Parents Master Art of Schedule Juggling
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
October 18, 2016
If it’s Tuesday, it must be volleyball — or is it soccer or maybe swimming?
Time to check the calendar, the phone app or the white board.
To keep up with two or more students involved in different sports in the same season, families have devised their own ways for keeping track of schedules.
The Carpenters, who have sons Matthew and Alex at Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep, use several calendars, including a master schedule in the kitchen.
The Perkins, whose daughters Lauren and Audrey attend Mattawan High School, rely mostly on the phone app Cozi to keep schedules straight.
For the parents, it’s a question of logistics and juggling, which sometimes takes a lot of creativity.
“We have electronic calendars and paper calendars to look at every morning,” dad Tim Carpenter said. “We talk about who’s going where and who’s going to do what at the start of each day to figure it out.
“I keep a sports calendar to share with all the family so they can see the different things going on. If we are ever home at night without a game, it’s a strange feeling.”
Besides the composite kitchen calendar, “We also have our iPhone calendar so we both can see one another’s calendar at the same time,” mom Julie Carpenter said.
“It’s pretty much Monday through Saturday, some game or practice. Sunday it’s Mass, groceries and laundry.”
The Perkins use a phone organizer app called Cozi.
“We try to get all the schedules in there so everybody knows where everybody else is,” mom Valerie Perkins said. “I usually have a white board on the kitchen counter that I update weekly, and it kind of tracks who’s got what when.
“The girls’ meets are on opposite days. Like Audrey will have something on Monday, Wednesday and Lauren has Tuesday and Thursday. Occasionally they both have Saturdays. Then we divide and conquer, for sure.”
With five children, the Carpenters try to split time evenly between all the activities.
Matthew, a senior, is Hackett’s soccer goalkeeper and Alex, a sophomore, plays junior varsity football. Oldest son, Josh, a sophomore at Michigan Tech, plays broom ball – and while his parents don’t travel to watch him play, the games are webcast during the winter.
The activities won’t end soon. Bennett, a sixth grader and Bethany, a third grader, both at St. Augustine in Kalamazoo, also are involved in sports.
The Carpenters try to attend all of their children’s games together, but sometimes that is not possible.
In that case, “We usually base it on who’s closer,” Tim Carpenter said. “If there’s one game south near where I work in Portage (at MANN+HUMMEL), I’ll usually go to that.
“If Julie (who works at Borgess-ProMed Physician Pediatrics in Richland) has only seen one of Alex’s games and I’ve seen two, she’ll go to Alex’s. We try to keep it even.”
Both parents were introduced to new sports once their sons got involved.
“(Our sons) haven’t done tennis or golf,” Julie Carpenter said. “Soccer’s got more action and excitement; basketball is similar. Skiing was neat because it’s such a close-knit community. Cross country was fun because it was a very team environment.
“I had not seen cross country before, but when Josh started cross country it was really exciting because we thought ‘OK, how much can you get out of cross country as a spectator?’ It was pretty exciting for us just to run from spot to spot. They’re such a close-knit group of kids.”
Whether there are five children or two, as in the Perkins family, parents face the same dilemma: trying to juggle work, practices and events.
“We usually try to trade off so we get an even mix of seeing the girls,” said Valerie Perkins, who works at Bronson Urology in Kalamazoo. “Sometimes Rob’s schedule dictates that. Sometimes it’s who’s ever closest.”
Rob Perkins, who works at TRW in Mattawan, said sometimes there’s a glitch.
“When they give us advance warning of what’s going on and it doesn’t change, then I can work around it,” he said.
“The only time it gets frustrating is when something changes at the very last minute, or maybe it was always the same and the girls’ stories change at the last minute,” he added, laughing.
Neither parent was familiar with the sports their daughters chose.
“With dive, Lauren started in eighth grade, so it evolved from a summer camp and she really enjoyed it,” Rob Perkins said. “We kind of fell into Kyle Oberhill, who’s the diving coach for (Kalamazoo College) and he manages the facilities for Western (Michigan University).
“He’s just really easy-going. (Lauren) excelled in it right away. As a freshman, she broke the school record. That kind of kept her motivated to keep going.”
Oberhill also had a workshop for parents to explain the intricacies of competitive diving, and that helped. Audrey, meanwhile, took on another sport new to her parents when she started playing volleyball in seventh grade.
“We didn’t know much about it, but the important thing to know about it is she enjoys it,” her dad said.
Rob Perkins said it would be much easier if volleyball and dive were not in the same season, but there is an upside.
“I would say, generally speaking, being in sports certainly builds their self-confidence, keeps them occupied.”
Their mother said she can see a positive influence of sports on their girls.
“I think sports have definitely improved them,” she said. “They’ve learned how to become leaders and work as a team, and I really appreciate that.
“I can see it develop in both of them over the years. Both are captains of their teams.”
And both sets of athletes said it’s important to see their parents at their games.
“It gives me more confidence,” Alex Carpenter said, “and makes me feel good that they want to see me play.”
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Mattawan parents Rob and Valerie Perkins cheer on their daughter Lauren during a recent swimming & diving meet. (Middle top) The Carpenters, clockwise from top left: Tim, Julie, Alex and Matthew. (Middle) The Perkins daughters, Lauren (left) and Audrey. (Middle below) Matthew, the Hackett soccer goalkeeper, looks to pass after gathering up a loose ball. (Below) Lauren Perkins dives during a meet. (Lauren Perkins head shot by Becky Anderson Photography, all other photos by Pam Shebest.)
Lifelong Hawkeye: Joostberns Continues Legacy of Service in Hamilton
By
Zach Harig
Hamilton Community Schools
September 19, 2025
For nearly half a century, the voice behind Friday night football games in Hamilton has belonged to one man: Loren Joostberns.
A 1970 graduate of Hamilton High School, Joostberns has worn many hats in his hometown – teacher, coach, announcer, scorekeeper, school board member – but all of them share a common thread: a deep commitment to giving back to the community that raised him.
“This is my 45th year of announcing football games for Hamilton,” Joostberns said proudly, his voice carrying the same warmth that has welcomed fans to Hawkeye Stadium for decades. “I’ve done some volleyball, a lot of wrestling, occasionally some basketball, but mostly the scorebook in basketball for 44 years, and I do announce baseball in the spring now, which has been fun.”
With so much experience and history from the community, Joostberns is regularly asked to serve as the voice of many school district and community videos. His voice is arguably the most recognizable in town. From morning coffee at the round table at the local restaurant in town, to school board meetings, to microphones all around the district, Joostberns is seen and heard no matter where he goes around Hamilton.
Building a life in Hamilton
Not many can claim that they have been involved in a school district before it was even a school district.
However, Joostberns can make that claim as he was in kindergarten in 1957-58, with Hamilton becoming its own school district on June 23, 1958. He then continued in the school district as a student through graduation.
After graduating from Hamilton and then Hope College, Joostberns returned to the district as a teacher. He taught for 30 years, then continued his connection to the classroom as a substitute teacher for another nine. Today, he remains an active part of Hamilton Community Schools as Board of Education secretary, now in his 13th year of service.
Through it all, he has found joy in staying close to athletics. Since announcing his first football game in 1981, he’s become a fixture at sporting events year-round. His passion is not about statistics or wins and losses – it’s about making sure young athletes have the best possible experiences.
“I think one thing is, what can you do to contribute to kids having good experiences?” he said. “That’s one thing I always keep in the back of my mind. You want to do what you can to help kids have positive experiences, and if that contributes in a small way, then it’s worth it.”
Of course, Joostberns admits there’s a little fun in the job, too. “You’re in the center of the action. I’ve got the best seat in the house for football, and for basketball you’re at center court. You get to know the officials, get to know people from other schools, and it’s a good way to be involved.”
Memories from the press box
The Hamilton facilities Joostberns works in today look nothing like what he started with in the early 1980s. He chuckled as he recalled the first press box from which he worked.
“In football, if you would have seen what we had in Hamilton back in 1981 and 1982 compared to what we have now in terms of facilities, it’s incredible,” he said. “The press box was a little green building basically on stilts that swayed with heavy winds, and it held six people – two coaches from each team on either side and an announcer and timer in the middle. You were elbow to elbow and you felt in a precarious position because you didn’t know if the press box was going to stand up or not.”
That humble start makes him especially proud to see how the district has grown its athletic facilities and opportunities for students.
While Joostberns has devoted his life to Hamilton, he also holds a special passion for the University of Michigan. He has been a season ticket holder for 51 years, attending countless games at “The Big House” in Ann Arbor. The dual loyalties complement one another: Hamilton football on Fridays and Michigan football on Saturdays.
But no matter how big the stage gets, his heart always comes back to Hamilton. “At Hamilton, we have always prided ourselves in trying our best to do the best we can for kids, to do things the right way,” Joostberns said. “That’s why I’ve stayed involved for so long.”
Lasting Legacy
Few communities can point to someone who has continuously served across so many different roles for more than four decades.
Joostberns’ contributions can’t be measured in titles or statistics, but rather in the memories he has helped shape – whether it’s an athlete hearing his name announced before a big play, a student remembering him as a teacher, or a fellow community member working alongside him on the school board. Numerous times a year, veteran opposing coaches greet Joostberns before the game to say hi because he is such a staple of the community and school district. His warm and friendly demeanor is appreciated by all, both on the home and opposing sidelines.
Hamilton’s athletic director and coaches often describe him as the kind of person every school hopes to have: reliable, passionate, and selfless. He doesn’t do it for recognition, but for the chance to leave things a little better than he found them.
For Joostberns, the motivation is simple: “It’s about helping kids, and being part of something bigger than yourself.”
And for Hamilton, the community is grateful that one of its own has been willing to give back for so many years. As recognition for his countless years of service in and out of the classroom, “Mr. Hamilton” was honored with the high school basketball court being renamed the Loren Joostberns Court in 2021.
From the rickety old press box of 1981 to the modern facilities of today, from chalkboards in the classroom to discussions in the boardroom, Joostberns has remained a steady, positive presence. His story is a reminder of how one person’s steady commitment over a lifetime can shape a school and community for generations.
Not all lessons or legacies are cemented in the classrooms or fields, but some are passed on from behind the mic and echoed over the airwaves for all to hear and cherish.
PHOTOS (Top) Hamilton’s Loren Joostberns poses for a photo in front of the high school stadium this fall. (Middle) Joostberns has served the district in several roles over the years, including as a member of the school board. (Below) Joostberns takes a moment for a photo while behind the microphone. (Photos courtesy of Hamilton Community Schools.)