Grand Haven Playmakers Rising to Challenge After Loss of Senior Standout
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
September 9, 2026
Grand Haven was expected to have one of the state’s best backfield duos this season in seniors Andrew Willemsen and KV Korenstra.
That duo became singular in July, when Willemsen tore his ACL for the second-consecutive year, a gut-punch both for him and the Buccaneers’ coaching staff – which was planning on handing the ball to Willemsen 20-plus times per game.
Despite that emotional setback, Haven is off to its first 2-0 start since 2018, as the team’s many other offensive standouts – notably Korenstra and senior quarterback Easton Hintz – have stepped up their games.
“We all feel so bad for Andrew, and it just makes us appreciate things so much more,” said Korenstra, a Ferris State commit who rushed for 519 yards and caught 26 passes for 291 yards last fall.
“It’s good for our morale to be 2-0, but we all know that we can play so much better and that we have to play so much better, especially on offense.”
Grand Haven (2-0) heads into the gauntlet of its schedule the next three weeks, starting with Friday night’s Ottawa-Kent Conference Red opener at defending league champion Hudsonville, followed by East Kentwood at home and at Rockford.
The Bucs have found a way to win two tight games, a 35-34, triple-overtime thriller over visiting Spring Lake in the opener and then a hard-fought, 17-14 road win at Muskegon Reeths-Puffer last week.
“It hasn’t always been pretty, but we have been able to finish games out, which hasn’t been the case in the past,” said fourth-year Grand Haven coach Andrew Biedenbender, a Mount Pleasant native who played offensive line at Grand Valley State. “We can’t puff our chests out. We understand what’s ahead of us, but going into it with the confidence we now have is big.”
Senior quarterback Easton Hintz has been the catalyst, completing 28-of-42 passes (67 percent) for 359 yards and four touchdowns, with no interceptions. The dual-threat playmaker also has rushed for 168 yards and a score.
Hintz employs a variety of receiving options, starting with 6-foot-2 wideout Amani Frierson, another Ferris State commit, who has 11 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown.
An emerging weapon for the Bucs is junior tight end Grayam Beyer (6-6, 225), who had a breakout game against Spring Lake with four catches for 43 yards, including two TDs. Beyer already has five Division I college offers and visited Ohio State last Saturday.
If those weapons draw excessive attention, Hintz often hooks up with shifty junior slot receivers Lennon Jorgensen and Drew Hammerle.
Korenstra has been solid, if not spectacular, with 157 rushing yards and two TDs through two games. Korenstra, who finished third at the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals in the 100-meter dash last spring (10.79), has been slowed by a sprained ankle which he suffered early in the opening game.
“If you saw him early last week, you would have never thought he could play a football game,” said Biedenbender of the senior speedster, who was clocked at 4.28 seconds in the 40-yard dash this summer.
“So he has been fighting that ankle but still has hit a couple of 15- or 20-yard runs, but we’re waiting for him to break off a couple of 40- or 50-yarders.”
While he waits for Korenstra to get back up to full speed, Biedenbender occasionally allows himself to imagine what might have been this fall if Willemsen had stayed healthy.
The three-sport standout and athletic freak burst onto the scene as a sophomore with 1,321 yards and 11 TDs. He missed his entire junior year after tearing his ACL during summer workouts but came all the way back and was part of two school-record sprint relay teams in track this spring.
His recovery was so impressive (running a 4.3 40-yard dash and squatting almost 500 pounds early this summer) that he was offered a scholarship at Grand Valley. Willemsen was working out at GVSU in July when the unthinkable happened – a full tear of his other ACL.
“It’s like having a sports car in your garage that you never had a chance to drive,” said Biedenbender, whose main assistants are Matt Naber (offensive coordinator) and Eric Rozema (defensive coordinator). “He’s one of the best athletes ever at Grand Haven that no one’s going to know about. He has some great football ahead of him but, unfortunately, it won’t be for us.”
The Buccaneers still possess a variety of weapons that other teams would love to have, with an experienced senior quarterback in Hintz directing the show. Hintz (6-0, 185) threw for 975 yards last fall despite missing about one-third of the season with an injury, but is now on pace to easily eclipse the 1,000-yard passing plateau.
Haven’s 2-0 start also has put the team in position to make some noise in the conference race and compete for five wins and the school’s first playoff berth since 2019.
The quick start is a continuation of success at Grand Haven, which won the Division 1 boys volleyball title in the spring, to go along with a Finals appearance in softball and a fifth-place team finish in boys track.
“So much of it comes down to belief,” said Hintz, a crafty left-hander who is just as comfortable throwing on the run as he is in the pocket. “Our aiming point is making it to the playoffs and then winning a playoff game, which is something that hasn’t been done at this school in a long time. I believe we have the team to do it.”
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) Fourth-year Grand Haven coach Andrew Biedenbender celebrates with wideout Amani Frierson (1) during last week’s victory over Muskegon Reeths-Puffer. (Middle) KV Korenstra (12) follows his blockers against Spring Lake. (Below) Senior quarterback Easton Hintz (9) prepares to take a snap against Reeths-Puffer. (Photos by Josh Walters/JWaltVisuals.)
Bellaire's 'Captain' Robinson Making Senior-Year Impact Sure to Last
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
February 18, 2022
Oh, the glory days.
When Paul Koepke took over Bellaire basketball, he stepped into some mighty big coaching shoes.
He’s got the Eagles on the right track as they work to return to being a powerhouse program. The culture almost fits the visions he’s had since taking over for legendary and hall of fame coach Stan Sexton. They’re 8-7 overall and 6-5 in Ski Valley League play.
But today he’s preparing to lose his only senior starter, Cole Robinson, perhaps better known as The Captain. Robinson may not be as famous as the professional athletes whose careers led to being known as The Captain — baseball’s Derek Jeter and hockey’s Steve Yzerman —but he is to the locals.
“I have a bunch of freshmen,” noted Koepke, who’s been around the Eagles since the early 2000s as a middle school and varsity assistant coach. “I couldn’t ask for a better set up than having him as my captain.”
Robinson, a three-sport star for the Eagles, joined Bellaire’s 22-2 varsity team his freshman year as the postseason run ended with a 50-41 upset loss to Suttons Bay in the Regional. That loss ended a string of deep postseason runs covering decades. It was Koepke’s first year at the helm.
Today the Eagles are preparing to host Fife Lake Forest Area with their captain possibly on the sideline. He suffered an ankle injury in this week’s 44-32 win over Pellston. Koepke helped the senior guard off the floor after his first career injury.
He saw a glimpse of how things could be next year without The Captain, but he loved how his Eagles responded and how Robinson handled it.
The Eagles immediately went into a “win it for Cole” mode. Bellaire hopes tonight’s game will be the only game the 6-foot, 205-pounder needs to sit for a full recovery.
“Cole was on the bench cheering like a mad man after the injury,” Koepke said. “The kids were high-fiving him, and he was coaching kids up.
“We probably had better effort after that,” he continued. “We competed at a higher level, and I think we won that one for Cole.”
The injury didn’t hamper his leadership skills a bit. The Eagles beat Pellston with the same freshmen and sophomores Robinson’s had under his wings for some time.
Robinson has high hopes the young players will help win a District championship like the Eagles regularly did during their glory days. He has yet to win a District title – in any sport – during his years at Bellaire. He’s got this basketball season and his senior baseball season to experience it.
He did experience a first earlier this basketball season. Bellaire beat Gaylord St. Mary 69-62 on Feb. 8, the first win Cole and his senior teammates had experienced over the Snowbirds in any sport.
Robinson, who admits football is his favorite sport followed by baseball, likes helping his young teammates on the court. And he can’t wait to see them on the baseball field.
The Eagles have racked up more basketball wins this season than the previous two combined.
“For us, this is a big improvement,” Robinson said. “We’re a really young team.
“I think we’re going to surprise a few teams in the Districts,” he continued. “It’s going to be a tough one.”
Ellsworth, last year’s champion, will likely get the top seed in the 2022 tournament, hosted by Central Lake. Boyne Falls and Gaylord St. Mary also will vie for the title. The Eagles lost to Ellsworth 70-52 in the season opener. The freshmen were coming off just a two-game middle school season due to COVID-19 cancellations.
“Our record is starting to show we’re not just a bunch of freshmen just being freshmen,” Koepke said. “We’re starting to get pretty good.”
Bellaire starts three freshmen, a sophomore and The Captain.
“This man is selfless,” Koepke said about Robinson. “He’s the first one to come to me when I get there (to practice or games) to give me a fist bump and ask me how my day is going.
“Captain means a lot of things. He’s the last one to go off the bus. He cleans the bus. He’s the last one to leave the locker room.”
Robinson is averaging nearly six points and three assists per game. He also hauls in eight rebounds per contest. He’s coming from an outstanding football season as the Eagles’ tight end, tackle and defensive end. He had two touchdown receptions in the fall.
Jayden Hansen, a freshman, leads the team in scoring at more than 15 per game. Another freshman, Drake Koepke, averages 12 points. Hanson is among Northern Michigan’s leading rebounders. Koepke, the coach’s son, is among the area’s leaders in steals.
“We’re always looking for the third scorer,” Koepke said.
But the starting lineup is set.
“We finally kind of found out these are our guys, our lineup,” Koepke said. “We’re growing now.
“We understand who we are, and now we have to fix some things we struggle with,” he continued. “Right now we have a great attitude, and we are peaking.”
Robinson goes back a long way in Bellaire. He was a water boy for the varsity team when his father, Brock, was the Eagles’ head football coach. Brock died suddenly in 2020, and had served as The Captain’s youth football and baseball coach and high school football coach his freshmen and sophomore seasons.
The younger Robinson also lost his 2020 baseball season due to COVID. But he has persevered. Today he’s a regular on the court coaching youth basketball and his youthful teammates.
“You can say it’s been a little tough —I obviously miss him of course,” The Captain said. “He loved sports just as much as I do.
“I think about him usually before most sporting events – especially football games I’d think about him beforehand.”
Coach Koepke, who also assisted Coach Robinson in football, is amazed by his captain’s career and his contribution to the Eagles’ success.
“He is always a positive person,” Koepke said. “There are so many things he does.”
If the Eagles don’t make the great run this season as they have in the past, the veterans they’ll have next season along with others impacted by Robinson should help them return to the glory days.
“You are going to be a better person because you met Cole,” Koepke said. “That’s basically what Cole is.
“We’re all going to miss Cole. He’s made me a better person for sure.”
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) Bellaire’s Cole Robinson looks for an open teammate during a game against Johannesburg-Lewiston. (Middle) Robinson works to bring down a Bear Lake ball carrier. (Below) Robinson works with players in Bellaire’s youth program on their shooting form. (Top and middle photos courtesy of the Antrim Review; below photo courtesy of the Bellaire athletic department.)