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.)
Moment: Streak-Ender Highlights 1st Finals
December 11, 2020
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
It’s been 45 years since the first MHSAA Football Playoffs took place, a two-week, 16-team tournament with the top teams of each of four regions in all four classes finally settling gridiron championships on the playing field.
In that first year, cries of “U.P. Power” thundered through the stands at Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo and the new Perry Shorts Stadium in Mt. Pleasant as Crystal Falls Forest Park and Ishpeming claimed the 1975 titles in Classes D and C respectively. Bill Santilli ran wild for 179 yards on 37 carries and three touchdowns as the Trojans manhandled Flint Holy Rosary, 50-0, in the Class D game. But the Class C affair was one for the ages - perhaps the biggest upset in the history of the finals.
It was billed as David and Goliath. The mighty Hudson Tigers roared north to Mt. Pleasant riding a 72-game winning streak, which would stand as a national record until 1992; and is still a state record, only threatened once by a 69-game skein by Ithaca which ended in the 2014 Finals. Hudson had also laid claim to mythical state titles in Class C the three previous seasons. Ishpeming’s pedigree dated back to 1900, when it won the first of three straight - and of four in a five-year period - state titles in a championship conducted at and by the University of Michigan, primarily for the purpose of recruiting for Fritz Crisler’s Wolverines football program. The Hematites, having their best season in 15 years, had even lost a regular-season game along the way to a 9-0 Marquette squad that didn’t qualify for the playoffs.
On a cold, windy day at Central Michigan University, Ishpeming struck first and struck hard. Four minutes into the game, Tom Andriacchi blocked a Hudson punt and returned it to the Tigers' 10-yard line. Four plays later, quarterback Mark Marana kept the ball on the option and scored from two yards out. On its next possession just midway through the first period, the Hematites ripped off a 61-yard drive capped by a three-yard scoring run by Dave Farragh, and Ishpeming was up 16-0.
Hudson rallied following the ensuing kickoff with its first score, a 28-yard pass from Chris Luma to Dan Salamin, but the Hematites came right back with their third score of the opening frame, a 60-yard run by Mike Dellangelo to give Ishpeming all the points it would need.
The two teams traded scores in the second period, when Hudson then missed a golden opportunity to tighten things up just before halftime, fumbling at the Hematites' 2-yard line and with Ishpeming recovering for a touchback.
Dellangelo picked up a second TD in the third quarter, and finished the game with 156 of Ishpeming’s 336 rushing yards in the 38-22 victory.
“It wasn’t hard getting our guys up for the game,” Hematites coach Mike Mileski told Central Michigan Life after the game. “The emotion factor was a ready-made thing considering Hudson’s streak …”
Our action footage this week comes courtesy of Brian Sarvello, a member of that 1975 Ishpeming team. About 17 minutes film from that game was assembled with some of the local radio station call into a DVD that was shared with the team several years ago. We found it in a random internet search for this most recent series of MHSAA Moments, and appreciate Mr. Sarvello’s help in bringing it to you.
If you know of championship game footage from those pre-television years (1975-88) of the MHSAA Football Finals, we’d love to hear about it. Drop us a line at [email protected].
PHOTO: Ishpeming's Mark Marana works to break away from a tackler during the 1975 Class C Final. (MHSAA file photo).