Cadillac Hopes to Add #1 to Incredible Run
November 17, 2015
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
CADILLAC – The numbers tell the story – 10 consecutive District titles, nine of 10 Regional crowns, three MHSAA Semifinal appearances.
It's been quite a run for coach Michelle Brines and her Cadillac Vikings volleyball program.
Cadillac is in the Elite Eight once again, this time with one of its most well-rounded teams in Brines' 16 years as head coach.
Optimism is high as the Vikings begin this week with their ultimate tournament goal still in play – to reach Saturday’s MHSAA Class B Final, which would be a program first.
The Vikings know it will not be easy. Cadillac faces defending champion North Branch in a Quarterfinal rematch tonight. The Broncos ousted Cadillac 3-0 a year ago.
The Vikings enter the match ranked No. 5 in the latest coaches poll, North Branch No. 8. The Broncos upset No. 2 Mount Morris in the District.
“They’re a good team, but they graduated seven seniors last year,” Brines said of North Branch. “I told the girls, ‘Forget about what it says on their jerseys. This is not the same team that beat us in three last year.’ Yes, they’re good, they have a history, but I like our chances. We just have to go out and perform, play the way we’re capable of playing.”
Brines, who has close to 650 career wins, has an experienced squad with senior outside hitter Morgan Briggs, junior setter Ali Finch, junior middle hitter Kylie Christensen and sophomore outside hitter Gabby Kapuscinski among the key returnees from last year.
Brines is hoping that experience will pay dividends in helping her players deal with the pressure.
Briggs thinks it will.
“We hold ourselves to a high standard so pressure is a good thing, in my point of view,” she said.
Briggs, who will play at Lake Erie College next season, leads the team in kills and also plays the middle on serve-receive. It’s her passing in that role that often starts the offense.
Finch, meanwhile, is the main distributor, although she can put it down, too.
“She jumps sets,” Brines said. “She’s 6-foot and really attacks the ball. The defenders are never sure if she's going up to hit or set – and where she’s setting to.”
Christensen is second to Briggs in kills.
Seniors Gabby Hoaglund (middle hitter), Hanna Liptak (libero), Nicole Kleinsorge (defensive specialist) and Megan Alworden (defensive specialist) and junior Liz Pyles (right side hitter) round out the rotation.
The Vikings, who are 45-4, shared the Big North Conference title with Traverse City West, which competes in the Class A Quarterfinals tonight. The two teams split matches during the season. Cadillac’s only other losses are to Grand Rapids Christian, another Class A quarterfinalist, Temperance-Bedford and Mount Morris.
“We played more tournaments downstate, played some harder teams, and I think we made a name (statewide) for ourselves,” Briggs said.
Cadillac already had that name recognition in the north. It's been fostered by years of success with the tradition carried on by this year's team.
In its last three matches, Cadillac beat Kingsley in the District Final and swept Big Rapids and Houghton in the Regional.
"They play really good defense,” Kingsley coach Dave Hall said. “And they don't make mistakes, they don’t beat themselves. They put a ton of pressure on you by just keeping the ball in play. They keep coming at you and don't give you points.
“I don't think anyone scored more than 13 on them in the Regional,” he added. “I felt pretty good we got to 22 and 15 in two of the games.”
Brines credits several factors for Cadillac’s continued success – introducing girls to volleyball as early as second grade, continuity in the coaching staff, and dedicated players who put the work in during the offseason.
“I’m fortunate that my players are willing to put extra time in during the summer because they play other sports, too,” she said. “I try to be realistic because I don't want to dominate their time. We have a lot of two- and three-sport athletes.”
Playing multiple sports keeps some of the girls out of club volleyball during the offseason, but Brines is fine with it.
“Our school needs our kids (to play multiple sports),” she said. “I’m a firm believer in that. I feel that every sport they play makes them better on my team, and playing on my team makes them better in other sports.”
Repeated success in volleyball helps generate enthusiasm for the program throughout the school – even at the elementary level, where high school players coach and mentor girls in a winter program for grades 2-6.
“We used to start (girls) in fourth grade,” Brines said. “But they play basketball that young (second and third grade) so why not volleyball? We like to get them introduced to it because it's not (a sport) that most kids play outside at home like basketball.”
Briggs is one of those players who became hooked on the sport early. Then again, there were family ties. Her older sister, Taylor, played. Taylor went on to become a floor captain and all-state player, graduating in 2012. Now Morgan is following in her footsteps.
There’s one thing Morgan Briggs is hoping to change, though. Taylor’s last game was a Quarterfinal loss to eventual Class B champion Fruitport in 2011. Morgan would like to extend her senior season a little longer than that.
“We always focus on one game at a time – we don't look (past) anybody – but our goal is to be in the Final Four and make it to Saturday,” she said.
If it doesn’t happen, however, Briggs said she feels fortunate to be part of this team.
“No matter if we win or lose, I have the best girls I could ask for (as teammates),” she said. “They have the same mentality to win as I do. I'm really lucky that I can go through this playing next to my best friends.”
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. 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) Kylie Christensen (10) and Morgan Briggs put up a block during a match this season. (Middle) Ali Finch (5) sets as Christensen prepares to hit. (Photos by Susan Baker.)
SMCC's Windhams Agree to Coach Together - 'Us or Nothing' - Then Win It All
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
November 26, 2024
When Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central was down to needing just one point to clinch the Division 3 volleyball championship Saturday, assistant coach Randy Windham was fighting back tears.
“Just because I’m crying doesn’t mean this match is over,” Randy said in the huddle.
A few seconds later, it was over. SMCC had clinched the championship, and Randy had a front row seat to watch his wife, head coach Kim Windham, accept the trophy.
“I always call her the best coach in the family,” Randy said.
The Windhams are a coaching couple. They have been married since 1992, operate a business in Monroe together and this fall, for the first time, coached together.
It clearly was a winning combination.
When Kim was approached about coaching SMCC prior to the season, she said Randy – who has been the head boys basketball coach at SMCC since 2009 – talked her into taking the job.
“I said, ‘I’ll take it if you’ll coach,’” she said. “’If you want me to coach, then obviously you are going to coach along with me. It’s us or nothing.’ He was all in from the get-go.’”
Randy, she thought, would bring an extra element to the bench that the Kestrels needed.
“He’s so good with the mental side of things with kids,” Kim said. “I knew how much he could contribute with that. All I wanted to do was coach. I wanted to do the Xs and Os, the practice plans and teaching and let him do the rest. He’s been absolutely fabulous.”
She said having Randy near helped her, too.
“Before every match, he’s my calming force. I lean on him a lot.”
During matches, Kim said Randy was often the person talking during the huddles.
“With volleyball you only have only three minutes between sets,” she said. “You have to figure out the rotations, who is going to start, what we are going to do … so as I’m at the table figuring that out, he’s talking to the group about what just happened or what we are going to do next.
“It’s good to know he’s there taking care of things, saying the things the way I know I would want them to be said.”
While SMCC has had several deep MHSAA Tournament runs in recent years and an outstanding volleyball tradition, this year’s team did lack experience coming into the season. Windham was named head coach in May.
“We only really had three returning starters coming back,” she said. “When we started the season, the question was how we were going to get everyone else up to speed. We knew we had our work cut out for us. We had to figure out how we were going to make the puzzle pieces fit.”
Randy said he was confident Kim could get the job done.
“She’s been known to build programs,” Randy said. “It really isn’t about how good the players are, but what they will buy into. She’ll get them there. We had some good players, but she took them to the next level with her coaching.”
Kim set out to change the culture around an ultra-successful volleyball program. Early in the season, for example, the team focused on the fundamentals.
“We went back to basic fundamentals,” Kim said. “We knew if we wanted to be good, we had to be fundamentally sound first.”
Kim graduated from SMCC in 1990 after an outstanding volleyball career and went on to play two years at the college level. She launched her coaching career in 1996, only a few months after their son Bryce was born.
“I would take him with me to practice in his car seat, set him on the mat and coach,” she said.
Sports have been a common denominator for the Windham family for years.
Randy opened Monroe Sports Varsity Athletic, a screen printing and embroidery business, in 1991, a year before he and Kim were married. An assistant coach at SMCC since the 1990s, he also played professional slow-pitch softball for years. Bailey, a college volleyball player herself after playing at SMCC, lives in Indiana where she is a nurse. Bryce, who was drafted by the Chicago Cubs and played several seasons of Minor League Baseball, is working at the family business and is an assistant basketball coach at SMCC for his dad.
Kim started working full-time at the business in 2003. The day after winning the Kestrels’ most recent championship, the Windhams were back at the shop, working on filling orders.
The family bond is special.
“Randy and I just love spending time together,” Kim said. “Sometimes during basketball season Randy will be gone late or watching film. We almost get more upset when we are not together.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central head volleyball coach Kim Windham, right, and assistant coach/husband Randy hold the program’s latest championship trophy. (Middle) The Windhams exchange a glance on the court at Kellogg Arena. (Top photo courtesy of the Windham family. Middle photo by Stephanie Hawkins.)