Forest Area's Stremlow Never Far from Serving School Sports Community
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
February 4, 2022
He hasn’t met a sport he can’t coach. And, he probably hasn’t turned down a team he’s met – yet.
Many of the coaching jobs he’s taken were actually offered to him by him.
Whenever he’s started a new sport, he’s sought mentors in the form of successful veteran coaches. But make no mistake, if they made a movie in Northern Michigan called “The Mentor” – this Hall of Fame coach would be the star of the show.
He’s technically retired today. The teams he coaches don’t get TV cameras and other media present. He’s a middle school track and volleyball coach for Fife Lake Forest Area Community Schools.
He’s perhaps most well-known as the past volleyball coach at Forest Area. Don’t be surprised if you hear of graduated athletes – and current student-athletes – from Glen Lake, Manton, Kingsley and even McBain Northern Michigan Christian happily call him “Coach.”
Name the coach? Ron Stremlow. He’s a retired physical education teacher, athletic director and coach. He came out of retirement to return as the part-time athletic director for Forest Area, a district he served 32 years as a teacher.
He’s also coaching a couple of middle school sports, just like he did when he was working full-time. Athletic directors often need to put themselves in tough-to-fill coaching slots.
“Ron Stremlow has been a tremendous ambassador of high school sports in Northern Michigan,” said Dave Jackson, athletic director of Frankfort-Alberta Schools. “The number of coaches, parents and athletes Ron has encouraged during his years of service are too many to count.
“He is an athletic administrator that has always been about service and what (he) can do to help.”
Help is exactly what he did once upon a time for then-new volleyball coach at McBain Northern Michigan Christian, Diane Eisenga. The call for help came from Eisenga’s players.
Today, Eisenga is an athletic assistant for the Comets and mother of five boys, her youngest still attending NMC. Like Stremlow, she has built a very successful program. Back then, she was just getting started, pregnant and a mother of two children, and unable to coach her team during a Ferris State University tournament that Stremlow had planned to scout with longtime friend and Kingsley 1,000-win volleyball coach Dave Hall.
Stremlow actually was planning to watch NMC at the tournament, anticipating the Comets would be a potential roadblock to a District title that upcoming season. (He was right: Forest Area would end up losing to NMC in a District Final as the Comets reached the Class D Quarterfinals.)
What Stremlow did not anticipate was being asked by the Comets players to step in and coach them at the Ferris tourney. Stremlow was told Eisenga was not feeling well enough to guide the team at that moment.
Stremlow did not hesitate to help. He had previously leant his wisdom to the former Dordt University (Iowa) athlete with tryouts, cutting decisions and NMC’s summer camp.
“I had played in high school and college, but I was green,” Eisenga acknowledged. “He was a good mentor.”
She recalls her players asking for Stremlow’s help.
“I got real light-headed and wasn’t feeling well,” she said. “Because the girls had known him, he took over for me that day.”
It wasn’t a surprise for Eisenga to witness Stremlow’s contribution to her team’s success that year.
“I always saw him as more of a mentor and more of a friend (than an opposing coach),” Eisenga said. “He was happy with anyone’s success.
“He was always happy for any team that played well,” she continued. “Of course, he always wanted his own to win. … He was always respectful, and you never saw him cross the line.”
Stremlow, who jokes about maybe not having the most wins among hall of fame volleyball coaches while claiming the most losses amongst the elite group (he still ranks 17th in MHSAA history with 944 volleyball wins despite retiring from the Forest Area varsity after the 2018 season), spends his days taking care of Forest Area boys and girls basketball, completive cheer and the Warriors co-ed wresting teams. Many a night he does whatever it takes to run an event, including running the scoreboard for basketball.
In the fall, Forest Area offers 8-player football, cross country and volleyball. He’s in the midst of finalizing spring softball, track and baseball.
Basketball is perhaps his favorite sport, but he loves the change of seasons.
“Once that season’s up, I am ready to rock and roll and get into another,” Stremlow noted.
Giving back is what keeps the 62-year-old Stremlow going. He sees at least three years of involvement ahead.
“A lot of kids do not get good role models or good coaches. And I thought if I can help kids out, I am going to,” Stremlow said.
Today Stremlow wears many school colors, especially the Warriors’ forest green. You also often can find him in Kingsley orange, or perhaps it is actually the Manton orange.
You will definitely find him in his favorite, maize and blue. His forest green should never be confused with the Michigan State green. The Wolverines became the favorite of the Central Michigan grad when he got into the Big House as a high school student with a $2 ticket to watch Michigan take on Navy.
“I have green, but it is not the Michigan State green,” Stremlow said he often jokes with fans of the Spartans and Warriors.
Stremlow uses all his team colors as he follows another passion, photography. He got a camera for college graduation, and student-athletes all over Northern Michigan have benefited.
“There are thousands of former players from Forest Area and Kingsley that can point to pictures in their homes that Ron has taken of them playing sports,” Jackson said. “These pictures are not just cute shots, but pictures that were used to teach form and techniques.”
Stremlow takes satisfaction from capturing sports on film, rather digitally, as he does today.
“I take a lot of pictures – I‘ve always liked it,” he said. “That’s the best gift you can give any kid and parents – just getting pictures.
“It really helps, plus I like doing it.”
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) Fife Lake Forest Area athletic director Ron Stremlow talks with official Chuck Bott (right) before a basketball game against Indian River Inland Lakes this season. (Middle) Stremlow shows support for his favorite college team while prepping before a game against Johannesburg-Lewiston. (Top photo by Tom Spencer; middle photo by Andrew Fish/Gaylord Herald-Times.)
Mercy Stands Tall at Net, Makes Big Blocks Pay Off in Championship Win
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 22, 2025
BATTLE CREEK – Farmington Hills Mercy looked to be on its way to a sweep Saturday in the Division 1 Volleyball Final at Kellogg Arena.
So when Bloomfield Hills erased a nine-point deficit in the third set, extending the match and delaying the Silly String celebration, the Marlins were on the wrong side of a massive momentum swing.
They were also incredibly calm.
“I feel like our message was not to worry,” Mercy senior Ella Andrews said. “We were down in the Semifinals two sets and came back and reverse swept them, so I feel like our message was just to stay calm. We can trust ourselves. We’ve been working for this all season, we just have to rely on each other and feel confident in ourselves to get back and score those points to win the set.”
Mercy got back to its game in the fourth set, and put itself back on top of the state with a 25-18, 25-20, 23-25, 25-20 victory against Bloomfield Hills.
The win gives the Marlins their third Finals title and second in three years. And, for the second time since 2023, they doused their coach Loretta Vogel with water and Silly String.
“I’m going in there to talk to everybody in the locker room, and I just get drenched,” Vogel said. “It’s definitely becoming a custom here.”
Mercy entered the fourth Final in program history with a simple, yet difficult gameplan: Slow Bloomfield Hills star Kayla Nwabueze. The Harvard-bound outside hitter did manage a match-high 24 kills, but the Marlins’ long, talented front line made it as difficult on her as possible.
“Our plan was to shut down Kayla,” said Vogel, who puts Nwabueze among the best hitters she’s seen in her 49 years coaching. “Put big blocks up, make them change to something else. That worked for us. I thought the girls really got up there and put four hands in front of her. There was one time we triple-blocked. So, I think changing something up like that, giving her a different view, had an impact on her. For any hitter, that would have an impact.”
Nwabueze got some backup from sophomore Allison Stakoe, who had 20 kills and played a massive role in the third set comeback.
But Nwabueze admitted it was tough to try and navigate the Mercy blockers.
“I would say it was really frustrating,” she said. “I knew they were going to come out and try to stop me, so I just had the mentality of don’t let that happen. I feel like I got into a rut a couple times. That’s what they tried to do, to stop the player that caused the most damage, and it was smart on their part. I really tried hard to try to get past that block. It was a really big block, though.”
McKenzie and Ella Andrews led the way on that block, with Ella finishing the match with two solo blocks and five assists, and McKenzie tallying six block assists. They had a ton of help, too. Kaelyn Easton had five block assists, Saniya Tucker had four, and both Cree Hollier and Kate Kalczynski had two.
Mercy’s attack was just as varied.
Kalczynski led the way with 16 kills, including the final one on match point, while Ella Andrews had 13, Hollier had 12 and McKenzie Andrews had seven.
That distribution was thanks to their freshman setter Easton, who had 43 assists in the Final and more than 100 over the final two matches.
“Definitely just seeing open spots where the blockers were,” Easton said. “I know in this game, the middles were open a lot, were scoring a lot, especially in the last set, and the coaches were just like, ‘Get them the ball. Just get them the ball and make them score.’ Also, the outsides, they opened up the middles a lot, so really, really appreciative to all of them. I could just not do it without the passes. The passes were really, really good this weekend.”
Maya Zarow led Mercy (42-5-3) with 24 digs, while Kalczynski had 12 and Easton 11.
Bloomfield Hills (43-8-1) setter Brynn Wilcox finished the day with 42 assists. Alyssa Moir led the defense with 20 digs, while Stakoe added 14, Nwabueze had 13 and Julia Colosimo had 10.
This weekend marked the first time the Black Hawks had advanced to the Semifinals.
“I’m just really proud of our team,” Wilcox said. “Even though we may have faced some ups and downs throughout the season, we kind of leaned on each other. It’s probably one of the greatest – I’ve had the most fun of my life.”
PHOTOS (Top) Farmington Hills Mercy players raise their championship trophy Saturday afternoon at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) Mercy’s Cree Hollier (22) attempts a kill as Bloomfield Hills’ Suri Ewing (13) and Charlotte Elowsky elevate to try and block it.