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.)
Western Michigan Christian Completes 3-Peat on Freshman's Final-Minute Score
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 2, 2024
GRAND LEDGE – Cole DeJonge knew it would happen eventually – he and his Muskegon Western Michigan Christian teammates had created too many chances Saturday against Plymouth Christian Academy in the Division 4 Final for it not to happen.
But the senior midfielder couldn’t have predicted just how he’d feel when it did.
Freshman Mason Bonnema scored the game-winning goal with 1 minute, 4 seconds to play, finishing off a beautiful through ball from DeJonge and giving WMC a 1-0 victory and its third-straight Finals title.
“It was pure relief,” DeJonge said. “I’ve never felt so much joy in my life for a goal to go in than that one. We’ve already won two state championships, but nothing was like this one.”
The Warriors have now won 10 Finals titles after reaching their record-tying 17th title game. They are just the third boys soccer program to win three straight Finals titles, and first since Detroit Country Day won eight in a row from 1987-94.
“There is a lot of history, and it’s fantastic history – it’s a school with a legacy of winning state championships,” WMC coach Ben Buursma said. “Our focus every year is to get back to the title game, and we believe we can do it every year. We play a tough schedule, and that helps prepare us. These kids, the growth they showed this year, it was pretty incredible.”
WMC (15-7-3) controlled much of the game, finishing with a 19-7 shot edge (10-3 on frame). But Plymouth Christian’s defense stayed strong under pressure, and when it did leak, senior keeper Jonah Noel came up big.
But that one final chance was too much, as DeJonge played a ball forward to Bonnema who broke free on the right side of the goal and slotted one beyond Noel.
“The game was crazy; it was kind of just back and forth with us possessing and them kicking it out from the back,” Bonnema said. “We just found a breakthrough in the last two minutes. It’s crazy. It’s a great feeling.”
Noel was called into action right before kickoff, as regular starter Nik Vergel suffered an injury during pregame warmups.
He made nine saves, including stifling multiple breakaways to keep his team in the game.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Plymouth Christian coach Ryan Thomason said. “He literally found out in the tunnel that he was starting before we walked onto the field. He hasn’t played goalie in a month and a half. To play the way he did – no nerves, he was out there dribbling the ball like it was basketball season. Couldn’t be prouder of Jonah, ice in his veins. But that’s how all the seniors were on this team. They built a legacy for this program – two Final Fours in four years. I just couldn’t be prouder of them.”
After giving up the go-ahead score, Thomason’s team nearly tied the game on a free kick from senior midfielder Caedmon Whipple.
The captain had a free kick from just outside the left corner of the 18-yard box, and his attempt cleared the wall and started dipping. But WMC keeper Dan Minasian punched it over the bar. The resulting corner didn’t create another chance, and the clock ran out on the Eagles (15-6-3).
Minasian’s save not only preserved a clean sheet and a Finals title, but a perfect postseason, as he and the Warriors did not allow a goal through six playoff games. A year ago, he allowed just one on the way to their title.
“Dan’s been as solid a backstop as you can have in high school soccer,” Buursma said. “He’s been phenomenal over the course of two-plus years, and the defense was incredibly strong in front of him. It’s nice when you have a defense that doesn’t give up many shots, but to have a keeper like Dan back there, we have no worries.”
While there were certainly nerves, that did help calm them as WMC chances went begging on the other end.
Plymouth Christian’s defense did all it could to not give WMC star striker Tekalegn Vlasma any space, but his off-ball movement and DeJonge’s passing created a handful of chances anyway. Noel was able to keep Vlasma off the scoresheet, however, despite his four shots on goal.
“We instituted a system, and the guys worked it to exhaustion,” Thomason said. “We fought really, really hard and they got us in the 79th minute. They’re a great team, and we battled them. We thought if we could get them to overtime, that was kind of the goal. They were just a heck of a team. All credit to them. But we battled, and I’m so proud of us.”
PHOTOS (Top) Mason Bonnema (22) puts a foot into the winning shot for Western Michigan Christian on Saturday at Grand Ledge. (Middle) PCA’s Juan Chacon-Beltran steps into a kick. (Below) Plymouth Christian’s Grant Ramseyer (23) and WMC’s Juan DeJonge battle for possession. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)