaban was diagnosed with a high ankle sprain and has missed the last four games for the reigning Division 3 champion.
The top-ranked Crusaders have remained unbeaten (8-0-4) in his absence, but coach Randy Heethuis is looking forward to having his returning all-state Dream Team player back in the fold.
“It’s been a bummer, and we are a completely different team without him, but hopefully we can get him back very soon,” Heethuis said. “Hopefully when he is able to get back out there he can pick up where he left off, because he was having a tremendous season up until getting hurt.”
Shaban is Unity’s top goal scorer, and has been every year since arriving on the high school scene.
The 17-year-old scored 20 goals as a freshman and followed that up with 22 goals and 10 assists as a sophomore.
Last season, he notched 31 goals and 21 assists while helping spark Unity to a Division 3 title. He already had tallied 12 goals and nine assists this season.
Shaban’s penchant for finding the back of the net was apparent from the onset.
“When he came in as a freshman at our opening tryout, he very much made his presence known and showed he had a knack for scoring,” Heethuis said. “He is one of those kids who thoroughly loves soccer and he has continued to progress, continued to get better and continued to work on his game.”
Shaban’s four-year stint on the varsity has been rare in the school’s boys program, and his 85 career goals are the most in school history.
And while he has blossomed into a prolific goal scorer, Shaban said it didn’t begin that way.
“Actually, I started out as a defender on my first club team,” he said. “And I remember scoring my first ever goal in U-9 with my knee. I remember that to this day.
“I did not start out as a goal scorer, but then I ended up moving up through the positions and then by U-13 I was the goal scorer. I think it’s the best feeling there is to be able to score, and every game I want to try and score.”
Two of Shaban’s biggest tallies came last fall when he had a pair in a thrilling 3-1 overtime win over Grosse Ile in the Final. The title was Unity’s fifth.
“It was my third year of trying to get one and to finally get it was fun, especially doing it with all of my friends,” Shaban said.
Shaban has verbally committed to sign with Michigan State and will be one of only four or five players from Unity who will have gone on to play Division I soccer, according to Heethuis.
Shaban’s competitive nature has been compared to former Unity star Jared Timmer, who went on to play at Butler.
“Both of them are very competitive and love the game of soccer,” Heethuis said. “Two very special players, but yet different types of players on the field.
“Kadin is smaller than Jared was, but he’s got quick feet and he’s very shifty. He is a difference-maker on the field, and anytime he gets the ball he is a threat to score. The opposition, when he gets the ball, you hold your breath like, OK, what’s going to happen next?”
Shaban’s passion for soccer came from his father, Talal.
“He was born in Nigeria and grew up overseas,” Shaban said. “He was over there in Lebanon, and it’s a whole different sporting world because soccer has always been big there.
“When he came here he instilled that in me when I was young, and him and I just love the game and we watch it. The teams we follow are rivals so that makes it pretty interesting, and he’s coached me all the way through.”
Shaban hopes for a return to the field next week and is determined to help the Crusaders in their bid to end this season on a high note.
“We’ve had a couple shaky games in conference play, but we’re hoping to turn it around come tournament time and go all the way,” Shaban said. “That’s the dream, to go back-to-back.”
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) Unity Christian’s Kadin Shaban stretches to push the ball into Grosse Ile’s net during last season’s Division 3 championship game win. (Middle) Shaban, after receiving his medal at last year’s Final.