Powerful Voice for High School Sports
December 19, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Paul Carey was home from the U.S. Army only a few months and just shy of 25 years old when Beal City embarked on its first trip deep into the MHSAA boys basketball tournament.
On the call for local radio station WCEN from gyms at Saginaw Arthur Hill and Lansing Sexton, Carey served as the voice of the previously “laughable” Aggies as they reached the Class D Semifinals before falling just six points short of playing for the title.
“All of Beal City emptied out. They’d never had anything before,” Carey recalled during his annual Thanksgiving weekend visit to the MHSAA Football Finals at Ford Field. “When I got home, within the next two weeks I got a letter from every citizen of Beal City thanking me for broadcasting their games. That’s the kind of appreciation that meant so much.”
During 42 years on the airwaves, Carey was best known as a voice of the Detroit Tigers bounding out of transistor radios all over Michigan, thanks to WJR’s powerful signal.
But for the state’s high school sports community, his legacy is similarly memorable as the voice of the longtime football and basketball scoreboard show and a voter for various all-state teams and wire polls over the decades.
Now 86 and retired since 1991, Carey remains a regular during the first day of the Football Finals, taking in games he broadcast for the MHSAA during the late 1970s and that continue to hold his eye as they have for more than a half-century.
“It was a passion of mine. High school sports always has been,” Carey said. “I think because my dad was a high school coach, and teacher initially, and my brother was a high school coach and teacher, I just grew up in families that appreciated coaching and athletics. I was not a great athlete, but it kept my hand in following sports that way.”
Now, the scores
Carey partnered with Ernie Harwell for Tigers radio broadcasts from 1973-91, including during the march to the 1984 World Series championship. He was named Michigan Sportscaster of the Year six times and to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.
But Carey’s early career included sitting on top of a car, plugged into a phone pole, for a Sacred Heart football game at old Fancher Field just a few blocks from his family’s Mount Pleasant home. Among many more accolades are a Distinguished Service Award from the Michigan High School Coaches Association and a place in the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan Hall of Fame.
In fact, the start of his weekly announcing of statewide football and basketball scores preceded his baseball career by 16 years and ended two months after he announced his final professional out.
The Michigan High School Scoreboard show was a staple of WJR’s late Friday nights from 1957-91. Carey would read every score he could collect from a variety of sources, often organized by league and with state rankings and context mixed in.
His idea came from something similar read by Len Colby for Kalamazoo’s WKZO. Carey’s brother Terry was coaching at Niles during the second half of the 1950s, and he and other coaches would get together to listen to the Friday night scores from the southwestern part of the state.
Carey, who left WKNX in Saginaw for WJR in 1956, explained to then-sports director Bob Reynolds that the station’s strong signal could provide for a truly statewide scoreboard experience.
Carey then connected with Edgar Hayes of the former Detroit Times, who gave the OK for Carey to call the paper on Friday nights to get scores from the Detroit metro area. For the rest, Carey relied on wire services – there were three at the time – who relied on newspapers from all over Michigan to call in scores over the course of an evening.
Before every Friday during high school football season – and later Tuesdays and Fridays during boys basketball season – Carey typed up lists of games based on schedules in the newspaper, with spaces to add scores. More than a few times, Carey raced down a back ramp at Tiger Stadium after a Friday night game, back to the WJR studio, with 15 minutes to prep for the show’s 11:30 p.m. start.
“If the Flint Journal, the Grand Rapids Press, the Traverse City paper didn’t call in scores to the AP, then I was out of luck too. And that happened all the time,” Carey said. “I would call back occasionally, say, ‘Did you get anything more?’ It was a rat race.”
The show originally was set for 10 minutes and then extended to 15. American Airlines sponsored a record show that followed, and Carey’s scoreboard show had a sponsor only once in 35 years. Finishing up on time was expected, even with more than 200 scores to read.
But Carey said he always went 20 minutes, sometimes 25.
“Because I wasn’t done. I just kept right on going,” Carey said. “Jay Roberts did the all-night show most of the time, and he was patient with me. He didn’t say too much on the air about ‘that guy ahead of me took all of my time.’”
Carey continued the “rat race” until his final scoreboard show, Dec. 20, 1991. He retired from WJR at the end of that calendar year. And it's important to note: Carey was never paid a dime extra for doing the program. .
“I think Paul is really just a sports fan, and that came across to the listener on his broadcasts,” MHSAA historian Ron Pesch said. “Paul would gather as much as possible off the wire. He'd interject if scores were missing from sections of the state. Press polls from the Free Press, News, AP and UPI were big, so he could point out close calls and upsets.
“He provided immediacy, or the closest thing to it in the days before cable TV and the Internet, and because of his scoreboard show, you could get the results before the morning paper. For listeners, he brought life to something as simple as game scores.”
First team all the way
Carey, who resides in Rochester, also served as the engineer on Tigers broadcasts for 16 years, through 1990. He broadcast Pistons games on the radio for six seasons and did the first broadcast of a Central Michigan University football game, in 1949.
Harry Atkins, covering Detroit’s teams while with The Associated Press for 29 years including the last 21 as its sports editor for Detroit, took note of his colleague's hard work – and especially that Carey was one of few broadcasters who was a journalist in addition to a voice.
That made Carey's other major role in high school sports a natural fit.
Atkins split The Associated Press all-state selection panels for football and basketball into 11 regions, and Carey represented the Detroit area for a number of years. He also was a longtime voter in those sports' weekly polls.
“Paul is just that kind of guy. He thought it was important and he made time in his busy schedule to do it,” Atkins said “And it had an impact on the other 10 voters on the All-State panels, too.
“Some of them were from small out-state newspapers or radio or TV stations. Yet every one of them knew who Paul Carey was. And when he spoke, of course, with what often is called "The Voice of God," those voters paid attention.”
And he still does, as well.
At the end of each fall, Carey still puts together a compilation of the three high school all-state football teams – Associated Press, Detroit Free Press and Detroit News – and files them with years of research and results.
“It’s important to me. Nobody sees it but me, but I get a certain kick,” Carey said. “Once in a while I’ll see a kid playing at Central, Western or (Michigan) State or Michigan, and they’ll say he came from Clawson. I’ll go into my all-state collections, say that would’ve been 2009 he played, and I find a name.”
In addition to the Football Finals on WJR, Carey was part of the Baseball Finals broadcasts into the early 1990s, continuing to contribute even after his retirement from his fulltime gig.
He spent high school games over the years sitting next to legends like the Free Press’ Hal Schram and remembers when current Free Press longtime scribe Mick McCabe was just a rookie. One of Carey's final broadcasts was a 1992 Baseball Final with his nephew Mike Carey, who continues to broadcast MHSAA championship games to this day.
“I am eternally grateful to Paul Carey. His contribution to high school sports in Michigan has been great and significant,” Atkins said.
“We are lucky to have him.”
PHOTO: Paul Carey (left) and nephew Mike Carey broadcast the MHSAA 1992 Class D Baseball Final between Hillman and Athens for PASS.
Shelby's Gauthier Ascends to Top of State, National Volleyball Record Lists
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 12, 2025
Navea Gauthier concluded her Shelby career in 2024 with 16 record book listings – and the much sought-after record for career kills both in Michigan and nationally.
She totaled 3,706 over four seasons, moving past legendary Alisha Glass from Leland on both lists. Gauthier also made the single-season kills list all four of her seasons, with her 1,034 as a junior in 2023 ranking third and her 987 as a sophomore ranking fifth. Her career total will be submitted to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) as a national record as well.
Gauthier is continuing her career at Ohio State.
See below for several recently-added listings to the girls volleyball record book, and click the heading to see the record book in full. Several more applications have been received and are in the process of being confirmed.
Girls Volleyball
Fremont 2023 graduate Carle Bruggema earned 10 record book entries over her four seasons and finished on career lists with 2,781 assists and 368 aces, both over 464 games played. She also made the single-season aces list twice with 115 as a junior and 116 as a senior and is listed six times for either single-match aces or assists. She’s playing at Goshen College in Indiana.
More than a decade later, Mallory Lenhart has moved to the top of the list for single-season assists for the 1,874 she totaled as a senior in 2010 in leading Temperance Bedford to the Class A Semifinals. She went on to play at Lourdes University in Ohio.
Calumet’s Helen Beiring and Laina Kariniemi led their team through a five-set Regional Final win over Elk Rapids in 2022 – both making the record book in the process. Beiring, then a senior, had 40 kills, while Kariniemi, a junior, tied for seventh-most assists in one match with 65. Beiring is continuing at Northern Michigan.
Indian River Inland Lakes’ run to the Division 4 Quarterfinals in 2022 featured several noteworthy individual performances, led by senior Natalie Wandrie’s 616 kills to make the single-season list in that category. Then-senior Hannah Robinson, then-junior Erica Taglauer and then-sophomore Brooklyn LaBrecque also were added for single-match accomplishments. Wandrie is playing volleyball and softball at Lindsey Wilson College (Ky.), and Robinson competed in track & field at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Fla.)
Fenton’s Eva Long was added a second and third time to the single-match aces list, with 10 in a three-set match against Holly and then 12 in a three-set match against Flint Kearsley both in 2023 as a sophomore after making it originally with 12 aces during a match her freshman year. She recently completed her senior season and will continue at North Carolina State.
Jayden Marlatt capped her four-season Johannesburg-Lewiston varsity career in the fall of 2023 on the MHSAA all-time kills list with 1,614, including 34 in a match. She’s joined among recent additions by then-sophomore teammate Lexi Hogle, who had 52 assists in the same four-set league-clinching match against Fife Lake Forest Area on Oct. 17, 2023. Then-senior Brooklyn Latuszek was added twice for aces in one match, with 12 and 10, and 2023 graduate Serena Hogle was added with 48 assists in a 2022 match. Madison Peppin joined the list of players with at least 10 aces in a match when she totaled that number in a sweep of Gaylord St. Mary in 2024. She just finished her junior season. Marlatt plays softball at Ferris State, and Latuszek played at Alpena Community College.
A pair of Marlette four-year standouts were added, one for a high-achieving match in 2023 and the second for a career accomplishment. Senior Emma Heussner made the single-match assists list for 47 in a four-set win over Ubly that fall. Gabby Martinez, also a senior that season, reached the aces career list with 308 and plays at St. Clair County Community College.
Senior Ashley Strefling became the first Three Oaks River Valley player in the volleyball record book, finishing her four-year varsity career in 2023 with 2,680 assists. She posted a career-high 812 as a junior. She plays at Florida State College at Jacksonville.
Saginaw Swan Valley’s Marli Robinson added two more record book listings as a senior in 2023 to finish her career with three. She had 46 assists in a match for the second time and finished her three-season career with 2.,745 assists over 365 games and three seasons.
Several Croswell-Lexington standouts from the last decade reached the record book, including setter Annalise Weeder who was added for six single-match assists totals, 1,203 during her junior season and 3,356 over her four-year varsity career from 2020-23. Standout hitter Brooke Smith was added 37 kills in a 2014 match, 747 kills total that season and 1,582 over her three seasons from 2012-14. Makayla Shell was added for 159 blocks as a senior and 455 over her career. Additionally, Morgan Moore and Danielle Ripenbark were added for single-match accomplishments and Rachel Soper for 1,254 assists in 2014. Smith went on to play at Grand Valley State, Shell at Wayne State and Moore at St. Clair County Community College.
Kara Vyletel has reached the record book for a big-hitting season as a senior at Ann Arbor Huron in 2014. Vyletel had 805 kills over 145 games, which at the time would’ve ranked 15th since the start of the rally scoring era. She went on to play at Hillsdale College.
Setter Mady Pahl and hitter Molly Gerow played significant roles in making Beaverton a force during their four-year varsity careers from 2017-2020. Both were added to the records for multiple accomplishments, Pahl most notable for 2,817 career assists and Gerow for 2,106 career kills, including a high of 675 as a sophomore. Pahl played softball at Hope College.
A pair of Big Rapids Crossroads Academy servers earned the first listings for their school and this sport in 2024. Junior Dani Nostrant had 16 aces during the second game of a match against Walkerville, tying for the fourth-most aces in one set and with her 18 for the match ranking 10th all-time. She also had 13 in a four-set match against Holton that season. Senior Kristy Warczinsky also was added to the single-match aces list with 12 against Walkerville that fall.
Three Rivers’ Southland sisters both made their ways into the record book over the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Jenna Southland, a hitter who graduated in 2024, was added three times including for 671 kills as a senior and 1,490 over three varsity seasons. Miley Southland, a setter, was added four times and is on the career list with 2,952 assists not counting what she added this fall as a senior. Jenna Southland is playing at Hillsdale College.
Braylyn Hernandez starred in multiple sports for Burr Oak and reached the volleyball record book with 342 career aces through her final season in 2024. She actually began her varsity career in the sport in eighth grade, although her aces from that season are not counted in the total for record book purposes. She’s playing volleyball, basketball and softball at Glen Oaks Community College.
Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern setter Lexie Stotenbur already ranked on the career assists list with 2,727 through three seasons and entering this fall. She’s also in the record book for 1,320 assists as a sophomore in 2023 and 49 in a five-set win over Grand Rapids Christian that season.
Rudyard’s Lily Kwiatkowski earned a listing with 34 kills during a five-set match against St. Ignace on Nov. 12, 2024. She just completed her senior season.
Zeeland East’s Lizzie Risdon also made the single-match kills list, as a sophomore, with 34 during a five-set win over Hamilton on Oct. 3, 2024. She’s committed to Ohio University.
A pair of Caledonia standouts were added – Jessica Maier for 54 assists in a 2023 match against Grandville, plus 1,245 assists as a junior that fall and 2,601 over her three-year varsity career, and Aubrey Reynolds for 17 aces in a 2024 match last season against Muskegon. Maier is playing at Roosevelt University in Chicago, and Reynolds is a junior.
Lansing Catholic’s Leighton Marlan reached the record book with 111 aces as a sophomore in 2024, becoming the Cougars’ first athlete to make a list in this sport.
Grayling’s Cali D’Amour had already made the MHSAA records in softball and is playing that sport at Davenport. She added a volleyball listing as well as a senior in 2024 with 31 kills in a match against Harbor Springs.
Nearly two decades later, Yale setter Cydney Biessel has been added for 4,076 career assists, which rank 11th. She finished her four-year high school career in 2008 and went on to play at Wayne State.
A pair of Niles setters made the single-match assists list in successive seasons. Then-senior Kaydence Jacobs did so with 52 assists in a 2024 match against South Bend Adams (Ind.), and freshman Mena Hover set the school record and made the list with 54 this fall against Sturgis. Jacobs plays now for Lake Michigan College.
PHOTO Shelby's Navea Gauthier goes up for a kill attempt during a 2022 match. (Photo by Farmer's Fotos.)