Performance: Anchor Bay's Ally Gaunt
May 3, 2019
Ally Gaunt
New Baltimore Anchor Bay senior - Soccer
Anchor Bay’s three-year starting goalkeeper continued to build on her substantial legacy last week, tying the school career record with her 32nd shutout against then-No. 3 ranked Utica Eisenhower to earn the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week.” She became the school’s sole record holder the next game as Anchor Bay shut out Port Huron Northern 5-0 on Friday.
Gaunt tied and broke the record of 2015 graduate Emily Zweng, who went on to Oakland University, and with the 32nd shutout also earned a spot in the MHSAA record book. She’s now up to 29th all-time with 34 career shutouts and has led Anchor Bay to a combined 41-5-10 record over three seasons including 5-1-4 this spring. The Tars also have won two District titles with her guarding the net. In fact, Gaunt has never given up more than two goals in a game at the high school level – and in 13 games, she’s allowed just one – and she has a career goals-against average of 0.52.
Anchor Bay coach Kevin Grammens considers Gaunt one of the best keepers in Macomb County history, and she earned Division 1 all-state honorable mention as a sophomore and made the second team a year ago. When she’s not playing, she’s still in the game as a youth soccer referee and goalie trainer. Gaunt also played basketball as a freshman and sophomore on sub-varsity teams and carries a 3.7 grade-point average. She’s signed to continue her academic and soccer careers at Saginaw Valley State. A fan of numbers and math, she plans to major in accounting and finance and eventually become a certified public accountant.
Coach Kevin Grammens said: “Ally is usually the first player to arrive at practice and the last to leave. She is a student of the game and true believer in the growth mindset. She soaks in the mental skills training that we teach in our program and intently trains the finer details of her position with her goalkeeper coach, Keith Jarema. She is humble and is first to acknowledge that she cannot set records on her own. We've played tremendous team defense the past three years in front of her and have had and currently have fantastic, selfless players willing to play defense to benefit the team.”
Performance Point: It was a great week. It means a lot, but it’s not everything – to be fair, it’s just a record,” Gaunt said. “The season that we’ve had this year, it’s been a process. And to get that with this team, it means a lot. We graduated our back line – all four of them graduated last year, so we had to rebuild it. We had to start from scratch basically the first day of tryouts, and from then till now it’s grown tremendously. We were ready for battle, and we definitely stepped up. I knew Coach Grammens had a plan, and we had to stick with it. And I trust him, and it worked out.
Success to the successor: “My sophomore and junior year (Zweng) came back for the District games and a few of the other games, and I talked to her. She gave me some pointers, and it was really beneficial just to hear it from another player that set the record here at Anchor Bay, (made the NCAA Tournament) at Oakland.”
At home in goal: “I love it back there. You can see the entire field. You can see the plays developing before they happen. Just (from) practice, you see it, what we work on, and when it shows in games it shows practice really helps. I can see in goal what we’re trying to do.”
Our time: “My communication is better than it was two years ago. My physical aspects are better than they were two years ago. Every day we’re working on both physical and mental stuff, and it’s very helpful to get something every single day that’s beneficial. Being a senior – there’s six of us, and we all want to do something great here. ‘Leave the jersey in a better place’ is our biggest motto on the team for the seniors, and I truly believe all six of us can do it and are doing it. … Coach Grammens here at Anchor Bay has helped me become the leader I am. We have a binder with a bunch of different articles on how to be mentally strong, and reading those and going through with him helping us individually to become a better person grows our leadership skills as well.”
Problem solver: “I like the structure of (math), knowing there’s not only one way to do a problem to get the correct answer. Within the team, within soccer, you have to be able to see a problem from more than one angle – if there’s two people on the team and something happens, you have to be able to see both angles to be a good leader and try to diffuse the situation. I believe math helps with that because with numbers, you can see it that way.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2018-19 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard recognizes a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Past 2018-19 honorees
April 25: Kali Heivilin, Three Rivers softball - Read
March 28: Rickea Jackson, Detroit Edison basketball - Read
March 21: Noah Wiswary, Hudsonville Unity Christian basketball - Read
March 14: Cam Peel, Spring Lake swimming - Read
March 7: Jordan Hamdan, Hudson wrestling - Read
February 28: Kevon Davenport, Detroit Catholic Central wrestling - Read
February 21: Reagan Olli, Gaylord skiing - Read
February 14: Jake Stevenson, Traverse City Bay Reps hockey - Read
February 7: Molly Davis, Midland Dow basketball - Read
January 31: Chris DeRocher, Alpena basketball - Read
January 24: Imari Blond, Flint Kearsley bowling - Read
January 17: William Dunn, Quincy basketball - Read
November 29: Dequan Finn, Detroit Martin Luther King football - Read
November 22: Paige Briggs, Lake Orion volleyball - Read
November 15: Hunter Nowak, Morrice football - Read
November 8: Jon Dougherty, Detroit Country Day soccer - Read
November 1: Jordan Stump, Camden-Frontier volleyball - Read
October 25: Danielle Staskowski, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep golf - Read
October 18: Adam Bruce, Gladstone cross country - Read
October 11: Ericka VanderLende, Rockford cross country - Read
October 4: Kobe Clark, Schoolcraft football - Read
September 27: Jonathan Kliewer, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern soccer - Read
September 20: Kiera Lasky, Bronson volleyball - Read
September 13: Judy Rector, Hanover-Horton cross country - Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Anchor Bay goalkeeper Ally Gaunt sends a kick downfield during a game this season. (Middle) Gaunt launches another toward waiting teammates. (Photos courtesy of the Anchor Bay girls soccer program.)
Back Line Comes to Forefront as Byron Center Shuts Down Saline to Lock Up 1st Title
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
June 14, 2025
EAST LANSING – John Conlon praised his Byron Center defensive players Saturday for not just their play, but their selflessness all season.
As the Bulldogs powered through to the Division 1 Final, the backline of Carli Alexander, Ashtyn Stuck, Leah Willey and Jordan Kerns did their jobs, leaving the glory to their teammates further up the field.
But in the biggest game of the season, they went ahead and grabbed some of that glory, too.
Alexander and Stuck combined on the lone goal in Byron Center’s 1-0 victory against Saline at Michigan State University, giving the girls soccer program its first Finals title.
“Honestly, it’s awesome,” said Alexander, who provided the assist on Stuck’s goal. “It’s just unreal. I love playing defense, but when I get to play up there on the corners, it’s just awesome. And I love helping out the team; it’s great.”
Byron Center (21-1-3) had never played in a girls soccer Final prior to Saturday, but didn’t shrink from the moment as it handed Saline (21-1-2) its lone loss of the season.
That might be because it was used to playing in high-pressure situations, having won all its postseason games by a single goal, five victories coming at 1-0, and the other a 3-2 overtime win against Midland in the Regional Final.
“We talked about this back in March, that soccer is a fickle game,” Conlon said. “You can dominate and lose 1-0, or you can dominate and win 1-0, so you just have to be comfortable with that. I don’t think they understood it at first, but they do now. They ground out some great wins against some good teams.”
The biggest win against the best team included holding off top-ranked Saline’s dynamic scoring duo of Sadie Walsh and Sienna Snyder. They had combined for 50 goals (30 for Snyder, 20 for Walsh) leading up to Saturday, but were held to just five shots, with three on goal – accounting for every Saline attempt on the day.
“Walsh is a great player,” Conlon said. “She undid a couple of very good defenders running with the ball. She’s very good. We had to layer our defense and make sure she had to break through multiple levels. I think 1v1, she’s almost unguardable, so it was great team defending.”
The Bulldogs did it with composure on the back end, despite Kerns, a senior, being the only upperclassman on the starting back line. Alexander and Willey are sophomores, while Stuck is a freshman, as is starting goalkeeper Nora Schans.
“My wife started with a lot of these girls when they were 5, so we’ve been training them from a really young age,” Conlon said. “And they play at a high club level; a lot of our backline players do. They’re just great players, and they’re humble, they’re OK with defending and not scoring. They’re OK with coming away with a win and never coming away with the scoring, so our back four are fantastic.”
The scoring did come from the back four in this one, of course, and it was a beautiful set play from a Jadyn Glover corner.
Alexander met the ball near the top of the box, flicking it into a dangerous area, and Stuck struck it out of the air and into the net.
“The corner went short, so I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to try and at least get my head on it,’” Alexander said. “So I just flicked it, and Ashtyn just happened to be there and it was amazing. I’m really happy that she got that as a freshman.”
The goal was just the sixth allowed by Saline all season, and first it had allowed in the postseason. Goalkeeper Kaylee Mitzel, who made five saves Saturday, entered the game with a 0.23 goals-against average and 18 shutouts.
“I couldn’t be prouder of them,” Saline coach Leigh Rumbold said. “The amount of effort they put in day in and day out to get to this stage – getting to this stage is hard. Over the course of the boys and girls program at Saline, we’re the third team to get to this stage.
“It hurts. I don’t even have the words for it – you could obviously see it when they came off. It hurts to get to this stage and have this be our one loss, but the fact of the matter is, when you kind of take a step back and take a couple days, weeks to let it set in, it’s been an unbelievable season.”
Saline was able to put some pressure on the Bulldogs midway through the second half, but couldn’t turn it into quality chances on goal. And Byron Center did a good job of clearing the ball and moving it forward to striker Ella Alexander who, while she didn’t score, did have three shots and stressed the Hornets defense, often by herself as her team was set back defending.
“She’s a demon,” Conlon said. “She’s a demon. I jokingly have called her the Tasmanian Devil because I don’t think I’ve ever coached a front-runner who can run 80 or 90 minutes at that pace and press. I convinced her early on that, ‘You might not score, but you’ll turn balls over pressing the back line. She didn’t go in the scorebook today, but she created a lot of things for us.”
PHOTOS (Top) Byron Center keeper Nora Schans, far right, prepares to stop a shot from Saline’s Sienna Snyder on Saturday. (Middle) The Hornets’ Caylin Sturms (3) works to maintain possession despite pressure from a Bulldogs defender. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.