For Salenbiens, 'Silly Game' = Family Fun
March 9, 2018
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
When the Adrian Lenawee Christian girls basketball team beat Portland St. Patrick to win a Class D Regional Semifinal this week, first-year Cougars head coach Jamie Salenbien didn’t need to look far to find someone to hug.
His wife, Debbie, was sitting a few feet away at the scorer’s table.
Next on the to-do list was find and hug his daughter, Dani, an LCS sophomore who dribbled away the final seconds for the Cougars after scoring a game-high 21 points. Last, but not least, there was another daughter, freshman phenom Bree, who had just scored 19 points and had several key baskets during Lenawee Christian’s second-half rally. His sons, Tyler and Jaxon, were nearby, too, and ready for a quick high-five.
For the Salenbien family, basketball is a passion. Whether it’s in the family’s backyard in Lenawee County or on a basketball court somewhere in southeast Michigan, the “silly game” as Coach Salenbien calls it not only has meant a lot to his family, but to the Lenawee Christian family, too.
“Our community is very much behind us,” Jamie Salenbien said. “It’s a great wave of support. We’re enjoying every minute of it.”
The Cougars won the school’s first Regional title since 2010 on Thursday, beating Plymouth Christian, and will play Athens (21-4) on Tuesday in the Quarterfinal at Richland Gull Lake. LCS is 23-1 and on a 16-game win streak. It’s only loss this season was to Class A Monroe. That loss was by one point, 41-40.
Jamie Salenbien is a Hudson native who played college basketball at Siena Heights University in Adrian. He once scored 50 points in a game in high school but doesn’t like to talk about any individual honors or accolades he has received. He and Debbie have been married 18 years. They met at a friend’s wedding – and that friend was at the Regional game this week in Morrice. Debbie played basketball at Allen Park Inter-City Baptist and in college, too.
The family always has loved a little competition.
“When our kids were little, we played a lot of games,” Coach Salenbien said. “Of course, we played a lot of basketball, too. And, I coached them when they were young. And, when I coached at Onsted, they were always around. The girls spent a lot of time around the game, and they fell in love with it. I love it, Debbie loves it, so it’s just a good match.”
Dani said the family talks basketball quite a bit – even at dinner. But, she said, she’s fine with it.
“It’s a part of our family,” Dani said. “It always has been. It’s interesting some of the time. But, its part of who we are.”
Dani, 16, burst onto the prep basketball scene in Lenawee County last season, showing remarkable poise for her age and quickly becoming the team’s go-to player even though they had an all-stater in Kiera Nieto. Bree, 14, joined the varsity this season and finished the regular season as Lenawee County’s top scorer. At 6-foot-2, she runs the floor like a point guard and posts up like a center. She’s the point person on the LCS full-court press, making it difficult for anyone to throw it over her head.
Entering the Regional, Bree Salenbien had averages of 21.1 points, 9.8 rebounds, 3.5 steals, 3.2 blocks and 3.0 assists per game.
“She can score inside and out,” her father said. “She’s a tough matchup for anyone. We try and utilize her best we can in that fashion.”
Dani’s numbers are just as impressive. She averages 13.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 4.0 steals a game.
Both girls take after their parents – humble, full of smiles and deflecting of the attention.
“I love my teammates to death, and we do it all together,” Dani said. “That makes it all better. We have a term called ‘84-50’ (which are the dimensions, in feet, of a basketball court). We keep everything on the floor. We don’t think of anything outside of the gym or the court. We’re all about each other. I can’t do anything without my teammates.”
Bree said she and her sister have a special relationship on the court.
“I usually know where she is,” she said. “We have a connection. She’s a great ball handler. I know I need to get the ball to her. She’s a great player. My dad is a great coach. My mom is amazing. My brothers are great fans. We just love it.”
Debbie Salenbien works at LCS and serves as the scorekeeper for the team. Just before the tipoff of Thursday’s Regional championship game, after the starting lineups were introduced, both girls walked over to their mom, gave her a fist bump and handed her their warm-up shirts.
“We talk a lot about basketball,” Debbie said. “Basketball is always on television. We go to some University of Michigan games. We just love basketball.”
When the season ends, Jamie said he will have time to reflect on just how special this season has been for not only the Lenawee Christian community but his own family.
And, it looks like there are plenty of more good times to come. The Cougars start a freshman, three sophomores and a junior.
“They put a tremendous amount of time into this silly game,” he said of his daughters and their teammates. “We preach fundamentals – how to pass, catch, dribble, shoot. The whole experience has been awesome. I have to let it soak in more, but I know it’s awesome.”
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 Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Lenawee Christian freshman Bree Salenbien brings the ball upcourt; she led Lenawee County in scoring average this season at 21 ppg. (Middle) Basketball is a passion for the Salenbien family, including head coach Jamie, his wife Debbie (at the scorers table) and sophomore Dani Salenbien, here during Thursday’s Regional Final win over Plymouth Christian. (Photos by Mike Dickie.)
Significance of Historic Run, Relationships Formed Live On for 1973 Unity Champs
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
August 7, 2026
It has been more than five decades, but Kim Hansen and Marcia (Visser) Beutel can still recall certain moments from a historic night in mid-December when their Hudsonville Unity Christian girls basketball team accomplished a tremendous feat.
On Dec. 15, 1973, at East Kentwood High School, the teammates helped the Crusaders win the first MHSAA Girls Basketball Finals championship in Class B.
Unity Christian defeated Saginaw MacArthur 49-45 before a crowd of 1,000.
“i just remember the team, the bus ride out there, and I remember just how excited we were to be together and what we had accomplished as a group,” Hansen said. “Our parents and friends were such big supporters through the whole process, and when I think back I see faces of pure joy.”
A total of 629 schools participated in that first tournament, which like now lasted three weeks and was divided into four classifications.
Cindy Masselink scored 17 points and Deb Aukeman added 16 points to lead the Crusaders to the championship win.
“For us, it was an excitingly significant day because we had been working hard throughout the season, and we, as women, could be the first winners of a state championship for our school and the state,” Beutel said. “A lot of us had been playing together since the sixth grade, and that camaraderie, that friendship, that teamwork and the work we had put in was going to end with a state championship.
“We were very blessed to be there, and we also knew that we were pioneers and trailblazers in the game.”
The Crusaders consisted of 11 girls, three managers and head coach Susan Contant.
An interesting sidenote from the Class B title game: As the home team, Unity Christian was to wear white uniforms. But the Crusaders didn’t own those.
“There were limited resources for women's sports back then so we had to wear the boys uniforms for the state championship,” Beutel said. “They didn't fit well so we had to wear T-shirts underneath them.”
One thing the 1973 squad possessed was size, which proved to be a benefit as the 3-point shot didn’t yet exist.
“We took each tournament game as it came to us and just kind of did our thing,” Hansen said. “I look back at our pictures, and we were huge. We had a starting five of 6-foot plus, and we were a big team. That definitely worked in our favor, and I really don't think that we were going to be denied.”
Beutel and Hansen, both 69, are organizing a night to recognize this special group of women.
It will take place Dec. 11 during a Unity Christian girls and boys varsity game night.
“We are all much older and lives have happened and we are in different places, but I’m hoping that many of the teammates will come back for that,” Hasen said. “I know our head coach and her husband are going to come back for that, and I think that is just amazing. I haven't seen Sue since 1973.
“I got to see some of my teammates when we were recognized at Central Michigan for the 30-year anniversary, and I’m looking forward to seeing who is going to be able to make it and hoping that many do.”
Beutel lives in Toronto with her husband, Robert. She recently visited her old high school.
“They had a list of all the state championships on the wall, and the first one was us,” she said. “That was very emotional for me to see that, to see that recognition.”
Beutel met her husband at the University of Michigan, and they had three kids. One of their daughters, Sophie, played Division I basketball at Brown.
Beutel moved to Toronto in 1987 and coached basketball in a recreational league while helping grow the game. She was president of the Toronto Basketball Association, which has surged to 1,000 athletes.
The country needed to push for basketball representation and now has the NBA’s Toronto Raptors and the Toronto Tempo, currently playing its inaugural season in the WNBA.
“Back then it was a hockey country, so I had to search for basketball in Toronto,” Beutel said. “I got involved in it and expanded it on the girls side and always coached my kids.”
Now retired after a career as a health care executive, Beutel and her husband love adventures and have traveled to several countries. “There is so much more to experience in life,” she said.
While she stays active by playing tennis, cycling and kayaking, Beutel also plays clarinet in a band and volunteers at a cancer support group as a peer counselor after enduring two bouts of breast cancer.
After high school, Hansen played four years of basketball at Grand Valley State University before being drafted by the San Francisco Pioneers of the Women’s Professional Basketball League.
She played there one season before being traded to the Chicago Hustle. She also spent time with the Minnesota Fillies before the league went bankrupt and disbanded in 1981.
“I think I made $7,000 for my salary and the season was very short, but it was such an amazing experience and San Francisco was a very good franchise,” Hansen said. “They had good ownership and we flew all over the place and stayed in really nice hotels. They had a good practice facility, and we were treated really well.”
Prior to a game scheduled in Chicago on March 21, 1981, Hansen and her Fillies teammates walked off the court before the starting lineups were announced in a protest over unpaid salaries.
“We planned to do our warm-up, go back to the locker room and then get back in vans and drive back to Minnesota because we weren’t getting paid,” Hansen said. “That was our way of showing that we were not happy with ownership and the only way that we could make a stand.”
Despite the disbanding of the league, Hansen said lifelong relationships were formed.
“The beauty of playing sports is relationships, and even relationships that we developed at Unity are still so strong, and relationships I developed while playing pro ball are still very active and to me that is the beauty of playing sports,” she said.
After the WPBL, Hansen went to graduate school at Lamar University in Texas and eventually became an educator and coach at several colleges and high schools, including Wichita State and North Central College (Ill.).
Her final stop was Cleveland Heights High School, where she coached and taught physical education and health. She lives in Kirtland, Ohio, and retired from teaching and coaching in 2024 although she still works part-time in the transportation department.
“I love coaching and I always loved practice,” Hansen said. “I just finished working with four seventh-grade boys and helping them with fundamentals and skills. I just enjoy that part of it so much.”
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PHOTOS (Top) The 1973 Unity Christian girls basketball team poses for a team photo with its championship trophy; Kim Hansen (20) and Marcia Beutel (12) then and now. (Middle) Unity coach Susan Contant holds the championship trophy surrounded by her players after the clinching victory. (Below) Hansen stands for a photo with her San Francisco Pioneers teammates during the 1979-80 season. (Photos provided by Kim Hansen and Marcia Beutel.)