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.
Greenville's Martin Finds Future as On-Air Voice for Local Radio Broadcasts
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
March 20, 2026
Gracelin Martin can actually point to the moment where she glimpsed the rest of her professional life.
The current Greenville senior had just completed her first full season of working as a play-by-play broadcaster for radio station WGLM, and her watchful eyes took in the moments following a tense Lowell-Greenville basketball game. If she hadn't figured it out before, it dawned on Martin she loved it all: the back-and-forth of the game's action, the noisy crowd and the responsibility of detailing into a live mic what she was witnessing while looking forward to interviewing the participants afterward.
It was right about that moment that Martin decided the whole frantic atmosphere would be paramount in her future.
"I felt very accomplished," she said. "I didn't think a person so young could be in this role. I was kind of proud of myself."
Martin wasn't even 18 years old when longtime Greenville public address announcer and WGLM employee Bill Wilson noticed this eager young teenager with obvious people-person skills chatting easily with friends when an idea popped into his mind. The station needed someone to replace Serena Schroeder, another young student sideline reporter at Greenville football and basketball games who was going off to Michigan State. Wilson engaged Martin, and his suspicions were quickly confirmed. This, Wilson thought, was what he was seeking.
"He said I had this bubbly personality and would I consider broadcasting football and basketball games," said Martin, a basketball, track and cross country letter winner at Greenville. "Without hesitating, I said yes. I was 100-percent down with it.
"I saw an opportunity and took it. I never knew what could come of it."
So despite being just a 15-year-old high school sophomore with absolutely no radio background, Martin quickly fell in love with everything about the business of being a sideline reporter in football and a play-by-play broadcaster in basketball.
Wilson, who works Greenville football, basketball, track and soccer games, said he knew nothing of Martin at first except remembering seeing her play varsity basketball as a freshman. It wasn't her voice, mannerisms or really anything else that immediately leaped out at him. It was simply a sixth sense about matching up an obviously effervescent personality with a microphone.
"I had never met her, but I knew we were looking for someone to replace Serena and things just kind of clicked," he said. "She has this good personality, I thought she could be the one. She said she was interested, and it went from there."
Martin admits there was a definite gamble in being a teenage novice with a microphone thrust in front of her mixing with longtime coaches and athletes who doubled as high school friends. Would she freeze, stutter, flub questions, seem obviously underqualified or, worst of all, unprepared?
But by doing her homework and always being prepared, Martin found she easily could hit on the information she needed through interviews.
"The thought definitely crossed my mind," she said of the whole idea being a gamble. "I didn't know football inside-out like I knew basketball. I put pressure on myself to learn. But really, I felt ease from the beginning."
Dixon Huiet works as a WGLM analyst for Greenville football broadcasts. Part of a three-person crew, Huiet said Martin has an innate ability to grasp what intricacies fans need to know about what's happening on a football field or basketball court. The ability to pair the flow of a game with what fans want to know about what's happening is critical, he said.
"She's very fluid in understanding what needs to happen as a sideline reporter," he said. "And she knows how to step up, take the lead in broadcasting the play-by-play of a basketball game.
"She's come so far. She understands where to go and if she doesn't get the answer she wants, she can pivot. She's worked at it and evolved, and that's a skill."
Martin is astute enough to recognize where she can find help in improving as a broadcaster. She's noticed, for instance, how ESPN and ABC broadcaster Holly Rowe or the Big Ten Network's Dannie Rogers conduct their business on TV. Toss in tips from Schroeder, who recently graduated from Michigan State with a communications degree, and the confidence shown by Wilson and Huiet, and Martin feels comfortable in the business.
All broadcasters start somewhere, and Martin knows she's lucky enough to have started by interviewing coaches and athletes she's known for years. It's a crucial early stepping-stone which Martin doesn't underestimate.
"I knew a lot of the coaches and players from school and watched women like Holly and Dannie, and I thought this was something I could do," she said. "Honestly, you see a lot of females on TV, and bringing them into the broadcast business is a good thing. I enjoy learning from people who are better than me."
Martin’s upcoming plans include running cross country and track while entering Cornerstone University's communication program.
After honing skills in college, Martin said, who knows where her path will lead?
"I feel like not everything will be easy," she said, "but this will set me up and pave the road ahead."
PHOTOS (Top) Gracelin Martin interviews Greenville football coach Scott McDougall during a game this past season. (Middle) Martin receives “Senior Night” recognition from WGLM’s Bill Wilson and Will Wydeck this winter. (Below) Martin describes the action for her audience. (Photos provided by the Greenville athletic department.)