Flights, Flexibility, Fun & New Friends All Parts of Beaver Island's Sports Story
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
August 27, 2021
Chartered flights and overnight stays for all away games are part of the normal routine for one northern Michigan high school’s student-athletes.
Opportunities to make lots of new friends always come with the games too.
That’s the norm for Beaver Island athletes representing the Lakers in soccer, volleyball and basketball while competing in the Northern Lights League.
“We fly everywhere, and it is awesome,” says second-year soccer coach Bryan Doughman. “I thoroughly enjoy the travel.
“The biggest challenge is the kids forgetting something, and I am ultimately responsible for ‘How am I going to fix this?’”
Beaver Island is the largest island in Lake Michigan, northwest of Charlevoix in the Lower Peninsula and southeast of Manistique in the U.P. The island is home to 600 year-round residents, with 60 students kindergarten through 12th grade, including 17 in grades 9-12 this school year.
Doughman manages a restaurant on the Island. He is a native of Cincinnati. Coaching the co-ed soccer team has permitted him to make his first trips to the Upper Peninsula and Mackinac Island.
But social aspects provide the most benefit for the student-athletes. The Islanders will make their first trip of the season Sept. 15 to Concord Academy Boyne. As they do at home, the Islanders will play a game Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. The overnight experience is provided by the home school.
“The kids will be seeing and meeting new friends,” Doughman noted. That’s what they ultimately look forward to … socially with different people.
“We all know the situation of going to work where you interact with the same people over and over again and can’t wait to meet new people,” he continued. “That’s what they kinda go through their whole lives.”
Beaver Island’s girls volleyball team opened its season Aug. 27 with a pair of losses at Maplewood Baptist in Kinross, located in the eastern Upper Peninsula.
The soccer and volleyball teams will open their home seasons Sept. 10 and 11, hosting Hannahville Nah Tah Wahsh, another U.P. opponent.
“The island community enjoys being able to come and cheer on the island teams,” noted second-year volleyball coach Bridget Martin.
The boys and girls basketball teams will go through their seasons this winter similarly. Athletics and social opportunities are a source of satisfaction for Kerry Smith, Beaver Island’s athletic director. She grew up on the Island and competed for the Islanders.
“The best part of being an AD on an island is the great deal of satisfaction I get from watching our kids be able to connect with other kids their age and play a sport and have a great time doing it,” Smith said. “The kids here know what a privilege it is to be able to have a sports program, and they show their appreciation through their outstanding sportsmanship – and that makes me beam with pride!”
Dianna Behl, Beaver Island’s language arts teacher, will take over the girls basketball team this winter. She has served as the school’s Nordic ski club advisor the past four years and has practiced with the basketball team frequently. She was a three-year letter winner at Charlevoix High School.
She’s expects her team to benefit from players taking part in fall sports.
“I am very excited for our season because many of the players are participating in soccer and volleyball, so they should be in great shape for basketball season,” she said. “I hope to build on their solid base.”
Dan Burton will be entering his seventh season as the varsity boys basketball coach. He’s also developing an elementary basketball program and guiding the middle schoolers. He expects to have a middle schooler or two join the high school team to fill out the roster this winter.
“The best part of coaching is getting these the students an outlet for sports,” said Burton, a business owner on the island. “Otherwise, there’s nothing much else to do in a small town like this.
“Keeping a sports program is the most important thing.”
The soccer team also is relying on middle schoolers as it attempts to find enough players to compete. The co-ed roster is dominated by girls, and the Islanders have only two seniors and one junior on the squad.
“I just hope we can improve a lot on our basics this year,” Doughman said. “I hope to just have fun. The biggest challenge is they’re all first and second-year players, except for a handful.”
Weather is the most difficult challenge of being an island-based sports team, the coaches acknowledged.
“The greatest challenge of coaching an island team is Mother Nature,” Behl said. “The girls practice hard for days and then at the last minute bad weather comes in and the planes aren't flying us out, or our competition in, for the games.
“It is heartbreaking and happens every season,” she continued. “Nonetheless, I am so impressed with how well the girls handle it. It is a life lesson in flexibility, and they are pros.”
Because of those frequent weather changes, spotting the athletic director in the school hallways often is a bad sign.
“The weather is a major frustration and always a factor for us,” Smith said. “On game day, I try not to show my face down in the high school wing because the kids always think I am coming to deliver bad news.”
The school often chooses which teams will go on to MHSAA postseason play based on their success in the league. Beaver Island sent its boys basketball team to Districts last season.
The last Beaver Island team to move past the first round of Districts was the volleyball team in 2013. The Islanders beat Mackinaw City and went on to play Engadine before seeing their season come to an end. The school’s best-ever tournament run was by the soccer team in 2005.
“They were District winners; this was the farthest any team has ever gone,” Smith recalled. “It was a huge celebration. The team was greeted by the fire trucks, parents and pretty much the whole community when they flew home that day.”
Beaver Island anticipates sending the boys basketball team to Districts again this year, and possibly the girls basketball team as well.
Mackinac Island is the Islanders’ favorite place to travel, according to coaches’ consensus. That’s the host for the volleyball and soccer Northern Lights Conference tournaments.
“One of our favorites would have to be Mackinac Island because the girls enjoy flying to another island, riding in the horse drawn carriage and the rare treat of getting to go to a Starbucks,” she said.
Mackinac Island will host conference tournaments for soccer Oct. 16 and volleyball Oct. 23.
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. 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) Beaver Island's Ella Moon passes during a volleyball match this fall. (2) Olga Burton winds up to serve. (3) Beaver Island plays its lone home soccer game during the 2020 season. (4) The Beaver Island boys basketball team participated in District play this past winter. (Photos courtesy of the Beaver Island athletic department.)
Nearly 25 Years After Leading Unexpected Run, Morton Directing Life-Changing Mission
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
August 11, 2026
Nearly a quarter century after presiding over arguably one of the most improbable boys basketball state championships in Michigan history, the same fight and underdog mentality still exists for Tim Morton.
Back in 2002, Morton was the head boys basketball head coach at Auburn Hills Avondale, which produced a Hollywood-type run during that season’s Class B tournament.
Unranked and without a future Division I college player in the lineup, a Yellow Jackets team headlined by seven seniors went on a quest that stunned many statewide observers.
Avondale avenged the disappointment of not getting out of the District round the previous year and then recorded a stunning upset of a highly-ranked Flint Southwestern team in their Regional Final, winning in double overtime. But after squeaking out a six-point win over a solid Williamston team in a Quarterfinal and earning an 11-point win over Comstock Park in the Semifinals, surely midnight was going to strike for Cinderella in the championship game. After all, Avondale was up against a powerful Grand Rapids South Christian team which had multiple future Division I college players on its roster.
It didn’t matter as Avondale, led by tough-as-nails captains Mike Lewis and Wes Whiteside, senior Dionte Miller and sophomore Dave Holston, completed its stunning run with a 70-65 win to capture what still stands as the program’s only Finals basketball championship.
Morton said he thought his team the previous year that couldn’t make it out of Districts was more talented, but there were intangibles the 2001-02 team possessed that couldn’t be matched.
“I think that nobody really thought that they’d have a shot,” Morton said of his team. “I think that is why we were unranked, because of what had left. But you’ve got to have something to fight for, and I think the reason was the year before. We were motivated. I think playing that underdog role, we just loved it. We won games in so many different ways and got on that roll.”
This past March, Morton and other alumni of the Avondale team certainly were thrilled to see this year’s squad advance to the Semifinals for the first time since their 2001-02 team did so. This time, the Yellow Jackets suffered a three-point Semifinal loss to eventual Class A champion Rockford.
Today, Morton is also heading another team that has an underdog mentality but is motivated to fight for each other and surrounding communities.
Morton is the multi-area director for the Southeast Michigan chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which aims to serve kids, coaches and communities by promoting through activities faith, self-esteem, serving others and being the best version of yourself.
The organization has roughly 50 student-led “huddles” that meet at high schools or middle schools, where students can have a safe haven to talk about problems, promote successes, go over scripture and bond during a challenging time of life.
Through volunteers and other staff members, the organization also conducts camps throughout the state for coaches, athletes and others to learn from each other and grow as leaders.
The chapter will have its annual golf outing Sept. 28 at Oakland University’s Sharf Golf Course.
“We just want to be really good at cultivating those relationships, making sure that we’re following up with people, and sharing what the Lord is doing so people feel like they can be connected to something bigger than themselves.”
Playing for something bigger than themselves certainly worked for the 2002 team, and Morton said there is a 25th anniversary reunion in the works for next spring.
But while he nor anyone else in the Avondale community will forget that run in 2002, these days Morton is spearheading a team he said is playing for an even greater purpose, one he tried to describe to a group of youth football coaches in Flint during a recent gathering.
“I had only about 15 to 20 minutes to share with these guys,” Morton said. “I shared that we won a state title in 2002 and I was driven to be the best coach I could possibly be. A lot of great things happened, and the state championship happened. I’m on my way home from the state championship and we’re watching the video, and it’s crazy because this fear came over me. How are we going to do this again?
“Every coach that puts his or her full identity in the performance of the team, that’s scary and that’s not good. I got out six years later because of that fear. The most important relationships of my life were not good because I had to be validated by the performance of my team. That conversation kind of led into, “Why are you coaching? Why are you doing what you are doing? I wanted them to be motivated to be the best versions of themselves, for those kids, their wives and children. That’s why I’m in FCA. That’s my cause to fight for.”
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PHOTOS At left, Tim Morton raises the Class B championship trophy in 2002. At right, Morton now a director for Fellowship of Christian Athletes. (Middle) Morton, kneeling, speaks to his team during the championship win at Breslin Center. (MHSAA archives)