SI Honors Belding SAC Member Wilker
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
May 11, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
A nationally-known media giant like Sports Illustrated can seem worlds away from a town of fewer than six thousand just left of middle in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.
Belding senior Greta Wilker figured the New York-based magazine would never find someone like her. But it did, and this week readers all over the world have the opportunity to find out why.
Wilker was chosen as SI’s High School Athlete of the Month for May, with the video below appearing at SI.com and an article to follow, she believes, later this week or soon after. Wilker was nominated for the award – she’s not sure by whom – and was first contacted by Sports Illustrated near the end of her basketball season in March.
A camera crew came to Belding in mid-April and spent two days shooting video of Wilker at school, training dogs at her Paws with a Cause class and then during her softball game and track & field meet. Another reporter came out the next week to spend a few more days reporting for the written story that will appear on the website and in part in the magazine this month.
“When you watch the other kids who got picked … some of the things other kids are doing are ridiculous,” Wilker said. “To think I was up at the same level as those other kids, it’s pretty cool.”
Wilker, a member of the MHSAA Student Advisory Council, has some pretty “ridiculous” achievements herself. She’s her class’ top student with 4.2 grade-point average weighted to include Advanced Placement classes, and she’ll graduate with 16 varsity letters – four each in volleyball, basketball, softball and track & field. In her spare time, she trains service dogs that are placed to assist people with hearing and other disabilities.
She will study and play softball next at Emory University in Georgia with another big goal in mind – she hopes to eventually become a pediatric orthopedic surgeon.
Performance of the Week: South Lyon East's Mason Crosby
October 30, 2026
Mason Crosby ♦ South Lyon East
Senior ♦ Tennis
Crosby completed a perfect season last weekend 30-0, with his final four wins at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals earning him the championship at No. 1 singles. Top-seeded in the bracket, he clinched with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Birmingham Seaholm’s second-seeded Carter Griffith.
This was Crosby’s third appearance in a championship match at the Finals; he finished No. 2 singles runner-up as a freshman and No. 1 singles runner-up as a junior. Crosby’s only losses those seasons came in those title-deciding matches, and his sophomore-year Finals ended with a first-round defeat against Griffith. Crosby finished with a four-year singles record of 123-5 – with those wins ranking 13th on the MHSAA career list – and claimed 19 victories this fall by 6-0, 6-0 scores. He also plays basketball for South Lyon East, and he’s hoping to continue his tennis career at the collegiate level. His brother Cameron plays at Kalamazoo College.
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Past 2026-27 honorees
Oct. 23: Addilyn Duflo, Bath golf - Read
Oct. 16: Levi Lengemann, Imlay City tennis - Read
Oct. 9: Olivia Buford, Sterling Heights Stevenson swimming - Read
Oct. 2: Sophia McCollum, Muskegon Reeths-Puffer golf - Read
Sept. 25: Jenna Middleton, Kingsley volleyball - Read
Sept. 18: Caden Livermore, Grandville cross country - Read
(Action photo by High School Sports Scene.)