
Freeland 'Family' Ready to Charge Again
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 18, 2018
Winning MHSAA championships runs in Mackenzie Stroebel’s family.
Her sister Lindsay won a basketball title at Saginaw Nouvel, while her mother Dawn did the same at Carrollton.
After coming tantalizingly close in each of the past three seasons, Mackenzie Stroebel is ready to continue her family’s streak with her other family – the Freeland girls soccer team.
“Ever since we lost (in the 2017 Division 3 Final), that’s all I really thought about, is getting there and winning it this year,” Stroebel said. “My mom and sister, they won state championships in basketball, so it makes me want to go that far and win it. Seeing how the community supports everyone, it’s just a good feeling. It would make some school history for us, because no soccer team has ever done it. That’s what I’m striving for, to help make history within our school.”
The Falcons have already made plenty of school history over the past four years, seeing an unprecedented run of success under coach Lauren Kemerer. Since Kemerer took over prior to the 2014 season, Freeland has gone 83-9-4 (including a win in its lone game this season), winning four straight Regional titles, which resulted in four straight Division 3 Semifinal berths. The 2014 Regional title was the first in program history.
“It took a lot of restructuring, and establishing my views and my beliefs in soccer,” said Kemerer, who played collegiately at Schoolcraft College and Saginaw Valley State University. “Not that the coach before me was doing things wrong. But when I came in I said, ‘Listen, this is a clean slate,’ and revamped everything. I kind of put my spin on things, my views, and how I believe athletes should be dedicated to the sport, the team and the school.”
Thanks to Kemerer’s approach of showing rather than telling, the girls quickly bought in. That, combined with a strong soccer community in Freeland, led to quick results.
“The really great thing about the Freeland community is all these girls have played with each other and on the same team while they were growing up,” Kemerer said. “The relationship they have on and off the field, they’re pretty much inseparable. It makes the community and team a really tight-knit family.”
With the loss of a strong senior class, including all-state midfielders Michelle Herring and Jessica Piper, the Falcons hope that strong community can lead to a quick integration of the underclassmen on their roster.
Despite the fact outdoor practices have been at a premium thanks to the weather, the Falcons feel that integration is coming along nicely.
“I think the biggest thing with underclassmen is they are nervous, so as soon as they feel comfortable and calm with those nerves of playing at the varsity level, they’ll be successful,” Stroebel said. “Our team is really close, so that helps, too. Most of the underclassmen that are varsity this year got pulled up for tournaments last year. We know them, we all walk the same halls, so you see them pretty much every day.”
There is plenty of talent returning to help those underclassmen and take the pressure off them. Stroebel was a first-team all-state forward a year ago, while junior forward Autumn Kloha was second-team all-state and senior keeper Alexa Walker earned honorable mention.
“We have a really young team, but we’re going to be solid this year again,” Kemerer said. “Even though we’re really young, we have a lot of talent.”
The veterans on the team have set a goal of winning the Division 3 title. That’s not uncommon, of course, but for Freeland it’s not overly ambitious. It’s also different than a year ago.
In 2017, the Falcons set a goal of defeating three-time reigning champion Hudsonville Unity Christian, the team that knocked them out in the Semifinals in 2015 and 2016.
It was a big goal, and one Freeland accomplished but in the Semifinal, one game short of winning it all. Without Piper, who was injured in the Semifinal win against Unity Christian, and with their season goal completed, Freeland found it difficult to keep up with a strong Flint Powers team.
“Going into the game, we kind of already were set because (defeating Unity Christian) was our goal,” Freeland senior Hannah Doran said. “I don’t think we were really prepared for it, because we had prepared for the Semifinal game. We had our hearts in it, but I don’t think we were all there for the last game.”
The 4-0 loss was a learning experience, however, as Freeland was able to see what was needed to compete for a title. So far, Kemerer has seen a determination to match that.
“They know what it takes now to be at that level,” Kemerer said. “They were just crushed last year after they lost. I told them, ‘This game is going to be a big game; it’s faster paced.’ Getting a taste of knowing what it takes to win at that level was good for them. They’re hungry. They’re very much hungry for that title.”
With the goal in place, and a plan to get there, the Falcons are ready to make history for the Freeland family.
“It would make school history, first of all,” Kloha said. “I would just feel accomplished winning a state championship. That’s what I’ve been working for my whole high school career and through travel, to win a state championship.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Freeland’s Mackenzie Stroebel (24) carries possession upfield during last season’s Division 3 Final against Flint Powers Catholic. (Middle) Autumn Kloha prepares to pull up for a shot at Powers’ goal during the finale.

Au Gres-Sims' Record-Setting Scorer Ming Pacing Standish-Sterling's Historic Strides
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
May 15, 2025
It wasn’t that there was an empty space in the Standish-Sterling athletics trophy case awaiting the opportunity to show off the latest hardware won by the girls soccer team.
There wasn’t a space reserved for the program at all.
But this year’s Panthers, led by record-setting goal-scorer Analeis Ming, are changing all of that in a dramatic way.
“We didn’t have many fans come the first couple years, but we’ve started winning and have a lot more people coming to games,” Ming said. “We finally got our first trophy, then we got two more, so we had to make space for our trophies. There wasn’t anywhere to put them.”
Standish, which has a soccer co-op with Au Gres-Sims, is 19-2 this season heading into its final game of the regular season. The Panthers have already clinched a Jack Pine Conference championship, their first-ever conference title in their first year in the league.
Coach Kacey Bentley, who has been in charge since 2017, said the most wins he’d previously had in a season was six, which came a year ago. The Panthers’ win total during his time as coach was 26 heading into this season.
“There’s no banner in the gym for soccer for boys or girls,” Bentley said. “There wasn’t much of anything else there, so this is a whole new feeling for us. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop for a long time, but no, we’re just really good, which is nice.”
At the heart of that turnaround is Ming, a junior from Au Gres, who has re-written the Standish record book as a scorer.
Ming has 57 goals through 21 games, breaking her own previous record for goals in a season, which was 30. She’s also surpassed the boys mark for goals in a season – that team also is a co-op between the two schools – which was 52.
As a team, the Panthers girls had 49 goals a year ago, making this the second-straight year Ming’s goal-scoring total has eclipsed the team’s from the previous year.
Her 102 career goals is tops among girls in the program, and she’s nine shy of the boys record.
If she doesn’t score again this spring, which is unlikely, she’d sit 17th on the all-time MHSAA list for goals in a season. But if she hits 60, she’d become just the ninth player in state history to accomplish the feat.
“It means a lot, but it’s really all about your team,” Ming said. “Most of my goals are assisted. But it’s nice to be recognized coming from a smaller school.’
Leading that assist parade is her sister, Charlotte, who is completing her freshman season. Charlotte Ming has a team-leading 23 assists, which broke Analeis’ previous school record of nine set a year ago.
“It’s a lot of non-verbal communication,” Analeis Ming said of the on-field connection with her sister. “We kind of just know. So it’s not like, ‘Hey, pass it now!’ She’s already passing it, and I’m going for it.”
Charlotte, who also has matched her sister’s freshman year goal tally of 15, is one of three Panthers to eclipse that previous assist record this season, as Analeis has 12 and senior midfielder Lily Thurlow has 11. Senior midfielder Ariel Johnson is just one away at eight.
“For this year, it’s our midfield,” Bentley said. “It’s there, and it’s consistent. It started a bit last year, the girls were experienced, and the majority of them are seniors this year, outside of Charlotte. It’s a sense of accomplishment: ‘We’re doing this (making a pass) and we know the probability of a goal is very high.’ The celebrations after the goals, it doesn’t matter if it’s her fifth or her first, they all get excited for it.”
When you have a (near) 60-goal scorer, of course, there are more assists to go around. But in order to score that often, it takes more than just skill and athleticism.
“It’s probably her tenacity,” Bentley said of Analeis Ming. “She’ll take on three players if she has to – I tell her not to, but she’ll do it, and she’ll get through the girls. It works. She makes the right touches to get around and she has it, then you have to deal with the velocity of that shot.”
Ming has spent much of her life around the sport, as her dad, Chris Ming, has coached at the club and high school level. She played for him in the Thundercats organization in New Baltimore, even moving up a year to play on a boys team that Chris was coaching.
“I think I see the field well,” she said. “I have good vision, and I’m able to see that the ball is going to go there, so I need to be here. I’ve been playing my whole life, and I watch soccer all the time. So watching it, and observing it, you start to see that.”
Teams have attempted, and mostly failed, to corral Ming this season, throwing more attention and bodies her way. It’s something she’s likely to see more of in the postseason as the competition continues to get more difficult. But with the best varsity team she’s ever been part of around her, the Panthers are ready for the challenge.
“It definitely helps, because we have more options,” she said. “Say I’m getting man-marked the entire night, I know it’s not the end of the world, because we have other outlets for scoring. We had one game where I didn’t score, but I had two assists and Charlotte had two goals. We’re seeing a lot more scoring this year from our team as a whole.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Standish-Sterling’s Analeis Ming (11) considers her options while controlling possession. (Middle) Standish-Sterling’s soccer players from Au Gres-Sims, from left: Analeis Ming, Ariel Johnson, Selah Anthony, Charlotte Ming and Kendall Bartlett. (Photos by Bill Morgan.)