Mourning Those Who Contributed Much

It’s only August but Concord senior Haley Stimer has her mind on the softball season that starts in March – eight months from now.

“I don't know if we're going to have enough people,” she said. “I'm kind of worried about our numbers.”

For Stimer, having a softball season is how she will finish her career with a stunning 20 letters over her four years of high school. She enters her senior year with 15 varsity letters already on her jacket.

“It took a little bit to get into figuring out how to manage my time,” she said. “I feel like I’m pretty good at it now with communicating with teachers and coaches and everything.”

Stimer runs cross country and plays golf in the fall, plays basketball in the winter and dual-sports between track and softball in the spring. Except for a little bit of JV basketball her freshman season, she’s been on varsity teams her entire high school career.

“I guess I’ve just always played all of the sports,” she said. “When I was younger, I played basketball and softball and golf once in a while. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into my freshman year.”

With the blessing of Concord athletic director Matt Lehman and all of her coaches, Stimer has set forth a remarkable career of steady success and showing up for everything possible.

“She is one of our top athletes in each sport,” Lehman said. “I've been at Concord for 33 years, and I don't recall anyone even close to (20 letters).”

Her cross country and golf coaches often coordinate practice times. In the spring, she floats between track and softball with ease.

“They have been really accommodating with what time we need to have practices,” Stimer said of Concord golf coach Mike Bauman. “He normally bumps it back until whenever we finish cross country.

“It can be a lot to figure out,” she added. “I have to watch practice times a lot, just to be sure. The hardest is probably with golf because there are days when you have to miss the entire school day for a meet.”

The Yellow Jackets currently have just two golfers on the girls team. The season began Tuesday at the East Jackson Scramble, and Stimer and teammate Mya Barrett combined to shoot an 82 and finish among the top 10. Unfortunately, they don’t have enough girls on the team to score in dual meets.

“It’s hard to get girls out for golf,” Stimer said. “My sophomore year there were only four of us, and the other three girls were seniors. Last year I had to find three more girls that would do it and two of them were seniors, so now it's just me and one other girl (Barrett).”

Stimer has been part of some outstanding basketball teams at Concord. Over the last three seasons Concord has won 66 games, two league titles, three District titles, two Regional titles and played in the 2025 Division 4 Semifinals when she started and stayed on the court all 32 minutes in a 34-24 loss to Ewen-Trout Creek.

Stimer admitted she’s never been a fan of running, but that hasn’t slowed her down. She qualified for the 3,200 and as part of the 3,200 relay for the spring’s Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals. She led off the relay team that would finish fourth in 10:01.31, helping the Yellow Jackets finish seventh as a team at the meet.

Last fall she placed 29^th at the LPD4 Cross Country Finals. As a freshman she was all-state in cross country, placing 13^th with a time of 19:31.1, her personal best to date.

At one time basketball was her favorite sport, but she said she’s taking a stronger liking to golf recently. She might try golf in college. She has no idea at this point what she might want to study, although she said she is really strong in math and likes English. She finished her junior year at the top of her class with a GPA above 4.0.

Stimer, 17, has a younger brother who is going to be a sophomore this year and a sister, Hannah, who is a sophomore in college. The daughter of Bart and Kiersten said her parents and her sister often inspired her in athletics.

“I kind of followed in her footsteps because of all of the sports she did,” Stimer said.

Stimer admits there are some nerves starting her senior year. She’s on the Concord student council and National Honor Society and last year volunteered with some groups in school. Through a leadership class she helped organize a basketball camp for Concord elementary students. This year she is adding something else to the mix – she will be dual-enrolling at Jackson College, her first dive into college courses.

“I’ve taken AP courses, but not college before,” she said.

There’s a lot on her plate, she said, but she is still excited.

“I'm nervous because it's going to be a lot, I think, but I've always done it, so, I know I can do it this year too.”

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) Concord’s Haley Stimer (1171) approaches the finish line during last season’s LPD4 championship race at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Stimer passes the ball during a basketball game against Hillsdale Academy. (Top photo courtesy of RunMichigan.com. Middle photo courtesy of Joseph Miller/JTV. Head shot courtesy of the Concord athletic department.)