Unexpected Return Propels EGR to 3-Peat

June 7, 2014

By Butch Harmon
Special for Second Half

ROCKFORD – East Grand Rapids senior captain Charlotte Hooker was determined to make it back and play at least one game of her senior lacrosse season. 

Hooker reached that goal and then some as she came back from injury in time to play in both the MHSAA Semifinal and Saturday’s Division 2 lacrosse championship game against Okemos.

Hooker scored goals in both games, including one in the title match to help the Pioneers defeat Okemos 11-7 to win a third consecutive MHSAA championship. 

“This is very special because I’m a senior and a captain, and this was the final game of my high school career,” Hooker said. “A lot of people didn’t think I would make it back, but I was determined.”

Hooker suffered a torn labrum and underwent surgery in February, leading to months of physical therapy. Doctors told her she would not be able to play her senior year. 

“I was not planning on making it back, but physical therapy went so well that I knew I had a chance to make it back in time,” Hooker said. “I really wanted to make it back and play at least one game of my senior season.”

Hooker returned in time to help the Pioneers defeat Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood in the Wednesday Semifinal and then took the field against Okemos in a rematch of last season’s Semifinal and the 2012 Division 2 championship game. 

With the Final tied 6-6 midway through the second half, Hooker scored as part of a four-goal run that gave East Grand Rapids control up 10-6.

While many doubted Hooker’s ability to make it back from injury, many also doubted they would see the Pioneers in the Finals again after graduating 12 starters from last year’s team. 

“This one is very special because no one thought our team was this strong,” Hooker said. “It was real special to prove to everyone that we could do it again.”

Okemos suffered from the injury bug in the opening minutes Saturday. Sophomore standout Kendall Luberto suffered a severe ankle injury and was lost for the game. She entered the game as one of Okemos’ top offensive players with 48 goals and 30 assists this spring. 

“I think our girls played tough,” Okemos coach Donny Luberto said. “One of our starters went down in the first three minutes of the game, and that threw us out a bit. But the girls played tough. I knew they would keep fighting and keep playing tough.”

Okemos battled the entire 50 minutes while attempting to become the first Michigan high school team to defeat East Grand Rapids since 2010. Okemos scored the first two goals before the Pioneers came back to tie the match 2-2. 

Okemos again battled back and went up 4-2 before East Grand Rapids closed out the first half with four consecutive goals to take a 6-4 lead.

“They (Okemos) are a class program,” East Grand Rapids coach Rich Axtell said. “They have won two state titles, and we knew they would be tough." 

Senior Meggan Loyd scored three of East Grand Rapids’ first-half goals and led the Pioneers with four for the game. For Loyd, the title was the fourth MHSAA championship she has won at EGR as she had been on the previous two lacrosse title teams and also won one with the Pioneers volleyball team.

“I think this one means the most,” Loyd said. “Being a senior and people not expecting us to win it this year, it was also the toughest. We had to work harder to get this one. All of our playoff games were close. We beat Caledonia by one goal in the Regional and Cranbrook by two in the Semifinals.” 

Junior Liza Elder came into the game as the offensive leader of the Pioneers with 78 goals and 48 assists. She added three goals and will be one of the leaders next season as the Pioneers look to win a fourth straight championship.

“We had a very young team this year,” Elder said. “We knew we had to work extra hard to make it back. We started working out in the weight room back in September to get ready for this year, and we just kept going. We played some real tough games this year but nobody ever gave up.”

Click for a full box score. 

PHOTOS: (Top) East Grand Rapids and Okemos players contend for the ball during the MHSAA Division 2 Final at Rockford. (Middle) The Pioneers' Liza Elder works for position as she awaits a pass Saturday.

Carman-Ainsworth Grad Shaver Pioneering Programs in 2 College Sports

By Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com

August 8, 2023

Alyssa Shaver has made a habit of getting women’s lacrosse programs off the ground.

Made in Michigan is powered by Michigan Army National Guard.Her first year in the sport was the first year of the program at Flint Carman-Ainsworth. Her collegiate career involved playing in the inaugural seasons for both University of Detroit Mercy and Lawrence Tech University.

As a coach, she led the first team at Urbana University in Ohio.

When she left Urbana for Lincoln Memorial University, a Division II program in Tennessee, she had an opportunity to take over an established – albeit still relatively new – program.

Two years in, another chance to start a program arose, and she once again stepped up.

However, this was not a different school – but in a different sport.

The 2008 Carman-Ainsworth graduate recently finished her third year in charge of the LMU women’s lacrosse program, and is now preparing for Year 2 in charge of the women’s field hockey program at the school – coaching a sport she had never played and rarely seen.

“I had not watched ‘Ted Lasso’ but when people figured out what I was doing, they told me about it,” Shaver said. “Last fall I started watching it and I was like, ‘Oh God, this is my life right now.’”

Starting with a new sport was how Shaver’s athletic career got jump-started in the first place.

She was a volleyball, basketball and softball player prior to high school, but when her basketball coach brought up the idea of starting a lacrosse program at Carman-Ainsworth, she decided to give it a try. The connection was almost immediate.

“I didn’t know what (lacrosse) was,” she said. “But I put a stick in my hand, and it felt like the most natural thing. I was a point guard in basketball, and I had played basketball since I could walk. I think in lacrosse, the footwork, defense, concepts and ideas are similar to basketball. But when I picked up a stick, it was like, ‘I get to carry this ball around? I don’t have to dribble it?’ From there, it kind of clicked.”

Shaver was a remarkable scorer at Carman-Ainsworth, racking up 226 goals during her four-year career. That included 81 goals her senior season.

Shaver just finished her third season leading LMU women's lacrosse. While at Carman-Ainsworth, she also continued playing basketball and volleyball.

“As a point guard in basketball, I didn’t really care about scoring,” she said. “In lacrosse, I was really good at offense and scoring. I was a setter in volleyball, so my other sports I was always setting other people up.”

Her success at Carman-Ainsworth and at the club level led to an opportunity to play for U-D Mercy’s new program, led by coach Mary Ann Meltzer. Shaver was an academic all-conference selection during her time there and played for two years before coming back home.

While she was no longer playing, she continued to coach, something she had started while a freshman at Mercy.

It was while coaching a club team that the opportunity to return to playing at Lawrence Tech presented itself.

“It was terrifying,” Shaver said of returning to the game after two years away. “I would play in summer league, and I always had a stick in my hand because I was coaching, but I hadn’t really played competitively. I was 23 and most of my teammates were 18-year-old freshmen. I always joke with them now – some of them are my best friends – but the first couple years, they didn’t want to talk with me and I thought they didn’t like me. It turns out, they were scared of me.”

Shaver played three seasons at Lawrence Tech, earning All-America honorable mention from the National Women’s Lacrosse League in 2014 and first-team NWLL All-America honors in 2015 and 2016. She also was named an All-American by the NAIA as a senior.

Prior to her third season, with Lawrence Tech in need of a coach, Shaver reached out to Meltzer, who had recently retired from U-D Mercy. The two were reunited at LTU, and Shaver and her teammates reaped the benefits, reaching the NWLL championship game, which they lost 9-8 in overtime. Shaver was the NWLL National Offensive Player of the Year.

In 2017, with Shaver on the coaching staff, Lawrence Tech advanced to the NAIA national title game.

“She’s pretty much responsible for a lot of our program at Lawrence Tech,” Meltzer said. “She was the driving force in recruiting kids. She had taken a couple years off, and I think when she came here she was that responsible and was kind of the go-getter in getting players and getting people interested in LTU for quite a while. Fortunately, we’ve done well.”

Shaver (bottom row, fifth from left) was a four-year player at Carman-Ainsworth, including on this 2007 team. In 2018, Shaver took over at Lourdes (Ohio), leading the program to its first winning season in her first year.

After two years at Lourdes, she took over Urbana, building the program from scratch. She took over the LMU program prior to the 2021 season. The Lady Railsplitters were 2-5 her first season, but have gone 12-7 and 10-9 in the two seasons since.

Shaver taking over the field hockey program alongside her lacrosse duties wasn’t the original plan. But after things fell through with the coach originally hired for the job, and with some of her lacrosse players signed on to play both as well, the LMU administration turned to her.

“I have a lot of experience with new programs with lacrosse, and the girls were so great and super appreciative,” she said. “My lacrosse players have some experience, and a lot of the field hockey girls were just awesome and understanding, and helping me learn.”

Shaver is learning the game and was able to get some help from volunteer assistant Khotsofalo Pheko, a former runner at LMU who played field hockey in South Africa before coming to Tennessee.

Meltzer has faith in her former player to navigate all of it and find success, even if she told Shaver she was crazy for taking on the field hockey job initially.

“Obviously she has the work ethic, and she’s going to do what she needs to do to be successful,” Meltzer said. “As coaches, especially younger coaches, when things aren’t going well they think that more is better when sometimes less is better. I think she just needs to be patient; we all do. That’s the biggest thing. With her, starting so many programs – we’re all competitive, we all want to be successful really quick – it is going to take time.

“She’s an incredible person. She has a heart of gold.”

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PHOTOS (Top) At left, Alyssa Shaver takes the field for Flint Carman-Ainsworth, and at right she coaches at Lincoln Memorial University. (Middle) Shaver just finished her third season leading LMU women's lacrosse. (Below) Shaver (bottom row, fifth from left) was a four-year player at Carman-Ainsworth, including on this 2007 team. (Photos courtesy of Alyssa Shaver and Lincoln Memorial's athletic department.)