'Yard Squad' Enjoys Unexpected Response
May 20, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The task itself was a simple one, and the reasons for doing it simple at first.
An elderly woman called Colon High School – on the advice of her daughter, who teaches in the Upper Peninsula – looking for a student group that might be interested in assisting with some yard work.
Sophomore Andrew Smolarz, meanwhile, always is looking for community service hours to go toward membership in his school’s Varsity Club and National Honor Society chapter.
So he and four track & field teammates volunteered and spent a few hours picking up sticks, raking around her house and cleaning up brush. But they never anticipated the response.
“After the first time we did it, the reaction we got from people – it was more than just doing work for them,” Smolarz said. “When she saw us, the first lady said we’d restored her faith in the youth in the community. She got pretty teary-eyed, so it meant a lot to us, and she wanted a hug from all of us too.”
Since, Smolarz and his “Yard Squad” – sophomores Isaiah Fellers and Andy Stoll and freshmen Philip Alva and Austin Stoll – have taken their cleaning talents to two more homes, with three more and a restaurant also on the schedule.
Colon’s Yard Squad is a recipient of an inaugural MHSAA/Lake Trust Credit Union “Community Service Award” recognizing contributions by Michigan’s high school student-athletes away from the field. The Yard Squad will receive $1,000, which will go toward Colon’s athletic department and equipment for the track & field and baseball teams. Six honorees total are receiving awards this spring; Second Half will feature one a day this week.
While there are a multitude of ways to serve one’s community – over the next few days we will feature some incredibly impressive campaigns to raise money, awareness and donate goods to those in need – Colon’s Yard Squad found a way to help that students at any school can replicate, and to the same unexpected benefits.
That first call ended up on the ear of Colon athletic director Paige Smolarz – also Andrew’s mother and the school’s boys track & field coach – and when she offered the opportunity, these five underclassmen stepped up. It’s not that they don’t have other things going on; all five are dual sport athletes also playing baseball or golf, so clean-ups so far have come on Sundays adding up to about 15 hours total by each student with many more yet to be worked this spring.
Among others they’ve helped were a second elderly woman and her disabled husband, and a young couple where the wife is fighting cancer and the husband is working long shifts to support the family.
The village of Colon, tucked south of Kalamazoo and north of Sturgis, has roughly 1,200 residents, and word quickly gets around. The first woman helped by the Yard Squad told her friends, and there was some Facebook buzz as well. Smolarz said he and the “squad” are just a bunch of friends (and the Stolls are cousins) having fun working together to do something good.
“People think so much more of the little things you do for them than I actually thought (they would),” Andrew Smolarz said. “I just thought we’d go clean up, say thanks, and leave. But they thought so much more over it.
“It’s gotten a lot more fun in my opinion. The reaction is really cool to see on people’s faces. People just can’t believe we’d come out and do that for them.”
The Community Service Awards are sponsored by the Michigan High School Athletic Association and Lake Trust Credit Union to recognize student-athletes' efforts to improve the lives of others in their communities. In addition to the $1,000 award, the Lake Trust Foundation is awarding an additional $500 to each honoree, to be donated to a non-profit, 501 (c)(3) organization of the awardee’s choice.
PHOTO: Colon High School's "Yard Squad" from left: Isaiah Fellers, Andy Stoll, Andrew Smolarz, Phillip Alva and Austin Stoll. (Photo courtesy of the Colon athletic department.)
Detroit Public Schools' McEvans Selected for MHSAA Women In Sports Leadership Award
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 22, 2026
Over nearly three decades as a coach, school and league administrator, Anika McEvans has worked to provide the athletic opportunities for all children that she enjoyed as an athlete herself and later as a mother of three including two who have gone on to play at the collegiate level.
Her work in several roles, serving multiple school districts over nearly 28 years, has benefited thousands of students. In recognition of those contributions, McEvans has been named the 40th recipient of the MHSAA’s Women In Sports Leadership Award.
Each year, the Representative Council considers the achievements of women coaches, officials and athletic administrators affiliated with the MHSAA who show exemplary leadership capabilities and positive contributions to athletics. McEvans will receive her award during the WISL Conference Banquet, Feb. 1 at the Crowne Plaza Lansing.
Currently midway through her seventh school year serving in the Office of Athletics for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, she is responsible for planning and implementation of the Detroit Public School League’s sports offerings for 72 elementary and middle schools in addition to her several responsibilities supporting the league’s 20 high schools. McEvans came to the PSL from Southfield Public Schools, where as district director she supervised more than 100 coaches, staff and volunteers.
Before that she was a building athletic director, and prior to becoming an administrator she coached multiple sports across tenures at three schools.
“Obviously as an athlete myself, and also the mother of female athletes, my children and I both were very fortunate to have amazing coaches and administrators who elevated our sports,” McEvans said. “I made it a goal of mine everywhere I go to advocate in the same way. I want any child to have what I’d want for my children.”
A basketball, volleyball and softball player while a student at Detroit Renaissance, McEvans returned to high school athletics after college first as a coach, serving as head girls varsity basketball coach at Detroit Academy of Arts & Sciences, assistant boys basketball and softball coach at Renaissance, and assistant girls basketball coach at Southfield.
She served as athletic director from 2012-15 at the former Southfield High School, and as district athletic director through 2017-18 she assisted in the merger of Southfield High and Southfield-Lathrup into Southfield Arts & Technology High School for the start of the 2016-17 school year.
Also during her time at Southfield, McEvans added competitive cheer to the school’s athletic offerings, and then brought the sport to the PSL after moving to the Detroit district office. Cass Tech, Martin Luther King and Renaissance high schools have added competitive cheer teams, and McEvans is hopeful two more schools will do the same over the coming year.
“Anika McEvans continues to create and expand opportunities so as many students as possible can enjoy all of the good that comes with participation in school sports,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “This award celebrates Anika’s leadership in this way, but also the example she sets in showing what’s possible when someone is driven to make a difference.”
McEvans received an MHSAA Allen W. Bush Award in 2024, celebrating her work often “behind the scenes” in school sports. She was selected for a Skillman Foundation Visionary Award this past year for her work “updating and upgrading the education system in Detroit and beyond.”
She has contributed her expertise to statewide athletics in many ways as well, serving on several MHSAA committees including athletic equity, junior high/middle school, scholar-athlete and as part of multiple officials and site selection committees. She also provided a key voice as part of the MHSAA Multi-Sport Task Force during the last half of the last decade and has played a leading role in providing coaches education throughout Detroit Public Schools through the MHSAA Coaches Advancement Program.
McEvans graduated from Renaissance in 1994 and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in sports management and communications from University of Michigan and a master’s in business administration from the University of Detroit Mercy. She also previously served as director of business operations and then general manager for the Detroit Demolition/Detroit Danger women’s professional football franchise from 2002-06 and as assistant general manager for the Motor City Mechanics minor league hockey team from 2004-06.
Her daughter Cheyenne McEvans is currently a graduate student playing her final season of college basketball at University of Nevada. Son Cameron McEvans played basketball at Lawrence Technological University and most recently professionally in Uruguay. Youngest daughter Cierra McEvans participated on West Bloomfield’s competitive cheer team and is now a sophomore at Grand Valley State University.
“I know how for young men and women that participate in sports, that it rounds out their development, gives them leadership skills and confidence to move through the world,” Anika McEvans said. “I was telling someone the other day that because of their successes and failures on the court, I knew my children would move through the world fearlessly.
“I (also) know in my particular role (at DPSCD) and also to a certain degree at Southfield, there are still gaps in how minority students and programs are supported … (and helping fill that gap) is just my mission.”
More than 700 participants – mostly female high school student-athletes from across the state – have registered to attend this year’s sold-out WISL Conference, the 27th in the series that remains the first, largest and longest-running program of its type in the country.
The opening address Feb. 1 will be presented by Kristen Kelsay, a two-time team captain during her playing career for the Michigan State University women’s volleyball team who recently completed her first season as the Spartans’ head coach and led the team to its highest win total since 2017. MSU women’s basketball coach Robyn Fralick – in her third season and leading a Spartans team that is 17-2 and ranked No. 13 by The Associated Press – will speak during the general session at the start of the Feb. 2 conference schedule.
Several workshops will be offered over the two days, with topics including coaching, teaching and learning leadership; sports nutrition and performance, and empowerment and goal-setting. Presenters are accomplished in their fields and represent a wide range of backgrounds in sport. A complete itinerary is available on the Women In Sports Leadership page.
The first Women In Sports Leadership Award was presented in 1990.
Past recipients
1990 – Carol Seavoy, L’Anse
1991 – Diane Laffey, Harper Woods
1992 – Patricia Ashby, Scotts
1993 – Jo Lake, Grosse Pointe
1994 – Brenda Gatlin, Detroit
1995 – Jane Bennett, Ann Arbor
1996 – Cheryl Amos-Helmicki, Huntington Woods
1997 – Delores L. Elswick, Detroit
1998 – Karen S. Leinaar, Delton
1999 – Kathy McGee, Flint
2000 – Pat Richardson, Grass Lake
2001 – Suzanne Martin, East Lansing
2002 – Susan Barthold, Kentwood
2003 – Nancy Clark, Flint
2004 – Kathy Vruggink Westdorp, Grand Rapids
2005 – Barbara Redding, Capac
2006 – Melanie Miller, Lansing
2007 – Jan Sander, Warren Woods
2008 – Jane Bos, Grand Rapids
2009 – Gail Ganakas, Flint; Deb VanKuiken, Holly
2010 – Gina Mazzolini, Lansing
2011 – Ellen Pugh, West Branch; Patti Tibaldi, Traverse City
2012 – Janet Gillette, Comstock Park
2013 – Barbara Beckett, Traverse City
2014 – Teri Reyburn, DeWitt
2015 – Jean LaClair, Bronson
2016 – Betty Wroubel, Pontiac
2017 – Dottie Davis, Ann Arbor
2018 – Meg Seng, Ann Arbor
2019 – Kris Isom, Adrian
2020 – Nikki Norris, East Lansing
2021 – Dorene Ingalls, St. Ignace
2022 – Lori Hyman, Livonia
2023 – Laurie Glass, Leland
2024 – Mary Cicerone, Bloomfield Hills; Eve Claar, Ann Arbor
2025 – Jennifer Thunberg, Freeland