St. Mary Sends Tuller Out as Champ

November 22, 2014

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor 

BATTLE CREEK – Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central wasn’t always the best team in Class C this season.

Longtime coach Diane Tuller wasn’t sure at the start of this fall if these Kestrels had “what it took” to win the school’s fifth MHSAA championship and second in three seasons.

But she never told them that. Every time St. Mary stepped on the court this season, Tuller always told her players they were the best – and in the end, it proved true again.

The Kestrels dropped the first set of Saturday’s Class C Final to second-ranked Schoolcraft, 25-23, but won the next three 29-27, 25-20, 25-22, to defend their top ranking and send Tuller into retirement with one more title.

“There’s no words to describe how much it means for us to leave her with something – her last state championship, for us to be the last team she gets to coach – you’ll never find another coach like her,” St. Mary senior Cassandra Haut said, “and I know we’re all honored to be able to play for her.

“She tells us all the time we’re the best team in the state, and I think even if it wasn’t (true) she knows in our heads coming from her that means more than anything and gets us ready to play every time we step on the court.”

The Kestrels finished this fall 45-8-2, Class C champions for the third time in five seasons after making the Quarterfinals in Class B a year ago.

Tuller will retire from coaching having led St. Mary to all five of its MHSAA titles and 595 wins over 17 seasons (with 188 losses and 51 ties).

She had a great starting point for her final season in a strong senior class including Haut, a 6-foot-2 middle who was a finalist for the Miss Volleyball award and will play collegiately at Eastern Michigan University.

“They’re a great team and improved every single time they stepped on the court. That’s all I ever ask of anybody,” Tuller said. “It’s not so much the state championship that means a lot to me now, but the fact that at the beginning of the season I wasn’t sure this team had what it took to get there. They’ve been improving, working hard, doing everything I asked them. I get a little screamy sometimes, but they put up with me, worked really hard. They did it.”

St. Mary gave up only two sets in eight tournament victories – the first to Ottawa Lake Whiteford in the District opener, and the last to Schoolcraft, which led by as many as five points during the first set and also in the second and as late as 23-22 before the Kestrels came back to finish on a 7-4 run.

Haut and her teammates expected the Schoolcraft surge – the Eagles had dropped their first two Semifinal sets to Roscommon before coming back.

St. Mary never trailed in winning the third set, and came back from six down in the fourth to finish its run.

“The momentum just kept changing. We played chaotically a little bit in Game 2, and there were moments of it in Game 3,” Schoolcraft coach Erin Onken said. “But I was proud of how we did fight back, even though we had those moments.”

Haut finished with 23 kills – tied for 13th most in an MHSAA Final during the rally scoring era beginning in 2004-05 – and senior Sydney McGinn’s 48 assists tied for sixth-most in Finals history.

Senior Marianne Douglas capped her all-state career with 17 kills and 14 digs, and senior setter Sarah Wisser had 44 assists as Schoolcraft made its second championship game appearance and first since winning Class C in 2008.

The Eagles finished 46-11-1, and Onken said she expected her team to make this run. “I said if you’re going to go down, write a story, make it awesome, show people how good you are,” she added. “I think we can walk away happy; I think our fans can walk away happy.”

St. Mary’s finish seemed a little destined as well, even if that’s not quite how Tuller would describe her final team’s effort.

“I don’t know if ‘destined’ is the right word. But they were determined and disciplined in what they had to do this year,” she said. “It’s all on them.”

Click for full statistics.

PHOTOS: (Top) Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central coach Diane Tuller holds up the MHSAA championship trophy to her team. (Middle) St. Mary setter Sydney McGinn moves the ball to a teammate while Schoolcraft prepares to block. (Click for action photos and team photos from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.) 

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS:

SCHOOLCRAFT PREVAILS IN FIRST SET - Schoolcraft made some nice defensive plays pay off for set point in the first against Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central.
 
BLOCKING FOR A TITLE - On match point, Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central blocks the Schoolcraft attack.
 
You can watch the whole game and order DVDs by Clicking Here.

Yale's Dykstra Wasting No Time Showing Superior Multi-Sport Potential

By Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com

March 28, 2024

Sadie Dykstra’s already long list of accomplishments from less than two years of high school – three all-state medals, multiple all-conference awards and a league MVP to name a few – may seem shocking.

Bay & ThumbAnd to most, it justifiably is. 

But it’s come as little surprise for those in Yale who saw her grow up and do, well, anything.

“I’ve always known that she’s kind of special,” said Yale boys track coach and Dykstra family friend Brian Bearss. “She was that kid that, when other kids would be playing and learning how to ride their bikes, here comes Sadie and she’s yelling, ‘Look at this,’ and standing on the seat riding the bike. She’s always been exceptional as far as being an athlete.”

Dykstra is entering her sophomore track & field season at Yale and has already established herself as one of the best female athletes in the state. Want to argue against that? Check out this résumé:

Volleyball: Two years varsity, second-team all-Blue Water Area Conference as a sophomore.

Basketball: Two-time first-team all-BWAC selection, BWAC all-defense and BWAC MVP as a sophomore, BCAM all-state honorable mention as a freshman, sophomore all-state honors still pending.

Track: Unbeaten in the BWAC as a freshman with four league titles (long jump, 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles and 1,600 meter relay), three all-state finishes at 2023 Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals (fourth in long jump, fifth in 100 hurdles, sixth in 300 hurdles).

Again, just a sophomore.

“I can’t believe that I get to coach her,” Yale girls track coach Ashley Garofalo said. “She has a drive and a mindset that I can’t teach somebody. Nobody can teach you to have this. She gives every single thing that she has in every single sport. I think it does help when you’re so good at it. It makes you want to do it more.”

Dykstra brings the ball upcourt against Armada. Basketball gets Dykstra’s most attention and it’s the one she’d most like to play at the next level. The 5-foot-11 guard is getting interest already from Division I college programs. 

But it wouldn’t be right to say her heart is with one sport or another.

“I enjoy all my sports,” Dykstra said. “I like all my teams. I have a different team for each one, and I get along with all those girls. I think each one, it flows into the next one, and helps strengthen things for my other sports. Volleyball helps my legs for basketball. In basketball, I’m getting in shape for track.”

You don’t have to look far to find where Dykstra gained her love for athletics. Her parents, Kerry and Brad, both played basketball at Calvin College. Kerry graduated as Calvin’s all-time leading scorer in 1999 and is still sixth on the all-time list. She also served as Yale volleyball coach for 10 years, just recently stepping down.

Brad was a two-sport athlete at Calvin, playing baseball as well. He also played baseball at Grand Valley State. He coached basketball at Yale from 2006-10.

“We’re a very sporty family,” Sadie Dykstra said.

So, when it came time to enter high school, there was never a thought of specializing.

“I came in with the mindset of, I’m going to play three sports each season and enjoy them, too,” Dykstra said. “I don’t want to be in them and have them be the most awful things in the universe. I came in with the mindset of enjoying all three sports.”

Dykstra stands at the net during volleyball season.While basketball is her current collegiate goal, she did say that competing in basketball and track & field would be something she would consider if given the opportunity. Bearss said Dykstra has Division I potential in track & field, adding that heptathlon could best suit her.

But there are still two more years to figure that out. The next thing for Dykstra to enjoy is track, the sport in which she had the most early success. And while outdoor meets are still a couple weeks away, she’s already locked in.

“She’s just a natural leader, and I think that’s why she’s so disciplined,” Garofalo said. “(Tuesday), I was going over a workout with somebody else, and she just started her warm-ups on her own. She’s not afraid to lead 60 other kids, even though there are juniors and seniors.”

Dykstra has big goals for this spring, mostly based around performance marks. She’s eyeing the Yale school long jump record of 18 feet, 1¾ inches, which is less than an inch longer than her personal best of 18-1. She’d like to move that record closer to 19 feet.

Her 100 hurdle PR (personal record) sits at 15.59 seconds, and she’d like to knock that into the low 15s or even high 14s. For the 300 hurdles, where her PR is 47 seconds, she’d like to get down to 45.

“I have big goals, and I think I can get to them,” she said. “But that’s something for the end of the season to play out and see how that goes.”

Anybody who’s watched her wouldn’t doubt that Dykstra can reach those goals. And that list, along with those accomplishments, continues to grow.

“Last year we went to Ortonville Brandon, and we had really nice weather that day and the competition was really good – a lot of schools there,” Bearss said. “Even with all of those great athletes, you could just kind of see, people are pointing and looking, ‘There’s that girl from Yale.’ They’re taking notice. Every once in a while, you get kids that turn heads like that.”

Paul CostanzoPaul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Yale’s Sadie Dykstra launches into a long jump last spring. (Middle) Dykstra brings the ball upcourt against Armada. (Below) Dykstra stands at the net during volleyball season. (Photos courtesy of the Dykstra family.)