Mce, pentwater & manistee catholic fall sports 2014

LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS |friday, AUGUST 29, 2014 | inside: mason co. eastern, PENTWATER & MANISTEE CATHOLIC

2014 FALL

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2 | Ludington daiLy newS/SPoRtS taB | FRiday, auguSt 29, 2014

By DAVID BOSSICKdaiLy newS SPoRtS editoR

CUSTER -- Call 2013 a blip on the radar. An aberration. An exception to the rule.

“We had a lot of hiccups

last year,” second-year Ma-son County Eastern volley-ball coach Pam Bentley said. “This year, I’m just really pumped.”

Now that the lessons are relatively over, and the team

has gelled, Bentley believes the Cardinals are headed in the right direction.

“The girls that I have from last year, since having that playing time as a team, I think it’s going to be impor-

tant as far as being a stron-ger team this year,” Bentley said. “This year, from what I’ve seen in practices and conditioning so far, I’m re-ally impressed with our hit-ting (and) our setting. (There

have been) a lot of improve-ments from last year.”

A major change is the at-titude. Bentley said that for a recent practice, the girls showed up an hour early to get things started.

“I can’t be more pleased as a coach. I think I’m more confident. I feel like my abil-ity and I understand the game a lot better,” she said.

See VOlleyBAll, pAge 3

DAVID BOSSICK | daiLy newSMembers of the Mason County Eastern varsity volleyball team are, front row, from left, Hannah Smakal, Ryann Oomen, Emily Knizacky, Marissa Kist and Elizabeth Bentley; back row, coach Pam Bentley, Taylor Grimm, Lauren McCumber, Tammy Campbell, Dejna Babcock and assistant Russ Bentley.

Mason County Eastern volleyball

Cardinals aim for rebound season in 2014

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FRiday, auguSt 29, 2014 | Ludington daiLy newS/SPoRtS taB | 3

frOm pAge 4

“As far as the girls indi-vidually, last year I had five juniors and this year I’ve got five seniors. I’m really excit-ed about that.”

Mason County Eastern’s roster:

SeniorS: Emily Knizacky, Eliza-beth Bentley, Ryan Oomen, Hannah Smakal and Marissa Kist.JuniorS: Lauren McCumber,

Taylor Grimm and Tammy Campbell.Sophomore: Dejna Babcock.

Those five senior Cardi-nals that return — Emily Knizacky, Elizabeth Bent-ley, Ryan Oomen, Hannah Smakal and Marissa Kist — form the nucleus of this year’s team. Eastern loses a couple of foreign exchange students and the only play-er honored by the Western Michigan D League a season ago, now graduated Jordan Lake.

Lake received honorable mention honors despite be-ing severely injured during an auto accident last fall.

Now the five seniors, along with the three juniors and a sophomore, will be looking to do much better in 2014 than they did in 2013.

“I’ve got a lot of athletes. I think last year was a hiccup year for us,” Pamela Bent-ley said. “I think schools go through that with rotations of good seasons, solid sea-sons. Last year was just our hiccup. This year, I’m ex-pecting us to get a lot more wins.

“The mental attitudes. The physical ability. Last year, I didn’t start coaching un-til the season started and I didn’t know what I was do-ing.”

There have been some moves to the team in prep-aration for the season, too. Bentley is moving Knizacky from setter to hitter and she expected to perform very well in that role this fall.

Tammy Campbell and Lau-ren McCumber, two new-

comers to varsity, will be splitting some of the duties.

“Tammy and Lauren are going to be my setters. They’re also going to be tak-ing turns as libero.”

Substitutions were few and far between for Mason County Eastern last season. That is different this year.

“I think in the program in total, last year I had enough for one team and maybe one sub. This year, I’ve got nine players. I can try differ-ent things. We’ve worked on plays this year. Last year, I had no idea what that would be. This year, I feel more in control and I know what I’m doing,” Bentley said.

Big Rapids Crossroads is the defending Western Mich-igan D League champions, but Bentley recognized the up-and-coming nature of the defending district champi-on, Pentwater, too.

“The team I know we want to beat, and it’s a big one, is Pentwater,” Bentley said. “Pentwater had that team dynamics for the past three years. I think this year is their year to shine. To me,

for us, it’s Pentwater.”Still, the way the Cardinals

are composed this season, it doesn’t matter which team has changed in the off-sea-son because of graduation

or additions. The seniors are showing that no team will be taken lightly.

“Some of the girls were saying this team lost this girl or that team lost that girl.

My seniors were like, ‘That doesn’t matter. We are going to beat these teams,’” Bent-ley said.

volleyball: Eastern ready to climb back into the WMD conference race in 2014

DAVID BOSSICK | daiLy newSMembers of the Mason County Eastern junior varsity volleyball team are, front row, from left, Frances Knizacky, Chelsea Gage, Harley Smakal, Zeressa Cregg, Shelby Caruer; back row, Alysha Watkins, Taylor Dykman, Brooke Lee, varsity head coach Pam Bentley, Kaitlyn Maciag, Erin Wittlieff and Daly Narmore.

‘Last year was just our hiccup. i’m expecting us to get a lot more wins.’

pam BentleyMason County eastern

volleyball coach

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DAVID BOSSICK | daiLy newSMembers of the Mason County Eastern cross country teams are, front row, from left, Megan McCormick, Lauren McCumber, Jordan Goodman, Kaitlyn Maciag and Cammie Shoup; back row, Kyle Lee, Joey Mickevich, Mason Saya, Travis McCormick, Ben Cossette, Preston Kelley and coach Ben Knizacky.

Mason County Eastern cross country


CUSTER — Mason County Eastern’s girls cross country team had a big-time stand-out in Jordan Goodman last year, and she really shined last spring during the track season.

Goodman showed she could compete well in the sprints at the MHSAA state track and field meet. And

she’s off to a good start to the 2014 season after run-ning a 23:27.7 at the Pete Moss Invitational hosted by Benzie Central.

“Jordan is definitely the leader. She’s been estab-lished. But, we’ve got some girls who will be right be-hind her,” Eastern coach Ben Knizacky said.

But there’s a newcomer, Cammie Shoup, who’s re-ally been impressive to

Knizacky. She led the Car-dinals at the invite at Benzie Central and he expects more from Shoup.

“Cammie established her-self in middle school. She broke that two-mile record for us that’s been stand-ing for a long, long time,” Knizacky said. “It was my daughter’s. If she can follow Erica’s footsteps, I’ll be pret-ty happy.”

See gIrlS, pAge 5


CUSTER — Preston Kelley was the one left standing of the Mason County Eastern cross country team last sea-son, qualifying in his fresh-man year for the MHSAA state meet.

Kelley completed the course at Michigan Inter-national Speedway in 18

minutes, 54.1 seconds, and since that time, he’s been training to get back to the state meet.

And so have many of his teammates and classmates.

“Preston and Abe (Shoup) have been doing a lot of preliminary, along with Jor-dan (Goodman on the girls team),” Eastern coach Ben Knizacky said. “They’ve ran several 5Ks this summer.”

That included the 5-kilo-meter race during the West-ern Michigan Fair where Shoup was second and Kel-ley was third overall.

“They’ve been working hard. Preston is a long dis-tance runner. He’s very de-termined and stays focused. He’s chasing Abe right now, though.

See BOyS, pAge 5

Goodman leads girls team Kelley, Shoup pace boys

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frOm pAge 4

Eastern’s roster:

Senior: Lily RolstonJuniorS: Mia Hogan, Lauren

Golembiewski, Lauren McCumber.SophomoreS: Jordan Goodman,

Hannah Maier, Kaitlyn Macias.FreShman: Cammie Shoup.

The Cardinals have some loss-es from last year’s team. Megan McCormick is likely out for the season because of injury issues. And Mackenzie Brown trans-ferred to Ludington for this year.

“They said there’s a possibil-ity towards the end of the sea-son. She’s done a lot of water workouts,” Knizacky said of Mc-Cormick. “She’s trying to stay close.”

To help curb those losses, the Cardinals add two runners out of the cooperative agreement with Manistee Catholic, Mia Ho-gan and Lauren Golembiewski, both juniors.

“The two girls that came in through the co-op from Man-istee Catholic look pretty strong in practice,” Knizacky said. “They’re very determined and they’re coming and working hard. They look to be very good, very excellent additions to the squad.”

Kaitlyn Macias returns to the team, as does Lily Rolston.

“Kaitlyn did extremely well towards the end of the season. She was a really strong fifth girl for us. I’m hoping that she can be our strong fifth again since Megan still has some injuries,” Knizacky said.

Rolston will push her team-mates, as will Hannah Maier.

“It’s her first year in sports in a while, but Hannah is a good athlete,” Knizacky said. “I don’t expect her to show much (ear-ly in the season). But I think to-wards the end of the season, she’ll be capable of giving us support.”

He’s glad that the members of the team have put in some work over the summer, whether it has been through running 5-kilome-ter races or running the cross country course in Custer. That included Goodman running the race during the Western Michi-gan Fair earlier this month.

“Jordan was the top girl over-all,” Knizacky said.

Bear Lake is the top team traditionally in the Western Michigan D League, and 2014

shouldn’t be any different. Knizacky believes his Cardinals girls team will do well.

“We should be able to give Bear Lake a push in both squads,” Knizacky said. “I really had high hopes of the girls tak-ing it this year until I lost Megan and Mackenzie. But, we’re still going to attack it. They’ve got a fairly veteran squad on the girls side.

“When it comes to the region-al I can see possibly three girls going (on to state) and maybe even three boys. They’re capa-ble of it,” Knizacky said.

He also believes the Class D cross country meet is one where Mason County Eastern can ex-cel. It will be in mid-October at Shepherd and is solely for Class D schools that sponsor the sport.

frOm pAge 4

Abe has done a great job. He’s grown a lot, put on a lot of size since last year and he’s developed into that size,” Knizacky said.

Of the eight member team, five are sophomores, includ-ing Kelley and Shoup.

Eastern’s roster:

Senior: Travis McCormick.SophomoreS: Mason Saya,

Abe Shoup, Preston Kelley, Joe Mickevich, Ben Cossette.FreShmen: Mason Callesen,

Kyle Lee.

Knizacky said fellow soph-omore Joe Mickevich should also be a solid runner. He hasn’t necessarily put in the same amount of off-season training as Kelley or Shoup, but Mickevich will be a good third runner.

“Joe is a runner. Joe will be right there,” he said.

The team is now in a co-operative agreement with Manistee Catholic, and Ma-son Callesen joins the team through that agreement. Knizacky was thrilled with

the way the freshman is run-ning in the preseason.

“He will be right there. Those four boys (Shoup, Kel-ley, Mickevich and Callesen) are going to be really tight,” Knizacky said. “Mason has really shown me a lot. He’s only a freshman, but he’s re-ally shown me a lot. He be-longs to a running club in Manistee and he’s been run-ning all summer.

“I know Mason Saya is go-ing to be in there tight. The top four is capable of run-ning within 30-40 seconds of each other and Mason Saya won’t be that far behind.”

Eastern also will see Kyle Lee as an incoming fresh-man and someone to be on the look out for.

“Kyle Lee..., he’s a strong athlete,” Knizacky said.

The Cardinals already ran well in the team’s season opener at the Pete Moss In-vitational at Benzie Central. Fellow Western Michigan D League member Bear Lake was the runner-up in the di-vision while Eastern finished eighth.

In that race, Abe Shoup led the way followed by Joe Mickevich and then Kelley.

Knizacky expects his team to be a solid second place be-hind the well establish Bear Lake Lakers in the WMD race overall.

“We should be able to give Bear Lake a push in both squads,” Knizacky said. “The boys squad will be a lit-tle younger, but they’ve got a lot of depth. I don’t foresee anybody taking second from us by any means because we’ve got some kids that will be right up there close where those points won’t add up.

“When it comes to the regional I can see possi-bly three girls going (on to state) and maybe even three boys. They’re capable of it,” Knizacky said.

He also believes the Class D cross country meet is one where Mason County East-ern can excel. It will be in mid-October at Shepherd and is solely for Class D schools that sponsor the sport.

boys: Sophomore group core of Mason County Eastern’s team

girls: Newcomer Shoup, veteran Goodman to lead pace

2014 Mason County Eastern fall schedules

JV/VArSIty VOlleyBAllSat., Aug. 23, varsity at McBain Northern

Michigan Christian Invite, 9 a.m.Sat., Aug. 23, JV at Reed City Invite, 8:30 a.m.Tue., Aug. 26, varsity at Frankfort Invite, 9 a.m.Thur., Aug. 28, varsity at Bear Lake Invite, 9

a.m.Sat., Sept. 6, JV at Brethren Invite, 9 a.m.Thur., Sept. 11, at Manistee, 6 p.m.Thur., Sept. 18, at Onekama, 6 p.m.Sat., Sept. 20, varsity at Pentwater Invite, 9 a.m.Sat., Sept. 20, JV at McBain InviteThur., Sept. 23, Walkerville, 6 p.m.Tue., Sept. 25, Bear Lake, 6 p.m.Sat., Sept. 27, varsity at McBain InviteTue., Sept. 30, Brethren, 6 p.m.Sat., Oct. 4, varsity at Brethren Invite, 9 a.m.Tue., Oct. 7, Baldwin, 6 p.m.Sat., Oct. 11, Mason County Eastern JV Invite,

9 a.m.Tue., Oct. 14, at Pentwater, 6 p.m.Thur., Oct. 16, at Big Rapids Crossroads, 6

p.m.Sat., Oct. 18, varsity at WMD tournament at

Pentwater, 9 a.m.Sat., Oct. 18, West Shore JV Invite, 9 a.m.Tue., Oct. 28, at Kent City Algoma Christian,

5 p.m.

CrOSS COuntry(CO-Op wIth mAnIStee CAthOlIC)

Sat., Aug. 23, at Benzie Invite, 9 a.m.Mon., Aug. 25, at Orchard View, 5 p.m.Sat., Sept. 6, at Buckley Invite, 9 a.m.Wed., Sept. 10, at WMD jamboree at Bear

Lake, 4:15 p.m.Sat., Sept. 13, at Briggs Invitational at West

Shore hosted by LudingtonWed., Sept. 17, at WMD jamboree at Big Rap-

ids Crossroads, 4:15 p.m.Wed., Sept. 24, WMD jamboree, 4:15 p.m.Tue., Sept. 30, at Kelder Poured Walls Invite at

Mason County CentralFri., Oct. 3, at LeRoy Pine River InviteWed., Oct. 8, at WMD championship at

Walkerville, 4:15 p.m.Wed., Oct. 15, Cardinal Classic, 4:15 p.m.

fOOtBAll(CO-Op hOSteD By mAnIStee CAthOlIC)

Thurs., Aug. 28, at Hart, 7 p.m.Fri., Sept. 5, at Bark River-HarrisFri., Sept. 12, at Blanchard Montabella, 7 p.m.Fri., Sept. 19, Baldwin, 7 p.m.Fri., Sept. 26, at Onekama, 7 p.m.Fri., Oct. 3, Mesick, 7 p.m.Fri., Oct. 10, Traverse City Christian, 7 p.m.Fri., Oct. 17, Brethren, 7 p.m.Fri., Oct. 24, at Bellevue

DAIly newS fIleMason County Eastern’s Preston Kelley (cen-ter) runs at the MHSAA cross country regional last November in Acme.

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greg gIelCZyK | daiLy newSThe Manistee Catholic varsity football team includes, front row, from left, Chris Chesebro, Nicholas Hansen, Nathan Fortier, Chad Robke, Blake Robke, Aaron Shively, Juan Hernandez and assistant Jake Szymanski; back row, assistant Dale Kowalkowski, Jordan Kuenzer, Gregory Bender, Cory Cabot, Robert Russo, Cody Smith, Blake Vargas and coach Dave Russell.

By greg gIelCZyKdaiLy newS SPoRtS wRiteR

MANISTEE — A lot has changed for the Manist-ee Catholic Central foot-ball team since the end of last season, not the least of which is the Sabers’ lineup in the offensive backfield which will be almost entirely new this season.

With only one exception.Nathan Fortier is the lone

returning starter at running back, leaving veteran coach Dave Russell with little al-ternative but to completely change his offensive philos-ophy as the Sabers prepare for another fall season.

The other change is in the

configuration of the confer-ence in which the Sabers play, which this year will add Me-sick from the old Northwest Conference and independent Traverse City Christian, even though the Sabres have been on Catholic’s schedule for the past couple of years now.

Christian has been looking for a home ever since it gave up on playing 8-man foot-ball because of all the travel, and when Mesick came call-ing on the Western Michigan D League after rejecting the merger of the Lake Michigan and Northwest conferences, it presented an opportunity to finally have a conference affiliation.

Actually, the timing was

perfect. Big Rapids Cross-roads Academy, which had been struggling to field a complete team on a regu-lar basis of late, has opted to play 8-man football, leav-ing the Western Michigan D League with only remaining football playing members.

Since the league bylaws now would no longer recog-nize football as a conference sport because less than 50 percent of the league mem-bers offered it, and Mesick wanted to join for football only and remain in the re-aligned LMC/Northwest Conference for all other sports, the league was re-named the Northwestern 6 Football League.

The Sabers’ roster:

SeniorS: Cory Cabot, Robert Russo, Aaron Shively, Nathan Fortier, Blake Vargas, Cain Stone, Brent Swain, Cody Smith; JuniorS: Blake Robke, Michael

Deising, Justin Feliczak, Chad Robke, Jordan Kuenzer, Dylan Peterson, Gregory Bender, Dylan Baldwin;SophomoreS: Juan Hernan-

dez, Chris Chesebro, Alex Ooman, Jacob McComb;FreShmen: Barry Seymour and

Nick Hansen.

Russell called the addi-tion of Traverse City Chris-tian and Mesick a winner for all concerned, and feels that

both teams present differ-ent and unique challenges, yet are competitively on the same level as Catholic.

But his most immediate concern is how a team deci-mated by graduation loss-es will adjust to wholesale changes to the offense and defense. It’s going to be a steep learning curve for even the more experienced play-ers.

The Sabers are going with a spread offense to make better use of the talent they have on offense, which is pri-marily in the receiving corps with all but one of their run-ning backs and quarterback Ben Feliczak gone.

On the other side of the

ball, Russell has gone to a multiple defense, again to take advantage of where their talent lies. Russell used the scrimmage last week to help determine where his defense needed to go.

“We found ourselves with a lot more receivers than backs, so it only made it logical to go into the pass-ing game a little bit,” Russell said before the scrimmage. “Defensively, the same thing. We have a lot of line-men and defensive backs, so we’re looking at going to multiple fronts.

“So, that was a big change. But, we’re going against our-selves.”

See fOOtBAll, pAge 8

Manistee Catholic football

big changes for saber football

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By greg gIelCZyKdaiLy newS SPoRtS wRiteR

MANISTEE — Taylor Ozi-mac didn’t have a lot of time to get to know the Manistee

Catholic Central girls volley-ball team before they started practicing. Actually, none at all. She didn’t even meet the girls until the first day of practice.

But she does have some experience, having coached the Manistee High junior varsity volleyball team last year. Still, it’s not quite the same as being in charge of a

varsity program where suc-cess is measured in just one way ... winning.

She won’t be taking it on alone, however. Jaimie Luomala will be her varsity

assistant. Since neither had an opportunity to evalu-ate the girls before practice started, they knew it would be a challenge coming in but they accepted it and are pre-

pared to bring the Sabers their first district title in vol-leyball.

The Sabers’ roster:

See SABerS, pAge 8

greg gIelCZyK | daiLy newSThe Manistee Catholic varsity volleyball team includes, front row, from left, Shelby Papes and Kaytlin Heck; back row, coach Jaimie Luomala, Emily Bergel, Olivia Kniat, Jenny Pieczynski, Paige Picar-dat, Meghan Miller and coach Taylor Ozimac. Not pictured: Renee Seymour and Jodi Janowiak.

Manistee Catholic volleyball

ozimac takes on sabers volleyball

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frOm pAge 6

Don’t get the idea Catholic is go-ing to be throwing on every down, be-cause that’s not the case at all. They will run out of the offense, particularly with Fortier, and hope to have success behind an experienced offensive line that includes seniors Cory Cabot, Cody Smith, Robert Russo and Blake Vargas. Another senior, Cain Stone, will be at a wide out.

First-year senior Aaron Shively has been showing a lot of promise at quar-terback. He also has a lot of speed, what the television guys like to call “,” and a strong enough arm to get the ball down field.

“He’s a very coachable, hard working kid,” Russell said. “I just wish he would have played earlier. But, there’s a lot of opportunities for kids. We realize there’s going to be a big learning curve with a new quarterback.

“Some things are not good when

you’re passing the ball, so we real-ize that, too. We’re doing a lot of work right now, and hopefully it’s going to pay off. Nathan will be running the ball.

He will be blocking. He’s got a couple things he’s got to do.

“I don’t know what it’s going to look like. There’s going to be some things that we’re going to scrap, and there’s going to be some things we’re going to add. I’ll have a better feel after the scrimmage.”

Russell considers Onekama, Breth-ren and Baldwin as the team’s to beat in the conference this season.

He thinks all three are at their peaks right now.

“They have the best talent they’ve had in a very long time,” Russell said. “That’s going to be a very big chal-lenge for us. Then you throw in Mesick, which is new. We have Bellevue, which is a new team on the schedule from down south.

“We have a pretty good schedule. We’re going to try our best. The kids have a great attitude, and that’s all you can ask for.”

frOm pAge 7

SeniorS: Emily Bergel, Olivia Kniat, Jenny Pieczynski;JuniorS: Shelby Papes,

Kaytlin Heck, Paige Picardat, Meghan Miller, Renee Sey-mour and Jodi Janowiak.

Unfortunately, they’ll be working with a small group. Only nine girls are out for the sport, leaving the coaches with only three players in reserve. They are already figuring on clever ways to rotate so everyone stays as fresh as possible.

Despite the small squad, and her own lack of coach-ing experience, Ozimac is unabashedly optimistic about the team’s chances for success.

“It’s going to be an ex-perience,” Ozimac, who played at Manistee High, said. “It’s going to bring it to a whole new level. But, I have a good group of girls. I think we’ll do well this year. They had a really good team last year, and a lot of them are really good.

“The athletic director, (Heather) Skipski has high hopes for this team. They did make to district finals last year. I know they’re hoping to get at least that far again, and hopefully have a different outcome this year.”

Catholic has three re-turning seniors to provide leadership in Emily Bergel, Olivia Kniat and Jenny Piec-zynski. Also coming back are juniors Paige Picar-dat, Renee Seymour, Jodi

Janowiak, Meghan Miller and Kaytlin Heck. Junior Shelby Papes rounds out the squad, and she saw lim-ited action a year ago.

But that’s the entire team, so the real worry for Ozimac is whether she can get the girls in condition to take the rigors of the sea-son without falling prey to fatigue and struggle to fin-ish games.

“From what I’ve seen so far from the girls, I feel re-ally confident,” Ozimac said. “But until I see more of them in practice, I won’t really know what I’m look-ing at as far as where some of them might fit in the lineup.

“I do know that they’ve said that they didn’t have assigned positions last year, and pretty much played everywhere on the court. So I guess we’ll start with a clean slate and fig-ure out where we should put people.”

Luomala would like to see the girls hit the ball hard and be aggressive, which is what she dis-played as a Chippewa. As a setter who transitioned to outside hitter, that will be her area of expertise with the Sabers.

She also wants them to be versatile, and able to play different positions and not specialize in any area un-less some show more skill at one or another.

“We’ve already seen a lot of hitters on the team,” Ozimac said.

fOOtBAll(CO-Op wIth mCe)

Thurs., Aug. 28, at Hart, 7 p.m.Fri., Sept. 5, at Bark River-HarrisFri., Sept. 12, at Blanchard Montabella,

7 p.m.Fri., Sept. 19, Baldwin, 7 p.m.Fri., Sept. 26, at Onekama, 7 p.m.Fri., Oct. 3, Mesick, 7 p.m.Fri., Oct. 10, Traverse City Christian, 7

p.m.Fri., Oct. 17, Brethren, 7 p.m.Fri., Oct. 24, at Bellevue

VArSIty VOlleyBAllFri., Aug. 22, at Northport, 7:30 p.m.Tue., Aug. 26, at Frankfort Tournament,

9 a.m.Thur., Sept. 11, at Mason County Central

triangular, 5:30 p.m.Tue., Sept. 16, at Traverse City Christian,

7:30 p.m.Tue., Sept. 23, at Big Rapids Crossroads,

7:30 p.m.Thur., Sept. 25, at Walkerville, 7:30 p.m.

Sat., Sept. 27, at Onekama tourney, 9 a.m.

Tue., Sept. 30, at Pentwater, 7:30 p.m.Thur., Oct. 2, Mason County Eastern,

7:30 p.m.Tue., Oct. 7, at Brethren, 7:30 p.m.Thur., Oct. 9, Onekama, 7:30 p.m.Tue., Oct. 14, Baldwin, 7:30 p.m.Thur., Oct. 16, at Bear Lake, 7:30 p.m.Thur., Oct. 23, Frankfort, 7:30 p.m.Tue., Oct. 28, Mesick, 7:30 p.m.

JunIOr VArSIty VOlleyBAllFri., Aug. 22, at Northport, 6 p.m.Thur., Sept. 11, at Mason County Central

triangular, 5:30 p.m.Tue., Sept. 16, at Traverse City Christian,

6 p.m.Tue., Sept. 23, at Big Rapids Crossroads,

6 p.m.Thur., Sept. 25, at Walkerville, 6 p.m.Tue., Sept. 30, at Pentwater, 6 p.m.Thur., Oct. 2, Mason County Eastern, 6

p.m.Tue., Oct. 7, at Brethren, 6 p.m.

Thur., Oct. 9, Onekama, 6 p.m.Tue., Oct. 14, Baldwin, 6 p.m.Thur., Oct. 16, at Bear Lake, 6 p.m.Thur., Oct. 23, Frankfort, 6 p.m.Tue., Oct. 28, Mesick, 6 p.m.

CrOSS COuntry(CO-Op hOSteD By mCe)

Sat., Aug. 23, at Benzie Invite, 9 a.m.Mon., Aug. 25, at Orchard View, 5 p.m.Sat., Sept. 6, at Buckley Invite, 9 a.m.Wed., Sept. 10, at WMD jamboree at

Bear Lake, 4:15 p.m.Sat., Sept. 13, at Briggs Invitational at

West Shore hosted by LudingtonWed., Sept. 17, at WMD jamboree at Big

Rapids Crossroads, 4:15 p.m.Wed., Sept. 24, WMD jamboree, 4:15

p.m.Tue., Sept. 30, at Kelder Poured Walls In-

vite at Mason County CentralFri., Oct. 3, at LeRoy Pine River InviteWed., Oct. 8, at WMD championship at

Walkerville, 4:15 p.m.Wed., Oct. 15, Cardinal Classic, 4:15 p.m.

2014 Manistee Catholic fall schedules

sabers: New coachfootball: Sabers have inexperienced backfield in ’14

DAIly newS fIleManistee Catholic opened last season against Elk Rapids.

8



PENTWATER -- Pentwater’s cross country team has a few new faces, and perhaps one of the most important is the coach.

Erika Fatura, who began co-coaching Pentwater’s track teams in the spring, takes on the cross country team from coach and athlet-ic director Dan Nugent this fall. Fatura said it’ll definite-ly be a transition for her.

“It’s a different lens for me. I’ve gone with a running lens. To go with a coach-ing lens, I have to figure out what works for other peo-ple. Running is so individu-alized. It’s so important to know that what works for one doesn’t work for all,” she said.

Fatura is an active run-ning, having participated in several 5-kilometer and 10-kilometer races.

“I’ve never coached cross country before, but I’ve been a runner the last two years. I’m running all the time,” she said. “When the opportunity came up, I decided to (do it). It just made sense. I’m the track coach anyway.”

Those experiences, though, are different to a degree. Fatura’s running is from road courses. Cross country is different with its trails. Still, there are some-thing things that she can guide the athletes with.

“I think for the most part, I have a pretty good under-standing. That helps,” she said.

And, she’s leaning on for-mer standout runner Vallery McClellan to help fill in the gaps, too.

“She’s happy to talk cross country all day long. I’m hap-py to pick her brain as well and figure out what strate-gies that worked for her,” Fa-tura said.

The Falcons did end up losing a handful of runners from last year, including Sam and Alex Wagner as well as Nick Anscombe.

“We have a pretty young group... A couple of athletes who have been with us are gone. We’re a pretty young group. We have a goal-set-ting sheet and working on improving. Working on per-sonal bests is what we’re working on,” she said.

Jake Quinn, Jackson Sheets and Julien Nyberg all return from last year’s team while the team lost both Sam and Alex Wagner as well as Nick Anscombe and Gabe McLellan.

The girls team returns So-phia Nyberg from last year’s team and adds Brianna Ad-ams and Madeline Wagner.

Both teams will need a few more runners to field com-plete teams. That’s some-thing Fatura hopes to rectify once the school year begins after Labor Day.

“I’m hoping to snag a few

more when school starts as well,” Fubera said.

Pentwater cross country

DAVID BOSSICK | daiLy newSMembers of the Pentwater cross country teams are, front row, from left, Jake Quinn, Jackson Sheets and Julien Nyberg; back row, Madeline Wagner, Brianna Adams, Sophia Nyberg and coach Erika Fatura. Not pictured: Dayton Gibson.

fatura seeks more faces

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PENTWATER — Pentwa-ter’s boys soccer team will head into the 2014 season hoping to maintain its win total from its recent years.

Vic Gowell, starting his fifth season with the Fal-cons, says he has the cap-tains to help lead his team to keep a solid level of victo-ries. Sam Wagner, Nick Ans-combe and Jared Visger all will lead the team.

“They’re my three cap-tains. They have a lot of en-ergy, and they’ve been doing this for a while,” Gowell said. “They know what’s expected of them.”

The Falcons return a few other players from last year’s team: Jacob Emick, Damon Martz and Michael Naughton. Martz played par-tially in goal last season and he will help to keep the net clear this season.

“He’s a real nice big body. We’re looking for a lot out of him,” Gowell said.

There are a few fresh-men who help out this sea-son. Bill Sproul, Iain Stewart, Owen Knudsen and Nicholas Henley will see playing time right away for the Falcons.

Gowell said the players have shown a passion for playing and watching the game, which will help. At the same time, there will be some inexperience with his team.

“At some level, I’m wor-ried about it. I’ve got some

See fAlCOnS, pAge 12

Pentwater boys soccer

boys aiming to maintain success

DAVID BOSSICK | daiLy newSMembers of the Pentwater boys soccer team are, front row, from left, William Sproul, Nicholas Anscombe, Iain Stewart, Jacob Whitford, Owen Knudsen and manager Chael Gowell; back row, Michael Naughton, George Peterson, Jared Visger, Semaj Collier, Jacob Emick and coach Vic Gowell. Not pictured: Sam Wagner, Cody Love, Nicholas Henley and Damon Marte.

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DAVID BOSSICK | daiLy newSMembers of the Pentwater Falcons volleyball team are, front row, manager Glenn Miller; back row, from left, Linnea McDonough, Kylee Patterson-Skuse, Chyanne Smith, Emily Gebhart, Jill Miller, Taylor Wilkinson and coach Kerry Newberg. Not pictured: Anna Hofmann.


PENTWATER — Pentwa-ter’s girls volleyball team en-ters the 2014 fall season es-sentially like it did for 2013.

All but one face is the same for the Falcons, and that includes coach Ker-ry (Foote) Newberg. If any-thing, the biggest change for Pentwater is the consistency from the bench. Newberg, in

her second year with Pent-water, started coaching the team as fall practices got un-derway in 2013.

This summer, and the be-ginning of 2014, is the big difference.

“It’s been great. We actu-ally had a summer camp this year,” Newberg said. “We had the Whitehall coach come in and coach the girls a little this summer. That helped. But lower numbers still. I

still have to have younger siblings and parents coming out to help.”

The Falcons return all but one player, Taylor Geb-hart, from a team that put things together as the sea-

son moved along and won a district championship.

“Everyone is back, but I’ve changed up the positions a little bit,” Newberg said.

See pentwAter, pAge 12

Pentwater volleyball

falcons return nearly everyone from ’13

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frOm pAge 10

guys who haven’t played in a while or who guys who have never played. But they come out and play hard and work hard for me. We’ve had some great things come from that in the past.

“Three years ago, Nick Anscombe (came

in having) never played soccer before. Now, I think he’ll be one of the best de-fenders around. Yes and no, I’m a little bit worried just because you have to be (un-til) you see how it turns out.”

The Falcons have won 10 games in the past couple of seasons. Gowell would like to see Pentwater complete that total, if

not more, this season. And he feels the district ahead could be wide open given that most, if not all, teams in it are having to regroup from some significant losses.

“I know a lot of other teams from the district that they are missing a lot of peo-ple, too. They’ll be down a little bit, so that isn’t too bad,” Gowell said.

frOm pAge 11

“Some of them are going to try some different hitting po-sitions. We’re excited and set a lot of goals.”

This year’s roster:

JuniorS: Chyanne Smith and Em-ily Gebhart.SophomoreS: Anna Hofmann,

Linnea McDonoughFreShmen: Taylor Wilkinson and

Kylee Patterson-Skuse.

Kylee Patterson-Skuse is the newcomer and Newberg be-lieves she will fit in fairly well with the girls who have played the last two or three seasons together on the varsity team. While there isn’t a junior var-sity team, the middle school teams have several players.

Reaching the regional cham-pionship last season in New-

berg’s first year only has built excitement and resolve for this season.

“We built up our schedule this year and playing in some higher-end tournaments,” she said. “We’re playing some higher class teams, some Class C, some Class B, so that way we’re ready for what we saw in the regionals.”

Pentwater finished third in the Western Michigan D

League last season. The target for 2014?

“We want to finish higher in the conference this year... The girls want to be either first or second. They just have to get by (Big Rapids) Crossroads. They are the team we want to beat. We want to move on out of districts again and we want to be more competitive when it gets to regionals.”

2014Pentwater fall

schedulesBOyS SOCCer

Tue., Aug. 26, Walkerville, 4:30 p.m.Thur., Aug. 28, at Grant, 3:30 p.m.Tue., Sept. 2, at Manistee, 5 p.m.Thur., Sept. 4, Shelby, 4:30 p.m.Tue., Sept. 9, Mason County Eastern, 5 p.m.Thur., Sept. 11, at Hart, 4:30 p.m.Fri., Sept. 12, Cadillac Heritage Christian, 5:30 p.m.Thur., Sept. 18, at Mason County Central, 4:30 p.m.Fri., Sept. 19, Big Rapids Crossroads, 6:30 p.m.Sat., Sept. 20, Hart Tournament, 9 a.m.Thur., Sept. 25, Mason County Central, 4:30 p.m.Fri., Sept. 26, at McBain Northern Michigan Chris-

tian, 5:30 p.m.Mon., Sept. 29, Walkerville, 4:30 p.m.Tue., Sept. 30, Manistee, 5 p.m.Fri., Oct. 3, at Big Rapids Crossroads, 5:30 p.m.Mon. Oct. 6, at Cadillac Heritage Christian, 5:30

p.m.Thur., Oct. 9, Newaygo, 4:30 p.m.Fri., Oct. 10, at Mason County Eastern, 5 p.m.

CrOSS COuntryWed., Sept. 10, WMD jamboree at Bear Lake, 4:15

p.m.Wed., Sept. 17, WMD jamboree at Big Rapids Cross-

roads, 4:15 p.m.Wed., Sept. 24, WMD jamboree at Mason County

Eastern, 4:15 p.m.Wed., Oct. 8, WMD jamboree at Walkerville, 4:15

p.m.Wed., Oct. 15, Cardinal Classic at Mason County

EasternThur., Oct. 16, Oceana County Meet at Oceana Golf

Club, 3:30 p.m.

VOlleyBAllThur., Aug. 28, at Bear Lake Invite, 9 a.m.Sat., Sept. 6, at Hesperia Invite, 9 a.m.Tue., Sept. 9, at Manistee triangularThur., Sept. 18, at Bear Lake, 6 p.m.Sat., Sept. 20, Falcon Invitational, 9 a.m.Thur., Sept. 25, Brethren, 6 p.m.Sat., Sept. 27, at Fruitport Calvary Christian Invite,

9 a.m.Tue., Sept. 30, Manistee Catholic, 6 p.m.Thur., Oct. 2, Walkerville, 6 p.m.Tue., Oct. 7, at Onekama, 6 p.m.Thur., Oct. 9, at Big Rapids Crossroads, 6 p.m.Sat., Oct. 11, at Shelby Invite, 9 a.m.Tue., Oct. 14, Mason County Eastern, 6 p.m.Thur., Oct. 16, at Baldwin, 6 p.m.Sat., Oct. 18, WMD tournament, 9 a.m.Tue., Oct. 21, Manistee, 5 p.m.Tue., Oct. 28, Holton, Fruitport Calvary Christian, 5

p.m.

falCons: Soccer team’s captains to set tone for teammates

pentwater: Volleyball team improves schedule for 2014

DAIly newS fIlePentwater’s Taylor Wilkinson (15) looks to block a play against Manistee Catholic while teammates Emily Gebhart (18) and Chyanne Smith (lower left) get ready during an MHSAA Class D district match last November.


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Mce, pentwater & manistee catholic fall sports 2014