10 to Remember: Winter 2014-15

Steve Ullery isn’t the president of a company or chief executive officer of a corporation. He doesn’t sit on any boards of directors.

However, what Ullery has done during his decade with the Temperance Bedford boys lacrosse program would make any CEO or chairperson of a board envious.

The Kicking Mules season ended against eventual Division 2 runner-up Detroit Country Day. But reaching the Quarterfinals for the first time in school history capped a monumental journey for the Bedford lacrosse program, that only this season climbed out of “club” status and became an official varsity sport at the southeast Michigan school.

“It’s been a long journey,” Ullery said. “And its not one that’s over. It’s one we are going to continue to try and improve on.”

Four or five years ago, Bedford was happy to go into halftime tied with Southeastern Conference opponents like Saline or Ann Arbor Skyline. Now, the Kicking Mules have won back-to-back conference titles.

“Eventually, we got better,” Ullery said. “The deficits got less. Maybe we were tied in the first quarter or we were winning the second half.

“About three years ago, we beat Saline for the first time. I think it was then that we started to realize, these teams aren’t invincible. That was the turning point of our program and the mindset of the players. We just need to go out and grab it.”

With back-to-back Southeastern Conference Red championship banners in hand, the Mules reached for another goal this season – reaching the MHSAA Finals.

A 16-1 win over Grosse Ile in their Regional Semifinal earned them a trip to the Regional Finals. A goal with 40 seconds left by freshman Kyle Burger sent the Mules to the Quarterfinals with an 11-10 win over Byron Center.

Country Day beat Bedford 19-1 in that Quarterfinal, but this still marked the greatest season in school history.

Ullery is from a small town outside of Dayton, Ohio. He played soccer, ran track and played basketball in high school. He attended Bowling Green State University in northwest Ohio and settled just across the state line in the Bedford school district. He was introduced to lacrosse when his oldest son came home one day with a sign-up sheet and said he wanted to give it a try.

“I picked this up by accident,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about lacrosse. My son wanted to try lacrosse, and they needed a coach. I was sort of volunteered to coach, jumped in and never looked back. It became a family endeavor. I have two sons and a daughter who played Bedford lacrosse.”

Ullery and another parent started watching YouTube videos about lacrosse to learn the technical side of the game to teach to youngsters.

“We tried to learn everything we could about the sport,” Ullery said.

He eventually moved up as a middle school coach and, as his own son reached high school, threw his hat into the mix to be the varsity coach. He was hired by the district.

Bedford athletic director Mark German said the program has taken off.

“Our boys lacrosse program revived the junior high team about four years ago … and we are now seeing the results of that feeder system,” German said. “At the high school level Steve Ullery and his staff, along with the players, just made the decision that they were no longer going to finish last in the SEC. They went to work and willed themselves to be champions.”

Although the program began in 2007, this is the first year boys lacrosse was funded by the school district. Prior to that it was considered a club sport by the district, although the school did allow the team to use the stadium and players to earn varsity letters and compete in the MHSAA postseason.

“We were privately funded,” Ullery said. “They took us under their umbrella this year.”

Coaching grew on Ullery, who surrounded himself with a mix of former high school and college lacrosse players and parents who wanted to be involved.

“Once we got a little bit of knowledge under our belt, we started developing a little bit of a culture,” he said.

As a coach, he said, he reflected on his own days as an athlete as well as a parent.

“Quite honestly, when I took the coaching position, I looked back and thought what are some things that used to drive me nuts about coaches and how can I be better than that,” he said. “The last thing I wanted to be was one of those coaches that other parents were hollering at, ‘Why is he doing this? Why is he doing that?’ From the onset, I tried to get as many parents into the team as possible. The more hands, the better.”

Ullery said he and the other coaches also wanted to build a well-rounded team.

“Bedford was never short on talented players,” he said. “The problem is they were never a talented team.”

In 2022, the Mules started six freshmen.

“We were a very young club,” he said. “We knew the odds were not in our favor, but we kept pushing. We promoted the assists over the goal. We promoted ground balls and takeaways, good defensive skills instead of only looking at goals and wins and losses.”

As head coach, he divided responsibilities among coaches for offense and defense and created a culture everyone wanted to experience. His assistant coaches this season – Josh Vislay, Aaron Kaun, Justin Burger and Romeo Ybarra – all played key roles.

“It was a good mix,” Ullery said. “We worked well together.”

Bedford, which finished 13-5, had a well-balanced team, although three of those 2022 freshmen (Blake Dlugosielski, Brady Weirich and Brennan McIntire) all finished their careers with more than 100 goals.

“We would have games where we might have seven or eight different scorers,” Ullery said. “That makes it hard for the other team to try and figure out who are we going to shut down.”

Bedford will lose nine seniors from this year’s team, but Ullery says the success of the program will keep rising as long as the feeder programs remain strong and keep things fun.

“It was busy, but I had the support of my family,” he said. “I would change nothing. It’s been an absolute joy and one heck of a ride. I’m humbled about where the team is and the successes we’ve been able to do as a group.”

Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Bedford’s Noah Puccetti (15) brings the ball upfield during a Regional Semifinal win over Grosse Ile. (Middle) Kyle Burger considers his options with the ball in his possession. (Below) The Kicking Mules take a team photo with their Regional championship trophy at Ypsilanti Lincoln. (Photos courtesy of the Temperance Bedford boys lacrosse program.)