Northern Fueled for Another Title Drive
March 27, 2019
By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
GRAND RAPIDS – The Forest Hills Northern girls soccer team made a surprising run to another MHSAA Finals last season with a roster filled with 18 underclassmen.
A large majority are back, and it’s created similar aspirations for a program that has blossomed into a formidable state contender in Division 2.
“I like this team because they have a lot of experience,” sixth-year Huskies coach Dan Siminski said. “It’s always a new challenge every year, and this year is no different from that standpoint with the departures and you have to fill some holes and move people around.
“One of the things I like about this team is they are very versatile, so we are converting some people from old positions to new ones and trying some things out. So far, it’s looked pretty good and they are quick to pick up concepts.”
The Huskies have appeared in three consecutive Finals, but come up short each time.
In 2016, they lost in a shootout to Pontiac Notre Dame Prep. The past two years, state powerhouse Bloomfield Hills Marian has spoiled their title hopes.
The season-ending losses haven’t defined their seasons, but have instilled an inner determination to keep striving toward the championship.
“We’ve come close, really close one year, but it keeps them hungry for sure,” Siminski said. “Runner-up or not, it’s not taking away from their accomplishments and I feel like everybody has been really happy with what we’ve done even though we didn’t win them all.”
Senior captain and four-year standout Carlye Fatum said the team hasn’t been discouraged by the setbacks. Instead, she and her teammates learned valuable lessons through each experience.
“Each year we’ve gotten so close, and every year we come back just as strong or even stronger and wanting to put in just as much work just to get there again,” Fatum said. “It’s tough getting there so many times and having it right there and being just short, but as a team I think we’ve handled it well and learned from it each year to improve.”
The Huskies have reached the Finals the past two years with different makeups.
In 2017, a senior-heavy squad carried the load, while last season a youthful bunch matured throughout the season en route to another lengthy postseason run.
Last year’s journey included a shootout win over Spring Lake in the Regional Final and an overtime victory against Richland Gull Lake in the Semifinal.
“It’s definitely a talented and close-knit group, and with the success these girls have had they kind of find ways to win even though it hasn’t been easy,” Siminski said. “Success tends to breed success, I guess, but all of them are very coachable and buy into team soccer and team concepts.”
Sammi Blair, another senior captain and four-year performer, is thrilled to have everyone back in the fold in pursuit of another successful campaign.
“I’m super excited about everyone coming back and how well we have started with our team chemistry because of last year,” Blair said. “That will help going into the season, and I think we want to show that we can keep this success up no matter what is thrown at us. We’ve lost players to DA (U.S. Developmental Academy), and we just want to prove that we can be just as good with players that come in and step up right away.”
One key attribute that hasn’t wavered in the Huskies’ incredible three-year span is their belief in themselves.
“One thing passed on from team to team is they are just a bunch of winners,” Siminski said. “They find a way, and you can’t teach that. It’s an intangible, and hard to put your finger on, but every time there has been a close game we just feel like it’s going to be all right, and it has been.
“You don’t know what the future will hold, but everybody believes and that’s the hardest part. They always feel like they have a good chance to win on any given day. Of course, you don’t win them all, but they always feel like they are going to win and that’s a great place to start.”
Fatum said that belief comes from trusting one’s teammates.
“We all trust each other, and we all go into it knowing we have each other’s back,” she said. “We know if we make a mistake that it’s OK, and we are strong enough to come back from it.”
Key returnees include keeper Parker Hutchinson, as well as Elyse DeSchryver, Jenna Mustapha, Sophie Renucci, Grace Sayers, Paige Myers, Kali Mochel and Alyssa Greshak. DeSchryver made the all-state third team last season and was the team’s leading scorer.
All of the girls play club soccer outside of the high school season. It’s allowed them to keep their individual skills sharp.
“We are blessed to have good clubs here, and they train from a young age,” Siminski said. “It keeps them constantly developing.”
Siminski said complacency hasn’t been a factor. His team knows to compete at the state level they have to endure the rigors of getting there.
“I haven’t seen a dip in their want to win conference and Districts or anything else,” he said. “A lot of that comes from senior leadership and captains pushing the kids and keeping them focused. I’m very excited and proud of the kids for what they’ve done so far, but we have more to come.”
Dean Holzwarth covered primarily high school sports for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years and more recently served as sports editor of the Ionia Sentinel and as a sports photojournalist for WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Forest Hills Northern’s Elyse DeSchryver (6) pushes past a defender during last season’s Division 2 Final against Bloomfield Hills Marian. (Middle) Carlye Fatum directs the offense.
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.)