With Sister Showing Way, Dood Doing Big Things to Elevate Grandville Volleyball
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
September 20, 2023
GRANDVILLE – As an incoming freshman, Zoey Dood remembers the euphoria she felt when she found out her older sister had been given the position of head coach of the Grandville volleyball program.
“I was super excited because it was always a dream of mine to have my sister be my coach, and I never thought it would actually happen and it did,” Dood said. “I knew she could make me better right away.”
Almost four years later, that expectation has become a reality.
Now a senior, the 6-foot-2 Dood has developed into one of the top players in the state and was recently named a finalist for this season’s Miss Volleyball Award.
For Dood’s sister, Jessica Vredevoogd, the opportunity to coach her younger sibling was too much to pass up.
“That was a big reason why I stopped playing volleyball overseas, was to come back and try and be a part of Zoey and (younger brother) Jackson’s lives more because I didn’t want to be that older sibling that didn’t exist,” Vredevoogd said. “They grew up not getting to know me as well, so to step into that role as her coach at Grandville was nice because I’ve had the chance to spend more time with her and it has built our relationship even more.”
With a 10-year age gap between them, Dood was a young child when she watched her older sister become a two-time all-state setter at Grandville before enjoying a successful career at Oakland University.
Vredevoogd, 28, who recently married, finished her final season for the Golden Grizzlies in 2016 and became the seventh player in program history to surpass 1,000 career kills.
She played overseas before returning to Grandville.
Dood, 18, saw the path her sister took to reach an elite level and wanted to follow in her footsteps.
“I would not have been as successful as I am today if I didn’t have my sister as my coach because I look up to her and I respect her and all of her accomplishments,” Dood said. “It has motivated me to want to be just like her and have the same accomplishments as she’s had.”
Dood, also a setter, received Division 1 all-state second-team accolades last year with an impressive stat line of 380 assists, 168 digs and 176 kills while leading the Bulldogs to a winning record. She posted a match-high 35 kills against East Kentwood last season during the Ottawa-Kent Conference Red Tournament.
Dood is ranked the state’s top player by Prep Dig, and committed to the University of Virginia last year.
“I’m pumped for her,” Vredevoogd said. “I think she's going to do awesome things there, and I'm just happy that someone else sees her potential. While coaching her the last four years has been fun, I'm excited to see her play and be able to thrive at the college level, too.”
Dood’s vast improvement from her freshman year until now has been impressive.
A strong worth ethic and a desire to reach the highest level have pushed her.
“My freshman year I was horrible, but I've improved exponentially and I know my sister has been a big part of that,” Dood said. “We would go into practice 30 minutes early, and I would practice my setting every single day.
“From freshman to sophomore year was an extreme change already in my development, and from there she has helped me so much and she's helped me with my IQ as well.”
Vredevoogd has seen major changes in her sister’s game and is proud of the progress she’s made.
“It’s her ability to really be intent about what you are saying to her, and then she's able to put it into action,” she said. “She's super coachable, but she’s hard-working, too. She's going to keep trying to do what I’m telling her.
“Freshman to sophomore was a big mental growth for her, and then sophomore to junior year and now her senior year you see the physical growth in her game, too.”
The dynamic between the sisters has been one of mutual respect and navigating the boundaries of a sister/coach relationship.
“I feel it’s different from your average mom and daughter experience,” Vredevoogd said. “It's interesting because she's actually watched me play, so I think she can be coached by me because she respects me a little bit in the sense that she's like, ‘OK, she actually did do what I’m trying to accomplish,’ but we do have our sister moments where there is more sass behind the tone. It’s like, do you want a coach's opinion or do you want a sister's opinion?”
Said Dood: “There are times when she says, ’I’m your coach so you need to treat me as a coach,’ and other times when I'm playing club and she’s my sister and now I can talk to her. Points where I can talk to her about certain things and points when I’m not technically allowed to where I approach her as a coach or just act like she's my coach and not my sister.”
Dood was an accomplished basketball player in middle school, but hasn’t played in high school due to her volleyball aspirations.
“My parents kept going back and forth about it and we just didn’t know if I would have time for that,” Dood said. “I couldn't fully commit to that, and I also knew that I wanted to play Division I volleyball in a Power 5 (conference) and be one of the top volleyball players in the country – so I knew I had to give that up to be able to do that.”
Dood will graduate early to get a jump start at Virginia.
“It was a very tough decision because I didn’t know if I wanted to miss out on my senior year, and I thought I would miss out on big senior events – and then I found out I wouldn’t,” Dood said. “What really sold me on it was my major (education), and they told me that I could get my master's degree in four and a half years if I graduated early. And I’ll have that extra semester, so my coach can develop me in the way she wants me to.”
As a team, the Bulldogs are striving to gain respectability in a difficult O-K Red.
They recently finished second at the Traverse City Invitational and lost a thrilling five-set match to Division 1 honorable mention Jenison to open conference play.
“I think Grandville volleyball always gets overlooked because we’ve always been the underdogs, but their drive to work hard is going to help us get more unexpected wins than anticipated,” Vredevoogd said. “And with Zoey being an offensive threat for us in the front row and being able to get a touch on every rally because she is a setter, I think that only helps us. She is one of our top scorers, and if we’re not able to use her then we have a hard time winning.”
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) Grandville's Zoey Dood is a recently-announced Miss Volleyball Award finalist this season. (Middle) Dood sets for the Bulldogs as a junior. (Top photo by Tully Chapman; middle photo courtesy of the Grandville volleyball program.)
South Haven Celebrates Program Pioneers to Begin 50th Season, Aspires to Add to Tradition
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
August 26, 2025
SOUTH HAVEN — When the call went out for volleyball players, a whopping 115 students showed up at South Haven High School.
That was 50 years ago, and the daunting task of whittling down those numbers fell to coach Dene Hadden.
From that group of hopefuls, he kept 13 on varsity and 13 on junior varsity.
The biggest problem was that neither the girls nor the coach had ever been involved in the varsity sport.
That sure has changed.
Fifty years ago, when the MHSAA debuted girls volleyball as a varsity sport, 462 schools fielded teams, with 12,012 athletes. Last season, 16,679 players took the court for MHSAA high schools, and this season 697 teams are slated to play.
Those first years were tough, Hadden said.
"We tried to use some athletic skills, jump height, jump distance, some other tests that I read about and heard about,” he said.
Things got easier for Hadden the second year after he attended a volleyball camp in Chicago.
“I spent seven days and nights of intensive volleyball training and learned so much about the game from key ‘grandfathers,’ you’d have to say now, about volleyball and came back much more confident in what I knew, how to teach skills and what skills to look for. It made a huge difference.”
That huge difference made an impact on the South Haven program. In 1977, the Rams made it to the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Class B championship match and, in 1985, won the title. They also reached the Finals in 1980 and 1991.
Fourth-year Rams coach Wendy Spencer said today’s players do not realize how much they owe to those pioneers.
“I think so many of these girls take for granted all the battles that women had to fight for to just be an athlete,” she said. “Isn’t that such a blessing that this next generation doesn’t have to realize the struggle?
“We don’t take for granted how special it is. I think for (current athletes) to see on a board their (photo) next to someone who’s 50 years older than them can put it into perspective sometimes.”
The current athletes also got a taste of those trailblazing players two weeks ago during an alumni game celebrating 50 years of MHSAA volleyball.
Diane (Sherman) Skuza was one of the alumni. She joined the volleyball team her junior year in 1977.
“I was playing basketball and softball,” she said. “I tried out, had never played volleyball before. Dene saw something in me as an athlete.
“One of my strong points was my serving. He would often bring me in just to serve. My senior year I actually played quite a bit and was all-conference.”
The Rams won the Wolverine Conference her final two years (1977, 1978), finishing both seasons with identical 26-1 records.
At the alumni game, Skusa, who at 64 was the oldest player there, joined the other women in competing against current varsity players.
“When I played in the alumni game, they said, ‘OK, we’re gonna do whatever,’ and I didn’t know what they were talking about,” she laughed. “They said do you want to be a middle hitter or an outside hitter.
“We really didn’t do that. We had our positions. If you were on the left side, you hit from the left side. It’s a lot more involved now. But we had some really strong players, and Dene was a great coach.”
The alumni actually won the game, but they had a few ringers, according to Hadden.
“You have to remember the alumni had Hayley Kreiger, an All-American at Davenport a couple years ago playing that night,” he said. “We had some all-conference players, so there was some talent on the alumni side of the net.”
The alumni team also included former players from the 1985 championship team.
Hadden said that when organizers started planning the 50th anniversary celebration, “We wanted to recognize the 318 varsity letter winners who have contributed to the sport at South Haven.”
Rams return experience
For this year’s team, Spencer will rely on three returning seniors, including four-year varsity player Charlotte Knox, who already owns three school records.
She is first in career digs (742) and aces (28). She also has the single-season record in kills (365 set last year).
Her single-season achievements also include ranking fifth with most blocks (62 in 2022), second in most digs (298 in 2023) and tied for fourth with most aces (98 in 2023).
She is third in career blocks with 126 heading into this season.
In her second year as captain, Knox is “a kid who shows up for her teammates before she shows up for herself,” Spencer said. “She can keep that high level of expectations without coming down on people.
“Charlotte has consistently had the best stats in our region in kills, digs and aces. As a junior, she is already in the top five of all of South Haven history for season and for career.
Other seniors on the team are Charlotte Grzybowski, Areanna Wabanimkee-Gluck, Nevaeh Cooper and Kaitlin Moore. Juniors are Ly’nique Cunningham and Trinity Sistrunk, while sophomores are Kiersten Chalupa, Julia Wiley and Piper Allen.
Spencer noted that most players today hone their skills on travel teams outside the school season.
“Club sports have taken a huge role in athlete’s development, but I think there’s something missing if kids don’t want to play high school athletics,” she said. “School sports are important; club sports are important if you have bigger goals.
“These (school teammates) are the people you will remember, the ones you will show up at 50-year reunions with, not your club team. We’re trying to keep that going, and Dene’s the reason for that.”
Hadden, who coached the Rams for 19 seasons, still keeps active.
“He announces all our home games, he still shows up at all our tryouts,” Spencer said. “He’s just someone who loves our district and loves volleyball so much.
“He really keeps our traditions alive. He’s the only coach who won a state championship and runner-up twice. The question is, how do we learn from that?”
The reigning Southwestern Athletic Conference champ started the season repeating as champ at the Coloma Tournament last Saturday with Knox recording 74 kills to reach 1,000 for her career.
The Rams continue Wednesday against Constantine with one goal in mind: “The team works every year at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena (during the MHSAA Tournament),” Spencer said. “This year we’d like to be playing there, not on the sidelines.”
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) Senior Charlotte Knox reaches out toward a ball during South Haven’s alumni match earlier this month. (2) Dene Hadden, then and now, was the program’s first coach and remains an active supporter. (3) Alums Sarah Washegesic (right) and Megan Sollman share a laugh. (4) Knox is celebrated by her teammates after reaching 1,000 career kills Saturday. (Alumni game photos by Micah Jones. Knox 1,000-kill photo submitted by Wendy Spencer. Hadden photo courtesy of Hadden.)