Chase Remains On Pace as Wroubel Ranks 2nd Among Nation's Winningest Active Coaches
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
September 18, 2026
PONTIAC — While the Pontiac Notre Dame Prep girls volleyball team pursues wins in Michigan this fall, parents, supporters and others around the program are also paying attention to what a program in Alabama is doing.
Why? It has everything to do with a prominent coaching record on the national level.
At the moment, it’s a nice neck-and-neck race to see who will finish this season as the active coach with the most wins nationally, Betty Wroubel of Notre Dame Prep or Ann Schilling of Bayside Academy in Daphne, Ala.
Going into the season, Schilling had 1,796 career wins, three more than Wroubel. As of Wednesday, Schilling had added 16 wins to her total to make it 1,812, while Wroubel added 14 for a grand total of 1,807.
The two are also third and fourth, respectively, on the overall all-time wins list nationally. Two coaches who are retired, Jodi Manore of Temperance Bedford (2,231) and Jack Magelssen of Portage Northern (1,832), top the list.
Schilling and Wroubel are fast approaching Magelssen, but if there is one person who isn’t too occupied with it all, it’s Wroubel.
Sure, she has a good laugh or smile when parents or other school officials have casually come up to her over the past few weeks to mention the situation. But as has been the case throughout her legendary career, there is a greater purpose for her.
“It’s the kids’ winning,” Wroubel said. “I get to facilitate a little bit. But it’s really about the kids, and I’ve been blessed with some really good kids here over the years and some coaches who have coached with me.”
Notre Dame Prep senior Nicole McDowell said trying to win so Wroubel can keep up with Schilling hasn’t really been talked about much among players this season. But that doesn’t mean the chase can’t provide a little more incentive the rest of the fall.
“That will help motivate us more,” McDowell said.
The head coach of Notre Dame Prep since 1994, Wroubel remains an institution for not only her school, but the volleyball coaching community statewide.
Wroubel has guided Notre Dame Prep to four Finals titles in Class B/Division 2, with the latest in 2021. When Notre Dame Prep won the Class B championship in 2007 (fall season), the Fighting Irish not only captured the school’s first volleyball title but became the first program in Oakland County history to win at the Finals.
“I just love being around the kids, and they provide the energy and keep you going,” said Wroubel, who is also the athletic director and varsity softball coach at Notre Dame Prep.
Even as eras and the sport have changed drastically, players have enjoyed playing for Wroubel as much as she’s enjoyed coaching them.
“She really is competitive and she’s hard on us, but she wants to win and all of her intentions are good,” said McDowell, who has committed to play collegiately for Rider University (N.J.) and is a returning all-state player. “Outside of volleyball, she is the most generous person I know.”
Time will tell if Notre Dame Prep (14-12-2) can continue to pile up wins this season for itself and Wroubel.
While the coaching wins angle could be a fun storyline for the program and its supporters to follow, it certainly won’t sway Wroubel from her ultimate objective to make her players better volleyball players and women.
“I just love my job,” she said. “I think this is where God has placed me. There’s a place where we’re all supposed to be, and this is part of my mission. This is where I’m supposed to be. God has blessed me with great support and great athletes, and I just love it here.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Pontiac Notre Dame Prep girls volleyball coach Betty Wroubel encourages her team during a match last season against Warren Regina. (Middle) Wroubel, right, accepts the 2021 Division 2 championship trophy from Vicky Groat. (Top photo by KMS Photography.)
'Girls Night Out' Takes over Stadium
September 19, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
A crowd of roughly 1,200 fans – including more than 700 students – loaded into Muskegon Mona Shores' football stadium on Sept. 5.
Batman, Captain America and the Cat in the Hat were there among cheering sections out in full force. Festivities included plenty of sun and live music to keep the crowd rolling.
It was a typical football night. And this was a typical football crowd. But Sept. 5 was a Wednesday. And the four teams playing on this night were a little bit "outside" of their natural element.
Mona Shores hosted the Grand Haven, Fruitport and Spring Lake volleyball teams for "Girls Night Out," a quad match that began with two rounds on portable courts in the football stadium and finished before a raucous crowd inside the Sailors' gym.
“The energy was outstanding. The student athletes playing loved the fact they were treated like football players on a Friday night,” Mona Shores athletic director Ryan Portenga said. “We had the adults in the bleachers facing the kids, and portable bleachers closed off (the court) with student sections yelling back and forth. It was wild.”
The idea was sparked some by a similar match between Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central and Grand Rapids Christian last season, when those teams played on a portable court on top of a high jump area.
But the additional challenge at Mona Shores was building two courts so four teams could play, sitting mostly on the track but also partly on the grass near the football sideline. The 12-by-12 inch plastic tiles, supplied by Illinois-based NetLynx, were pieced together like a puzzle by a crew that worked until 10 p.m. the night before.
Organizers waited out a forecast calling for thunderstorms. And given the significance of these matches, conditions had to be as close as possible to perfect – at the time, Grand Haven and Mona Shores were honorable mentions in Class A, while Fruitport (in A this fall) is the reigning Class B MHSAA champion and Spring Lake was a semifinalist in Fruitport’s district last season.
But it came off with barely a hitch. The first matches began at 6 p.m., and the football stadium lights were turned on about an hour later. The third matches were played in the school’s gym in front of all four student sections cheering throughout the final points.
Mona Shores finished 3-0, while Grand Haven was 2-1. Fruitport ended 1-2 and Spring Lake fell in their three matches.
With the help of a forklift and workers who stayed late, the courts were cleared from the football field by 1 a.m.
“It takes a lot of parental involvement to pull of that kind of event,” Portenga said. “We had a lot of helping hands.”
Click for additional match coverage from the Muskegon Chronicle.
PHOTOS courtesy of the Muskegon Mona Shores athletic department.
