10 to Remember: Winter 2014-15

Call them Lenawee County’s First Family of Basketball.

The Maska-Shiels-Zajac clan have dominated the Lenawee County basketball scene this season with family members breaking records and winning championships in multiple communities.

• Brad Maska has coached Onsted to its third straight Lenawee County Athletic Association championship. His Wildcats are 20-5, won a District and will play for a Division 2 boys basketball regional title Thursday.
• Kristy Zajac, Brad’s sister, is the head coach of Tecumseh’s girls basketball team, which shared the Southeastern Conference White title this season – the program’s first league title in 20 years – and surpassed 100 career wins last month.
• The season came to an end Tuesday for Britton Deerfield and head coach Darren Shiels, who is married to Brad and Kristy’s sister Kelly. But it was the best in BD history and included the program’s first District championship.

“As happy as I was for myself, I think I was happier for Darren,” Maska said, reacting to Britton Deerfield and Shiels upsetting second-ranked Adrian Lenawee Christian in the District Final last week. “I was so ecstatic for them. To lose to that team by 50 points a month ago, to get those kids to believe and come back … I couldn’t believe it.”

The family is tight. They spend summers together at the family cottage in northern Michigan, vacation together every spring break in Florida, and during basketball season it’s not uncommon to find any one of them at each other’s practices.

Over Christmas break, Shiels stopped by Zajac’s Tecumseh practice to help with a specific defense she wanted to implement, and Shiels and Maska shared some strategy at a practice in January.

“We talk basketball all of the time,” Zajac said. “It’s constantly basketball.”

All three played at Britton High School before Britton and Deerfield merged. They all played under the tutelage of Bart Bartels, who coached both the girls and boys varsity teams at Britton for years. He is an assistant coach with Zajac at Tecumseh now.

“It’s really fun to bounce ideas back and forth,” Maska said. “We talk often, probably every other day. It really spurs a lot of conversations. It’s neat to have that family base where we can bounce ideas off each other.”

Zajac has been on the phone this week talking to her brother about their matchups.

"Why reinvent the wheel when you have two great coaches in your family that you can go to for help," she said. "At Christmas this year, all three of us were drawing out plays on napkins. It's always a great resource to have."

Shiels hit the game-winning shot for Britton in its 1995 District championship game, which was the last time Britton or Deerfield won a District basketball title until last week.

He began coaching almost as soon as high school ended and took over the Britton varsity in 2005. He coached his alma mater for four seasons, then Britton and Deerfield became a cooperative program for a couple of seasons, and then the communities voted to join the districts together. He’s been head coach through it all. This season’s 18-7 Patriots were led by Darren and Kelly’s son Logan Shiels, who finished as the school’s all-time leading scorer.

BD has six seniors, including Shiels and Brayden Shiels, a nephew of the head coach, and Ryan Good, a cousin.

“I’ve coached them since they were little because they were all on my son’s team,” Shiels said after Tuesday’s Regional loss to Allen Park Inter-City Baptist. “This is tough. The finality of it all hasn’t hit me yet, but I just think I’m most proud about how the kids all care about each other so much.

“They tell each other they love each other all the time. They’ve played together so long.”

After the District title was won at Adrian College, the Britton Deerfield team held an impromptu celebration at BD. The team gathered in front of family and friends to cut down the nets and talk about the season.

“I was surprised so many people showed up,” Shiels said. “It just shows how big it was to win the District. It’s hard to win a District.”

Maska was a 1,000-point scorer at Britton who played college football at Adrian College. He is in his 17th season as head coach at Onsted. His teams have averaged 15 wins a year and have had two Mr. Basketball Award candidates despite being one of the smallest schools in Division 2.

Ayden Davis is a Mr. Basketball finalist this year and will finish his career with more than 1,800 points, 1,200 rebounds and as the No. 2 shot-blocker in state history.

“Mr. Basketball candidates don’t come around very often, and we’ve had two,” Maska said. “It’s a big deal. We’ve had a lot of success and built a pretty solid program.”

Zajac was the all-time leading scorer during her playing days at Britton and played four years at Eastern Michigan University. She has two daughters on the Tecumseh team, including junior Alli, who recently became Tecumseh’s career scoring leader.

“I told her now that she has the school record, she has to catch me,” Zajac said.

One of the biggest fans in the gym at Onsted, Britton Deerfield or Tecumseh is 92-year-old Urvin Reau.

Reau grew up on a farm a few miles from Britton. He raised six children, including Brad and Kristy’s mom Denise. He is at a game almost every night of the week supporting his grandkids – who coach – and great grandkids who play.

“I always get to the games,” said Reau, 92. “I love to watch the kids play. High school sports are great. They are playing against their rivals. That makes it fun.”

The families got together the Sunday before the boys started District week for a family dinner, and they already have spring break carved out of their schedules.

“Spring break has always been our time,” Maska said. “It’s literally when we all have time to decompress and relax. It’s when we all can get together and discuss a lot of things – good and bad – that we had during the season.”

Basketball season rolls on. Zajac’s team is in the District Semifinals tonight as it tries to repeat as District champ.

Maska said Tecumseh better.

“I already told Kristy,” he said, “that if she’s the one that doesn’t have a District championship when we head down to spring break, she is going to hear about it.”

Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.

PHOTOS (Top) From left: Cole Shiels, Darren Shiels, Kelly Shiels and Logan Shiels. Darren is the varsity boys basketball coach at Britton Deerfield, Kelly is the longtime scorekeeper and Logan and Cole have both played for their father. (Middle) The Maska family, including from left: Kristy Zajac, Brad Maska, Urvin Reau, Alli Zajac, Addi Zajac, Avery Zajac, Logan Shiels and Gretchen Maska, Brad’s wife. (Photos courtesy of the Shiels/Maska/Zajac family.)