10 to Remember: Fall 2014
December 12, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
This fall saw the start of numerous championship legacies all over the Michigan, the continuation of a few more and the end of one that likely will be recalled for decades to come.
All championship runs are memorable for those fortunate enough to achieve them. But because of historical reference, dramatic impact or in rare cases national significance, some stay in our discussions a little bit longer.
Below is one person’s thoughts on the most memorable finishes from this fall’s MHSAA Finals.
10. Novi, East Kentwood Rise to the Top
Among a number of first-time champions this fall, the Novi boys tennis team and East Kentwood girls golf team celebrated taking final steps after some recent close misses. Novi had finished second at the 2013 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final, by a point, as Ann Arbor Huron won its third straight title. The Wildcats clinched their first ever this season, by eight points, while the East Kentwood golfers finished 22 strokes better than their LP Division 1 field after finishing 10th and sixth the last two seasons, respectively. Senior Emily White capped her high school career with a 51-foot putt to win the individual title.
9. Saline Clinches on Final Swim
The Saline girls swimming and diving team trailed reigning champion Farmington Hills Mercy by a half-point entering the final event of the LP Division 1 Final. But the Hornets outpaced Mercy by three seconds in the 400-yard freestyle relay to move ahead and claim the team championship by 5.5 points. Saline had finished runner-up to Mercy by 20 points in 2013.
8. St. Mary’s Football Keeps Promise
From an incredible story point of view, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 7-0 win over Muskegon in the Division 3 Football Final was easily the most memorable of the fall. Showing immense courage, Eaglets running back Brandon Adams took the field only two days after his mother died after fighting cancer. He scored the game’s lone points midway through the first quarter.
7. Kestrels Give Coach Best Retirement Gift
Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central’s Diane Tuller coached teams to 595 wins over 17 seasons – and in her final match took the Kestrels to their fifth MHSAA championship. St. Mary downed Schoolcraft in four sets despite dropping the first to claim its third Class C title in five seasons. The Kestrels became the eighth team to win at least five MHSAA titles, claiming all five under Tuller’s guidance.
6. Concord’s Hersha Joins Elite Company
Only 14 runners in MHSAA boys cross country history have won at least three individual championships. Concord’s Jason Hersha became the latest, claiming the LP Division 4 title in 15:23.0, the second-fastest time in LP Division 4 Finals history. He became only the third to win three boys titles since team and individual qualifiers began running the same race in 1996; he also finished first as a sophomore and junior.
5. Canton Never Loses on Division 1 March
Just one on-target kick can change a soccer game. That makes Canton’s undefeated run to this season’s Division 1 boys championship even more impressive. Finishing without a loss in any sport is something – but the Chiefs defeated Rochester Adams 1-0 in the Final to end 24-0-3 and as the 13th undefeated champion in MHSAA boys soccer history. Canton posted 16 shutouts this fall.
4. Spring Lake Surges to First Championship
Despite trailing annual power Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood by six strokes after the first round, Spring Lake rolled through the second at the LP Division 3 Girls Golf Final to best the field by a final margin of 18 strokes and claim the school’s first MHSAA golf championship. The achievement was a crowning one for the program started by George Bitner, who has coached at the school since 1968 and fielded his first girls team in 1980.
3. Fisher Finishes Among Fastest in MHSAA History
Grand Blanc senior Grant Fisher finished his high school career with a second straight Lower Peninsula Division 1 championship – and the third-fastest time since the Finals moved to Michigan International Speedway 19 seasons ago. Fisher finished in 14:52.5, 1.5 seconds off the second-fastest time in MHSAA Finals history since 5K (3.1 miles) became the distance in 1980. The only runners who have come in faster than Fisher went on to the Olympics (Dathan Ritzenhein) and top American finishes (twice) at the Boston Marathon (Jason Hartmann).
2. St. Philip Stands Alone with 9 Straight Titles
Battle Creek St. Philip continued its near-decade dominance of Class D, but this time with another historical twist. The Tigers downed Leland in four sets in this season’s Final to win their ninth straight MHSAA championship – setting a record for consecutive titles after formerly being tied with the Marysville teams from 1997-2004. St. Philip entered the postseason ranked No. 3 in D but defeated both No. 2 Mendon and the top-ranked Comets during the final week.
1. Monroe St. Mary Ends Ithaca’s Record Run
Much of the credit for this topping the list goes to Ithaca, which brought a 69-game winning streak into the Division 6 Football Final. The streak was the longest active streak nationally among 11-player football teams, and a win would've allowed the Yellowjackets next fall an opportunity to break the MHSAA winning streak record of 72. But St. Mary controlled the clock with a workmanlike running game and held an Ithaca offense averaging 43 points to nearly a quarter of that in winning 22-12.
PHOTO: The East Kentwood girls golf team raised its first MHSAA Finals championship trophy this October. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
After Blazing Multiple Volleyball Trails, Bastianelli Charting Next Career Path
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
July 9, 2025
Volleyball took Ali Bastianelli around the world. But she found the perfect ending to her career in her home state, fewer than 200 miles from her hometown.
The 2015 Marysville graduate recently completed her ninth and final professional volleyball season, playing on a one-year contract with the Grand Rapids Rise of the Pro Volleyball Federation and setting the league record for blocks in a season while earning her second-straight PVF Middle Blocker of the Year award.
“I was talking to Cathy George, the head coach of the Grand Rapids Rise, before the season and she was like, ‘How cool would it be to retire near home, in front of your home crowd?’” Bastianelli said. “It was going to take some things falling into place for me to really want to play another year, and it turned out Grand Rapids had all of those, so it was a pretty easy yes. This year, they could offer people multi-year contracts, and (George) had wondered if I wanted one. I was like, ‘Nope. I’m putting my foot down and taking a stance this is my last year.’ I kind of went into the season with that mentality. As the season progressed, it became more and more clear I was ready to be done, not because I was miserable in volleyball, but because it was a great season, and there was no better way to go out.”
Bastianelli, who played collegiately at Illinois and had professional stops in France, Puerto Rico and San Diego, will now turn her attention to life after volleyball, as she has been accepted into the radiologic technology program at Baker College in Muskegon.
It’s something she had been preparing for over the past few years, taking her prerequisite courses while playing – essentially continuing her time as a student-athlete well into her 20s.
“Honestly, it wasn’t as intense as in college, but I think having played in college made it feels that way, knowing that I can balance 16 credit hours while being in season,” she said. “I will say, being a student-athlete my entire life, even in high school, a lot of that was learning how to manage my time. It will be interesting next year not having volleyball and just school.”
A health administration major at Illinois, Bastianelli shifted her focus to a more patient-focused role in healthcare after graduation.
“I’ve always liked the people interaction side of healthcare,” she said. “I didn’t know if I was ready to sit at a desk and work a 9-to-5. I’m much more of a people person, and as a team-sport athlete, I’m used to working with people in that sort of way.”
Bastianelli’s second career will have a lot to live up to in order to match her first, as her run in volleyball was among the best for a former Michigan high school player.
She earned All-America honors three times at Illinois, being named to the third team as a junior and senior and honorable mention as a sophomore. She was named all-Big Ten three times, and when she graduated, she was not only Illinois’ all-time leader in blocks, but second in Big Ten history, leading the country in blocks as a senior in 2018.
Bastianelli played for the U.S. National Team in the Pan American Cup in 2021 and 2022, and the Pan American Cup Final Six in 2022. As a pro, she played in the inaugural seasons of two leagues, Athletes Unlimited and PVF.
“We’ve never had, in Marysville certainly, and probably the Blue Water Area in general, has never had a girl with that type of upside and potential,” said former Marysville volleyball coach Ryan Welser, who coached Bastianelli her senior year. “... Certainly, if you want to look back, Ali is the best we’ve ever seen with just the longevity that she’s been able to do it and the levels she’s been able to succeed at. We played and coached against a lot of girls in the Southeast Michigan area, and for all their accolades, Ali has surpassed all of them with her longevity and her ability to excel and go to the next level.”
Bastianelli was at Marysville during an interesting time in the storied volleyball program’s history. She transferred from Yale as a freshman in the fall of 2011, along with her older sister Samantha, when legendary coach John Knuth returned for a season. That team advanced to the Class B Semifinals, the deepest run for the Vikings since winning nine titles in 10 years from 1997-2006.
The following two years, Bastianelli and the Vikings were coached by Kristen (Fenton) Michaelis, who was the star of four of those previous title teams and who had played collegiately at Fresno State and as part of the U.S. National Team during the Pan-Am Games in the 2000s.
“I’m thankful for the guidance Kristen had given me in high school,” Bastianelli said. “She saw my potential before everyone else did. She’s the original GOAT of Marysville. She paved the way.”
During Bastianelli’s junior year, however, the Vikings failed to win their District for the first time in more than 20 years. When Welser, a former assistant under Knuth, took over the program the following year, he aimed to not only fix that, but also create an energy around the program that had been present the prior decade. He turned to Bastianelli and fellow senior Nicole Slis to head that up.
“A big thing for us, when Ali was in high school, was that she bought into the promotion of the program,” Welser said. “It was a constant battle of trying to get fans in the stands and trying to make it popular in the middle school and elementary school. Ali completely bought into that, everything we were trying to do. She didn’t have to. She had a lot going on with her club team, but we needed someone to totally buy into promoting Marysville volleyball and leave a lasting legacy, and that’s what she did.”
Through social media and simply talking with students at the school, Bastianelli and Slis worked to create a vibrant student section for their games, incorporating theme nights. That led to a boom in student attendance at matches, and the team responded, advancing to the Regional Final before losing to Pontiac Notre Dame Prep.
Personally, Bastianelli earned first-team Under Armour All-America honors during the season and was ranked the No. 10 college recruit in the country.
“My senior year was definitely the most memorable,” Bastianelli said. “Even though it wasn’t the most successful (as a team) on paper, it was definitely the most memorable for me. … The Regional games were hosted by Marysville, and we played Armada and there had to have been 150 kids who showed up for that game. During one timeout, Ryan didn’t even say anything about volleyball, he just told us, ‘Just take a moment and look around.’”
While Bastianelli couldn’t have imagined it at the time, her efforts in building excitement around the Marysville program were good training for her future as a professional.
As a member of two brand new professional leagues, she and her peers were asked to be promoters as well as players, to the point where sharing social media posts was written into their contracts.
There were few people better suited for that role than Bastianelli.
“I think it’s very fitting that everywhere she’s gone, there’s been that promotion of program,” Welser said. “To go on to the pro level, to promote volleyball at that level and for women’s sports in general – we’re watching women’s volleyball on TV, and I truly believe Ali had an impact on those levels. Her getting behind it, being there to help and realizing that when you’re doing that, you’re there to help everyone. That’s what Ali was all about.”
PHOTOS (Top) At left, Ali Bastianelli prepares to hit during her senior season at Marysville; at right, Bastianelli readies to serve for the Grand Rapids Rise. (Middle) Bastianelli plays for the Rise during her final professional season. (Photos courtesy of Marysville volleyball and the Grand Rapids Rise.)