Gaylord Pole-Vaulting Pair Rewards Coach's Commitment with Conference Sweep
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
May 15, 2026
The future of the Gaylord pole vaulting may be hanging in the balance.
Success in the field event depends not only on speed and jumping ability — but also coordination, strength and balance.
The Blue Devils and veteran head track & field coach Matt Warren may have to struggle to keep the balance going next year. But it’s not the first time the program is facing the possibility of losing assistant coach Jeremy Savoie.
“It's hard if you don't have somebody who has passion for pole vaulting to coach, and Jeremy is a selfless human being,” Warren said. “He has the passion for helping and molding kids, and it comes through very, very, clearly, with the pole vault program. And when he steps down, it's going to be a big loss for us.”
Savoie’s investment in pole vaulting has led to Gaylord capturing both Big North Conference individual championships for the first time in school history. Senior Lillian Mason, who set the school record earlier this year clearing the bar at 10-9, won the girls conference title on one of the most challenging days of a very challenging spring. Sophomore Calvin Cosby, also a school record-holder, won the boys league title. Cosby, who owns the boys record at 15-3, was third at the conference meet last year when Savoie’s son Nickolas was runner-up.
Savoie started coaching pole vault during the spring of 2000. A former high school vaulter himself, he got involved because of his family – the same family he struggles every day to balance along with work and coaching. He nearly walked away from coaching after last spring’s season when Nickolas, one of the best vaulters in the school’s history, graduated.
After receiving a letter from Mason, and talking things through with her family and his own, Savoie decided to stick around this year.
“I was really done when Nickolas finished. … We had the whole emotional track banquet and low and behold, here we are again,” Savoie said. “Lillian started with me as a freshman. She had to really work at it, and over the last two years, she didn’t take any time off. She works at it year-round, lifts, runs, does the drills and just works her tail off.”
Now, though, Savoie’s youngest daughter plays junior varsity softball for the Blue Devils. He is finding himself caught at times between watching his daughter play softball, including summer ball, and helping other student-athletes in what has become another year-around sport.
In addition to family balance struggles, Savoie also has battled work-life challenges as a technician for a local auto dealership.
“It is a sacrifice on our family because for three months, I lose about 20 hours of work every week and I'm walking away from my own paycheck to help support my family and pay my bills,” Savoie acknowledged. “Fortunately, I still do good enough that it doesn't massively affect the family, but it is still a burden that you have to keep in check.”
And the guilt of missing his youngest and only daughter, Ava, at times in softball is adding to the toll.
“Ava made the high school team this year for JV, and now I have to deal with feeling guilty because I'm at practice and I'm not watching her play her game, or ‘Hey, coaches, I'm going to have leave today at 4 o'clock to go watch Ava,’” Savoie said. “The whole time I'm over there sitting there watching my daughter, cheering for her to do good with the softball team, I'm feeling guilty because I'm not with the kids, pole vaulting.”
The vaulters found themselves facing a significant head wind as Gaylord hosted the conference meet this year.
“Winning these Big North Championships – that's a big deal,” Warren said. “It was a very difficult weather day, so it was ‘who can adapt the most to deal with the conditions?’ That's good coaching there to be able to choose which pole is best in these conditions … how long should the run-up be and all of those things. So I was proud of the adjustments and being able to overcome adversity.”
Gaylord coaches now expect Cosby and Mason to make a run for Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals championships May 30 at Hamilton. The record-holders already have met the qualification standard, so they won’t have to depend on qualifying during today’s Regional at Cadillac.
“I know Calvin wants to be the state champion, and obviously so does Lillian,” Warren said. “We’re in a challenging division for pole vaulters. There will be good competition, but they’re definitely looking both to get all-state honors.”
Another Finals challenger will be Petoskey’s Sarah Bailey, a familiar conference foe and an offseason training partner. Bailey and Mason trained together all winter on Sundays at Boyne City High School. Boyne has the indoor vaulting equipment, and volunteer coaches from all over northern Michigan – including Savoie – are there to help student-athletes regardless of what schools they attend.
“There is a group of northern Michigan coaches that have decided to make pole vaulting a passion of theirs, not just Gaylord High School,” Warren said of the Sunday offseason training. “These kids buy into that stuff where they see coaches caring, giving of their time. There's a lot of good coaches that participate.”
Perhaps seeing one of his vaulters win a Finals title will keep Savoie around. The success and growth of junior newcomer Reese Summerland may help too. Summerland runs sprints and does the high jump as well for the Blue Devils.
“I didn't really come into this looking for really much out of it other than getting to spend time with my boys,” Savoie admitted, while noting he first coached when his son Anthony wanted to try vaulting as a freshman and Gaylord did not have coaches for it. “Reese is a junior this year, then Calvin's a sophomore, I still have some skin in the game. As long as the school's still willing to work with me to let me watch my daughter play softball, I have no reason to make the choice between the two.”
Savoie will leave the Blue Devils in good hands, should he not continue coaching.
“Jeremy is very committed but we're just going to have to carry on, and I’ve learned a lot from Jeremy,” Warren said, adding he expects the other coaches in the area to continue the offseason work. “That’s his program – that’s his baby. I believe this is going to be his last year, but you never know when you have someone the caliber of Calvin. I can’t speak more highly about Jeremy and what he’s accomplished in the last six years. Now we got other kids just trying the vault and, it's success that breeds success.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Gaylord’s Lillian Mason, left, and Calvin Cosby were the Big North Conference pole-vaulting champions this season. (Middle) Cosby clears the bar. (Below) Mason carries the baton during a relay. (Top photo courtesy of the Gaylord athletic department. Action photos by Dylan Jespersen/Gaylord Herald Times.)
Britton Deerfield Boys Following Bigger Numbers to Championship Results
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
May 6, 2026
Each week during boys track & field season, Dustin Longnecker gathers his Britton Deerfield team in his classroom. They call it the “War Room.”
Longnecker and his Patriots stand in front of the white board and go through the upcoming track meet or invitational event-by-event, figuring out where they can score the most points. The fact that BD is even focused on dual meets is a complete change of thinking for Longnecker.
“I’m so blessed,” he said. “I could go on and on about this group. I’ve never had numbers like this. My first year I had eight kids on the boys and girls team combined.
“One year I had this phenomenal sprinter, a high jumper with turf toe and some throwers. I’ve never cared about dual meets because we just couldn’t compete.”
As Longnecker says, this is “the good old days” for BD.
The Patriots finished the Tri-County Conference with a winning record at 3-2-1 and head into Friday’s league meet with a good shot at third place. They won a home invitational Friday against some established programs from the Lenawee County Athletic Association and Cascades Conference.
“Before the season Erik (Johnson) asked me what kind of trophy to get for the Bob Beckey Invite. I said I didn’t care because we’d never sniff that,” said Longnecker, referring to a conversation with his athletic director. “Turns out, we won. It was so great for the kids. We score up to eight places and had all sorts of kids contribute. That was the great thing about it. It is more special when everyone contributes.”
The Beckey Invite was named after longtime coach Bob Beckey, who died in 2016.
Ottawa Lake Whiteford coach Jay Yockey coached at BD previously and was elated to hear BD took home the trophy.
“Bob was also a great guy and coach, and he loved track, but he loved our athletes more,” Yockey said. “So, to see BD win an invite that is named after him is incredible. Bob had a saying that he used often when he was happy. He would say, ‘I’m tickled pink.’ Now he probably would be embarrassed to have an invite named after him, but to know the school he last coached at won that invite, I would have to imagine that he would say that he was ‘tickled pink.’”
Longnecker has had to utilize various strategies over the years as a track coach due to BD’s low numbers. For example, he’s seldom been in favor of pushing kids to run in four events in one day. He’s also never concerned himself with winning dual meets.
“We have a winning record in the TCC for the first time in my career,” he said. “I never thought I’d say that. We just don’t win dual meets. We haven’t had the numbers. This year, the kids have been all about it. We have a really strong freshman and junior class. The great thing about it is that it is really from top to bottom. The kids are still getting better.”
Typically, Longnecker is focused on getting kids to qualify for the MHSAA Finals and run record times at BD.
This year he can do both.
“I was a two-miler in high school,” he said. “I’ve never had a kid who would run it here. This year, I have Donovan McCarthy who runs it. He doesn’t like it, but he likes scoring points.”
McCarthy finished third in the 3,200 at the Beckey Invitational in a great finish.
“He fought a kid from Hudson the whole way,” Longnecker said. “Performances like that is why I love this group.”
The Patriots 400 relay is knocking on the door of a Finals-qualifying time. Freshman Elijah Fortune is a talented athlete who vomited twice and took a nap in the parking lot before returning to the track and helping his team win that race.
BD could get multiple distance runners to the Finals, and all four throwers have had an impact this season, especially senior Andrew Bunker.
“He’ll have both records before the season is over,” Longnecker predicted about Bunker.
Bunker has been an amazing story in his own right. He weighed less than 200 pounds when the Britton Deerfield 8-player football season ended in 2024. He’s now up to 275 and will play college football. He’s become a fitness guru, counting every calorie and working out daily with a stringent routine.
“I try to stay clean,” he said. “I track my protein, carbs and fat. I try to eat as clean as I can. You can’t always eat clean 24/7. I’m in high school. I just do the best I can – a lot of chicken, eggs and rice. I think in that first year we went through dozens and dozens of eggs. (My brother and I would) come home and just devour eggs after the gym – eggs, rice and chicken. You just have to eat what you can.”
Longnecker said Bunker has turned into a great team leader for track, too.
“He’s such a cerebral kid. It’s rare to be around a kid who is that committed to anything,” the coach said.
For Britton Deerfield, which has a high school enrollment of 125, the track numbers might stay high for the next few years. Longnecker credits the middle school coaches with helping kids get interested – and stay interested – in track & field.
“We have a good nucleus right now,” he said. “I think next year we’re going to be just as solid.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) The Britton Deerfield boys track & field team gathers around coach Dustin Longnecker after winning its Bob Beckey Invitational. (Middle) Patriots throwers (from left) Drew Bunker, Zach Gonzalez, Kurina Dotson and McKenna Allshouse show off their trophy and medals won at the Clinton Throwers Meet. (Photos courtesy of the Britton Deerfield athletic department.)