Recent Stars Build on HS Sports Foundation
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
January 23, 2018
Mattawan’s Allie Havers experienced high school sports in part as a stepping stone to a scholarship and eventual national championship at the University of Nebraska.
Hackett Catholic Prep’s Hope Baldwin earned two national awards and several scholarships for an essay on the role of high school sports in shaping her future.
But for both Kalamazoo-area athletes, high school sports had a much deeper impact than just national recognition.
Baldwin, who is not playing varsity sports as a freshman at University of Notre Dame, was an MHSAA Scholar-Athlete Award winner, received the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association National Scholar Athlete of the Year award in Phoenix in December and will travel to Atlanta in April for the Coach Wooden Citizenship Trophy.
She wrote the essay while a senior at Hackett and, looking back, she said, “When I wrote that essay, I think it was probably March of my senior year. Now, being in college and not being involved in those athletics any more has given me the opportunity to appreciate them even more.
“Reading my speech and being able to look back on how I was writing from that perspective still in high school, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I knew it was important then, but now not having it any more I realize even more what a benefit high school sports are.”
The lasting impression for both athletes is not a specific game or highlight, but “mostly I miss my teammates and coaches,” Baldwin said.
“In each season, coming in every day to practice with the same people really made unique bonds because we were all working toward the same goals.”
Havers, who was first-team all-state in three sports at Mattawan, said looking back, it’s the people who made the deepest impression.
“I remember the people, the coaches, my teammates and the seniors who were on the team my senior year,” she said. “I look back, and it was a pretty cool experience. I’m really humbled.
“I didn’t do it by myself. I had help from my parents, siblings, coaches and teammates.”
Words of wisdom
Baldwin was stunned when her essay won for the state of Michigan and then for her NIAAA section (Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana).
She then was chosen as the female national award winner, earning a $2,500 scholarship in addition to a plaque.
Among points she emphasized were the following:
- “Sports have taught me valuable time management skills.”
- “I learned … how to deal with disappointment gracefully, an ability I will carry with me in the years after high school.”
- “Developing a mindset of good sportsmanship has enabled me to look beyond winning or losing. … I realize a disappointing experience is still worthwhile.”
- “I broke my collarbone in a soccer game and had to undergo surgery. … I learned how to lead my team from the bench.”
She added that although most enjoy the thrill of competition, “the true value of athletics lies in the transformation off the court. That is, in the time management, leadership, work ethic and teamwork skills that are carried in one’s character beyond sports and beyond high school.”
Baldwin, who is majoring in neuroscience and behavior with a pre-med concentration, said she chose Notre Dame for academics rather than attending a smaller school where she might have played sports.
While she played four years of volleyball, basketball and soccer at Hackett, that drive for competition has not completely left her.
“I’ve been doing some intramural sports, which is really fun,” she said. “Sand volleyball, basketball and our dorm had a flag football team. We actually ended up making it to the championship and we got to play in the Notre Dame football stadium, so that was really cool.”
Succeeding, switching, succeeding again
Havers had no doubt she would be playing college sports after an outstanding career in basketball, volleyball and softball at Mattawan, graduating in 2013.
She earned a basketball scholarship to University of Michigan but when the coach left, she de-committed and eventually ended up with the Cornhuskers.
The transition from high school to college hoops was an eye-opener.
“I had to catch up to the game,” Havers said. “In college, the girls are a lot bigger, a lot stronger, a lot faster and more physical. I knew the girls at post, my position, were a lot stronger than me.
“I came in at (6-foot-4) 140 pounds, and most others in the post position were 180 to 200 pounds.”
Her practice schedule was also different.
In high school, the team practiced about two hours a day.
But in college, “We practice four hours and on the court just about every day,” Havers said. “You have school work, lifting, meetings, tutors. You will definitely come out with great organization skills.”
After playing four years of basketball at Nebraska and graduating with a degree in psychology, Havers knew she did not want to give up competition in a college atmosphere.
“I had a fifth year of eligibility left but not in basketball, so I went out for the volleyball team,” said Havers, who is working toward a master’s degree in journalism and mass communications. “I knew if I didn’t try, I would regret it. Nebraska is a volleyball dynasty.”
She was faced with a situation unfamiliar to her.
“I played every basketball game, but I played just two volleyball games,” she said. “It was a lot different. I was used to playing a lot in basketball and all through high school, too.”
“No athlete likes sitting the bench, but you learn your role and you go with it. I feel really blessed for the opportunity and knew I had to work hard for a spot.”
The payoff was the NCAA National Championship when Nebraska defeated Florida in the four-set final Dec. 16.
Even though her college eligibility is gone, Havers, who hopes coach once she graduates, is still playing sports at the intramural level.
“Beach volleyball is a college sport at Nebraska,” she said. “It’s a three-month season with an indoor court.”
Havers' advice for high school athletes is: “Go in with an open mind, go in with heart and leave nothing on the table. Go to practice earlier and stay later.
“Coaches promise you anything, but that’s not always the way it goes. You have to go with the flow.”
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’s Allie Havers, left, and Kalamazoo Hackett’s Hope Baldwin enjoyed outstanding high school athletic careers. (Middle) Baldwin, top, and Havers. (Below) Havers went on to play both basketball and then volleyball at Nebraska. (Basketball photo courtesy of Nebraska’s athletic department; soccer photo courtesy of Hackett’s girls soccer program.)
ESSAY: See the full text of Baldwin’s essay below that contributed to her selection as an NIAAA Scholar Athlete winner for 2017.
Century of School Sports: Upper Peninsula Helps Makes Michigan's School Sports Story Unique
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
May 27, 2025
From the parking lot of the MHSAA office in East Lansing, it’s a shorter drive to Kentucky than to Crystal Falls Forest Park High School on the far western border of the Upper Peninsula.
That little fun fact illustrates just a bit of what makes Michigan – made up of two large peninsulas surrounded by four of the world’s largest freshwater lakes and connected by one of its longest bridges – a fascinating place to live and serve as a statewide athletic association.
It also provides a little bit of context in explaining how Upper Peninsula athletics have occupied their own unique space both literally and figuratively in that statewide landscape dating back to well before the creation of the MHSAA in December 1924.
With time and technology, the world indeed has become smaller – and Michigan with it. And over the MHSAA’s 100-year history – with help from achievements like the Mackinac Bridge – the Upper and Lower Peninsulas have come to a place of competing together in most sports, during most of the same seasons, but still with some exceptions to accommodate notable differences that remain.
Consider first these two:
• There are 53 MHSAA-member high schools in the Upper Peninsula, located across roughly 16,000 square miles of land. That’s compared to 701 Lower Peninsula member high schools spread over about 40,000 square miles.
• There is only one high school with more than 1,000 students in the Upper Peninsula – Marquette, with an enrollment of 1,021 this school year to rank as the state’s 127th-largest overall. Escanaba, Sault Ste. Marie and Kingsford are the only other high schools with at least 500 students.
With those comparisons as conversation starters, it’s easy to understand how schools above the Bridge face increased travel time, distance and expenses compared to most of their downstate friends – during both the regular season and MHSAA postseason – and not to mention frequently shorter fall and spring outdoor sport seasons because of winters that start sooner and end later.
To make competition as equitable and worthwhile as possible amid those challenges, the MHSAA has settled on a mix of statewide and U.P.-only championships – and with the Upper Peninsula taking the lead on devising its championship schedules.
This week alone will see Boys Tennis, Girls & Boys Golf and Girls & Boys Track & Field Finals competed in U.P.-only divisions. Upper Peninsula girls tennis, girls and boys cross country, and girls and boys swimming & diving programs also operate their postseason tournaments separately from the Lower Peninsula.
Among other sports, boys basketball played separate tournaments by peninsula from 1932-47, wrestling was contended in separate tournaments from 1967-87, girls volleyball was separate from its first season of 1975-76 until unifying in 1999-2000, and girls gymnastics also was separated by peninsula from 1972-73 until unification in 2003-04.
The Upper Peninsula’s voice in these matters goes back to the MHSAA’s predecessor organizations – beginning in 1904 when Ironwood’s first superintendent Luther L. Wright served on the Michigan State Teacher’s Association’s Committee on High School Athletics. Howard S. Doolittle – formerly representing Saginaw Eastern before becoming principal of Calumet High School – played a major role in bringing Upper Peninsula schools (and the then-Upper Peninsula Association) into the fold with the Lower Peninsula schools under the MHSAA’s predecessor Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Association.
With the creation of the MHSAA and its Representative Council in 1924 came an elected member representing the Upper Peninsula – Escanaba superintendent R.E. Cheney during that first school year. A second representative was added a short time later so both the largest and smallest schools from that region had a vote. Gwinn’s Leo P. McDonald (1930-52) and Escanaba’s Dan Flynn (1988-2010) are among 11 Council members who have served at least 20 years, and as recently as 2014 the Council president hailed from just south of Lake Superior’s shores as Negaunee superintendent Jim Derocher finished his final term. Kingsford’s Chris Hartman and Calumet’s Sean Jacques currently serve as the U.P. reps.
The Upper Peninsula Association ceased when the MHSAA was created, but in 1933 the Council authorized the formation of the Upper Peninsula Athletic Committee, which from the start has taken a leading role in organizing the U.P.-only championships and continues as well to serve as an advisory board providing U.P. input on statewide topics of the day. Among its most memorable actions, the U.P. Athletic Committee played a large role in Upper Peninsula schools’ return to a statewide boys basketball tournament after 15 seasons of separation.
The most recent U.P. Athletic Committee meeting occurred April 24 and included members Hartman, Jacques, Mike Berutti (West Iron County), Vince Gross (Paradise Whitefish Township), Jack Kumpula (Lake Linden-Hubbell), Sam Larson (Menominee) and Paul Jacobson (Negaunee) along with Jim Bobula (Ontonagon), Don Gustafson (St. Ignace) and Dale Hongisto (Gladstone) in advisory roles.
They recommended and/or confirmed tournament sites for this spring’s Upper Peninsula Regional and Finals championships, some 2025-26 U.P. Finals and hosts for the U.P.’s Districts, Regionals and Quarterfinals in both girls volleyball this fall and girls and boys basketball for next winter. Committee members also discussed coaches education opportunities for this fall and the possibility of further U.P. involvement in future L.P.-only tournaments, among other topics.
Previous "Century of School Sports" Spotlights
May 20: From Nearly A to Z, Schools Repped by 221 Nicknames - Read
May 13: These Record-Setters were Nearly Impossible to Defeat - Read
May 6: 200+ Representatives Fill All-Time Council Roster - Read
April 29: MHSAA Programs Prioritize Health & Safety - Read
April 23: Patches Signify Registered Officials' Role in MHSAA Story - Read
April 16: Student Advisory Council Gives Voice to Athletes - Read
April 9: State's Storytellers Share Spring Memories - Read
April 2: Sharp Leadership Synonymous with MHSAA Success - Read
March 25: Athletic Directors Indispensable to Mission of School Sports - Read
March 18: 2025 Finals Begin Next Half-Century of Girls Hoops Championships - Read
March 11: Boys Basketball's Best 1st to Earn MHSAA Finals Titles - Read
March 5: Everything We Do Begins with Participation - Read
Feb. 25: Slogans & Logos Remain Unforgettable Parts of MHSAA History - Read
Feb. 19: MHSAA Tickets Continue to Provide Fan-Friendly Value - Read
Feb. 11: We Recognize Those Who Make Our Games Go - Read
Feb. 4: WISL Conference Continues to Inspire Aspiring Leaders - Read
Jan. 28: Michigan's National Impact Begins at NFHS' Start - Read
Jan. 21: Awards Celebrate Well-Rounded Educational Experience - Read
Jan. 14: Predecessors Laid Foundation for MHSAA's Formation - Read
Jan. 9: MHSAA Blazes Trail Into Cyberspace - Read
Dec. 31: State's Storytellers Share Winter Memories - Read
Dec. 17: MHSAA Over Time - Read
Dec. 10: On This Day, December 13, We Will Celebrate - Read
Dec. 3: MHSAA Work Guided by Representative Council - Read
Nov. 26: Finals Provide Future Pros Early Ford Field Glory - Read
Nov. 19: Connection at Heart of Coaches Advancement Program - Read
Nov. 12: Good Sports are Winners Then, Now & Always - Read
Nov. 5: MHSAA's Home Sweet Home - Read
Oct. 29: MHSAA Summits Draw Thousands to Promote Sportsmanship - Read
Oct. 23: Cross Country Finals Among MHSAA's Longest Running - Read
Oct. 15: State's Storytellers Share Fall Memories - Read
Oct. 8: Guided by 4 S's of Educational Athletics - Read
Oct. 1: Michigan Sends 10 to National Hall of Fame - Read
Sept. 25: MHSAA Record Books Filled with 1000s of Achievements - Read
Sept. 18: Why Does the MHSAA Have These Rules? - Read
Sept. 10: Special Medals, Patches to Commemorate Special Year - Read
Sept. 4: Fall to Finish with 50th Football Championships - Read
Aug. 28: Let the Celebration Begin - Read