Reigning D4 Champ Finding Title Mix Again
By
Wes Morgan
Special for MHSAA.com
October 8, 2019
Losing half its roster following a Division 4 championship season presented plenty of challenges to the Mendon varsity volleyball program this fall.
But the resourceful Hornets, led by second-year head coach Heather Bowers, have managed to compete at a high level while simultaneously forming a new identity.
With a dominant offense in 2018 that resulted in an MHSAA postseason run that was nearly perfect (just one set dropped in seven matches) and culminated with a 25-16, 25-21, 25-14 victory over No. 1-ranked Leland in the Final at Kellogg Arena, Bowers’ first year in charge was a smooth transition for the program. This year, without as much firepower, a slew of injuries and players having to learn new and critical positions, a match record of 21-6-6 has required a more blue-collar approach.
“They still have that drive that has been instilled in them,” Bowers said. “They’re not satisfied; they want more all the time. They have that competitiveness this year, too. The talent is there, and it is a very athletic group that’s fun to work with.”
Still, at 6-0 in the Southwest 10 Conference and carrying a No. 2 ranking in the latest Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association poll, the Hornets have positioned themselves well for a repeat run.
Bowers, who played her senior year at Mendon in 2011 for legendary coach Kathy Trenary before competing for Huntington University in Indiana, has implemented a similar, defensive-minded approach along with a focus on serving.
“We have always prided ourselves on serving,” said Bowers, whose team is operating at a 90.1-percent clip this year with 279 aces. “Serving has been a staple and defense has been a staple, too.”
Senior defensive specialist Juliana Hagenbuch has registered 265 digs so far this year, with four more teammates having made significant impacts in the same category. Junior outside hitter Anna Smith, who has verbally committed to play for Division I College of Charleston (S.C.), might be best known for her offensive prowess, but she’s second on the team with 187 digs. Senior Gracie Russell is up to 157, and sophomore Payton Griffith boasts 150.
“Juliana runs the defense and makes sure people are in the right spots,” Bowers said. “She is really, really good at reading and very good at serve receive. I don’t think I’ve run into another high school player who’s that consistent at serve receiving.”
“We have kind of filled the spots of the people that have graduated, regrouped and found that drive again,” Hagenbuch said. “I think we’re capable of making it pretty far again this year.”
Senior middle blocker Taylor Heitkamp has had the hottest hand at the service line with 67 aces, followed by Smith (55) and Hagenbuch (53). Smith has logged a team-best 43 blocks — which is rare from the outside hitter position — and junior middle Andrea Hoffman has 41 blocks.
That’s not to say the Hornets aren’t well-equipped offensively. Smith, a 2018 all-state selection and the second in her family to attract attention from Division I college coaches (older sister Kaley is a junior libero at Western Michigan University), is a powerhouse at the net with 409 kills this year. Heitkamp is responsible for 149 and Hoffman has 117.
“Anna leads us on our offense every outing,” Bowers explained. “She is a very powerful hitter. She sees the court well, she’s a great leader and a great defensive player as well. It’s amazing to see the kind of power she has in her serves and her hitting. She just reads really well; she’s played so much.”
The common denominator is Russell, who moved from defensive specialist to fill the massive shoes of graduated all-state setter Aubrey Crotser.
“She’s quick and has really good hands,” Bowers said. “Throughout the summer she worked really hard and is doing really well. She is more of a quiet leader with scoring. She makes great choices and is just so quick to the ball.”
Smith’s ability and experience have been invaluable, and the program is thrilled to have her back for another year in 2020. Though the makeup of the squad is different than that of the 2018 championship team, having seen what it takes to be the last team standing, Smith feels another deep run is within reach.
“We knew we had big expectations this year,” she said. “We’re reinventing ourselves. Our chemistry was not the best, but now I think we’re starting to finally get into a groove. We all have the same goals, and it’s to win another (championship). We’ve tried to focus on only what we can control, the basics, and just play our game.”
Wes Morgan has reported for the Kalamazoo Gazette, ESPN and ESPNChicago.com, 247Sports and Blue & Gold Illustrated over the last 12 years and is the publisher of JoeInsider.com. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph and Branch counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Mendon’s Anna Smith sends a serve toward Southfield Christian during her team’s Division 4 Semifinal win last season at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) The Hornets celebrate a tournament victory this fall. (Middle photo courtesy of the Mendon volleyball program.)
St. Phil's Winning Ways Lead to Summer Celebration, Fall Anticipation
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
August 24, 2021
BATTLE CREEK — Last season’s Division 4 championship gave Battle Creek St. Philip 11 over coach Vicky Groat’s 22 seasons leading the program.
But those stats are a bit off. They do not include the three Class D titles she won as a player at St. Phil, giving her 14 overall.
“We won three state titles with Mom in ’83, ’84, ’85 and were in the final four in ’82,” Groat said.
“Mom” is Sheila Guerra, who led the Tigers to nine Finals championships while guiding the program from 1982-1997. Together, the mother-daughter duo has accounted for 20 of the school’s MHSAA-record 21 state volleyball titles. (The first was under coach Becky Emrich in 1979.) Those 21 championships, in fact, are more than twice as many as any other volleyball program in the state, and the Tigers’ 30 MHSAA Finals appearances are 17 more than the next best achiever.
That incredible success was recognized in July when Groat was named the National High School Athletic Coaches Association’s Volleyball Coach of the Year.
Guerra died in May 2006. But Mom was very much on Groat’s mind as she received her award. While accolades, awards and championships continue to pile up, Groat said her mother is the foundation for it all.
“Mom always encouraged me, and there are still things I do today that she did,” Groat said. “It may be old school, but it still works.”
And the Tigers will have another strong chance this fall to show how.
Plenty to celebrate
Groat did not tell her players that she was a finalist for the award but they found out anyway, said senior standout Brooke Dzwik, an all-state first-team outside hitter last season.
“(The players) went on this camping trip up to Leland and stayed in Coach (Laurie) Glass’ backyard,” Dzwik said. “We were also with Notre Dame Prep and Bronson. Four winning coaches.”
Dzwik said Bronson coach Jean LaClair spilled the beans, telling the players the news.
“(The other coaches) were teasing (Groat) about having a speech prepared and she was like ‘No way,’” Dzwik said.
Groat texted her players a picture of herself with the trophy, and during the first day of tryouts in August, the girls welcomed the coach with a few signs, a balloon, a card and Mountain Dew, “her favorite,” Dzwik said.
“We were just overjoyed because no one deserves it more than her.
“She walked in (to the gym) and I think she was pretty happy, but she doesn’t like the attention on her so she will never admit it.”
After her mom retired after the 1996-97 season, Groat took over, stepped away for 1999-2000 but then returned to direct the Tigers again for the last two decades.
No one, including Groat, expected her team to win the Division 4 title after starting last season with a 23-13 record, just nine athletes on the team and no junior varsity to draw from in case of injury.
“I begged (current senior) Alex Kersten to come out — she’s a cross country runner — and she did,” Groat said.
After a two-month delay because of the pandemic a year ago, practice was held outside at Battle Creek’s Bailey Park.
“We started off in the sand, and we were grateful that we were even allowed to get together and see everyone’s faces for the first time,” Dzwik said.
“It was awful at first, but (playing in sand) definitely made our legs stronger by the end of the season, and we were thankful for it.”
This year, expectations are much higher.
The Tigers lost just one player, Harleen Deol, to graduation and return five seniors also including Rachel Myers, Alexis Snyder and Bailey Fancher. Fancher made the all-state third team last season at libero.
“I feel more pressure now,” Dzwik said. “We didn’t have an amazing record last year and then pulled out a win.
“This year, we do have a (championship) win, so we placed a target on our backs.”
This season already includes a “first” for St. Phil.
“For the first time in St. Phil history, we have an eighth grader, Charli Greger (on varsity),” Groat said. “We were under 100 students last year, so we could have eighth graders play this year.
“Right now, we’re at 100 (students) so next year we won’t be able to have eighth graders.”
Other players are juniors Maddie Hoelscher and Kate Doyle and sophomores Rylee Altman and Makenzee Grimm.
Groat also has a junior varsity team for the first time in two years – a really good thing, she said.
“Take out the five seniors next year and I’m left with four players if I don’t have a JV team,” she said. “We brought eighth graders up to the JV team with four freshmen.
“Never thought we’d have to do that, but we want a program. I couldn’t imagine not having a St. Phil volleyball team. That would be a sad day.”
Family tradition
While a student at St. Phil, Groat was coached by her mother in volleyball and track. In addition, Groat’s father Lou coached basketball at the school.
Her parents as her coaches was not always an easy combination for a young teen.
“It’s always the coach’s kid who gets the brunt of it.” Groat said. “I still remember one of my friends and I were fighting during volleyball and my mom was blaming me. I was like, what about her?
“In track if she had no one to run something, ‘Vicky, you’re going to do it.’ But it was fun.”
Groat, who is also principal and athletic director at the school, credits her parents for not only her coaching success, but her life skills.
“I learned from the best.” she said. “I try to carry both their philosophies in the way they treated people.
“My mom was tough on kids, but if anybody needed anything, she was the first one there. She pushed hard and had high expectations, but she really was a softie inside. People still don’t believe me on that.”
Groat relies on one other person who is like family: assistant coach Angela Williams Frost.
“We call her Willi,” Groat said. “She’s been a great assistant for 18 years. She was a head coach at Springport and could be a head coach anywhere in the state.
“She’s very talented and smart. It makes my job easier knowing that Willi is there. I’ll be in practice and someone will come to the door for me and Willi is there to take over.”
July’s recognition was a total surprise, Groat said, deflecting any accolades. But it also can be regarded as deserved praise for her work teaching an abundance of lessons she learned herself as part of the volleyball program and the Guerra coaching tree.
“It’s just so much about my kids, the kids who have been here and who have played in our system,” she said. “It’s not a big school; we have our traditions, and they buy into it. It’s been great.
“Hopefully over the years we, as coaches, have taught them the important things in life, the life lessons that they will carry on. Sports are an important part of it, but there are other things involved.”
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Battle Creek St. Philip coach Vicky Groat holds up a picture of her mother, Sheila Guerra, with whom she’s combined to lead the Tigers to 20 of their 21 MHSAA Finals volleyball championships. (Middle) Senior Brooke Dzwik shows some of the signs she and teammates made to celebrate Groat’s national Coach of the Year recognition. (Below) Then-junior Bailey Fancher serves during last season’s Division 4 title match. (Top and middle photos by Pam Shebest.)