Former MHSAA Coach Lands in NHL
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 5, 2013
This week in the year 2000, Jon Cooper had just finished his first season coaching at any level, having guided the Lansing Catholic hockey team to its first Regional championship in 25 seasons.
It would be the only season Cooper – a local lawyer and former player at Hofstra – would coach the Cougars. But it also was the start of a nearly unimaginable rise that saw him hired to coach the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning two weeks ago.
As the saying goes, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Cooper always was friendly and helpful to this then just-starting local media member, and despite his lone season coaching the Cougars quickly built a local fan base that continues to cheer him on from afar.
An NHL.com piece last week led with the high school angle. Click here to check it out. He took over a team 16-18-2 and near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, but Cooper surely will have plenty rooting him on from the MHSAA hockey ranks as he works to bring the franchise back to the playoffs – and we’ll work to catch up with him this summer during his first NHL offseason.
Grand Haven athletics 'Exemplary'
The Grand Haven High School athletic department received this year’s Exemplary Athletic Program Award from the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association during its annual conference last month in Traverse City.
The program was established in 1998 to recognize outstanding athletic programs and give high school administrators a vehicle by which to self-assess their practices and measure improvements.
Characteristics of “exemplary” programs include district-wide commitment, excellence in advancing the growth of well-rounded participants and serving the needs of all involved including parents and staff, and sustained success in teaching the values of high school athletics.
Click for more details on award criteria and a list of previous winners, and additional coverage by Grand Rapids’ WZZM.
Volleyball teams 'dug' deep
Michigan high school volleyball teams playing "Dig Pink" matches combined to raise more than $50,500 for cancer research last fall to rank sixth nationally, according to the Side-Out Foundation, a non-profit organization that heads up the “Dig Pink” initiative.
Class D Engadine raised the most among MHSAA schools – $5,200 – with Kent City, Bronson, Grand Ledge, Allendale, Stevensville Lakeshore, Monroe, Waterford Mott, Coldwater and Grand Blanc also contributing to the grand total. Also, Grand Ledge’s Katie Everts received a Side-Out Ambassador Program award, one of 10 handed out to individuals nationally.
Total, more than $1.1 million was raised nationwide.
Name that trophy
Few if any schools in Michigan have done more work in researching and identifying the trophies in its case than Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, which will celebrate its 100th season of boys basketball in 2013-14.
It's rare the Eaglets historians can’t determine what a trophy celebrated. In this case, hopefully you can help.
We believe it’s a basketball trophy from the 1930s – but haven’t been able to pin down a season or a level of the MHSAA tournament. A few things that make this one unique are the plaque presentation, as opposed to a standard trophy, and the large MHSAA seal in the center. Any ideas? Email me at [email protected].
Giving back to those who gave
Those from the U.S. 23/I-94 area surely remember the tornado that tore through Dexter a little more than a year ago, on March 15, 2012.
Dexter track coaches Bob and Katie Jazwinski are remembering those who helped them rebuild after their home was destroyed by the storm.
In a Second Half report last year, Bob Jazwinski said he’d seen athletes and coaches from Adrian, Ann Arbor Pioneer, Pinckney, Chelsea, Ann Arbor Skyline, Whitmore Lake and the USA junior hockey team among the many who flocked to the community to lend a hand in the cleanup.
The Jazwinskis began repaying the favor three weeks ago on the storm's one-year anniversary with the Dexter F 3.1 Tornado Run/Walk that benefited non-profit organizations that had donated for storm recovery the year before.
Click to read the March 30, 2012 story about Adrian athletes’ contributions to the clean-up.
Last call for basketball
We got off to a late start on entering basketball schedules for this winter – but thanks to some incredibly helpful school, official and fan inputters, we were able to catch up quickly and finish with a nearly-complete list of results and standings for this season.
Still, there are some schools with incomplete schedules or a few scores missing. And before everyone forgets completely about this season, we’re hoping for a little help in finishing this enormous task.
Please check out your team’s page on MHSAA.com and help us fill in missing scores and fix inaccuracies. The latter could include just about anything – an incorrect game date, incorrect opponent or score, team missing from league standings, etc. For corrections, please email me directly at [email protected]. (Note: If a game was cancelled, don’t just delete it – contact me and I’ll add “cancelled” to avoid confusion.)
Why is this important? Two big reasons. First, MHSAA.com publishes the most complete statewide scoreboard with results from every corner of Michigan. And we have the most complete archive of basketball seasons available, currently dating to 2009-10. Help us fill in the blanks, and they’ll be saved for everyone’s benefit for years to come.
I thank you in advance for any help you are able to provide.
PHOTOS: (Top) Jon Cooper's bio appeared in the Lansing Catholic hockey team's yearbook for the 1999-2000 season. (Middle) Grand Haven athletic director Robin Bye (second from right) poses with Gull Lake athletic director and MIAAA Exemplary Committee co-char Marc Troop, Grand Haven athletic secretary Rita Way and Ann Arbor Greenhills athletic director and MIAAA Exemplary Committee co-chair Meg Seng after the Buccaneers received this year's award. (Bottom) Orchard Lake St. Mary's is hoping to identify the championship recognized by this trophy, believed to be from the 1930s.
'Baker's Dozen' Continues Rapid Rise Earning Leland's 1st Trip to Girls Golf Final
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
October 9, 2026
A lot has changed since Leland High School began offering girls golf just a decade ago.
Starting as a club sport with tremendous support from the Leland Country Club, the Comets began participation in MHSAA competition in 2021. These days, they are among Northern Michigan’s best Division 4 programs – and Tuesday qualified for the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final for the first time.
The Comets have done especially well considering more than 90 percent of their student-athletes had never picked up a club prior to entering high school.
Not many would have thought this rapid rise possible, but the team’s coaches – head coach Grace Keeble and assistant Kathy Wheeler, also a Leland teacher – are not among them.
“I don't think you can write a better script, really,” Keeble said. “I'm really excited for the girls. It is just so magical to be in the same sentence with Traverse City St. Francis and Elk Rapids.”
The Comets placed second to Elk Rapids at their Regional to qualify for next week’s Final. St. Francis also qualified for the LPD4 championship tournament, which will be played at The Meadows on the campus of Grand Valley State University.
“Leland has been very fortunate to have some incredible teams go to states,” Keeble acknowledged, referring to the Comets’ successes on the volleyball court and soccer pitch. “I am honored and excited that these girls get to be added to that list. We've been riding an incredible wave, and I just want to ride it out. I want these girls to just soak it up.”
Leland’s run to the Final started at last year’s Regional, where they fell just shy of advancing.
“We were fourth, and the girls looked at me – and there were three girls who were really close to making it as individuals – and they had a smile on their faces and a determined look, and they said, ‘Coach, we're going to states next year.’ And I looked at them and I said, ‘Let's keep up with the hard work and the determination.’”
With five seniors leading the way and a total of 13 golfers on the roster, the Comets started this fall destined to reach championship weekend. Four seniors – Ariah Amin, Maya Hamelin, Elise Vann and Lillian Conner – were a part of the Comets team that nearly made the Final last year. The fifth senior, Ella Hennessey, is playing her first year of golf. All five seniors took at least a half-dozen strokes off their averages this fall.
“I wholeheartedly believed they could do it,’ said Keeble, a retired teacher and avid golfer. “It’s been kind of a mantra since the end of the season last year. I have 13 magnificent girls, and for the first time ever in this program, a representation from every class, from freshman sophomore, junior and senior.”
Keeble likes to refer to the 13-player roster as her “baker’s dozen” pointing out it took all 13 to get the team where it is today.
“When I saw the magical number 13, I told them they were my baker's dozen, and they kind of just looked at me,” Keeble recalled. “Well, there's 13, and I don't like classifying if you're the number one player or you're my 13th player – you're a member of this team. There are six going to states with five playing and four scores counting, but it took all of them, and it was these seniors leading.”
The rest of the “baker’s dozen” consists of juniors Jaelyn DeFour and Sadie Hill, sophomores Lucy Baldwin, Ella Hamelin, Bryn Waskiewicz, Flora Wengreen and Ellie Yoffy; and Penelope Shank, a freshman.
All 13 golfers will be behind the fire truck as Leland hosts a parade Thursday to send the Comets to Allendale.
Conner, finishing fourth, and Hamelin, sixth, led the way at this week’s Regional, and Amin, 11th, and Vann, 15th, rounded out the scoring. DeFour was right behind the scorers in 17th, allowing the entire team to place among the overall top 20 individuals. That success was despite weather conditions hampering the Comets after they all shot personal bests during their previous most recent tournament in Cadillac, with the team’s top four scores there all under 100 for the first time in program history.
As the Comets prepare for the Final, Keeble has them focused on the upcoming experience, rather than the result. She expects her golfers to always focus on the next hole, even if the last wasn’t so good, and let the results fall where they may.
“I'm not a big believer of putting expectations of where you're going to place,” Keeble noted. “I'd rather have the girls enjoy the experience and come off a course and say, ‘Hey, coach, I just did the best I could.’”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Leland’s Jaelyn Defour tees off on the Sundance Course during Tuesday’s Division 4 Regional at A-Ga-Ming Golf Resort in Kewadin. (Middle) Elise Vann tees off during her Regional round. (Photos by Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle.)