10 to Remember from 2011-12
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
July 11, 2012
Second Half's mission in this, its first school year, was to tell the best stories behind the scores and highlights of MHSAA competition.
Of course, every score and especially every championship has a story behind it. The MHSAA awarded 127 team and many more individual championships in 2011-12. Obviously we can't reflect on them all. But these 10 performances were loaded with prestige, drama and accomplishment that made them incredible stories for high school sports fans regardless of hometown or allegiance.
10. Grand Ledge gymnasts earn No. 5
The Comets had to fend off a charge by Canton, but won their fifth-straight MHSAA team title by 0.825 of a point with a final score of 149.400. The fifth-straight title tied the record set by Ludington from 1975-79 and extended Grand Ledge's first-place streak to 75 consecutive events. The next day, senior Christine Wilson and junior Sara Peltier swept the Division 1 and 2 individual titles, respectively.
9. West Bloomfield's Erin Finn joins elite
The Lakers junior said after her Division 1 cross country win that she'd dreamt of winning that title since she learned how to walk. She finished fourth as a sophomore before winning the championship by a little more than a second. After establishing herself as one of the top distance runners in the country in competitions over the winter, Finn finished the school year by winning the 3,200-meter run at the Division 1 Track and Field Final.
8. More and more Morley Stanwood
The Mohawks girls pulled off a rare feat this school year -- after winning their second MHSAA volleyball title in the fall, they added a first-ever girls basketball championship. Both efforts were keyed by seniors Alexis Huntey and Bailey Cairnduf, who had the most and second-most kills in the Class C Volleyball Final and then combined for 45 points and 25 rebounds in the basketball championship game.
That argument was made after Lansing Sexton claimed its second-straight Class B boys basketball championship in dominant fashion. The Big Reds finished 27-1, their only loss by a point to Detroit Pershing, and have won 74 games over the last three seasons -- tied for sixth-most in MHSAA history for that long of a stretch. Guards Denzel Valentine (Michigan State), Anthony Clemmons (Iowa) and Bryn Forbes (Cleveland State) all signed to play at Division I colleges this fall, with junior Jalen Hayes and freshman Trevor Manuel likely joining them in a few years.
Coyotes junior Sami Michell established herself as one of the top hurdlers in MHSAA history at the Division 3 Final by becoming the first Lower Peninsula girl to win four events at a championship meet since Mason County Eastern’s Maria Shoup in 1979. She set Division 3 records in the 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles and long jump, and her 300 time also was the best in MHSAA Finals history, regardless of division or class. She also won the 200.
Top-ranked Grand Haven's latest run at an MHSAA championship seemed all but over when Grosse Pointe South led the Class A final by 18 points with just under 10 minutes to play. But Shar'Rae Davis' fullcourt sprint and score that began with 12 seconds to play gave the Buccaneers a 54-53 win and their first title. It was the third-longest comeback in MHSAA Girls Basketball Finals history.
Livonia Ladywood had been a favorite to win its first MHSAA title all season -- with four-year pitcher Briana Combs in the circle. But when Combs couldn't finish the Semifinal because of an injury, rarely-thrown sophomore Lauren Hayes stepped in. All she did was finish that game and throw a three-hitter against Saginaw Swan Valley in the Final, while also getting three hits and driving in two of the team's four runs in the championship win.
St. Johns senior Taylor Massa finished off one of the most celebrated careers in MHSAA wrestling history with his fourth championship and not one loss during his high school career. Massa claimed the title at 171 pounds this year to go with others at 145, 152 and 160. He became the 15th in MHSAA history to win four titles, ranks 20th with 221 wins and seventh in the national record book for consecutive victories.
Grosse Pointe South's girls running teams had arguably the most dominant school year in MHSAA history, first winning the Division 1 cross country title before doing the same this spring in track and field. And the Blue Devils did it with mostly the same nucleus contributing to both -- particularly juniors Hannah and Haley Meier, sophomore Kelsie Schwartz and freshman Ersula Farrow. Those four combined to run a national record time of 8:48.29 in the 3,200 relay at the Division 1 Final this spring.
1. Short walk, championship run
Second Half was created as a place to tell great stories, Cass Tech made it easy on the first day of the Football Finals. The Technicians arrived at Ford Field after a short walk from their school. They had never played in a Final before and were unranked entering the postseason. They arrived with a strong group of seniors, but also a freshman quarterback named Jayru Campbell who ended up throwing five touchdown passes in a 49-13 win over No. 2 and perennial powerhouse Detroit Catholic Central.
PHOTO: The Morley Stanwood girls basketball team prepares to celebrate as the final seconds tick off in the Mohawks' Class C Final win. (Click to see more photos from High School Sports Scene.)
Former Siena Heights Coach Kohn Excited for Next Phase as Lenawee Christian AD
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
June 3, 2026
When Matt Kohn found out that Siena Heights University was closing its doors at the end of the 2025-26 school year, he was on vacation at a southern Indiana campground with his family.
He got out of the water, answered a call from one of the Siena Heights assistant coaches and was given the shocking news. Within minutes, he dried off and was packed and in his car, making the four-hour drive back to Adrian to meet with his coaching staff and players.
“I did it for my coaches,” Kohn said. “It was important for us to be on the same page and get together a game plan.”
Kohn, 44, is putting together a new game plan these days. The Adrian native began his new job this week as the athletic director at Adrian Lenawee Christian schools.
It’s a significant change from being head coach of the NAIA Saints, a position he held for the past decade. At Siena Heights, his football team typically had 120-130 players. Lenawee Christian, a Class D-size school, will have an enrollment of 114 this fall.
“It’s all relative,” Kohn said.
Instead of overseeing a team with 14 assistant coaches, he will lead an athletic program that has had incredible success over the years. Over the past decade, the Cougars have won two Division 4 girls basketball championships and three 8-Player football title. LCS won two Girls Volleyball Finals in the early 2000s, and the boys basketball program has 11 Regional titles and a Finals appearance since 1998.
The school takes tremendous pride in its athletic program and Kohn, who lives just minutes from campus, is excited to be a part of the LCS family.
“This is a great opportunity for myself and my family, and truly is done by God,” Kohn said. “Being able to stay home and continue into the next phase of my professional career is really all I could have asked for.”
Kohn finished out the school year at Siena Heights, helping find new schools for his remaining football players and new homes for his coaching staff.
“They made a commitment to me by coming to Siena Heights,” he said. “I felt it was important that I remained committed to them.”
As the end of the school year became closer and closer, however, he started searching for his next career move. He didn’t want to move out of the Adrian area but also knew he needed to find a job. When previous LCS athletic director Craig Anderson was promoted to principal, Kohn applied for the administrator position.
“I have so many connections to LCS,” he said. “I couldn’t be more excited.”
While growing up in Adrian, his dad, Bill Kohn, was a head football coach at multiple schools in Lenawee County, including Morenci, Adrian – and Lenawee Christian.
On its campus on the west side of Adrian off US-223, LCS has what it calls The Centre, which offers fitness and training facilities, youth and adult sports leagues, an indoor pool and outdoor water recreation area. The Centre opened in 1988. Kohn said his parents would drop him off at The Centre when he was a kid to play sports. It’s where he developed his love for athletes.
Eventually he became a record-setting quarterback at Adrian High School and played in the Michigan High School Coaches Association East-West All-Star game. He went on to play quarterback at the University of Indianapolis and spent time with the Ohio Valley Greyhounds of the United Indoor Football Association and two seasons in the Arena Football League with the Nashville Kats and Kansas City Brigade.
He returned to the University of Indianapolis to coach for three seasons before returning to Adrian to join the fledgling Siena Heights football program. In 2016 he was named the interim head coach and took over the job full-time in 2017. Over 10 seasons overall, the Saints won 50 games and had just one sub-.500 finish. They were often ranked nationally and nearly made the NAIA playoffs a couple of times.
“I can honestly say I showed up to work every single day for 15 years, and I gave it everything I had,” Kohn said of being a college head football coach. “There's not a drop of me left that I did not spend in investing in my coaches and investing in my players and getting our guys ready for games and training them and recruiting. That program got every last drop of Matt Kohn. So, I don't have any regrets in that regard.”
Kohn is part of a bit of a transition at Lenawee Christian. The Cougars named a new varsity football coach this week, and with Anderson becoming principal, the school has also hired Noah Beaudrie, an Erie Mason graduate and former quarterback at Adrian College, as the assistant athletic director. Beaudrie comes from a family of athletes. His father is the football head coach at Monroe Jefferson, which had its best season in years last fall, and his sister won a Finals championship in track & field last weekend.
“I’m blessed to have someone like Noah by my side,” Kohn said.
Kohn said in his new role, he will bring his passion for developing student-athletes to the high school level.
“I'm coming into an incredible situation with incredibly strong team members,” he said. “That definitely motivates me every morning, to come to work and just get a little better every day because of the team I have around me.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) New Adrian Lenawee Christian athletic director Matt Kohn, left, and assistant Noah Beaudrie post for a photo in front of the school’s stadium gate. (Middle) Kohn huddles with his Siena Heights football team. (Top photo courtesy of Lenawee Christian Schools. Middle photo courtesy of the Siena Heights athletic program.)