Jackson Area Efforts Net New Officials
February 16, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Recruitment of new high school officials to eventually take the reins from those currently conducting MHSAA events is a challenge faced all over Michigan.
The Jackson Area Officials Association is working to restock its ranks by recruiting directly from local schools and developing them with help from veteran mentors.
Eight new officials – ages 15 to 24 – who worked a series of youth and middle school games together earlier this month, are among those who have been introduced through a program that begins with a meeting at the end of the high school basketball season between JAOA official Bill Walker and local athletic directors, coaches, fellow officials and other young adults he’s made contact with over the course of a season. From that meeting, Walker builds a list of potential candidates to become officials and then invites them to the annual JAOA Legacy Camp in June.
The camp includes two days of scrimmages between local teams, plus classroom and mechanics teaching. Similar to the MHSAA Legacy program, new officials are paired with veterans, and clinicians evaluate their work during scrimmage play. Walker then keeps in touch with the new officials during the rest of the summer, plugging them in for local youth tournaments and scrimmages, and uses as many as possible while assigning officials for youth tournaments over the winter.
All eight officials who worked the event this month are part of the JAOA legacy partnering, and some of the group already are working games at the junior varsity level – with one, a 19-year-old, recently completing his first varsity game. They come from a variety of Jackson-area schools – Parma Western, Napoleon, Jackson Christian, Michigan Center, Concord and East Jackson. Walker said the recruiting effort has a 60 percent success rate so far. (This June’s legacy camp will be the third.)
“By next season, all (eight) will be official MHSAA registered officials,” he said, noting most currently are registered. “It’s great to have these schools support this program. We all benefit from added, good officiating.”
Passing it forward
Our Battle of the Fans trip to Charlotte on Friday included a conversation about a Feb. 2 game between the Orioles and Mason, which has a pair of athletes fighting cancer. The Charlotte student section dressed in blue that night in support of junior Storm Miller, and during halftime passed buckets to raise money for Miller’s GoFundMe account set up to help pay for his care.
Mason, in turn, provided support Friday to an Owosso alum, 2012 graduate Cody Greger, who remains hospitalized at University of Michigan’s hospital with injuries sustained during a house fire in November. Fans and students collected donations to assist Greger’s family with his care.
“This event was yet another example of the values that school sports teach young people,” Owosso athletic director Dallas Lintner wrote on the school’s website. “And it stands as a testament of the integrity of the young adults that represent our schools and the (Capital Area Activities Conference.)."
100 years of hoops
A decade before the formation of the Michigan High School Athletic Association, Eastern Michigan University – then known as Michigan State Normal College – hosted what is believed to be the first organized high school basketball tournament in state history.
EMU will celebrate this anniversary Saturday in conjunction with the Eagles men’s basketball game against Toledo. Game time is noon at EMU’s Convocation Center, and during a break in play the athletic department will recognize the 12 schools that took part in that 1916 tournament – Marine City, Dundee, Milan, Mancelona, Farmington, Elkton, Royal Oak, Middleville, Lansing, Mount Clemens, Wayne and Saline.
More history, courtesy of EMU:
The game of basketball was developed by James Naismith in 1891 at Springfield College in Massachusetts. As a means of promoting the game throughout the country, physical education professor and EMU's first athletic director Wilber Bowen asked his good friend Naismith to bring the game to the Michigan State Normal College (now known as Eastern Michigan University).
The first basketball game west of the Allegheny Mountains was played at Michigan Normal in 1894 to recognize the new physical education program and to dedicate the new gymnasium on campus.
Then in 1916, Bowen, along with instructors Elmer Mitchell and Lloyd Olds (who was also credited with the introduction of the striped referee jersey), organized the first high school basketball tournament in Michigan. A total of 300 invitations were sent out to all Class B schools in the state. Twelve schools responded, and the first high school boys tournament was held on the Ypsilanti-based campus on March 23-25, 1916.
Entrance to the tournament was free and (the event was) played at the Michigan State Normal School Gymnasium. However, expenses related to transportation, room, and board had to be provided by the participating schools. The MSNC's Physical Education Department made it easier for schools to participate by making arrangements with local residents to provide food at 20 to 25 cents a meal and lodging at 25 cents a night for each player.
That first tournament saw Marine City defeat Dundee in the championship game, 23-22.
The winning team was awarded a silver shield mounted on an oak base. Second prize was a silver cup, and the third place team received a banner. Individual participation awards to all players were also provided. The Ypsilanti Press at the time felt the Normal School "went first class with the awards."
For tickets to Saturday’s game and event, which will be followed by the EMU women’s team taking on Northern Illinois, call the EMU Ticket Office at (734) 487-2282 or visit EMUEagles.com/tickets.
Following up
• Second Half’s Chip Mundy this fall wrote a story on the emergence of Ida’s football team on the way to making the Division 5 Semifinals and finishing its best season ever. A theme of that story was Ida’s philosophy of building “brick by brick,” coined by defensive line coach Gary Deland, who himself was building back after emergency triple-bypass heart surgery.
“From that very first practice in the summer to the last game as a senior, everything is built brick by brick,” Deland said for that story. “I can draw a correlation between that and my recovery, what I’ve gone through. It’s the same thing. It’s brick by brick.”
Kim Farver sent along this photo of Deland holding up a brick after the team’s 43-20 Regional Final win over Buchanan.
• We released the last batch of this year’s MHSAA-Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award winners today, and one of the highlights during the 27 years of the contest came two years ago when we caught up with some of our winners from the first 25 years – including Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood’s Abby Cohen, who has gone on to co-found a company and help develop a smartphone application, Wing, to help asthma patients monitor their lung function.
Here’s a look at a video describing the technology she’s helped create:
O-G Overhaul Continues to Deliver as Bulldogs Clinch League Title Repeat
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
October 23, 2025
Barb Hellebuyck was honored to return to her alma mater and take on the challenge of rebuilding the Owendale-Gagetown volleyball program.
Having played for the legendary Judy Campbell, Hellebuyck knew what success at Owen-Gage looked like. With her granddaughter entering the program, she had an idea of the type of talent there was on hand to aid in the process.
She was not quite as aware of just how deep the rebuild would have to go, however.
“I remember, and I don’t know what team it was, they came to play a game at our gym and picked up the raggedy balls we had – the look on that girl’s face,” Hellebuyck said. “I went, ‘Oh heck no. We have got to do some upgrading here.’ These girls deserve to look good, to feel good, then that will help them play better when their confidence goes up. It started with new balls, then we got new carts, new uniforms, we have two new net systems now. Everything has been building for these girls, and they should have all that stuff.”
With its new equipment on hand, and its coach now in her fifth season, the Owen-Gage volleyball team is not only rebuilt but flourishing.
On Tuesday night, the Bulldogs clinched their second-straight Big Thumb Conference Red title, also their third in four years. Prior to winning the 2022 title, it had been 17 years since Owen-Gage had won a league championship.
That 2005 title was the last of 11 straight for a once-dominant program, constructed by Campbell as she built a 500-139-25 record over 20 seasons during the team’s infancy. From 1977 through 2008, Owen-Gage won 27 league titles, 21 District titles and five Regional titles. The school had nearly run out of room on the banner hanging in the gym.
Now, it finally has some numbers to justify getting a second one.
“It’s been very eventful – our team has really developed over the years,” said Owen-Gage senior Aubrey Hellebuyck, who joined the varsity team as an eighth grader in 2021. “We’ve really changed the program and turned it all around. We went from being last in the conference to being a championship contender. It’s really awesome to be a part of that.”
Aubrey Hellebuyck is one of three seniors on Owen-Gage’s eight-player roster this season, joined by Ayriona Maikrzek and McKenzie Baker.
They also happen to be the only three girls in the school’s four-student senior class. Owen-Gage is among the state’s smallest 30 schools in terms of MHSAA classification, with an enrollment of 41. The towns of Owendale and Gagetown have a combined population of less than 600 as of the 2020 census.
Because of its size, Owen-Gage can have eighth graders play varsity sports, as Hellebuyck did. They also have students as young as seventh grade playing on the JV team.
For some, that could be intimidating. But at Owen-Gage it’s been embraced.
“Having no experience, it was very hard,” Owen-Gage junior Jessica Bowers said. “We were going against teams that would have freshmen and sophomores, while I’m just a seventh grader who had never played before. But it made me develop faster because I had to lock in and focus when I’d be going up against people that were a lot bigger.”
A smaller school population also forces players to learn to become more well-rounded. Not only because of the small number of substitutes, but because there’s no guarantee the population will provide a player that fits a specific position.
“They are all phenomenal players in my mind, because we have a lot of them that play all the way around,” Barb Hellebuyck said. “They have to be good at the net, they have to be good in the back row. They’re really phenomenal players. They’re not always the tallest ones, but I have several players that do multiple things. We just have to.”
Again, it’s something Owen-Gage players have embraced.
“I’m a middle, and normally at other schools the middles never play all around,” Bowers said. “When I first started, all I focused on was hitting. Gradually I had to force myself to learn to dig a ball because no one could play back row for me. Eventually I got really good at it. On a bigger school team, I don’t think I would have to do that.”
With that buy-in, it’s no surprise that Owen-Gage has returned to its winning ways. This year’s team is 19-4-1 overall, having won 13 straight matches. It has not lost since Sept. 9.
The Bulldogs have two regular-season matches remaining before the District tournament, which begins Nov. 3. With a league title wrapped up, that’s the next goal, to end another 17-year drought and claim the school’s first District championship since 2008. In their way is Division 4 No. 2 Ubly.
“There’s a chance we could do that,” Aubrey Hellebuyck said. “It would be a huge upset, and it would be insane. We’re working toward that.”
That possible title would be made even more special by the fact it would be won in the Bulldogs’ home gym, as they are hosting. That’s another source of pride, just five years removed from side-eyed looks over the state of the program’s equipment.
“Barb puts a lot of work into that,” said Aubrey Hellebuyck, who added that she’ll go back to calling her “Grandma” after the season. “She’s a great coach, but she actually does a lot of fundraising just so our program has a lot of opportunity. We had one net, and it was horrible. Now we have two brand-new nets that are great. Our old ball cart, it was not a ball cart, I don’t even know what it was. But it’s not embarrassing to bring out our ball carts anymore for home games.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Owendale-Gagetown players celebrate during a match this season. (Middle) Jessica Bowers elevates to get to a ball. (Below) Aubrey Hellebuyck (5) enjoys a moment with her team. (Photos by Kaitlin Gunsell/Kaitlin’s Klicks.)