Divine Child Family Grows with New Season
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
December 11, 2015
DEARBORN – Last April, Dearborn Divine Child assistant girls basketball coach Julie Kaniewski received some news for which she was not prepared.
Kaniewski and head coach Mary Laney have been close friends most of their lives. They played basketball together at Divine Child, graduated the same year and played on two Class B championship teams (in 1993 and ’94). Kaniewski and Laney were putting a close on the season when Laney made a stunning announcement.
“We were working with the returning players,” Kaniewski said. “We were going over some stuff for the summer, and as we were ending things Mary said, ‘By the way, I’m pregnant.’ Being a math teacher, I put it all together. That put her due date near the start of the season. She said she’d be there for tryouts. I said, can you guarantee that?”
On Nov. 24, Laney gave birth to an 8-pound, 8-ounce boy, Owen Michael Laney. He’s the third child for Mary and her husband Chris Laney.
But Owen Michael was the first to be born during the basketball season. Their first child, Ellen, was born on Oct. 26, 2010, and their second, and first boy, Niall, was born Sept. 18, 2012.
The birth of Owen Michael added a little excitement for the Laneys on Thanksgiving, and a bit of consternation for Kaniewski.
“Some things are just out of my control,” Mary Laney said. “It made for a nice Thanksgiving. It was the best Thanksgiving ever. Things will be better when (Owen Michael) gets his days straightened out from his nights.”
Things are already better for Kaniewski. Her best friend is back on the bench and coaching. In fact – and to the relief of Kaniewski – Laney was back coaching Dec. 2, two days before the Falcons’ opener at Chelsea.
No question, it was stressful for both coaches. What helped alleviate some of the pressure is their friendship. There’s nothing Kaniewski wouldn’t do for Laney, and vice versa.
And laughter helped.
“I was a little nervous,” Kaniewski said. “I can joke with her. I told her you’ll be on epidural and I’ll be coaching.”
Their bond extends to their immediate families as well. Kaniewski has two children approximately the same age as Laney’s first two. Kaniewski’s oldest is Elizabeth, who will be 5 years old in May. Thomas will turn 3 in April. Elizabeth and Ellen Laney attend dance class together, and in late October the coaches came to pick up their children when Laney sounded an alarm.
“She said she was having contractions,” Kaniewski said. “I said, no, no, no. That can’t happen.”
It was a false alarm.
Laney did miss nine days with her team, including scrimmages. The preparation would have been a challenge even without the pregnancy. Divine Child was 20-6 last season but all five starters graduated. Add that two players suffered injuries, one a torn knee ligament, the other a concussion.
Formulating tryouts and making cuts tested Kaniewski’s resolve. Both Laney and Kaniewski had ideas on who their starters would be for some time, but things change. Players get better. Some don’t progress as quickly as others.
“That’s been the hard part,” Kaniewski said. “Then there was the parent meetings. I told Mary, no, no. I don’t want to do that alone.”
Laney, for the sake of both, moved the parent meeting up so they could tackle that together.
Then they received some outside help. Mary Lou Jansen, who coached those fine Divine Child teams during the early 1990s, offered her assistance. Kaniewski was grateful.
“She spent a few days with me,” Kaniewski said. “The kids were responsive. It’s just a different set of eyes.”
The lack of experience has forced the two to concentrate on the basics and not over-complicate things. Divine Child had opened 0-3 heading into Saturday night’s game against Saginaw Nouvel.
“Not many teams come back with no starters,” Laney said. “This group has been receptive. We’ve had five of six Division I players over the past several years. We don’t have that. We’re not worried about wins and losses. We want them to play hard and communicate.”
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Chris and Mary Laney hold their newborn, Owen. (Middle) The Laney children, Ellen, Niall and Owen, smile while wearing their Divine Child hats. (Photos courtesy of the Laney family.)
Heritage Earns 'A' with Championship Effort
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
March 17, 2018
GRAND RAPIDS – Nothing could wipe the smiles off the faces of the Saginaw Heritage players and fans Saturday – not even a trophy to the head.
“Did you see our fans today? They’ve been out in full force all weekend long,” Heritage coach Vonnie DeLong said. “We’ve got a kid that’s been probably at every game and just split his head open on the trophy in the celebration, like he’s bleeding, our trainer is having to tend to him right now – I don’t know if he needs stitches or what. But, he’s got a smile on his face. He’s loving it.”
There was plenty to love for the Hawks at Van Noord Arena as they rolled to a 57-36 win in the MHSAA Class A championship game against East Lansing.
It was the first MHSAA title since 2002 for the Hawks (27-1), who were making their third appearance in the championship game.
“It’s just been a tremendous run,” DeLong said. “These kids have just gotten better every day, and I think that today we played a lot better than we did (in the Semifinal). I don’t think we played great (in the Semifinal), but I think today they came out with some resolve and they really wanted this state title today, and I think they played like it.”
Heritage used a balanced offense and dominant efforts on the glass and at the defensive end of the floor to hand East Lansing its first and only loss of the season.
The Trojans (26-1) shot 10 of 43 (23.3 percent) from the field as they struggled to figure out Heritage’s 2-3 zone defense, often having to settle for 3-pointers, which accounted for 22 of their 43 field goal attempts.
“They were moving on the flight of the ball, which is really good in the 2-3 defense,” said East Lansing senior and 2018 Miss Basketball winner Jaida Hampton, who finished with six points. “They got to where we were on the passes, and they were not allowing (passes into) the middle of the zone. It was open, but when you got there, they were tipping it, so they were just moving really, really well.”
East Lansing was held scoreless for a span of 7 minutes, 40 seconds during the first and second quarters, which allowed Heritage to initially put some space between the two teams. The Hawks took a 13-point lead into the break, and while East Lansing was able to get within nine in the second half, it couldn’t score consistently enough to fully mount a comeback.
It was the third time this season Heritage had broken out the zone defense, according to DeLong, who said she wanted to counteract East Lansing’s speed.
“I thought they were pretty quick for us, and we’ve traditionally played a lot of zone, but this year we played almost all man,” DeLong said. “I thought in our zone, it just gives us a different look, and it’s a struggle, I think – you might have seen that today with East Lansing – it was probably a little bit of a struggle for them to attack it.”
On the other end, Heritage had four players in double figures, and the one starter who wasn’t was Moira Joiner, the leading scorer during the season. She added six assists and nine rebounds to her four points.
Senior Madison Camp led the way with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Shine Strickland-Gills had 12 points and 12 rebounds, Jessica Bicknell had 12 points and Mallory McCartney had 10 points.
A good chunk of those points followed offensive rebounds, as the Hawks had 15, compared to 14 defensive rebounds for the Trojans. Heritage had a 43-23 rebounding edge overall.
“We are a team that doesn’t have a lot of size; it’s a necessity for us to box out to win games,” East Lansing coach Rob Smith said. “Tonight, we were victimized 43 times on the boards to only our 23. You’re not going to win too many basketball games in that situation. I gotta say, the Strickland kid there, she was just really, really good tonight. She was very, very tough down low, and we just didn’t have an answer for her.”
The secret for Strickland-Gills’ performance was a simple one – work hard.
“I don’t really expect it, I just kind of come out and I go hard,” Strickland-Gills said. “Most people would say I’m a defensive player, and that’s what I like to do; it’s effort. That’s all it takes to get 12 rebounds is effort. I know my teammates will get me to score, so I don’t really worry about that. My thing is just to play defense.”
Aaliyah Nye led East Lansing and all scorers with 18 points, all coming on 3-pointers as she was 6 of 10 from behind the arc. No other Trojan scored more than Hampton’s six.
“I’m so proud to be the coach of this fine program, and most importantly these wonderful ladies that are sitting next to me and the other 11 that are in the locker room right now,” Smith said. “I know they’re disappointed with the outcome today, but the body of work is truly amazing.”
PHOTO: (Top) Saginaw Heritage celebrates Saturday after clinching the Class A championship at Van Noord Arena. (Middle) Heritage's Shine Stickland-Gills (32) battles East Lansing's Amelia McNutt for the ball.