Oscoda Teams Rise From Past to Perfection
February 8, 2019
By Chris Dobrowolski
Special for Second Half
OSCODA — The tide has turned in Oscoda.
After struggling year after year in boys and girls basketball, the Owls are enjoying quite a turnaround on the hardcourt this winter as both teams enter the final month of the regular season undefeated — just one of two schools in the state to be collectively unbeaten in boys and girls hoops.
The boys team boasts a record of 15-0 and is 9-0 in the North Star League Big Dipper division, while the girls squad has cruised to a 12-0 mark, including going 5-0 in league play.
It hasn’t always been that way, however.
“There’s a lot of years where we really struggled,” said Oscoda varsity boys basketball coach Seth Alda, a 2003 graduate of the school who is in his seventh year at the helm. “It wasn’t that long ago. There were a lot of years where we not only struggled but a lot of teams beat us by quite a bit.”
The boys team has reached a stretch where it has failed to win a league championship in 27 years or District title in 18 straight seasons, while the girls program became infamous for having lost 89 consecutive games at one point.
“We went almost four and a half years without winning a game,” said Oscoda varsity girls basketball coach Mark Toppi, who took over the girls program four years ago. “They had only had a couple wins in the past three years before I took the job.”
The Owls had been caught in a rut for most of the last few decades, partly due to a precipitous decline in the school’s enrollment after Wurtsmith Air Force Base was decommissioned in 1993. As families left the area, Oscoda became a shell of itself. At one time Class B playing within the North East Michigan Conference, the school was unable to remain competitive with its league rivals as its student population was slashed in half. It eventually made sense to leave the NEMC, and Oscoda toiled as an independent before finding a landing spot in the Huron Shores Conference, which eventually morphed into a reconfigured North Star League in 2014.
Things began to trend in the Owls’ favor last season as a group of talented and ambitious athletes started making their mark. It’s a core of players who have gotten better by working hard, dedicating themselves, including honing their games and picking up additional competition on local travel teams.
“We kind of saw it coming,” said Alda. “Last year we were 14-8, which was our first winning season in 15 years. We returned a lot of players off that team. Last year we were young, and this year we’re still young. We have a lot coming back next year too.”
The Owls’ main core consists of juniors Brayden Mallak, Gabe Kellstrom, Devin Thomas and Chance Kruse, as well as sophomores Owen Franklin and Gavin Lueck.
“We’re guard-oriented,” said Alda. “We like to get up and down the court. We press. We shoot a lot of threes. Typically, we go four out and one in — four guards and one post player. We like to push the tempo. We like to increase possessions. We’ve got three kids (Mallak, Kellstrom and Franklin) who are shooting over 35 percent — a couple of them over 40 — from the 3-point line.”
The girls team managed to come up with 13 wins a year ago despite not having a senior on the roster. That was part of the ascent from three victories in Toppi’s first season, to seven wins two years ago. The 13-9 record in 2017-18 earned Toppi the Associated Press’ Class C Coach of the Year Award.
With all that returning experience from the best girls team Oscoda had seen in years, the Owls were primed for an even better season.
“I could tell we were going to have a good year, just because of all the work they put in over the summer,” said Toppi. “We had a lot of success (last summer). We play up all the time whenever we go to team camps. We always try to play Class B or Class A schools. We take a lot of beatings in the summer. This year was the first year that we were winning against some of those schools. That was a nice sign. I try to tell them, ‘If we’re losing by 15 to a Class A school, that’s not bad.’ This year we were beating some of them.”
The Oscoda girls team has a bit more experience than the boys, with senior Katelyn Etherton in her fourth year as a starting guard. She reached the 1,000-point mark in her career earlier this year. Junior post player Lauren Langley is another key veteran who teams with Etherton, and each average close to 17 points per game. Sophomore Macy Kellstrom leads the team in steals and assists as the point guard, and classmate Izzy Hulverson is averaging a double-double in points and rebounds.
The problem the girls team has discovered is it isn’t getting pushed by the teams on its schedule. The Owls are winning by an average of 34 points per game. A 41-25 win over Tawas was the closest to date. Toppi hopes not having a close game during the regular season won’t hurt the Owls when they get to the postseason. For now, he’s just focused on getting the Owls ready for a tournament run.
“I’m just trying to get them to play hard and practice hard,” he said. “I don’t want them to look at the schedule. We’re still trying to get competition in practice and get better every day.”
The boys games have been a little less one-sided, particularly two clashes against league rival Mio. Oscoda beat the Thunderbolts both times, but one was a seven-point win in a back-and-forth game a week ago and the other was a 35-33 nail-biter earlier this season that wasn’t decided until Mallak drove the length of the court and scored on a buzzer beater.
The buzz has caught up to the Owls as the wins have continued to pile up for both teams.
“Around the school I feel like everybody’s wearing Oscoda across their chest a lot more proudly than what it was a while ago,” said Franklin. “Wherever you go, people know who you are now.
“Every practice Mr. Alda talks to us about how we could be the first in so many years to do this (or that). Early in the year we were 8-0 and he was like, ‘You’ve got a chance to go 9-0. That hasn’t happened in 30 years. He talks to us a lot about making history.”
The struggles the school endured in basketball are not forgotten, but both teams are doing their part to make better memories on the court. The girls already snapped a 48-game losing streak to nearby rival Tawas, and the boys swept the Braves for the first time in 20 years. The boys team is also close to ending that elusive conference championship drought, and both teams have their eyes on earning some District tournament hardware.
“I keep talking about how exciting it is when you get to tournament time, if you can make a run,” said Alda, who was a freshman on Oscoda’s last basketball Regional champion in 2000. “This is just a really cool thing to be a part of.”
Chris Dobrowolski has covered northern Lower Peninsula sports since 1999 at the Ogemaw County Herald, Alpena News, Traverse City Record-Eagle and currently as sports editor at the Antrim Kalkaska Review since 2016. 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) Lauren Langley, left, and Brayden Mallak have been key to Oscoda’s perfect starts; Mallak here hits the game-winning shot against Mio. (Middle) Katelyn Etherton beats everyone to the basket during a win over Lincoln Alcona. (Below) The Owls celebrate that Mio victory Dec. 13. (Photos courtesy of the Oscoda girls and boys basketball programs.)
Breslin Bound: 2024-25 Girls Report Post-Break
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 6, 2025
There’s really no such thing as a holiday “break” for many of the state’s basketball teams – and instead of slowing down, several seemed to move closer to top speed with impressive runs over the last three weeks.
Today’s “Breslin Bound” covers that final week of the full schedule before school let out to finish December and the two weeks of break that rolled us into January and a few strides closer to the midpoint of this season.
“Breslin Bound” is powered by MI Student Aid and based on results and schedules posted for each school at MHSAA.com.
Week in Review
The countdown of last week’s five most intriguing results:
1. Detroit Renaissance 50, Detroit Edison 48 The Phoenix (9-0) began a 4-0 run through the break by avenging last season’s eight-point loss to the reigning Division 2 champion Pioneers (6-2).
2. Belleville 46, Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard 45 The Tigers (7-0) claimed arguably their most impressive win yet this winter over last year’s Division 2 runner-up Irish (8-1) at the Michigan Winter Hoopfest at Wayne Memorial.
3. Pewamo-Westphalia 53, Flint Powers Catholic 50 The Pirates (7-0) have impressed winning four games this season by three points or fewer, claiming this one over a Powers team (5-2) coming off a run to the Division 2 Quarterfinals last year.
4. Rockford 52, Howell 35 Two days after Howell (4-3) made some impressive noise with a win over Saginaw Heritage, the Rams (7-1) showed again they are still one of the teams to chase with this victory at the Michigan Winter Hoopfest.
5. Greenville 54, Kent City 35 Greenville (7-1) tied its win total from last year (six) with this Cornerstone Holiday Classic victory over Kent City (6-2), then surpassed last season’s success by defeating Grand Rapids Covenant Christian two days later.
Watch List
With an eye toward March, here are two teams in each division making sparks:
DIVISION 1
Belleville (7-0) The Tigers are coming off a drive to the Division 1 Semifinals last season and haven’t slowed a step. They added a 3-0 run at Metro Detroit events over the break to an impressive start, downing Parma Western and East Kentwood in addition to the win over Father Gabriel Richard noted above – with the wins over Western and FGR those teams’ only losses this season. All this season but the FGR victory have come by at least 15 points, including as well impressive showings against Muskegon and reigning Division 1 champion West Bloomfield.
Midland (6-1) The Chemics welcomed back past coach Elaine Mahabir after seven seasons away and three straight sub-.500 finishes, and they already are approaching last season’s nine wins coming off defeating rival Dow 55-52 and Northville 65-63 in overtime to close December. Midland’s 42-37 win over Flint Hamady to open this winter remains Hamady’s only loss, and the Chemics’ lone defeat came to one-loss Grand Haven. The win over the Chargers broke an 11-game losing streak against Midland’s rival going back to the 2019-20 season.
DIVISION 2
Negaunee (9-0) A Division 2 semifinalist last season, Negaunee has made at least the Regional Finals the last three years and is keeping to that high standard again. The Miners’ performance at their Irontown Holiday Bash at the end of December especially sticks out – Negaunee handed previously-undefeated Ewen-Trout Creek a 47-30 defeat before downing Ludington 50-41 in a rematch of last year’s Regional championship game. On Friday, the Miners will play their first of two games against reigning Division 4 champion Ishpeming, the only team to defeat Negaunee during the 2023-24 regular season as they split matchups and shared the Western Peninsula Athletic Conference East title.
Sault Ste. Marie (6-1) The Blue Devils have run into Negaunee in the postseason two of the last three, and they may be on a collision course again especially given the Sault’s great start which has included wins over St. Ignace and Harbor Springs and the only loss to still-undefeated Chelsea at Aquinas College. The 57-41 Harbor Springs win Friday avenged a loss from a year ago, and the 50-49 win over the Saints on Dec. 13 remains St. Ignace’s only defeat with a rematch coming up Friday. Sault Ste. Marie finished 14-7 a year ago and won the Straits Area Conference but is playing as an independent this season and has a remaining schedule loaded primarily with Division 1 opponents.
DIVISION 3
Blissfield (7-1) A loss in another well-planned test against undefeated Division 2 Tecumseh left the only flaw on an otherwise perfect record so far as the Royals look to build on seasons of 27 and 22 victories, respectively. Blissfield’s start also has included a 43-35 defeat of Brooklyn Columbia Central – avenging last year’s Regional Semifinal loss – and most recently a 45-43 close call against Leslie. The Royals have won two straight Lenawee County Athletic Association titles and this time should face some serious competition from undefeated Ida and Adrian Madison (also 7-1). The first matchup with Ida is Thursday.
Sandusky (7-0) A 38-14 win over Deckerville at Little Caesars Arena was the latest for this undefeated contender and the state’s all-time winningest girls basketball coach Al DeMott. The Wolves reached the Division 3 Quarterfinals a year ago with their only regular-season loss coming in the first of two meetings with league rival Harbor Beach – which Sandusky plays for the first time this season Thursday as both seek to win the first-year Big Thumb Conference Black. Caro and Unionville-Sebewaing, with 11-point losses, have come closest to approaching Sandusky so far.
DIVISION 4
Munising (6-0) The Mustangs could be on the verge of equaling their 8-0 start from last season, when they went on to finish 21-5. But to do so, they must begin this week Tuesday with a win over Bark River-Harris, which finished just ahead of Munising for the Skyline Central Conference Large-school division title last winter. The Mustangs should be ready to give it a go; they’ve defeated four teams that are 4-2 so far and have won all but one of their games by at least 16 points.
Onekama (6-0) The Portagers have jumped from three to five to eight to 14 wins over the last four seasons, respectively, and could add to that run this winter after a start that’s included a pair of victories over Maple City Glen Lake – after splitting with the eventual Northwest Conference co-champion last season – plus single wins over Traverse City St. Francis and Elk Rapids. Onekama will have two more chances to avenge 2023-24 losses this week, Thursday against Benzie Central and Saturday against Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep.
Can’t-Miss Contests
Be on the lookout for results of these games coming up:
Tuesday – Detroit Country Day (8-0) at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (7-0) – Both own notable wins from the first five weeks, but whichever comes out on top will have its best victory yet this winter.
Thursday – Ewen-Trout Creek (7-1) at Lake Linden-Hubbell (7-0) – There’s intense recent history here as LL-H was second and E-TC third in the Copper Mountain Conference last year, with E-TC then ending the Lakes’ 23-2 season in the Regional Semifinals.
Thursday – Chelsea (6-0) at Tecumseh (6-0) – The Southeastern Conference White may come down to these two again after they split last season’s two meetings – and the championship.
Friday – Grand Rapids West Catholic (6-1) at Grand Rapids South Christian (7-1) – The Ottawa-Kent Conference Gold has five teams at 5-3 or better, and these two look to be among top contenders with West Catholic coming off winning the O-K Blue last year.
Saturday – Tecumseh (6-0) at Rockford (7-1) – Two days after the Chelsea matchup, Division 2 title hopeful Tecumseh will test itself against a Division 1 championship contender.
MHSAA.com's weekly “Breslin Bound” previews and reviews are powered by MI Student Aid, a division within the Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP). MI Student Aid encourages students to pursue postsecondary education by providing access to student financial resources and information. MI Student Aid administers the state’s scholarship and grant programs that help make college Accessible, Affordable and Attainable for you. Connect with MI Student Aid at www.michigan.gov/mistudentaid and find more information on Facebook and Twitter @mistudentaid.
PHOTOS (Top) Belleville's Paisley Stephens (4) gets to the basket during a win over Parma Western on Dec. 21 at Detroit Renaissance. (Middle) Tecumseh's Faith Wiedyk (2) drives the baseline against West Bloomfield also at the Lady Phoenix Shootout. (Photos by Team Arreguin Photos.)