'Favorite' Just Fine for Monroe St Mary
November 9, 2018
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
MONROE – Karen O’Brien took the whole “rankings-don’t-matter” approach and threw it out the window this year.
And, for her Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central volleyball team, the method has worked.
SMCC took over the top spot in the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association Division 3 rankings in Week 3 after beating formerly top-ranked Bronson, the three-time reigning Class C champion.
The Kestrels appear to be thriving in the top spot.
“In my past years, when we have been ranked No. 1 or No. 2, I’ve kind of disregarded it,” said O’Brien, a veteran volleyball coach in her fourth year at SMCC. “I’d always say that it didn’t matter where we were ranked until after the season. But, this season, I took a different approach. This year, we’ve embraced being No. 1, that people are coming after us.
“We have a saying, ‘Embrace the Noise,’” she said. “The noise is people who are out to beat us. It puts a little more pressure on us, but I think we’ve responded well. Since our last loss, on September 15, we have won 25 straight matches. We haven’t lost a set during that time.”
SMCC is 44-3 on the season. The Kestrels captured multiple regular-season tournament titles, breezed through the Huron League without losing a set, won the District title and Thursday beat No. 10 Brighton Charyl Stockwell 25-15, 25-17, 25-20 for the 14th Regional championship in program history.
SMCC will move on to the Quarterfinals against fifth-ranked Manchester. Several ranked teams remain alive in the Division 3 tournament – but they are all looking up to SMCC.
“We’re looking at it like, ‘Hey, we’re glad we are No. 1. We’re ready. Give us your best,’” O’Brien said.
She said she changed approaches to the rankings because, simply, the last time the team tried to ignore being ranked No. 1 and it didn’t work.
“I’m always willing to try new things, a new approach,” she said. “If something doesn’t work, why not?”
Just about everything has been working for the Kestrels this season, starting with the right blend of four sophomores, four juniors and four seniors on the team.
“It’s a unique group,” O’Brien said. “There is a lot of unity and a good blend of personalities.”
Maddie Haut and Abby Jackson are the senior co-captains.
“Their leadership has just worked very well,” O’Brien said. “This is the closest group that I’ve had since I’ve been here. Everyone knows their role, they understand their role and they do their role well. There’s no selfishness on this team. That’s a huge part of (the success). All 12 girls know their role, and their parents know their role. There’s no drama with this group.”
Maddie Haut leads the team in blocks, followed closely by Kylie Barron. Maddie’s sister Mikayla is a sophomore with enormous potential and leads the team in kills, averaging 4.4 a set, and aces with nearly 90. Jackson averages more than 4.5 digs per set and senior Jessica Long and junior Sarah Reicker lead the team in assists.
SMCC has been able to have amazing focus all season.
“Volleyball is such a game of momentum,” O’Brien said. “Not just from set to set, but from rally to rally. We’ve been down in a set, and we’ve been able to come back. We’re pretty good at just rolling with the punches.”
O’Brien is a Livonia native and was the first female athlete in Stevenson history to earn nine varsity letters. She was a first-team all-state volleyball player in 1981 and also played basketball and competed in track & field. She played college volleyball first at Schoolcraft Community College and then at the University of Georgia. The two-time All-Southeastern Conference pick coached at Georgia for two years before moving back to Michigan and becoming an assistant coach at Michigan State University in the late 1980s.
She was the University of Toledo’s head volleyball coach for five seasons and later coached at Siena Heights University and served a couple of stints as an assistant at Eastern Michigan University. She coached the Dundee High School volleyball team for nine seasons and became head coach at SMCC in 2015.
Her and her husband, Dan, started the Teal Attack to raise money for the Michigan Ovarian Cancer Alliance after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2015. The program has raised more than $130,000 and has events at fundraisers at various Michigan high schools and colleges.
The Kestrels have won four straight District titles under O’Brien and played in the 2015 Class C Final, falling to Bronson in three sets decided by four points or fewer.
SMCC has been a state volleyball powerhouse for several years, winning championships in 2003, 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2014 and producing several college volleyball players. A handful of this year’s squad will likely move on to the next level as well, including the senior co-captains.
The Kestrels have had some spirited practices this season, O’Brien said. While the first halves of practices often begin with routine ball-handling drills and teaching technique, practices usually end with some highly-competitive drills.
“We will go after one another,” she said. “The girls are competitive. I always tell them to make the other person better because that will make the team better.”
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.
PHOTO: Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central coach Karen O’Brien instructs her team Thursday during a timeout in its Regional Final against Brighton Charyl Stockwell. (Photo by Tom Hawley).
Russell Twins Set High Bar Standing Tall Together for Mona Shores Sports
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
April 16, 2026
Maddie and Laynie Russell have been such a big part (literally) of Muskegon Mona Shores girls sports over the past four years that it’s difficult to imagine the Sailors without them.
Opposing basketball and volleyball coaches certainly won’t miss them, as figuring out a way to handle the “twin towers” was Job 1 when playing Shores.
Laynie (6-foot-3) and Maddie (slightly shorter at 6-2½) are fraternal twins and four-year varsity players in both volleyball and basketball, having entered the starting lineup four years ago as 14-year-olds. Both made an immediate impact and progressed to become Muskegon All-Area “Dream Team” volleyball players the past two years.
“They looked like grown women, but they weren’t,” said Mona Shores girls basketball coach Mike Phillips, who met with the family to talk about moving both girls up to varsity when they were still just 13 years old.
“It would have been easy for them to crumble under that kind of pressure, but they handled themselves unbelievably well.”
And the twins, who are both near the top of their class academically with weighted GPAs greater than 4.0, are not quite done helping Shores sports.
Currently, Maddie is an attacker in lacrosse and Laynie is playing No. 1 doubles in tennis. Both will graduate in June with 11 varsity letters.
Then they will have a few months to enjoy their summer passions for jet skis and water skis, before heading in different directions.
Laynie has committed to play volleyball at Northern Michigan and is undecided about her field of study. Maddie will play volleyball at Indiana Tech, where she plans to major in pharmacy.
Intense Maddie
Maddie is more emotional and expressive and wears her heart on her sleeve.
She was “super tenacious” way back in youth soccer and in another one of her loves, swimming, where she was a state champion in the breaststroke at age 7.
Then it appeared for some time that softball would be “her thing,” excelling as a power hitter at the plate and with her long stretch playing first base.
“Sports has always been our life, and it’s just natural for us to go from one sport to another,” said Maddie, who didn’t start playing volleyball until middle school.
“I love being a part of different teams because you meet different friends in each one. Plus, I think it has helped me physically and to avoid injuries because I wasn’t just doing the same thing over and over.”
Maddie made her mark in basketball as a dominant inside force, particularly as a defender and rebounder. In volleyball, she was an outside hitter who could move around and was an excellent passer, finishing her career with 681 kills and 166 blocks.
Her favorite memory is winning four straight city volleyball titles and then helping her team break through and win a Division 1 District volleyball championship her junior year, as the team finished 32-10.
She believes her busy high school experience has prepared her for college. In addition to being a three-sport athlete at Shores, she also played travel in three sports (volleyball, basketball and softball), took AP classes, was a member of National Honor Society and worked as a lifeguard and babysitter.
“I don’t know how she did it some of those days,” said dad Mike Russell, shaking his head. “But we were lucky because both girls are very self-motivated. We didn’t have to get on them very much.”
Poker-faced Laynie
Laynie is more even-keeled and keeps her emotions in check, and it’s hard to tell whether she is having a rough game or is going off for 31 points, which she did in an early-season basketball win last season.
Laynie, who was born two minutes after Maddie on Aug. 14, 2008, was bigger at birth (she was 7 pounds, 4 ounces and Maddie was 5 pounds, 7 ounces). Then Maddie shot up and was taller in elementary school, they were about even in middle school, and now Laynie is about a half-inch taller.
Their height came as no surprise as Mike is 6-5 and their mom Jennifer is 6-1.
The tallest member of the Russell family is older brother Donovan, a 2022 Mona Shores graduate who is 6-8 and plays on the Michigan State men’s club volleyball team. “Dono” will graduate in May with a civil engineering degree.
Like her sister, Laynie is happiest when bouncing from sport to sport. She remembers briefly considering not playing a spring sport as a freshman.
“I didn’t do anything for like a week after basketball season and I was so bored,” said Laynie, who is serving her school this year as the National Honor Society chapter president. “That’s when I knew I had to be doing something, so I went out for tennis.”
Basketball was her favorite sport for many years, and she certainly left her mark on the hardwood, finishing as the 12th-leading scorer in school history and setting the school’s single-season rebounding record her junior year. Laynie, who could handle the ball like a guard and made 38 3-pointers during her career, was a two-time Ottawa-Kent Conference Green all-league selection.
It wasn’t until the past couple years that volleyball became her clear focus. Laynie is a dominant hitter and blocker at the net, finishing with 711 kills and 224 blocks.
Her most memorable games both came during her junior year, and both were big wins in front of rowdy crowds at the Sailor Center – a volleyball victory over No. 6-ranked Jenison, which featured a wild 38-36 win in the final set, and then a basketball upset of rival Muskegon.
But she said her most meaningful memory is time spent volunteering at youth volleyball and basketball clinics.
“We always worked a ton of youth camps, and I always loved that,” said Laynie, who is considering becoming a teacher and coach someday. “It’s fun seeing how excited (kids) get when they figure something out. And now some of those girls have grown up and they’re going to be taking our place.”
Separate ways
The “Russell twins” will, in many ways, truly will become Maddie and Laynie for the first time this fall.
Maddie will journey 216 miles south to Indiana Tech, which is in Fort Wayne, and Laynie will venture 417 miles in the opposite direction to Northern Michigan in Marquette.
“It’s going to be hard, for sure, but I’m trying to focus on what a unique opportunity it will be for both of them,” said Jennifer Russell. “For the first time, they will each have their own separate life, and I am excited for that.”
One thing is for certain: mom’s day-in, day-out Google calendar will free up immensely.
Right now, it’s somewhat comical when she calls up her color-coded family calendar on her phone (Maddie is purple, Laynie is pink, Dono is green, etc.) and it looks like a rainbow, with a crazy blend of school activities, school sports, travel sports, family obligations and work.
Dono will graduate from MSU next month, the twins will graduate from Mona Shores in June and then they will head off and begin their college journeys in August.
Mike and Jennifer, both 1988 Shores graduates and high school sweethearts, will be empty nesters, but at least will still have the family’s two dogs, Scout and Coco. The biggest challenge will be finding a way to be in two places at once – with the twins playing volleyball 633 miles apart.
About one mile away from their home at Mona Shores High School, the Sailors girls sports programs will need to replace two standouts who gave everything they had to their school – as individuals, teammates and role models for little girls in the community.
“Maddie and Laynie always put their school and their teammates above themselves,” said Phillips, whose three daughters played with and became friends with the Russell twins. “Their focus was, how can I help my school? In the spring it was, how can I help another one of our teams?
“What I will remember most about them is the great people and teammates that they were. I will be forever grateful to them for that.”
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Senior twins Laynie Russell (left) and Maddie Russell (right) have left their mark on the Muskegon Mona Shores athletic program as standout three-sport athletes. (2) Laynie (left) and Maddie are all smiles for a much earlier photo. (3) Maddie (left) and Laynie (right) are dominant forces at the volleyball net, shown here going up for a double block. (4) Jennifer, Maddie, Laynie and Mike Russell pose for a photo with the Sailors' Division 1 District championship trophy Nov. 7, 2024, at Coopersville. (Top photo courtesy of Billinghurst Photography. Family photos courtesy of Jennifer Russell. Action photo by Eric Sturr.)