Beginning Another Tourney Journey
August 8, 2016
Below is the introductory commentary to the MHSAA's spring issue of benchmarks. Histories of MHSAA tournaments published in that issue have been appearing on Second Half every Tuesday and Friday.
By Jack Roberts
MHSAA Executive Director
Concussions and cutbacks. Participation fees and part-time employment. Student safety and specialization. International students and interstate travel. Transfers and trials.
Through a myriad of issues which periodically cloud our mission, the foundation on which the MHSAA was built still shines brightest three times each year: Tournament Time!
It can be daunting and overwhelming to make a living at this business of interscholastic athletics these days, not to mention a tad confusing. Do we need legal degrees? Medical degrees? Business degrees? Marketing degrees? There seems to be no escape from threat of legislative mandates which continually change the landscape of our product and how it’s delivered. Demands pile up, resources dwindle.
Add the daily challenges of scheduling issues, inclement weather and pleasing teenagers and their parents on a daily basis, and it’s easy to lose focus of the primary missions for the MHSAA and its member schools.
And then, scenes like this happen:
• Holly Bullough, a senior cross country runner from Traverse City St. Francis takes her second straight Division 3 championship, winning by 36.4 seconds ... with a stress fracture in her left foot.
• Detroit Martin Luther King QB Armani Posey directs a game-winning drive to give his school the Division 2 football championship ... a drive which started on his own 3-yard line with 37 seconds left and ended with a 40-yard heave to receiver Donnie Corley on the final play of the game.
• Leland sweeps the Class D volleyball title match 3-0 over Battle Creek St. Philip ... ending a string of nine straight titles for St. Phil, the 10th longest national streak in history.
• Davison’s Taylor Davis becomes only the fourth person in MHSAA Girls Bowling history to roll a 300 game in the Singles portion of the tournament ... and the first ever in the championship match.
• The Upper Peninsula’s Hancock HS wins the Division 3 ice hockey title in its first trip to the Final since 2000 ... a trip funded in part from a “Go Fund Me” web page that raised $6,620 from 99 donors in two days.
• Junior Kierra Fletcher of Warren Cousino carries her team to the Class A girls basketball championship with 27 points in the Final ... after scoring 37 of her team’s 60 points in the Semifinals and totaling 198 during eight tournament games.
That’s just a sampling of the magic from last fall and winter.
These moments shine through the current challenges and the unseen future that awaits us as they always have. The uniforms and faces are different, but the tournaments have always yielded the fruits of our labors, and the memories for our mental scrapbooks.
PHOTO: Leland's volleyball team hoists its Class D championship trophy last fall at Kellogg Arena.
Schultz Family Puts Final Bow on Multi-Generation, 30-Year Ties to Adams Cheer
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
March 19, 2026
ROCHESTER HILLS — There’s a famous saying from Dr. Seuss that goes, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”
That’s definitely something Rochester Adams competitive cheerleading coach Brooke Miller and her program are dealing with now that this season is done.
On one hand, Miller admits it’s going to be a sad and strange sight not being able to coach a member of the Schultz family anymore.
But on the other hand, she’ll never stop smiling over what it was like to coach a family that provided a lineage of more than 30 years to Adams cheerleading.
It started during the 1990s when Stephanie Schultz (then Sutherland) was a cheerleader at Adams. In 2017, her oldest daughter Carly Schultz joined the program, followed a year later by her younger sister Gigi.
Finally, the youngest of the three sisters, Libby, came along and was a senior this year for an Adams team that took third at the Division 1 Final.
“With Libby now graduating, it truly feels like the end of an era and it will certainly be a significant loss for the program,” Miller said. “The entire family has been among the biggest supporters of Adams cheer.”
Libby Schultz was technically a four-year varsity cheerleader at Adams, but it feels like she was a member of the team her entire life growing up around her sisters.
Libby said her mother would frequently dress her and her older sisters in cheerleading uniforms and have cheerleading-themed birthday parties, all the while telling stories of her days cheering for Adams in the 90s.
“I can only imagine my mom with her big perm, dark hair flipping around in a uniform that looked like it was in a ‘Grease’ movie,” Libby quipped.
But Libby quickly fell in love with cheerleading following the family around to competitions or other events.
“I remember being in the back of my mom’s car as she drove them from practice to practice and I would watch them so intently, that I couldn't wait for it to be my turn,” Libby said. “I loved cheer so much that our Rochester community cheer team let me cheer as the youngest girl ever because every practice I would sit in the sideline and imitate every move.”
Miller said Libby was always a constant presence around cheerleading events involving Adams, whether it was volunteering out of love and passion or providing support to her sisters or others on the team.
But even Miller admitted she underestimated just how valuable Libby would be once she finally arrived in high school.
“I always believed she would make an impact once she officially joined the team, but I didn’t realize just how significant that impact would be until she was named captain during her sophomore year – the first time we’ve ever had a captain that young,” Miller said. “Because she had been involved with the program for so long, she came in with an understanding of the team, the culture, and the program’s needs that was far beyond most athletes her age.”
Miller said Libby will be nearly impossible to replace, given how well she led others in the program.
“She worked hard every day,” Miller said. “Constantly pushing herself to her limits while encouraging her teammates to do the same. She never complained and consistently reminded the team to keep their ‘why’ in mind so we could continue pushing through even the toughest days.”
The good news for Libby is that her cheerleading days are not over. She will continue to be involved in cheerleading as a member of Michigan State’s co-ed team, joining older sister Gigi.
“Cheerleading not only has allowed for me to truly understand what it takes to be a good leader and teammate but has helped me to create better time management skills throughout my life,” Libby said. “Because high school has consisted of loads of homework, being student council president as well as having cheerleading practice every day for two hours, I have learned to manage my day and time more effectively.”
No matter what the future holds, Libby and the rest of the Schultz family have forever been shaped by their high school experiences at Adams and are leaving a legacy that will forever be remembered.
“Cheerleading has also enhanced my high school experience by helping me become more confident and involved in school activities,” Libby said. “Performing in front of crowds at games and events pushed me out of my comfort zone and improved my confidence and communication skills. Overall, it made school more exciting because I felt connected to the teams and the community through celebrating wins together and creating my best memories.”
Keith 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) Libby Schultz stands front and center in Rochester Adams’ formation during the team’s Round 3 routine at this season’s Division 1 Finals at Central Michigan University. (Middle) The Schultz sisters take a photo together during a youth community team competition, left, and Carly, Gigi and Libby Schultz take another photo together a few years later when Carly and Gigi are on the Adams team. (Below) The Schultz family, from left: Stephanie, dad Don, brother Ryan, Libby, Gigi and Carly. (Finals photo by Hockey Weekly Action Photos. Family photos courtesy of the Schultz family.)