Nouvel Books Return to C Final
March 13, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Just about every team that reaches an MHSAA championship game and leaves with a runner-up trophy makes plans, rather immediately, to return the following season and finish the title run.
Easier said than done, obviously. But Saginaw Nouvel gave itself no other option.
After falling by just five points in last season’s Class C Final to Manchester, the Panthers will get another chance Saturday to finish with a win for the first time since 2008.
Nouvel defeated Gobles in Thursday’s first Semifinal at the Breslin Center, 47-35, to earn an opportunity to face St. Ignace for the championship at 4 p.m. Saturday.
“It was hard. We almost expected it of ourselves. It was implied,” said Nouvel senior center Rachel McInerney of making another Breslin run. “We came into every game knowing we were going to win, and not leaving until we had won.”
The Panthers have made good on that aspiration more times than not this season, moving to 21-4 Thursday after chipping away quarter by quarter to finish ahead by a comfortable margin and hand Gobles (26-1) its lone loss.
Nouvel’s four-point advantage during the fourth quarter was its largest of any period. Neither team set Breslin aflame from an offensive standpoint – Nouvel shot only 25 percent from the floor and Gobles just 29.
But the Panthers managed a 48-37 rebounding edge, and with three seniors, maybe a slight edge in comfort with the big stage as Gobles was making its first trip to the Semifinals in program history.
First-half performance hasn’t been a strength this season – but Nouvel gutted out a 21-15 halftime lead and never trailed over the final 27 minutes of the game.
Sophomore guard Laurel Jacqmain led the Panthers with 20 points, and three teammates scored at least seven. But McInerney – who averages nearly 12 per game – had just three points although she did grab a team-high eight rebounds.
“Our team depth is so incredible. When Rachel isn’t scoring, we have other people who can step up,” Nouvel first-year coach Mary Jo Skiendziel said. “I’m so proud of how they play and come together, and pick her up until hopefully she can start scoring again.”
Gobles senior Michaela DeKilder just about hit her averages with 15 points and eight rebounds to finish a career that included leading her team to a combined 46-4 record over the last two seasons.
Coach John Curtis mentioned after that this was the group the Gobles community expected to make the school's first trip to the Semifinals, and the Tigers came through after also winning their second Regional title ever a week ago.
“Going through the other teams I’ve been on, this was completely different,” DeKilder said. “Yeah, we all liked each other (before), but this team all loved each other, and that was completely different. It wasn’t just for yourself, it was for everyone on the team.
“Making it to Breslin was the biggest accomplishment we’ve ever made. For me, when I walked into the gym, it hit me hard.”
She’s one of only two seniors graduating from a team that also had seven sophomores.
“We told the girls, our big thing is we want to be a regular here,” Curtis said. “We see St. Ignace here, see Nouvel, and I told (DeKilder) in the lockerroom they laid the foundation.
“We return nine girls next year, and hopefully next year we’ll be in a situation that’s not just, ‘Oh, we’re here.” We might play a little bit better, and we might just handle this situation a little bit better.”
Click for a full box score and video from the press conference.
PHOTOS: (Top) Saginaw Nouvel's Laurel Jacqmain (44) tries to get around a Gobles defender Thursday. (Middle) Nouvel's Lindsay Stroebel blocks the way for Gobles' Sharyena Hunt.
HIGHLIGHTS: (1) Jacqmain drives the lane for two of her game-high 20 points for Saginaw Nouvel in its 47-35 Class C Semifinal win over Gobles. (2) Michaela DeKilder led Gobles with 15 points. Here she gets two first-quarter points on a nice feed from Haley Rock.
Inland Lakes Stacking Successes as Expectations Continue to Grow
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
March 21, 2025
Now that another great girls basketball season is over, Daryl Vizina is spending more time off the court.
But the Indian River Inland Lakes coach is spending just as much time in court.
Vizina, who serves as probate judge in Cheboygan County, has been balancing coaching and estates since 2019. At the time he was first elected, he also was coaching middle school boys basketball for Inland Lakes.
He took over the girls varsity basketball program in 2020, assuming the helm of a team coming off a 3-18 season. And, the Bulldogs hadn’t won a District championship in three decades or a conference title in two.
Inland Lakes now has won three straight Division 4 District titles. The Bulldogs reached a Regional Final for second time in three years, falling to St. Ignace. And, after capturing the Ski Valley Conference trophy a year ago, the Bulldogs racked up 21 wins against just five very close losses this winter in finishing second in the league.
The Bulldogs and Vizina are looking forward to returning next winter with even higher expectations. They will graduate only two seniors this spring.
The culture has changed from expecting a few wins to winning every time the Bulldogs step on the court.
“Winning comes at a price,” said Vizina, who was riding a bus back from a middle school game at Central Lake as the election results were being tabulated for his first term on the judicial bench. “The expectations are a blessing in a lot of ways but they also cause a lot of strain on the program. The girls walk into the gym every day knowing we’re expecting to perform, expecting to play well, and it’s a different state of mind.”
Next year’s expected returnees include center Ava Belford, who just had a terrific freshman season. Junior forward Chloe Robinson, who averaged 15 points and eight rebounds, will also be back, as will defensive standouts Elizabeth Furman, a sophomore, and junior Mary Myshock.
Furman and Myshock are considered among the best defenders in the area. They combined to shut down or slow down other teams’ leading scorers and were key reasons the Bulldogs held opponents to fewer than 40 points in 18 games.
“I would expect we are going to be better next year,” Vizina said. “We’ve got some young players that if they (experience) the growth I anticipate I think they are going to become really great ball players, and we have a core of older players that will be returning that are high-level.”
But you never can be certain, Vizina noted.
“You don’t know how much time people are willing to put in during the summer,” admitted Vizina. “You don’t know about injuries and other things that happen outside our control. But if we take care of business and we have good health and keep on the trajectory we’re on, I would expect us to be really, really good next year.”
The Bulldogs were only a few points shy of an undefeated regular season as the largest margin of defeat was only seven points – to this year’s conference champion, Gaylord St. Mary. The Bulldogs played their conference rival twice, as they always do, and fell short in overtime in the other contest.
“Our four regular-season losses were by a grand total of 14 points,” Vizina recalled. “If you look at really how close to being even better than 21-5 we were, we had a lot of success.”
The Bulldogs have patterned their play after the Michigan State Spartans and longtime coach Tom Izzo. In particular, they like the Spartans’ transitional offense.
“I am a big Michigan State guy,” Vizina said. “They are such a threat to run on you the other (way).”
Pressure defense and rotating eight to 10 players most games – and sometimes all 11 rostered players – has been a point of emphasis for Vizina since his middle school coaching days.
“We want to guard people the minute they get off the bus,” Vizina said, while noting the Bulldogs’ previous history featured a sit-back zone style. “It was really a struggle to get the girls to play fast, both transitional offense and fullcourt defenses. This year is the first year they really started to buy into it.”
Other keys to the Bulldogs’ success are the establishment of more youth programs and the increase of the school’s top female athletes making basketball their number one sport.
“Most of our great athletes in the school play basketball, and with a lot of them it’s become their primary sport, and I think that’s so important because where you really make ground is in the summer time,” Vizina explained. “They can choose between softball or volleyball or going to the beach, or basketball.”
Inland Lakes started a third and fourth-grade team five years ago, and some of those players made big contributions to the varsity this year.
“With our youth programs, we’ve got girls starting to fall in love with basketball at a young age,” Vizina said. “They’re now coming in as freshmen playing good minutes on varsity, and it’s really rewarding to see that bear fruit.”
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) Inland Lakes junior Mary Myshock (11) defends during a game against East Jordan this season. (Middle) Bulldogs coach Daryl Vizina directs his team during a timeout. (Below) Junior Chloe Robinson (12) puts up a jumper over a pair of defenders. (Photos by Jared Greenleaf/Cheboygan Tribune.)