Valley Lutheran Full of Returning Players Patiently Aiming for Return to Finals Weekend
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
August 20, 2026
Kate Belt and her Saginaw Valley Lutheran volleyball teammates are locked in on what’s in front of them.
That means blocking out the urge to look ahead to their ultimate goal of a Finals title, even though they’re ranked No. 1 in Division 3 and returning nearly an entire roster from last year’s Semifinal team.
“We talked about it a little bit, but we aren’t really big on talking about it early in the season, because our next goal is our first round of Districts,” said Belt, an all-state senior setter. “We’re going to try to take it one game at a time. We want to always be prepared for the next game, keep the focus and keep the goal 100 percent on what’s next.”
It’s the attitude a team needs to have heading into a promising season to make sure it doesn’t get tripped up while overlooking an opponent. But just because it’s necessary, doesn’t mean it’s easy.
“It’s hard not to think early on, ‘Oh, we could go win a state championship,” Belt said. “So, it’s pretty hard. But I think Coach does a really good job of keeping us on the right track and in the right mindset to take care of that.”
Belt is one of eight seniors returning from a Valley Lutheran team that advanced to the Division 3 Semifinals a year ago with a roster filled exclusively with sophomores and juniors.
They lost in three sets there against Kalamazoo Christian, but 10 players saw action in all three games of the match, gaining valuable experience.
“We thought we had a real good chance against Kalamazoo Christian, but we didn’t play our very best in last year’s Final Four,” Valley Lutheran coach Jon Frank said. “The coaches and I kind of thought that (Kalamazoo Christian) has been there four years in a row, and it’s an intangible but it’s worth something to be acclimated to the scenario. We have three new players, but it’s still the same core group. We had 10 players last year, and all 10 of them played every single set in the postseason. That’s a coach’s dream.”
Valley Lutheran did suffer one major loss from last year’s roster, as junior Braelin Rodammer, a third-team all-state selection a year ago, is injured and will miss this fall.
At 5-foot-10, she was the tallest presence on the front line for the Chargers, but Belt still has plenty of weapons around her.
Reagan Webb had more than 400 kills as a junior outside hitter in 2025, while Grace Parker had more than 300 as a sophomore middle. Both are back, as is Hannah Hemme, who Belt personally called out as having a massive offseason.
“She’s just become an offensive weapon for us in practice,” Belt said. “Even her defensive play has been amazing. Her serve-receive and blocking has been really good. That work ethic is something that we want to embody.”
Frank said Valley Lutheran has always been a scrappy team, anyway, adding that they’ve never had “that 6-foot girl that can just pound it.”
Seniors Hayden Sherman (660 digs in 2025) and Elsie Hultberg (363 digs) are at the base of that defense.
“We’re so strong defensively, that’s always been our thing,” Frank said. “We serve hard, pass well and we frustrate teams. We dig ‘em, we dig ‘em, and we block ‘em. I really love this team. We’re strong all around. We just don’t have that big banger.”
That all-around strength is helped by the fact this group of seniors has always been together, even for a year on the junior varsity, despite its incredible talent.
When they were freshmen, Frank had a strong roster full of seniors, allowing him to keep his talented youngsters fully together for a year before they would hit the varsity squad.
“I think it was really good for us to get to know each other on a very low-pressure team where we didn’t have to stress about the postseason,” Belt said. “I was happy he didn’t bring anyone up to varsity, because if you have to sit the bench the whole season, that sucks. All of us love playing. We’re all very competitive people.”
As sophomores, six of the eight current seniors made a surprising run to the Quarterfinal, then came together for last year’s Semifinal run.
Now they’re focused on taking the next step in front of them, to hopefully take that final step forward as a program.
“I think last season kind of gave us confidence, because we know how far we can go now,” Belt said. “Going into this season, we know nothing is going to be handed to us. Coach always says that we could lose in Districts if we don’t play well. He’s really good at keeping us humble. But also, he’s super supportive of how far we want to go.”
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) Saginaw Valley Lutheran’s Grace Parker (7) sends a kill attempt into the Kalamazoo Christian front line during last season’s Division 3 Semifinals. (Middle) The Chargers, including Kate Belt (22), celebrate a point.
EGR, Hopkins Take Volleyball Match to Football Field for 'Rally on Reeds'
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
August 28, 2024
EAST GRAND RAPIDS – Memorial Field in late August is typically filled with the sounds of football pads smashing against each other and raucous crowds celebrating touchdowns.
Last week, however, a different environment engulfed East Grand Rapids’ football field.
With picturesque Reeds Lake as the backdrop, an outdoor volleyball match between the Pioneers and visiting Hopkins was played on the 50-yard line.
The first-year event was dubbed “Rally on Reeds,” and it turned out to be a special gathering of the East Grand Rapids community.
“It was electric,” first-year Pioneers coach Bruce Hungerford said. “Like a ruckus football game meets a minor league baseball-type environment. It was very cool."
More than 2,000 people attended the match, which ended with EGR sweeping the Vikings 3-0.
It was a spectacle that included a carnival area, a visit from members of the Grand Rapids Rise professional volleyball team, a band and the opportunity to showcase the sport of high school volleyball in a non-traditional setting.
“It was unreal,” EGR junior captain Sadie Devlaeminck said. “It was just so great to see how much the community showed up for the volleyball team and to see the environment that we played in. It was just crazy.”
Hungerford had an idea for an event like this before being hired for the job. He was eager to implement it.
“I had it in my plan to build a community, and host a lot of home games,” Hungerford said. “EGR has an awesome football setup because there’s no track around the football field and it just sits perfectly.
“I had the idea well before the Nebraska (volleyball) game (last season) and mostly because of Grand Haven. They do the Battle of the Boardwalk, so I knew people did it outside for scrimmages and games. With this being my first game coaching, I thought this would be a cool way to try and get these little kids that I’ve coached to come and see it, and it went from there.”
Nearby Aquinas College rented EGR the court, and the nets and stanchions were supplied by Grand Rapids Community College.
While excitement built, the process of putting together the court on the football field proved to be a challenging and time-consuming task.
It took more than seven hours for the court to be constructed with the finishing touches completed at 6:48 p.m., 12 minutes before the start of the match.
“The turf provided a tougher environment because of the squares, and you can’t just slide them in,” Hungerford said. “We had to restart a few times and I thought we were absolutely dead in the water at one point. But we got the lines down, and it wasn’t going anywhere.”
While anxiety surrounded the installation of the court, that was eased when play started.
“I was a little nervous because the court took so long to set up,” Devlaeminck said. “And I thought it was going to be harder than indoors because of all the different elements like the wind. But I knew it was going to be a lot of fun playing with my team in a football stadium.
“It was nice for the football team to come and sit in the student section and show support and cheer us on. I thought it was great.”
Hungerford said the Hopkins’ players and coaches enjoyed it as well.
“I didn’t want them to think that they were coming to our prom,” he said. “We were in constant contact with them, and their principal participated in the dunk tank. We got one of their kids to be interviewed by the media, and it was a fun community connection. They all loved it, and they said it was super cool. They were glad they came.”
Sophomore Kenzee Stanley-Eldred was overwhelmed by the amount of support the Pioneers received.
“We weren’t used to playing in front of very big crowds and don't usually have much of a student section, but a lot of people from our school came for this,” Stanley-Eldred said. “And also just the environment of playing outside on a sport court instead of being in a gym. Being outside feels a lot different.”
Organizers hope to make it an annual event by having different teams each year play against EGR.
For many in attendance, this was their first glimpse of high school volleyball.
“A lot of people that I knew and I talked to after the game said it was the first time ever having anything to do with the sport, so it was really cool that we let them into that,” Stanley-Eldred said. “I think it had a big impact with just how many people showed up and were willing to support one another, especially when it was doing something so new and different.”
Dean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for five 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) An East Grand Rapids hitter puts the ball past a Hopkins block during last week’s “Rally on Reeds” game one EGR’s football field. (2) A pair of Pioneers work to get their hands on a kill attempt. (3) East Grand Rapids warms up as fans fill the stands. (4) East Grand Rapids and Hopkins players take a photo together wearing their “Rally on Reeds” shirts. (Photos by Kathy Hoffman/Michigan Sports Photo.)