'Me to We' Kingsley Could Make History
February 1, 2018
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
KINGSLEY – It might have been the most thrilling shot of the season for the Kingsley girls basketball team.
It was certainly the most telling.
The memorable moment happened a couple weeks ago when junior guard Jacie King hit a buzzer-beating, half-court shot to give Kingsley an 11-10 lead over Maple City Glen Lake after the first quarter.
Kingsley went on to capture the battle of unbeatens, 61-45.
“They didn’t beat us one quarter (because of that shot),” King said.
Well, nobody has beaten 14-0 Kingsley in a quarter this season. Heading into Thursday’s contest with Onekama, that was 56 quarters and counting.
Not surprisingly, Kingsley, ranked No. 2 in this week’s Associated Press Class B poll, had won 13 of its first 14 games by 34 points or more.
“We’ve been pretty dominant,” said Matt Schelich, now in his 20th season as head coach.
With three weeks to go, Kingsley is within reach of what would be the program’s first 20-0 regular season.
The schedule ahead includes a rematch with once-beaten and reigning Northwest Conference champion Glen Lake, this time on the road Feb. 20.
But the Stags are more concerned about the present than the future.
“We’re taking a one day at a time approach,” Schelich said. “I tell the kids try to win every day, whether it’s in the classroom, at practice, whatever. Keep focused and win every day.”
That’s what his players are doing.
Schelich, who led Kingsley to the Class C Semifinals in 2008, returned the nucleus of last season’s 18-4 squad. It was a season that ended in the District Finals with a loss to Kalkaska, a team the Stags had beaten during the regular season.
“Last year ended in disappointment,” Schelich said. “We felt we had a legitimate shot to win the league and the District. In the long run, it might have been the best thing that happened. It was eye-opening. We didn’t have a focus on what was right in front of us.”
Schelich went to work in the offseason to change the team mindset from “me to we.” His intent was to get his players on the same page and help them “learn to play together,” senior guard Kelsie Bies said.
“If we use all our resources, all our talent, we can be that much better,” Bies said. “I love that about this team. We’ve learned how to trust each other.”
“Nothing we do is for ourselves,” junior forward Marie Pierson added. “It’s about team and how much better we can get (working together). Our motto is “All Heart.” We have to love each other, trust each other because we’re all in it together. We’re working really well together.”
It helps that there’s a strong chemistry between the players.
“What makes this team so special, so awesome, is that we all get along,” King said. “There’s hardly any arguments.”
Schelich rotates as many as eight players – Jalynn Brumfield, Lindsey Boyajian, Brittany Bowman, Bekah Crosby, Maddie Bies, Kelsie Bies, Jacie King and Marie Pierson. Brumfield has signed with Ferris State University, Boyajian with Lakeland University in Wisconsin.
“A majority of these kids could be averaging 20 a game, here or anywhere else,” Schelich said. “Basically, what we have, are eight kids averaging 8 to 12 a game.
“Balance is hard to beat. Balance with depth is really hard to beat. The kids have bought into the we. They don’t worry about who is getting credit.”
Schelich admits it’s a “competitive” group, and often practices are tougher than the games, especially when he can also draw from a 13-1 JV team.
“We divide our kids so we have two good varsity teams going at it in practice,” he said. “How many coaches can divide their team up, have it be competitive and have their players get better? Not many. Most teams, boys and girls, have two or three kids that have to get it done for the team to have a chance.”
The players like the competitive challenge at practice.
“We don’t go easy on each other,” Bies said. “We push each other. Most of the time, our games are not as intense as our practices.”
For Kingsley, it all starts with pressure defense.
“We create a lot of offense with our defense,” Schelich said. “As a group, we are very athletic. I talk about playing defense in waves. That first wave, well, it’s a pain to play against our guards. They are quick and relentless. If you think you’ve got one beat, here comes another one.”
Kelsie Bies is the catalyst on the press.
“She can really move her feet and make people uncomfortable,” Schelich said. “She can go baseline to baseline to make plays. It’s like a beagle on a bunny. It’s her defensive energy, tenacity, that gets us going.”
Bies has stepped up her offensive game as well. Through the first 10 games, she was hitting 49 percent of her 3-pointers.
Kingsley is currently without Boyajian, who has been battling knee injuries.
“She’s had both knees repaired, and one is acting up right now,” Schelich said. “She just had an MRI. We hope to have her back soon.”
But that’s where the depth pays off.
“It’s been a luxury,” Schelich admitted.
Much to the chagrin of opposing coaches.
Frankfort coach Tim Reznich, who has led the Panthers to two Class D titles, is a believer.
“They’re good,” he said. “They have a legitimate shot at being a Final Four team. They have great depth. I think (Schelich) has 9 or 10 kids that could start on any given night. When he’s making substitutions, it’s nothing to look forward to as an opposing coach. They keep the pressure on and, in some cases, turn it up more.
“They have all the tools. They have good perimeter play, solid posts, and they’re good in transition. If you slow them down, they have girls who score in the halfcourt set. It’s a complete team.
“I told Matt (earlier in the season) that he has a special group and to enjoy them while he can. They’re making the best of it. They’re all in rhythm on the court. It’s a fun team to watch.”
And it’s also a team that is starting to get more recognition in the polls.
“It’s definitely exciting to be ranked that high because most people don’t even know where Kingsley is,” Bies said. “But we don’t talk about it. We don’t focus on it.”
Instead, the focus is on improving every day.
“It’s February – we have to get better (for the MHSAA tournament),” Schelich said. “We can’t be content.”
That’s not good news for opponents in the north, especially since this run could last awhile.
“Our 10th, 11th and 12th grades are loaded,” Schelich said. “Three groups in a row, it’s awesome.”
Schelich has two sophomores on varsity in Bowman and Maddie Bies. Plus, more are on the way.
That’s not what opposing coaches want to hear.
“There will be a learning curve for some of the young players when they get there (to varsity),” Reznich said. “But, no question, they’re just reloading the next couple years.”
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) Kingsley’s Marie Pierson drives to the basket against Benzie Central last month. (Middle) Jalynn Brumfield cuts through defenders in the Stags’ 67-30 win over the Huskies, who are 12-2. (Photos by Ron Stremlow.)
Thankful for Lifesavers Who Rushed to His Aid, Sanders Aims to Officiate Again
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
January 14, 2025
Doug Sanders sat quietly thinking about how to best describe what he went through the day after Thanksgiving at Monroe Jefferson High School.
Finally, he just said it.
“Basically, I died twice,” he said, almost apologetically.
Sanders, 56, was officiating a boys varsity basketball game between Petersburg-Summerfield and Jefferson when he collapsed. First responders who were in attendance quickly got to Sanders and began performing life-saving procedures.
Responders performed chest compressions. Twice they used a defibrillator to shock him. He regained consciousness once only to inform the responders they were hurting his chest, then his heart stopped again.
When he left Jefferson that night on a stretcher, he was alert.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my 24 years coaching,” Summerfield coach Phil Schiffler said. “I’ve seen gruesome things, compound fractures and things, but never someone pass like that, especially someone who was an official, in charge of the game.
“Thank God for the first responders there that night.”
Petersburg residents Matt LaRocca and Aaron Myshock were the first to assist Sanders on the court. Others helped as well, including Summerfield athletic director Kelly Kalb, former Summerfield athlete Brendan Dafoe, a nurse; and Angela Prush, who works at Monroe County Community College as a clinical educator in the respiratory therapy program. Jefferson athletic director Alyssa Eppler helped on the scene as well.
“There was no hesitation,” Kalb said. “As soon as Doug went down, Matt and Aaron took off to the court and got to Doug. Everyone played a role. It was a great collaboration."
Kalb said the MHSAA this year implemented a new policy requiring schools to have an Emergency Action Plan in the event of this very type of emergency. That plan, she said, definitely helped both schools as they responded.
“We lost him a couple of times,” she said. “It was scary.”
Sanders knew something was wrong during the game. Moments before falling to the floor he called over one of his officiating partners, Steve Rechsteiner, and said something was wrong. He asked him to get him some water and said he felt light-headed.
“I said, ‘Help me,’” Sanders said. Moments later, he went to the floor.
As responders attended to Sanders, officials from both schools cleared the gymnasium of spectators and players, and the game was called. Players and fans left the gymnasium that night unsure of the events that had just unfolded in front of them.
“It’s amazing how it all happened,” said Sanders, who has been a registered MHSAA official for more than 30 years. “If I would have been driving or anywhere else when it happened, I may not be here today to talk about it.”
Sanders has had a history of heart problems, and those run in his family. About four years ago, he had open-heart surgery. Officiating another game a few nights before the incident at Jefferson, he had collapsed during a timeout. He was under doctor’s care but felt well enough to return to the court after enjoying Thanksgiving with his family.
The game between Summerfield and Jefferson went into the fourth quarter. That’s when Sanders began to feel something was wrong.
“I am so blessed and grateful to be where the right people were with me,” Sanders said. “I had the right people there at the right time.”
After being transported to a nearby hospital in Monroe, he was sent to another in Toledo. He spent several days in the hospital undergoing heart tests and procedures. He went home for recovery and recently started attending basketball games in the area again.
“People have been so nice through all of this,” he said. “I’ve gotten messages and cards and calls and texts from people all over the place, people I don’t even know. A lot of the officials that I’ve worked with have reached out to me. It’s really a close-knit group.”
Thankfully, his heart is improving.
Sanders is a 1987 graduate of Ottawa Lake Whiteford. He got his start as a referee for youth basketball at Whiteford Elementary School. Then-athletic director John Flynn encouraged him to get his MHSAA registration, and helped him get it. Soon after, Flynn was assigning him middle school games.
Over the years, Sanders began umpiring baseball and added refereeing football a few years ago.
He loves sports and being close to the game.
“That’s why I do it,” he said. “I wanted to be a basketball official because I enjoy working with the student-athletes. I like the exercise, especially during the wintertime. Outside it’s snowy and wet, and this was a way to get out and do something.”
He’s busiest during basketball season where he is assigned as many as four or five games a week. In 2022, he officiated a boys Semifinal game at the Breslin Center. He rarely slows down or takes nights off.
Since the incident, Sanders has been going through a series of tests on his heart and has had an ICD – or implantable cardioverter defibrillator – installed in his chest. An elementary school teacher in Toledo, he expects to return to work soon.
He’s met some of the first responders who helped save him that night at Jefferson but still isn’t sure just how many people played a role. He’s grateful the district had a defibrillator nearby – and especially that people were there who knew how to use it.
Schiffler said people just sprang into action, like they were trained to do.
“I was shook. I’m not going to lie,” he said. “The people who were trained in that knew just what to do.”
LaRocca and Myshock were there watching their sons play on the Summerfield team. Dafoe, who played sports at Summerfield and with Sanders as his referee and umpire on a number of occasions, has a brother on the varsity team.
Sanders is tentatively scheduled to referee a game at Adrian Lenawee Christian on Monday, Jan. 20. He can’t wait to shake the rust off, put on the striped shirt and blow his whistle. He knows there will be eyes on him throughout the game.
“I’ve had so many people tell me, ‘Take the rest of the winter off, don’t come back too early,’” Sanders said. “I want to get back out there. Something tells me in my heart and soul that I’m ready. I had my stress test, and I did well. Am I ready? I want to say yes. I think so. Only time will tell.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) MHSAA official Doug Sanders monitors the action during a 2022 Division 4 Semifinal between Wyoming Tri-unity Christian and Genesee Christian. (Middle) Bradley is in uniform for a baseball game. (Below) Bradley makes a call behind the plate during a Monroe County Fair youth softball tournament game at least a decade ago. (Middle photo courtesy of Doug Sanders. Below photo by Kim Brent, courtesy of the Monroe News.)