Heethuis Retires from Unity Boys, Readying Another Girls Title Contender

By Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com

April 21, 2022

HUDSONVILLE – Randy Heethuis has cut his coaching workload in half.

The longtime and successful Unity Christian soccer coach announced last month that he’ll be stepping down from the boys program after 28 years at the helm.

Heethuis is still coaching the girls squad this spring, however, after a health scare last fall altered his priorities.

Heethuis suffered a small stroke following the boys season in October and underwent heart surgery in November to close a hole in his heart.

“When something like that occurs in your life, it causes you to take a step back and reflect a little bit and reprioritize things,” said Heethuis, who guided the boys to five state championships and seven Finals appearances during his tenure.

“As far as I know it’s all good and I’m feeling great, but it’s one of those medical experiences that at my age causes you to reevaluate.”

Heethuis, who turns 60 in a couple months, said he also felt the desire to spend more time with his growing family.

His fifth grandchild was recently born, with another one on the way this fall.

“Just being more accessible to spend time with them and be able to help out with them and go to their games,” Heethuis said. “That was also a big piece of the equation, and as long as I’ve been doing this it gets tougher and tougher. I just felt like all things considered, and at my age, that it was becoming increasingly more difficult for me to give 100 percent to both programs.”

“It was an extremely difficult decision, but I just really felt that this is what I was being led to and it’s been a great run,” Heethuis said. “I’ve enjoyed 28 years doing that, and over the years I’ve really been blessed to have some fine families and awesome siblings to coach.

“It was a real blessing for me to coach that long, but I just felt like someone a little younger and with more energy might have an opportunity to put their stamp on the program and to carry the torch moving forward.”

Heethuis has been asked why he decided to keep coaching the girls and not the boys.

There wasn’t any strong reasoning behind it other than he began his career coaching the girls at Unity 33 years ago.

“I coached the girls for five years before taking on the boys, and this is a nice way to bookend a coaching career,” Heethuis said. “I’m not sure how long the good Lord will bless me to continue (with) the girls, but for the foreseeable future I would like to continue in that respect. Only time will tell.”

Hudsonville Unity Christian soccerHeethuis (502-90-52) ranks among the winningest coaches in MHSAA boys soccer history and tops the list for girls coaches (579-102-38) having also led the Crusaders girls to 10 Finals championships.

The girls opened this season with a tough 1-0 loss to a talented Hudsonville squad, but are unbeaten since. 

“I was pleased with how hard our girls competed and played hard and battled, but unfortunately, we came up one goal short,” Heethuis said. “Those are the types of games, as a coach, you hope will make you better moving forward.”

Unity, which is led by returning players Morgan Scholten (goalkeeper), Brianna Rose, Jessie Postma, Jenna Schreiber, Laura Moberg, Jade Taylor, Kyah VanKoevering and Molly Vollink, reached the Division 3 Semifinals last season before losing to Boyne City in a shootout.

“Last year this group snuck up on some people and had a great year,” Heethuis said. “The only game we lost was in the state Semifinal and we were two or three minutes away from making it to the Finals. 

“I think we have to try and build on that and hopefully the girls have a hunger for getting back there and wanting to do that again and take it a step further.”

Rose, a junior, believes this year's team can replicate last year's success.

"We have a lot of potential," she said. "We have great additions and returning girls on the team. So far, you can see the motivation in everyone from last season’s tough loss. Everyone on the team shows up and works hard not only for themselves, but more importantly for each other.

"We want to win another state title. Who wouldn’t? And hopefully we can make the season last as long as it can. What I think sets our team apart from the rest is the bond and hard work we do for ourselves and each other with the main goal of honoring our Lord."

The Crusaders have a balanced mix of returning players and newcomers who will attempt to keep the program’s commitment to excellence intact.

“It’s early, but the chemistry on this team is really good and it’s a fun group to be around,” Heethuis said. “We will hopefully take it one game at a time and get better as the season goes on, because there’s real potential there to get it all put together by the end of the year. We hope to do it sooner than later.”

Dean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for four years after serving at the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years along with shorter stints at the Ionia Sentinel and WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties. 

PHOTOS (Top) Unity Christian soccer coach Randy Heethuis and his boys team prepare for the kickoff of the 2018 Division 3 Final. (Middle) Heethuis accepts the Division 3 championship trophy with his girls team in 2016. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)

Learning as They Play, Algonac Boys Soccer Back on Pitch for 1st Time since 2016

By Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com

September 18, 2024

Zeke Stiltner knew what he was signing up for when he agreed to join the Algonac boys soccer team.

Bay & ThumbAs a senior, joining a program that hadn’t taken the field since 2016, he wasn’t expecting many – if any – wins. He wasn’t looking for a grand send-off. He was simply happy to be there at the beginning of something new.

“It’s such a unique experience,” said Stiltner, who played travel soccer in California prior to moving to Algonac as a freshman. “You don’t get the opportunity to build a brand-new team and build a bit of a legacy.”

Stiltner and his Algonac teammates are part of a restarted program that has been dormant for eight years. While the team has begun 0-7, just being on the field at all is a success. And growing the team to 17 active players, with just four seniors and no juniors, is more than they could have imagined.

“I don’t think there was any expectation of measuring success with wins and losses and the record,” Algonac coach Lance Whitney said. “We all knew the wins and losses was probably not going to be great. Really, we went into the beginning of the year teaching the kids how to play soccer and have fun.”

It was Algonac wrestling coach Brian Ranger who had originally brought the idea of reviving the soccer program to Whitney when the latter began teaching in the district in 2022. The two had gone to high school and wrestled together at Richmond, and Ranger – who serves as the team’s assistant coach – was looking for something for his wrestlers to do in the offseason, as Algonac was also reviving its football program at the time.

“Half the team is wrestling kids,” Whitney said. “He kind of used it as a way for his wrestlers to do something other than nothing if they weren’t playing football or running cross country. Some of them came out because they just wanted to do something, and a lot of them were recruited by Ranger.”

Whitney had coached at Richmond for a decade, his last season with the boys in 2022. He’s also a coach at Thundercats travel club, where his daughter and Ranger’s daughter had played. 

That time included plenty of success and a good number of teams filled with experienced players. 

Algonac started this season with three players who had played organized soccer.

“I think for me, you change your whole approach,” Whitney said. “You have to kind of balance that I’m only going to teach them so much technical stuff in two and a half months, but I have to, at some point, teach them, ‘Here’s the formation. Here are positions. Here are responsibilities.’ What I did in August is brought them all together for a week and said, ‘This is how you strike a ball. How you pass. How you play defense.’ All the technical stuff you can do.

“I’m not pretending this is the type of team where we’re going to be able to drop a ball at the goalie’s feet and play out of the back. But we do at least one technical skill (in practice), then I treat them like I do any other team I coach, even my highest-level girls team. We do Rondos, possession – try and let the game teach them how to play.”

But even for the few experienced players, that first week was more than enough. Simply being on the field playing was a breath of fresh air.

“I enjoyed it,” senior Griffin Degowske said. “That first practice, it was just fun to be out there. I was just glad we had a team.”

Goal-setting and expectations were also on a different level for the Muskrats. After losing their first two matches by goal-differential rule in the first half, the goal was to get to a second half. When that was accomplished, the goal was to complete a game without a mercy rule ending it.

They’ve accomplished that in both of their past two games, even scoring their first goal since 2016 in a 7-1 loss to Armada on Sept. 12.

The goal was scored by freshman Oliver Geck off a corner kick. While it made the score 5-1 midway through the second half, you couldn’t tell from the celebration.

“They celebrated like they won the game,” Whitney said. “It was really awesome, especially for the kid that scored. Oliver is a freshman, and he’s never really played before. He’s a pretty athletic kid, and the ball was bouncing around and he struck it. We were close (to scoring again) a couple times (Monday) night.”

While the team is still growing skill wise, Whitney is continually impressed with what they’re giving him from an effort standpoint. The team’s toughness and athleticism – no doubt buoyed by the influx of wrestlers – also has stood out.

“Teaching them is a lot different than teaching a (kids) team since they were 6(-years-old), and they’re 13 now,” Whitney said. “But they’re starting to put things together. A lot of the things they do, they can get to the right place, they can move, they can get to where they need to be positionally. It’s just the lack of technical skills right now that will mess up plays.”

Most important, at least for the future of the program, are the numbers. With 17 on the roster and 13 eligible to come back for not just 2025, but 2026, there’s a clear path forward for Muskrats soccer.

“It is amazing,” Whitney said. “It’s a step in the right direction for the school and the program, and all of those kids individually, too.”

Paul CostanzoPaul 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.

PHOTO Algonac’s Louis LaParl (2) clears the ball during a game against Croswell-Lexington. (Photo courtesy of the Algonac boys soccer program.)