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High 5s: 11/14/12

November 19, 2012

All three of this week's honorees have achieved some sort of first-time stardom this fall, either individually or as a team. And both Carli Snyder and Alex Grace will be back next fall to continue building on these accomplishments. 

Carli Snyder
Macomb Dakota junior
Volleyball

(UPDATED 11/19) Snyder, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter, was an all-stater her first two seasons of high school. But she will be remembered even more for leading Macomb Dakota this fall to its first MHSAA championship in any girls sport. The Cougars defeated Temperance Bedford in three games in Saturday's Class A Final at Kellogg Arena. Snyder unofficially finished this season with 913 kills, good for seventh in the MHSAA record book since the beginning of the rally scoring era in 2004-05. Her 31 kills against Bedford were third-most for a Final during that time. Snyder already has committed to sign with the University of Florida next year. She likely will be among frontrunners for next fall's Miss Volleyball award. 

Title talk: "We wanted this thing so bad. Every girl on this team wanted it so badly. Megan (Manierski) was setting the ball perfectly. She made it very easy to get kills. ... Just talking about this moment, this gym, it makes you just want to play harder than you ever have."

Winning recipe: "We've been a competitive team in practice and in games all year, so I think that helped us at that moment (in three close Finals games) when we just didn't want to lose. We refused to lose. ... We support each other no matter what. And we hustled so hard."

Shake it up: "We have some secret handshakes with other people, but mine are very complex. I don't know how we went about that. Megan and mine is from "Parent Trap," and then Megan Downey and mine, we just made it up at team dinner. We make it a bit more complex than it needs to be, but it's fun. And it's a great thing to calm us down for a game when we've played a bad one before."

Had to be a Gator: "I like warm weather. I love the coaches. I actually called Florida for my recruiting phone call because I was kinda bored one day at home and I was like, 'I got a letter from them.' I fell in love with the coaching staff, and I told my mom that I needed to go on a visit down there. It's incredible, and when I went down there I was even more in love. Even on the phone, I knew this is where I would end up. It's just that feeling. You know when you get that feeling, and it's incredible."

Click to read more.

Alex Grace
Saginaw Swan Valley sophomore
Football

The Vikings' leading rusher is also one of the leading rushers in the state this season heading into Saturday's Division 4 Semifinal against Detroit Country Day. Grace has gained 2,091 yards plus run for 27 touchdowns, and needs only 109 yards and three more scores to make the MHSAA record book in both categories. He ran for 182 yards and three scores in the Vikings' Regional Final win over Croswell-Lexington. Grace took over as Swan Valley's running back this season after the graduation of his brother Johnathan, who rushed for 1,790 yards last season and now plays at Michigan Tech. Both brothers ran on Swan Valley's 400-meter relay that finished runner-up at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Track and Field Final in the spring. Alex is 6-0 and 185 pounds and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds.

I'd like to run like: "Even my brother. I like to look at myself as close to him. Professionally, (Minnesota Vikings back) Adrian Peterson. He's a tough runner, fast. He's strong."

Underdogs again: "The last game against Croswell, they were the No. 2 team and we were predicted to lose. But we came back and beat them. I use that underdog feeling to work harder each day."

Best brotherly advice: "Work hard, and if there are doubters, don't let them get you down."

Science and math: (My favorite classes are) biology and economics. They just come easy to me. I enjoy it."

Click to read more. 

Flint Beecher football

The Buccaneers, coached by former Michigan State and NFL standout Courtney Hawkins, were one of the final teams selected for the playoffs, at 5-4 after a 3-4 start. But Beecher advanced to this week's Division 7 Semifinal against Detroit Loyola by eliminating reigning champion Saginaw Nouvel, 19-15, in last week's Regional championship game. Beecher, now 8-4, has made the playoffs six straight years. The first of that run came in Hawkins' second as coach and after 12 straight losing seasons. 

Click to read more. 

Previous 2012-13 honorees:

Lake Orion's Broden Janczarek cuts past a gate during a slalom run at the Division 1 Finals at Nub's Nob.

Preparation Pays Off as Janczarek Caps Lake Orion Career with Best Finals Finish

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

March 13, 2025

The recent stretch of warm weather might have melted snow and ice and indicated ski season is over, but don’t tell that to Broden Janczarek. 

Greater DetroitSince he left the Division 1 Finals on Feb. 24 at Nub’s Nob, the senior from Lake Orion has been his usual busy self.

He has been to training and racing sessions in Oregon, Colorado, and Canada, adding to his world skiing travels. 

Janczarek said the highlight came last summer, when he traveled to Chile (during its winter) to enjoy two weeks of breathtaking scenery, food that was cooked by chefs each day and skiing.

“We were staying right at the base of the mountain,” he said. “We were walking out of our little condo, skiing open to close and then starting right back over the next day.”

While his experiences skiing around the world and on junior circuits are near and dear to him, so is his experience skiing for the high school team, which was beyond fruitful. 

During his time in high school, Janczarek:

  • Won the Southeast Michigan Ski League giant slalom and slalom titles last year, and the slalom this year. He was second in giant slalom this season. 
  • Qualified for the MHSAA Division 1 Finals all four years. (This season the Dragons qualified as a team as well.)
  • Posted three top-10 finishes at the Finals, including a runner-up in giant slalom this season.
  • Accumulated a 4.0 grade-point average in the classroom.

Then again, competing as a skier from Southeast Michigan and nearly beating elite skiers from the Upper Peninsula and the northern part of the Lower Peninsula shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, since he has done it for years at weekend junior competitions.

Janczarek comes to a stop after a giant slalom run. “It was nice to kind of show them what’s going on in Southeast Michigan,” Janczarek said. 

Janczarek said his love for skiing started early in life, beginning when his dad taught him the sport at age 3. He got serious into racing when he was 7, and by the time he got into high school he was already accomplished, having trained with Pinnacle Alpine Racing based out of Pine Knob. 

He said there were two big components that drew him most to the sport.

“Partially the adrenaline rush of racing, but also the community,” he said. “You wouldn’t realize it with skiing because it’s more of a solo sport. But the team bonding you make and the close friendships you have, it can make or break your experiences in the sport. I was fortunate to have some good teammates, some good friends and even better coaches along the way.”

Lake Orion head coach Karl Basigkow said the biggest thing that has separated Janczarek from the rest is the way he prepares for different tracks, gate placement and terrains each course has presented.

“He’s a student of the sport,” Basigkow said. “His technique is excellent. Every race course and venue is different, and with that in mind the tactical side is always in development.”

What also has complemented Janczarek on the slopes has been his time on the pitch as a soccer player. 

He played soccer at Lake Orion for all four years of high school primary as a center back, which he said gave him extra cardiovascular endurance for ski races. In turn, he said skiing and all the concentration that sport forces an athlete to develop have helped him be a better soccer player.

“If I had just done one over the other, I wouldn’t have been a better athlete for it,” he said. 

At the Finals, while the biggest accomplishment was finishing second in the giant slalom — which was his best finish at a high school state meet — the biggest compliment to him might have been how he handled one mishap in the slalom.

Janczarek had a straddle on the first run of slalom that pretty much took him out of the competition, but he didn’t hesitate to go up for his second run and finish.

“I know there is a lot of people in the sport of ski racing that if they have a bad run, they’ll just not take their second run or just leave and go home,” he said. “I think it’s important you give your all every time you’re on the ski hill.”

Janczarek will continue to give it his all in college, as he plans to ski for Northern Michigan University. 

He said he wants to stick with skiing “as far as it will take him,” whether it’s something beyond college competitively, or just as a coach to influence others.

Basigkow said Janczarek was generous with his time all season in the way he counseled younger skiers on Lake Orion’s team, and saw firsthand how coaching could be in his future.

“Just to get other people the same love for the sport I have,” Janczarek said.

Keith DunlapKeith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Lake Orion's Broden Janczarek cuts past a gate during a slalom run at the Division 1 Finals at Nub's Nob. (Middle) Janczarek comes to a stop after a giant slalom run. (Click for more by Tori Burley.)