'Coach' Never Far from Marysville Title Dreams
December 12, 2011
2011 Volleyball Finals Previews
The same dreams have made their way around the Marysville volleyball team the last two months.
A player woke up in the middle of the night saying “Coach, Coach,” thinking she’d heard the voice of John Knuth.
Another woke up stretched out like she was about to block a spike, perhaps responding to one of his commands from the bench.
The longtime Marysville coach has been on his players’ minds for obvious reasons since leaving the Oct. 1 Mount Morris Invitational in an ambulance after suffering a heart attack.
Although recovering now, he hasn’t returned to the team and won’t for this weekend’s MHSAA Finals – the first championship weekend appearance for the storied Vikings program since 2006. But that doesn’t mean Knuth won’t have a presence at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena.
“It’s actually funny. The first couple weeks of practice after he was gone, if I screwed something up and I was thinking I was doing something wrong, instead of hearing my voice say it (in my head), I would hear his voice,” Marysville senior Haylee Booms said. “We became attuned to his voice.”
Class A and D Semifinals were played Thursday, with B and C tonight. Marysville (49-9-4) faces Tecumseh in their Semifinal at 7:15 p.m.
Leading the Vikings will be first-year coach Kristen Michaelis, a former Marysville and U.S. national team standout who took over the program this fall as a co-coach with Knuth – who entered the fall third in MHSAA volleyball history with 1,135 wins, a .935 winning percentage and nine MHSAA championships.
Although Knuth had previously stopped coaching the team after the 2006-07 season, these players certainly knew the significance of an opportunity to play for him. “Him telling me I did a good job, it’s just a dream come true because you know if it’s coming from him, you’ve done good,” Booms said.
Knuth and Michaelis replaced Paul Levandowski, who coached from 2007-10, and the plan was for Knuth to take the lead role early and progressively transfer responsibilities to his former middle hitter before retiring from coaching completely after the season.
Michaelis didn’t expect to take full control so suddenly. Knuth said he didn’t feel well after that first match at Mount Morris, and then didn’t return to the floor the rest of the tournament. He left for the hospital, and although the players sensed something was up, Michaelis didn’t tell them what until after the last match of the day. The team came together for a tearful group hug.
“Obviously, it was hard for the girls to deal with, but I told them we’d all work through this together. He’s on our minds, but he would want us to push forward and have successful season,” Michaelis said. “I knew my role would have to increase. I would not just be a coach, but kind of a mentor for the girls. They are pretty big shoes to fill.”
So far, so good.
The Vikings dropped their first match after Knuth was hospitalized, three days later against Macomb Area Conference Red foe Macomb Dakota. But they bounced back to sweep the rest of their league opponents 3-0 and claim the conference championship. Marysville didn’t give up a game in the District or Regional before falling in the first against Frankenmuth – and then coming back to win the next three.
Michaelis had been a Marysville assistant the last two seasons, and played on the 1997-2000 Marysville teams that won the first of eight straight MHSAA titles. But she brought a variety of experiences back into the program – she went on to earn All-America recognition for Fresno State after high school, and then helped the U.S. team to a bronze medal at the 2007 Pan American Games.
She’s incorporated her own drills and style, and Booms said the coaches bring different approaches both in relating to the players and motivating them to improve.
“We always knew from the beginning that it was a special team. We knew what the potential was. But whatever happened, something just kinda clicked,” Michaelis said. “Maybe a little more to play for him. Our league is one of the best on the east side, and we knew none of the teams would come out of it undefeated. … We’re still thinking about Coach, but we’ve turned it into a positive thing, not a distraction.”At team dinners the players say a little prayer asking for Knuth to return to good health, and do the same before every game. Opponents and other schools from all over and have sent cards and other well wishes, and at Tuesday’s Quarterfinal at North Branch, Frankenmuth fans hung a sign amid those supporting their team that read “Muth Prays 4 Knuth.”
Michaelis keeps Knuth updated frequently, either directly or through messages to his son. Levandowski and other former players are among those who have come in to lend an extra hand at practices. The team is watching videos of Marysville’s MHSAA championship teams to see the level of intensity and focus necessary to accomplish the same.
Booms said the players have focused on playing with maturity and accepting little mistakes in order to move on and improve. That in turn might’ve helped them deal with this much larger dose of adversity.
And after Tuesday’s Quarterfinal win, they heard Knuth’s voice again – sort of, through Michaelis. She texted Knuth that the Vikings had advanced to Finals weekend, then relayed to her players his message telling them how proud they’d made him.
“As soon as it happened, we knew we had to work harder,” Booms said of Oct. 1. “This was going to make or break out season, but we were going to make our season. … We weren’t expected to make it this far. But the fact is we all wanted it, and we all believed in ourselves.
“We’re all dreaming.”
PHOTOS
(TOP) One goal: Marysville's volleyball player join together before the start of Tuesday's Quarterfinal match against Frankenmuth at North Branch.
(Photos courtesy of Dusty Johnson.)
Fowler Seniors Make Childhood Dream Come True with 1st Finals Championship
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 22, 2025
BATTLE CREEK – The Fowler volleyball team called its shot in January, naming its group chat “State Champs.”
But the Class of 2026 has believed that was the endgame for much longer than that.
Behind the leadership of nine seniors, they made it happen Saturday, as the Eagles claimed the school’s first volleyball Finals title, sweeping Mendon 30-28, 25-19, 25-22 in the Division 4 championship match at Kellogg Arena.
“I think we’ve known the whole time that if we stick with it and we push each other, that we could do good things,” senior middle hitter Josie Simon said. “I think especially last year, we wanted to do it for those seniors, and that hurt us. We knew during that Regional Final game that it was the big game, so when we lost we knew we had to come in this year and we were ready to go. We knew what we were chasing.”
Saturday’s Finals appearance was just the second in school history for Fowler, and first since 2017. That year, Simon and her classmates were fourth graders, and several of them were at Kellogg Arena watching.
The following year, their own journey began.
“I’m super thrilled for them, and they literally have been talking about this since they were in the fifth grade when they started playing volleyball,” Fowler coach Patty Feldpausch said. “To want something so bad and know you have to stay focused, and know that mistakes don’t matter because the next ball matters, that’s a big deal. We don’t have our individual names on the back of their warm-up shirts. Their name is not on there because that’s not important. It’s what we’re doing together, that’s what’s important. They believed it, and that’s why we’re sitting at this table being the champions.”
While they’d rather not wait another eight years, the Eagles know they could have sparked that same drive and belief in a group of girls watching Saturday.
“Making history and showing little kids that it’s possible, like it’s hard, but we did it and they can do it,” senior Myah Pohl said. “For the kids that we waved at, and they supported us – they can do it, too.”
Those kids witnessed an incredible team effort that led to a title, as the Eagles had 10 players record a dig, and five add at least seven kills to the attack.
At the heart of that were a trio of seniors, as Paige Thelen had 21 kills, Rachel Wirth had 21 digs and Neelah O’Rourke had 48 assists.
Fittingly, that trio combined for the final dig, assist and kill of the game, as Thelen pounded home an O’Rourke set, which came off a Wirth pass, for match point.
O’Rourke’s 48 assists are the most in a three-set Finals match since the move to divisions in 2018.
“She’s the only player I hugged – we got rushed around,” Feldpausch said with a laugh. “She just did a great job today. Our defense was giving her good balls to feed and our hitters did a great job against their big block. Neelah just kept her composure. She was amazing, she did great.”
Skylar Fowler was a big part of that attack as well, recording 10 kills, while Pohl had nine, Elizabeth Wirth had eight and Simon had seven. Selena Stump had 13 digs for the Eagles (36-8-2), with O’Rourke adding 12 and Thelen 11.
Most of the drama in the match came during the first set, as it took 30 points to settle it. While each point was tense, the final point featured a long back and forth that ended with a block from Simon and Stump.
“It’s tough to lose an opening set like that,” Mendon coach Kenneth Herbert said. “We’ve said it all season long, that we’re never out of a match. Even though we lost that first set, we felt from that moment we could still battle. And even to the last point, I felt that we were still battling. That’s all I can ask for out of these girls.”
Cienna Nightingale led the Mendon attack with 14 kills, adding 12 digs, while Gracie Shultz had nine kills and 19 digs. Karyssa Holtz had 24 assists for the Hornets (38-7-1), while Jadyn Samson had 20 digs.
“Good for them, they found our weaknesses and found ways to shut us down,” Schultz said. “We played as well as we could. I wouldn’t have done anything different. We gave everything on the court.”
PHOTOS (Top) Fowler’s Skylar Fowler (7) powers a kill past Mendon’s Gracie Schultz (7) and Sabrina Monroy (12) during Saturday’s Division 4 Final. (Middle) The Eagles’ Paige Thelen (13) connects as Karyssa Holtz (3) and Lashell Blair line up to block.