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.)
Clarkston Everest Collegiate Caps Repeat as 1st Undefeated Champ Since 2015
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 23, 2024
BATTLE CREEK – Sarah Bradley and her Clarkston Everest Collegiate volleyball teammates accomplished something Saturday that hasn’t been done since 2015.
Behind 28 kills from the senior outside hitter, the Mountaineers completed an unbeaten season and defeated St. Joseph Our Lady of the Lake Catholic in four sets at Kellogg Arena, claiming their second-straight Division 4 Finals title.
But when it all ended, and she was asked to look back on the accomplishments, Bradley looked more toward the bond she and her teammates had created.
“Yes, we won two state championships, but nothing will ever amount to the amount of fun I had with these girls and this team,” Bradley said through tears. “I’m so sad to leave them and everyone behind. I think this season, we really played for each other, and it’s going to be so hard to leave them.”
Everest won 25-23, 25-21, 21-25, 25-13 to finish 37-0-1 on the year, with a split against two-time reigning Division 2 champion North Branch the only match result that kept the team from achieving perfection. It was the first undefeated season for any Michigan high school volleyball team since Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard accomplished the feat in winning Class B in 2015.
The dropped set was one of just six that the Mountaineers lost all season.
“Everyone on the team was dialed in, everyone was in on the effort to go back to back,” Everest senior middle Addison Pearce said. “It wasn’t just a couple people that were like, ‘Oh, this is something we could do.’ It was everyone combined that worked hard every day, didn’t let anything come in our way to keep our momentum going.”
Madelyn Krappmann had 16 assists and 14 digs for the Mountaineers, and Pearce had 10 kills and five blocks. Erica Walker added 45 assists and 14 digs, while Bradley had 16 digs and Samantha Pietras had 14.
A year ago, Everest came into the final weekend as an underdog seeking its first Finals title. This year, it had to hold off an incredible effort from a St. Joseph Our Lady team that was in a similar position, albeit as a much bigger underdog.
The Lakers were making the first Finals weekend trip in program history, as five seniors led the charge to Thursday’s Semifinals. But they were the only five players on the roster who are actually in high school. Two eighth graders rounded out the seven-player team, which is allowed due to the enrollment of the school (61 students).
“I just feel like we played hard; there’s no question about that,” Lakers coach Erin Cashen said. “We knew this was going to be one heck of a feat to do. Seven players, two eighth graders that had never played before this season. We knew it was going to be tough. They were just too much for us in the end.
“I’m really just so proud of our girls. Nothing’s changed for me. I’m really proud of you guys. I think you did some amazing things. I’m pretty sure you didn’t believe me when I took the position two years ago and said I’m going to take you to state. And, here we are. I did it for you, and you deserve it.”
Nora Proos led St. Joseph Our Lady with 25 kills and 14 digs, while Jojo Marsh had 10 kills and 15 digs. Aislin Sargent added 34 assists for the Lakers (34-4-1), and Ellie Howard had 16 digs.
Winning the third set against the unbeaten soon-to-be repeat champ was certainly a badge of honor for the Lakers, although they agreed it may have woken something up in the Mountaineers.
“I think it’s great that we were able to take a set,” Marsh said. “We didn’t win the whole thing, but we did take a set. That’s huge for all of us. Everyone just played their hearts out, you could tell. You could tell it was our last game, everyone was flying everywhere and the eighth graders really stepped up. It was a really great season.”
After the first three sets were incredibly close, Everest did open things up in the fourth, winning 11 of the final 14 points in the match. It ended, fittingly, with an emphatic spike from Krappmann.
“I’m incredibly grateful that I had that opportunity, that Erica (Walker) set me that ball,” Krappmann said. “Something was off the first few sets. Passing and defense were OK, but hitting, I just had this weird disconnect. … We got to the fourth one, and I was hyped up, ready to go. Something switched, and I was like, ‘I want this.’ I just felt like I had control of the ball.
“On the last one, I felt like, ‘This could be the game point. This could be our second state championship. This could be the last point we play for Everest.’ Of course I want to give everything I have to that point, out of respect and gratitude to this team and my coach, and to all the people that support us.”
PHOTOS (Top) Clarkston Everest Collegiate players raise their championship trophy Saturday at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) The Mountaineers’ Sarah Bradley (4) sends a spike into the block of Rachel Kalamaros (3) and another Lakers teammate. (Below) Our Lady’s Nora Proos (12) and Everest’s Erica Walker (6) contend for a ball. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)