'Blazer Basketball' Follows Coach's Lead
January 20, 2017
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
KALKASKA – After upending previously unbeaten Traverse City St. Francis on the road last Saturday, Kalkaska basketball coach Dave Dalton treated his team to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.
It’s a gesture that’s commonplace in the Blazers girls basketball program.
Whether he’s taking his players for ice cream after a summer workout, inviting them over to go tubing on the river near his home in Rapid City, or spending extra teaching time with them on the court, Dalton is all about team – team bonding, team building.
He’s a man, those in the program concur, who pours his heart and soul into his job.
The respect is apparent. So is the success.
“He puts his heart into everything he does,” senior forward Natalie Ryckman said. “We all care about him so much. We get into it at times, everybody does, but nothing is ever going to diminish the friendship we have with him.
“We’ve looked up to him since we were little – and look at where we are now.”
The Blazers are now 6-0 – and ascending. They are ranked No. 10 in this week’s Associated Press Class B poll.
Kalkaska is coming off a stretch in which it won three games in four nights. That stretch was sandwiched by the signature 61-51 triumph over St. Francis, last season’s MHSAA Class C runner-up. Ryckman scored 21 points in the win.
“Unreal – one of the best nights of my life,” the 17-year-old said.
This is one of the most experienced teams Dalton has had in his 22 years as head coach. Ryckman, along with sisters Micah and Sapphire Lajewski, are four-year varsity veterans. Junior McKenzie Wilkinson is in her third year on varsity.
“We’re experienced, and I think we’re a better team than we were last season,” Micah Lajewski said.
That’s saying a lot considering the Blazers finished 20-3 a year ago. Two of the losses were to St. Francis.
“That (expectation) puts pressure on us, but we handle pressure pretty well,” Ryckman said.
All six victories this season have been by double digits.
It’s a team with a lot of integral parts.
The athletic Wilkinson leads the Blazers in scoring (15.3 points per game), rebounding (8.0) and steals (6.5). Her back story? Her parents, Jeremy and Cheri (Golden), are two of the best athletes to come out of Kalkaska. Jeremy, a recent inductee into the Northern Michigan University Sports Hall of Fame, is the head football coach. Cheri coaches seventh grade girls basketball. Both played for Dalton when they were in school.
Now it’s McKenzie’s turn.
“He (Dalton) expects a lot, which I understand,” she said. “He pushes us to the point we need to be pushed and then it’s up to us to keep it going. I like to be pushed and challenged. It makes you better.”
Wilkinson, a state powerlifting qualifier, stars on the softball field, too. She owns the school’s career home run record (14) after just two seasons.
Ryckman also is averaging in double figures (14 ppg). She wears jersey 24, the same number her great uncle, Doug, wore as a Blazer. Dalton and Doug Ryckman, an all-state player who topped 1,000 points in his career, were high school teammates.
Micah Lajewski runs the attack from her point guard position. She hit a season-high 17 in a season-opening 52-41 win over McBain, but it was her press-breaking skills and defense that proved critical in the wins over St. Francis and Gaylord. The versatile 18-year-old placed ninth in the Michigan High School Power Lifting Association finals at 145 pounds last winter and played on the football team in the fall, scoring a touchdown in a win over Mancelona.
Sapphire Lajewski, a 5-foot-10 center, went off for 16 points in a 63-18 win over Boyne City last Friday. Lajewski, who contributes nearly five rebounds per game, battled foul trouble at St. Francis, but 5-11 senior Taylor Riddle came off the bench to provide valuable minutes and hit a critical 3-pointer. Sophomore Kayla Cavanaugh and senior Sadie Wilson are stepping up as well. Each scored nine points in Monday’s 67-35 win over Gaylord. Freshman Margaret Stosio chipped in eight. German exchange student Emilia Lehmann provides additional depth, but her minutes are limited by the talent in front of her.
The keys to success at Kalkaska never change.
“We have good kids and we work hard,” Dalton said. “We put the time in.”
It’s been that way for 22 years under Dalton, whose squads are 358-118. He currently has the sixth most wins among girls basketball coaches in the northern Lower Peninsula, trailing only Johannesburg-Lewiston’s Rick Guild (443), Maple City Glen Lake’s Ted Swierad (427), Ellsworth’s Ike Boss (409), Leland’s Larry Glass (388) and Manistee’s Todd Erickson (363).
“What I’m most proud of is our consistency,” Dalton said. “There have been schools in our area that have been more dominant over a certain period, but I think we probably have the best winning percentage (75 percent) over the last 22 years.”
The Blazers, known for their perimeter shooting, are averaging nearly 17 wins a season. In the last seven years, Kalkaska has won 20 or more games five times and captured the District six times.
Dalton, who started coaching in the system in 1977, took over the girls varsity program in the mid-1990s. His first three teams went 17-4, 19-2 and 20-3. Those teams were led by his daughter Leigh Ann, Sara Vergote, Patti Larson, Shannon Martin, Kacey Corcoran and Shandy Atwood.
“That was a special group,” Dalton said.
Leigh Ann Dalton (now Roehm) went on to earn academic All-American honors at Northern Michigan University, where she is sixth in career 3-pointers despite playing just three seasons after transferring from Bowling Green. She was just named the middle school science Teacher of the Year by the Michigan Science Teachers Association and her JV team at Saline is 9-1. Vergote was a Mid-American Conference track champion in the 10K at the University of Toledo. She later became the head cross country and track coach at her alma mater and most recently was an assistant at Ohio State. Larson played at Ferris State, Martin at Cornerstone and Atwood and Corcoran at Aquinas.
All told, 16 former Blazers have gone on to play collegiately, Dalton said.
One player, Maria Kasza, came back to work as an assistant coach under Dalton for one season. She is now in her fifth season as an assistant coach at Michigan Tech, where she finished her playing career after transferring from Northern Michigan. Kasza, the school’s all-time leading scorer, led Kalkaska to its first MHSAA Regional title in more than 20 years back in 2001.
“When the players are going through the heat of the battle (they might not think about it), but when they get out of school that’s when they appreciate our program,” Blazers assistant coach Royce Thomas said. “I hear that all the time.”
Kasza will vouch for that.
“Mr. Dalton makes every player and every team feel special,” she said. “He genuinely values the relationships he builds with each team.”
Kasza said whenever she wanted to get in the gym and shoot, Dalton obliged.
“Whether that meant he had to pick me up at my house, come in before school, stay after school or work with me after softball practice, he never told me no,” Kasza recalled. “I have kids now (at Tech) who want to get into the gym, and it’s late at night, and I might not feel like going back in, but then I remember that I had a coach who never told me no and allowed me to be the player I was and the coach that I am now. I learned from him.”
Kasza has a special connection to the Dalton family. Leigh Ann, who is about six years older, was her role model.
“We have a great friendship,” she said. “When she would come home from college we would work out every day together. I wore 44 because that was Leigh Ann’s number. She even helped me make my college decision. A few weeks ago, over Christmas break, I was recruiting so I went down to see her. We have a special bond because of basketball.”
Kasza is currently coaching another former Blazer, Kelli Guy. Guy is a former all-state player, who is now in the midst of a stellar career at Tech. She was Kasza’s first recruit.
“The first thing I told my boss (head coach Kim Cameron) was that we had to go get Kelli Guy,” Kasza said.
Guy is another player Dalton spent countless hours working with, starting when she was in elementary school.
“I was an elementary PE teacher for 29 years,” Dalton said. “I got to know the kids, had the kids at (elementary basketball) camp and was able to encourage them. With Kelli Guy, I was in the gym with her since she was in third grade. She was coachable and willing (to learn).”
Even though he retired as a full-time teacher in 2010 after 33 years, Dalton still spends countless hours building ties with his players.
For a unique overnight getaway, he takes his teams to a rustic retreat lodge owned by Steve Brower, the Blazers’ announcer and a member of the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan (BCAM) Hall of Honor.
At school, when his players are competing in other sports, Dalton’s there to show his support.
“That’s how much he’s into his program and his kids,” said Thomas, who’s been Dalton’s assistant for 20 years. “He’s a very caring person.”
That caring goes both ways. His players, past and present, have been there for him in times of personal sorrow, most recently when his 21-year-old stepson went missing after his kayak overturned in Lake Michigan near Platte Bay last September. His body has not been found. Dalton had previously lost a son unexpectedly in 2011.
The support he’s received from those he’s coached has been a comfort.
“It’s meant a lot to me,” he said.
Dalton often refers to his players as family. They are a big part of his life and he works to create special moments for them. Four years ago, his team played at The Palace of Auburn Hills, where it beat Oak Park after trailing by 14 at the half. This past November the Blazers scrimmaged Saline at the University of Michigan’s Crisler Arena. While in Ann Arbor, Dalton took his players to Sky Zone, an indoor trampoline park. His players still talk about it.
“He goes above and beyond,” Micah Lajewski said.
Thomas, a 1976 Kalkaska graduate, became good friends with Dalton through sports. Thomas still recalls traveling to Central Michigan University to watch Chippewa basketball games with Dalton.
“That’s when they had Dan Roundfield (a three-time NBA all-star),” he said. “Man, I had never seen anything like that. That was the greatest ever.”
Thomas, whose daughter Kassie is a Blazers assistant coach and physical therapist, is vice president of operations for an oilfield company. He travels extensively, particularly to Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.
“Monday night I was on my way to Detroit for an 8 o’clock meeting (Tuesday morning) when they rescheduled it to noon,” he said. “I turned around and came back so I could be here for the (Gaylord) game.”
Thomas, who’s also in the BCAM Hall of Honor, was on the road and couldn’t attend Saturday’s showdown at St. Francis. But he was still able to be part of it.
“They had me on FaceTime so I could give a pep talk to the girls (before the game),” he said. “My daughter texted me during the game, telling me what was going on. Then she had me on the last two minutes, showing me our stall. That stall means so much to me because teams don’t protect leads like they should in high school basketball.”
Kalkaska had a good following at St. Francis, and Dalton believes it’s the best fan base in the Lake Michigan Conference, if not the north.
Before the Gaylord game, Dalton was pointing out all the loyal fans who attend every game when 98-year-old Willard Ryckman walked in.
“Here’s what Blazer Basketball is all about,” Dalton said.
Ryckman, a regular at home games, had just driven 17 miles to watch the Blazers on a night when freezing rain would cancel school the following day.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Ryckman said. “I enjoy doing it. I live alone and I love to see the kids play. Plus, I know the coach.”
“I’ve known Willard since I was 14,” the 61-year-old Dalton added. “He’s one of the classiest, nicest guys in the world.”
Kelli Guy’s family was also in the crowd Monday night. They still attend the games even though Kelli has been gone four years.
“They were at Saginaw Valley on Thursday to watch Kelli play,” Dalton said. “They drove up to Boyne City for our game Friday and then drove back down for Kelli’s game (at Wayne State) on Saturday. They were devastated they missed the (St. Francis) game. They are big supporters of our program.”
Community support has continued to build over the years.
“When I started coaching they only pulled out one side of the bleachers at the middle school,” Dalton said. “There were a few people there, mostly family and friends. By the end of that first year when we went 17-4 they had to pull out the other side. The fans kept coming and coming.”
Dalton appreciates the support and he makes sure his players do, too. The girls hand out signed, decorated miniature “gratitude” basketballs before each home game to people who are special to them.
“We’re one big happy family,” Sapphire Lajewski said. “On game nights, the spirit in the air is amazing.”
Dalton, who now teaches American history at the high school on a part-time basis, is a 1973 Kalkaska graduate. Longtime Blazers baseball coach Bill Vandergriff was his classmate. The two played Little League, middle school and high schools sports together. They were also roommates at Central Michigan University. Both retired from teaching fulltime in 2010, but kept coaching.
“Our lives have completely paralleled each other since kindergarten,” Dalton said. “We’ve been in the Kalkaska school district 55 years.”
And Dalton would not have wanted it any other way.
“I’ve been very blessed in my life,” he said. “Nobody has loved coaching more than I have. The connection you have in your heart for those kids, and that the kids have in their hearts for you, is something that you’ll always share. It never goes away. And what’s really special is that the kids become lifelong friends. And they wouldn’t have become such great friends if it wasn’t for basketball. I couldn’t have asked for a better career.”
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) Kalkaska coach Dave Dalton calls a timeout during this season’s win Dec. 2 over McBain. (Middle) Natalie Ryckman puts up a shot in the 52-41 opening-night victory. (Below) McKenzie Wilkinson brings the ball upcourt, as Sapphire Lajewski (12) moves toward her spot on offense. (Photos courtesy of the Kalkaska athletic department.)
Hoping to be 'Hardly Noticed,' 50-Year Official Allen Certainly Recognizable, Respected
By
Mike Dunn
Special for MHSAA.com
December 18, 2025
Editor's Note: An extended version of this article appeared originally in the Cadillac News in March. Since then, Allen has been inducted into the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan's Hall of Honor in October and is wearing the striped shirt again this basketball season, officially his 50th year.
CADILLAC – Bill Allen’s story is similar to that of many area sports officials, particularly those officials who have been active for many years.
A background in sports, typically playing team sports while growing up, combined with a desire to continue to be involved after high school or college, coupled with an inner urge to be part of the solution – these characteristics find a natural outlet for those brave souls who choose to be officials. and these traits are nearly always part of the make-up of the officials who receive high grades for their efforts and serve capably for many years.
Allen, of Cadillac, would not say this about himself. But he is one of those officials whom coaches are glad to see on the floor because they know they’re getting someone who will be fair and consistent. The same could also be said of Allen when he was umpiring, though he doesn’t work the diamonds anymore.
As Allen can tell you as he enters his 50th year wearing the striped shirt on the hardwood, officiating is a demanding vocation – and it is rewarding at the same time. It requires the right temperament as well as an above-average level of mental and physical fitness, especially as age makes its inevitable demands. It requires the ability to make decisions quickly, sometimes under very stressful conditions. It requires the ability to face criticism, sometimes expressed loudly or very loudly. It requires the ability to be a peacemaker at times and also the willingness not to hold grudges or become petty.
For those like Allen who have what it takes, those who are up to the challenges and the rigors that officiating requires from an individual, there is a deep satisfaction in knowing they are making a positive difference.
“I think that’s a common thread among all the officials, whether it’s basketball or baseball or softball,” Allen said. “You obviously want to do your best, but you want to manage the game in a way that helps it to flow the way it should flow and enables everyone, the players and the coaches and the fans, to get the most out of it.
“It’s an old cliché but it’s true: The best officials are the ones you hardly notice. If you can officiate a game and walk through the crowd afterward and no one recognizes you, then you’ve probably done your job pretty well that game. That’s what every official strives for.
“You’re never going to get every call right, and you have to be willing to accept that going into it,” he added. “But you know the rules and apply the rules the best you can, you put yourself in the best position to make the calls, especially in basketball, and you call it the way you see it.
“Are you always right? No. But if you put yourself in the right position and make the call you believe is correct, you can live with that and normally the coaches can too, even if they’re angry about a particular call in the moment.”
Allen, like most officials, was an athlete himself growing up in Traverse City and playing multiple sports for what was then known as Traverse City High School, the largest high school in Michigan in the early 1970s. By his own admission, he wasn’t one of the top stars in basketball and baseball but he was a good, reliable player for his coaches and a dependable teammate who loved the atmosphere of the arena during each season as well as the sense of achievement that the act of competing brought out in him like nothing else.
“I was pretty athletic growing up, but not a great athlete at Traverse City High School,” he said. “I was good enough to make the teams, but I wasn’t what you would call an impact player. A lot of officials have the same kind of background as mine. Maybe we weren’t the greatest players, but we still enjoy sports and we like being part of the action.”
It was during his final two years at Michigan State during the mid-1970s that Allen received his start in officiating.
“In my junior year at Michigan State, one of the fellows I roomed with did assignments for the intramural programs at the college,” he said. “Everything from touch football to basketball to slow-pitch softball. He told me to take the officiating class and he would assign me to games, and that’s how it all started 50 years ago.”
Allen jumped into the world of officiating eagerly with both feet, working a sporting event “nearly every night” at MSU.
“I would go to school during the day, ref at night, and do it again the next day,” he recalled.
“There were so many contests, maybe thousands, that I got to work with a number of other officials. Tim McClelland, who later became a Major League umpire and made the illegal pine tar bat call against George Brett, was a colleague back then. It was a lot of good experience and good mentoring and laid a great foundation for what turned out to be ahead.”
Allen initially earned a degree in criminal justice, graduating from Michigan State University in 1977, and worked in the field of corrections for a period of time before his love of baseball and a sense of personal confidence in his potential to officiate at a higher level prompted him to attend a school for prospective umpires in Daytona Beach, Fla.
That didn’t quite work out, but Allen was not deterred. He changed his career plans from criminal justice to education, and the switch would also lead to abundant opportunities for officiating down the road not just on the baseball and softball diamonds but the basketball court as well.
“When I didn’t get picked (for umpiring), I went back to school to earn my teaching certificate and a graduate degree in history with the goal of becoming a teacher at Cadillac,” he explained. Allen’s wife Sue already was employed as a teacher with the school district.
Bill’s goal at that point was to join Sue as a member of the faculty, as a social studies teacher, and that’s just what happened. Bill served for 26 years in the classroom before retiring along with Sue 12 years ago.
“I viewed Cadillac schools as a great organization to work for as a teacher before I got hired there, and I was right,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade my years at Cadillac for anything. Susie and I both thoroughly enjoyed our years there.”
In conjunction with teaching, Allen continued to officiate basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring and summer. He umpired a lot of men’s summer league softball games through the years and grew to love in particular working the games under the lights at Cadillac’s Lincoln Field.
He also became a registered official with the MHSAA and has continued in that role, though he decided to hang up his umpire cleats a few years ago.
“I registered with the MHSAA while I was still in Lansing,” he said. “The first place I ever did a sanctioned event was in Perry, Michigan. I had barely enough (umpiring) equipment and I’m sure I looked like a real yahoo out there, but I got through it.”
After coming to Cadillac, Allen met Dave Martin, who was an active official and a fellow teacher at Marion, and Martin became his first “crew chief.”
“They needed some JV officials and I got signed up and was off and running,” Allen recalled. “That’s how you got into it back then. You found a crew and the crew chief assigned you some games, and you were evaluated. As long as they liked you and liked what you were doing, they kept you around.”
Allen expressed admiration and appreciation for Martin and also the late June Helmboldt from Lake City, another crew leader “who had a great perspective on the game.”
Allen served as a crew chief himself for a long time and has built rewarding relationships with fellow officials through the years. He has worked many games with Penny McDonald of Cadillac, another longtime official who has earned much respect for her consistency and quality of work in multiple sports over the decades. Allen, in a reversal of roles, is the one receiving assignments from McDonald these days.
Bill Bartholomew is another longtime officiating partner with whom Allen has worked many games over the years and for whom Allen has great respect. This school year, in fact, marks Bartholomew’s 51st year as an official. There are a few others from northern Michigan who have stood the test of time and have passed the 50-year service milestone, such as Paul Williams of Mesick, Tom Post and Mike Muldowney of Traverse City, Tom Johnson of Gaylord, and Dan Aldrich of Charlevoix. All of these, Allen said, are a credit to the craft of officiating and have earned the respect they receive.
Allen also has fond memories of working frequently through the years with Don Blue of Falmouth and Jill Baker-Cooley of Big Rapids, who was chosen for the MHSAA’s prestigious Vern L. Norris Award in 2018.
“I was there when Don and Julie and Penny all got their start in officiating, and they all found their skill set and became excellent officials,” Allen said.
Bill is included in the 50-year milestone group of basketball officials now that the 2025-26 season is underway. He is pleased that he has been able to maintain his longevity; as to the future, he is ready and willing to keep going.
“As long as I’m healthy and can do it properly, I hope to continue,” said Allen, who remains physically fit, jogging regularly along with activities including downhill skiing in the winters and golf during the warmer months.
“I’ll know when it’s time to step aside. When I can’t see well enough to judge the baseline and need to rely on my partners more than I should, then it’s time to hang up the whistle and let the younger ones take over. I hope that’s not for a while though.”
Mike Dunn is a sportswriter for the Cadillac News and the sports editor of the Missaukee Sentinel weekly. He has won numerous awards through the Michigan Press Association as well as the Michigan Associated Press.
PHOTOS (Top) Cadillac’s Bill Allen, shown here following a varsity girls basketball game in February in Evart, is in his 50th year as an MHSAA registered official. (Middle) Allen waits at the baseline for action to resume. (Below) Allen talks casually with McBain Northern Michigan Christian boys assistant coach Terry Pluger prior to the start of the varsity game with Buckley on Dec. 8. (Photos by Mike Dunn.)