Special Year Thanks to No Specialization
August 7, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
As we embark on another sports-filled school year Monday, we can look to a recent Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central grad for the value of a school year filled with sports.
As specialization at the highs school level continues to be debated, Bryce Windham will start his college baseball career this fall at Division I Old Dominion University – after playing baseball but also football and basketball for the Falcons.
The MHSAA has long advocated athletes taking on as many sports as they have interest instead of focusing on just one in pursuit of a college scholarship – a position that’s received plenty of public backing of late, be it from stars of the U.S. women’s soccer team after their World Cup championship run or former Lansing Waverly multi-sport athlete John Smoltz during his enshrinement in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
Enter Windham – who easily could’ve been excused for focusing on baseball, or even basketball as his dad is the St. Mary’s varsity boys coach. Instead, Bryce quarterbacked the football team to last season’s Division 6 championship – breaking Ithaca’s national-best 69-game winning streak in the Final – before being named Class C Player of the Year by The Associated Press in basketball and earning a Most Valuable Player honor at the baseball state coaches association all-star game at Comerica Park this spring.
All three of Windham's teams reached at least the MHSAA Quarterfinals.
“His participation in football and basketball helped land a Division 1 baseball scholarship to Old Dominion. They were able to see his athleticism in basketball and toughness in football, and ODU’s coach loved it,” dad and hoops coach Randy Windham said.
“He probably would’ve given up football, and that ended up his greatest memory by winning a state championship.”
Click to read about Windham’s multitude of accomplishments as reported last month by the Monroe Evening News.
Honors Abound
National coaching honors were bestowed on a trio of Michigan coaches over the summer:
- Retired Trenton ice hockey coach Mike Turner – the winningest hockey coach in MHSAA history with a record of 629-126-52 from 1974-81 and then 1995-2014 – was named National Coach of the Year in Special Sports by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association. His teams won 11 MHSAA titles and finished runner-up four times. “I was there when the MHSAA added hockey as one of their sanctioned sports and crowned their first MHSAA state championships in 1975. At that time there were 60-70 high school teams participating, and now there are 170,” Turner said. “It has been great to be a part of the advancements made in the sport of high school hockey, with more teams participating, more player development, and more opportunities that exist for players after high school.”
- Traverse City Central boys track and field and cross country coach John Lober won his second national coaching honor of the 2014-15 school year, named the NHSACA Coach of the Year for track and field to go with a previous honor earned in January from the National Federation of State High School Associations. He has coached the Traverse City Central boys track and field team since 1977 and also the boys cross country team since 1989. His 1992 track team won the Class A championship, and he has coached 17 individual MHSAA Finals champions. He was inducted into the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2006.
- Ann Arbor Pioneer assistant girls swimming and diving coach Liz Hill was named the Assistant Coach of the Year for all girls sports by the NHSACA. Hill, a former All-American at the University of Michigan and standout sprinter at Pioneer, began assisting her husband Denny Hill in 1983 before becoming his fulltime assistant a few seasons later. Together they’ve led the Pioneers girls to 15 MHSAA team titles, the last two as co-head coaches.
Michigan Mourns
Fremont and the high school athletic community statewide mourned the death July 21 of longtime coach Rich Tompkins, who led Fremont’s boys cross country teams to six MHSAA cross country championships including three and a runner-up finish during his last decade of coaching before retiring in 1997.
The Muskegon Chronicle reported that his boys and girls cross country teams and boys track and field team combined for 45 league championships, with his boys cross country team winning 116 straight duals from 1977-88. Tompkins was executive director of the Michigan High School Coaches Association for more than a decade and served on its board for more than two decades.
Click to read more from the Chronicle on Tompkins’ legacy.
Officials in the News
The Monroe County Officials Association took to the county fair to encourage passers-by to “Be the Referee” – and received 47 sign-ups from people interested in the avocation. Visitors to an MCOA booth at the fair were told in some detail what is involved with being an MHSAA official, and those who then signed up to find out more about officiating football, basketball, baseball or softball (sports the MCOA trains for and schedules) will be invited to an orientation session where they will become eligible for one of 20 complimentary registration fees for this school year.
The West Michigan Officials Association marked a decade of support at the start of this summer for the Visually Impaired Sports and Activity Day, sponsored by the Helen DeVos Children’s Foundation. The WMOA has contributed nearly $18,000 to the event over the last 10 years as well as taking part in the event, which includes a number of sports and other activities.
The Saginaw Athletic Officials Association sent along this photo of five members who worked 2013-14 MHSAA Finals, from left: Mark Jarlock (baseball), Tom Behmlander (softball), Scott Helmka (football), Dale Brown (softball and football) and Mark Schoenow (football). The Baseball Final was Jarlock’s first; the other officials had worked Finals in the past.
PHOTO: (Top) Monroe St. Mary quarterback Bryce Windham unloads a pass during last season's Division 6 Final win over Ithaca at Ford Field.
Britton Deerfield Boys Following Bigger Numbers to Championship Results
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
May 6, 2026
Each week during boys track & field season, Dustin Longnecker gathers his Britton Deerfield team in his classroom. They call it the “War Room.”
Longnecker and his Patriots stand in front of the white board and go through the upcoming track meet or invitational event-by-event, figuring out where they can score the most points. The fact that BD is even focused on dual meets is a complete change of thinking for Longnecker.
“I’m so blessed,” he said. “I could go on and on about this group. I’ve never had numbers like this. My first year I had eight kids on the boys and girls team combined.
“One year I had this phenomenal sprinter, a high jumper with turf toe and some throwers. I’ve never cared about dual meets because we just couldn’t compete.”
As Longnecker says, this is “the good old days” for BD.
The Patriots finished the Tri-County Conference with a winning record at 3-2-1 and head into Friday’s league meet with a good shot at third place. They won a home invitational Friday against some established programs from the Lenawee County Athletic Association and Cascades Conference.
“Before the season Erik (Johnson) asked me what kind of trophy to get for the Bob Beckey Invite. I said I didn’t care because we’d never sniff that,” said Longnecker, referring to a conversation with his athletic director. “Turns out, we won. It was so great for the kids. We score up to eight places and had all sorts of kids contribute. That was the great thing about it. It is more special when everyone contributes.”
The Beckey Invite was named after longtime coach Bob Beckey, who died in 2016.
Ottawa Lake Whiteford coach Jay Yockey coached at BD previously and was elated to hear BD took home the trophy.
“Bob was also a great guy and coach, and he loved track, but he loved our athletes more,” Yockey said. “So, to see BD win an invite that is named after him is incredible. Bob had a saying that he used often when he was happy. He would say, ‘I’m tickled pink.’ Now he probably would be embarrassed to have an invite named after him, but to know the school he last coached at won that invite, I would have to imagine that he would say that he was ‘tickled pink.’”
Longnecker has had to utilize various strategies over the years as a track coach due to BD’s low numbers. For example, he’s seldom been in favor of pushing kids to run in four events in one day. He’s also never concerned himself with winning dual meets.
“We have a winning record in the TCC for the first time in my career,” he said. “I never thought I’d say that. We just don’t win dual meets. We haven’t had the numbers. This year, the kids have been all about it. We have a really strong freshman and junior class. The great thing about it is that it is really from top to bottom. The kids are still getting better.”
Typically, Longnecker is focused on getting kids to qualify for the MHSAA Finals and run record times at BD.
This year he can do both.
“I was a two-miler in high school,” he said. “I’ve never had a kid who would run it here. This year, I have Donovan McCarthy who runs it. He doesn’t like it, but he likes scoring points.”
McCarthy finished third in the 3,200 at the Beckey Invitational in a great finish.
“He fought a kid from Hudson the whole way,” Longnecker said. “Performances like that is why I love this group.”
The Patriots 400 relay is knocking on the door of a Finals-qualifying time. Freshman Elijah Fortune is a talented athlete who vomited twice and took a nap in the parking lot before returning to the track and helping his team win that race.
BD could get multiple distance runners to the Finals, and all four throwers have had an impact this season, especially senior Andrew Bunker.
“He’ll have both records before the season is over,” Longnecker predicted about Bunker.
Bunker has been an amazing story in his own right. He weighed less than 200 pounds when the Britton Deerfield 8-player football season ended in 2024. He’s now up to 275 and will play college football. He’s become a fitness guru, counting every calorie and working out daily with a stringent routine.
“I try to stay clean,” he said. “I track my protein, carbs and fat. I try to eat as clean as I can. You can’t always eat clean 24/7. I’m in high school. I just do the best I can – a lot of chicken, eggs and rice. I think in that first year we went through dozens and dozens of eggs. (My brother and I would) come home and just devour eggs after the gym – eggs, rice and chicken. You just have to eat what you can.”
Longnecker said Bunker has turned into a great team leader for track, too.
“He’s such a cerebral kid. It’s rare to be around a kid who is that committed to anything,” the coach said.
For Britton Deerfield, which has a high school enrollment of 125, the track numbers might stay high for the next few years. Longnecker credits the middle school coaches with helping kids get interested – and stay interested – in track & field.
“We have a good nucleus right now,” he said. “I think next year we’re going to be just as solid.”
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) The Britton Deerfield boys track & field team gathers around coach Dustin Longnecker after winning its Bob Beckey Invitational. (Middle) Patriots throwers (from left) Drew Bunker, Zach Gonzalez, Kurina Dotson and McKenna Allshouse show off their trophy and medals won at the Clinton Throwers Meet. (Photos courtesy of the Britton Deerfield athletic department.)