Mom's Memory Inspires C-F All-Stater
January 9, 2021
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
MONTGOMERY – Jocelynn Nicholls was first drawn to volleyball in grade school.
Over the years, the Camden-Frontier senior has made the transition from being a wild swinging middle-schooler to an apprehensive freshman on the varsity to an all-state volleyball player headed to Trine University to play the sport she loves.
“I fell in love with volleyball when I was in the fourth grade,” she said. “I’ve played basketball and softball, but nothing feels like volleyball.”
It wasn’t always easy for Nicholls, who has overcome the loss of her mother Amy Nicholls during her sophomore season to become a tower of strength for the Redskins.
“She’s been through a lot, but she’s a tough kid and is going to make something of herself,” said Camden-Frontier coach Dawn Follis.
Nicholls’ mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the early part of 2018. By volleyball season that year, her mom had become very ill, enough that Nicholls missed a match when her mom went to the hospital. That season, her mom lost her battle; she died on a game day.
Nicholls had asked her mom earlier that day if she should play.
“I said to her ‘What do you want me to do?’,” said Nicholls, who was 15 at the time. “She squeezed my hand and told me to go. She couldn’t talk, so we had a way to communicate through squeezing my hand. She wanted me to play.”
About halfway through the match against Pittsford, Nicholls felt something she had never experienced before – a feeling, almost like a change in her body.
“My aunt was at the game watching me,” she said. “She even noticed the change in me. I got home after the game, and I figured out the news.”
Her mom, an English professor and dean of the Jannen School of Arts and Sciences at Trine University in nearby Angola, Ind., had passed away.
Nicholls turned to volleyball to help her through. Using her mom as her strength, she didn’t miss another match. Volleyball has always been a big part of her life.
“I’ve come a long way since my freshman year,” she said. “Being pulled up to the varsity was a huge thing. It was a great opportunity for me to grow as a player. It really opened my eyes.”
After that season on the varsity, she started playing club volleyball, first at a club in Hillsdale, then at Team Pineapple Volleyball Club in Angola, which is less than a half hour from her home.
"Once I started playing for other teams, I started playing up, against older girls,” she said. “When I was a freshman I was playing against a bunch of seniors.”
Follis and the Redskins have built a small-school powerhouse in south central Michigan, just north of the Michigan-Indiana state line. Nicholls helped Camden-Frontier to a school-record 40 wins that sophomore season and they won 36 matches and the school’s first Regional crown in 2019. This fall’s was another outstanding season for the Redskins, who went 25-3 and won a fourth-straight District title. Over Nicholls’ four varsity seasons, Camden-Frontier won more than 100 matches.
Nicholls had a great season in 2020, earning first-team all-state honors from the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association. Playing about half the matches the Redskins typically play in a season, she recorded 395 kills, averaging 4.34 per set, and accumulated 141 digs. Two of her teammates, junior Dakota Sigler and senior Heather Shaw, made the all-state honorable mention list. (Camden-Frontier fell 3-2 to Lansing Christian in a Regional Semifinal on Nov. 10; Lansing Christian will play in the Quarterfinals on Tuesday.)
Follis said Nicholls knows how to use her height to her advantage.
“She’s very tall and very athletic and aggressive,” Follis said. “She’s worked really hard on her game. When she was in middle school, she was tall and had this wild swing. She played all of the time, and it shows.”
Nicholls stands 6-foot tall. She had 70 blocks and block assists this season.
“I’ve always been really tall,” she said. “I think by the fifth grade I was taller than any boy in my class.
“I always knew I was tall and that would benefit me, but I knew that wasn’t going to be enough. I worked hard to increase my vertical. I put in a lot of time. I definitely try and use that to my advantage."
Follis said Nicholls did use her height to her advantage, something not all tall players do.
“She’s a hitter, and she really jumps well,” said Follis. “In high school she has the ability to change the game with her hitting. She’s a game-changer.”
At the Camden-Frontier matches over the past couple of years, there was typically a large contingent of aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins watching Nicholls and her teammates play. That is one of the reasons she chose Trine – her family will be able to see her play.
“I want to be close to my family,” she said. “I’d rather be 20 minutes away than 12 hours away. Family is a big deal for me.”
Nicholls said she loves to hang out with family and friends but doesn’t have time for a lot of other interests outside of sports. She likes to stay busy, no matter what sports season it is. Right now, she is lifting and running on nice days and staying ready for the upcoming basketball season. She’s been on the varsity softball team since her freshman season as well.
“I am fulltime, 100-percent motivated to focus on my game,” she said.
At Trine she plans on majoring in exercise science with the hopes of going into physical therapy or something in the athletic field.
“I want to be there for my mom,” she said. “It’s a big opportunity that I will even get to play there. That’s where I wanted to be.”
Trine is a big part of the Nicholls family. Not only was her mom a professor at the school, but she also graduated from Trine. Her dad Scott and brother Mason also went to Trine. Jocelynn started going there at a young age and impressed the volleyball coach years ago.
“When I was a freshman, I went there for a camp and the coach told me if I continued to work hard, I would get a (scholarship) offer,” she recalled.
Losing her mother a couple of years ago, Nicholls said, completely changed her outlook on life.
“It provided me an opportunity to grow,” she said. “It makes me want to give 100 percent all of the time and not take anything for granted. You are not promised tomorrow.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Camden-Frontier’s Jocelynn Nicholls holds up her team’s District title trophy from this season. (Middle) Nicholls serves during a match this fall. (Photos by Doug Donnelly.)
Jenison Ace Enters Senior Season Fueled by Team's 2024 Breakout Success
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
August 28, 2025
JENISON – Karis Chatfield will remember last year’s Division 1 District Final against Hudsonville as one of the best days of her life thus far.
It was a day that erased several years of heartbreaking losses for the Jenison volleyball team.
“I will talk about that day forever because it was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had,” the senior standout said. “Some of the girls we played against were my best friends and they had beaten us the last two years, so to pull off that win in that atmosphere and to do that in front of that crowd and then to be able to play in the Regional Finals on our home court was just an awesome opportunity.”
Jenison swept rival Hudsonville 3-0 to claim its first District championship since 2013 and then defeated Mona Shores in the Regional Semifinals.
The season ended against Rockford in the Regional Finals, but that loss is fueling this year’s team.
“That's our goal again this year, but our goal is to get even further,” Chatfield said. “I think the loss to Rockford is going to light a fire under our butts. Not every girl plays at a super-high club level and hasn’t been in those situations to see those lights when the pressure is on you, so I think they learned a lot about what it takes mentally. I think that will help a lot this year.”
Chatfield, a returning all-state first-team selection who has committed to East Tennessee State, will be joined by several key returnees, including senior Charlee Cochran and juniors Ava Bush-Nelson, Rylee Paddock and McKenzie Thompson.
Wildcats coach Teran Peerboom-Vanderbroek said last year’s MHSAA Tournament run gave her team a taste of playing in pressure-packed moments against quality competition.
“Now that they’ve seen that and been there, they kind of got the feel for it and they know that they can do it,” she said. “Yes, the big stage was new to us, but we handled the pressure and we are ready to go this year. We beat Rockford twice last year, we beat Northville, so they’re excited for the opportunity to be on that platform again.
“We want to win and go further than last year, and I definitely think we have the potential and the talent to do so.”
Chatfield, an outside hitter, has emerged as one of the top players in the state and was named a finalist for Detroit Free Press Preseason Player of the Year.
As a junior, the 5-foot-11 Chatfield registered 518 kills, 470 digs, 62 assists, 73 aces and 39 blocks. She is among the program’s top three leaders in kills, digs and aces.
“Skill-wise, she’s just so talented and it’s her dedication to practicing, to the sport,” Peerboom-Vanderbroek said. “She’s playing non-stop year-round, trying to get touches and trying to improve. She doesn't want to be mediocre, she wants to be great, and she has a very high expectation for herself.”
Chatfield is taking all of the preseason hype in stride.
“Volleyball is still a game and what I love to do, so I don’t feel a ton of external pressure,” she said. “I’m just having fun with it and setting these goals for myself. If I achieve them then that’s awesome, but if I don’t then it gives me something to work harder for in the future.”
Chatfield had already eclipsed 1,000 career digs, and Tuesday night against West Catholic she reached 1,500 career kills.
“I came into my senior year with a lot of goals,” Chatfield said. “Some of these goals I already achieved and I’m just adding layers onto them, but for me it’s more of a team sport than an individual sport so I really want to focus on what my team has done for me and things that have allowed me to get where I am.”
Chatfield’s competitiveness can be attributed to her family background.
“We’ve always been super competitive, and that competitive edge in me just always wants me to be the best and make my teammates better,” Chatfield said.
The Wildcats, who shared the Ottawa-Kent Conference Green title last year with Caledonia, have opened the season with eight wins over their first nine matches.
“They’ve been playing well, and we are just figuring out what we are going to do with our lineup and trying to solidify that before conference starts because we have a lot of options,” Peerboom-Vanderbroek said. “A lot of our players are just so versatile and they can play multiple positions. We are just trying to figure out what is the best fit for our team this year, and I think that speaks to our players that they can play so many positions so well.”
Dean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for five years after serving at the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years along with shorter stints at the Ionia Sentinel and WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Jenison’s Karis Chatfield sets up for one of her more than 1,000 career digs. (Middle) Chatfield and her teammates celebrate their District championship last season. (Top photo by Robert McCulfor Photography.)