Athletic first families have interesting year for Wayland

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is analysis by the editor.

It was an interesting year for Wayland’s first families in basketball and softball.

Basketball, dominated by the Hudson family, offered a lot of thrills, chills and victories. Coach Mike Hudson’s Wildcat boys lost only two games in 2016, both to Wyoming Godwin Heights, and won 21, yet they didn’t even have a district tournament title to show for it.

Softball, the domain of the Ritz and Merchant families, had a different story to tell. The Lady Wildcats were supposed to be in a rebuilding mode after losing a boatload of graduating seniors on the 2015 Class B state championship team. Yet veteran coach Cheri Ritz guided them to a league, district and regional championship just the same.

The year’s basketball stories feature coach Mike Hudson and three children, son Wes, son Avery and daughter Presley.

Mike, Wayland boys’ hoops coach for two decades, led the Wildcats to yet another O-K Gold Conference championship and they lost only one game in the regular season, as opposed to 18 wins. But the luck of the post-season tournament draw wasn’t with them.

Wyoming Godwin Heights, ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press state-wide Class B ratings, was determined to be the first-round district tourney opponent for Wayland, which spent virtually the entire season among the top five in the polls. Just as they did in 2015, they lost to Godwin in the districts.

Making matters worse, the two hoops powerhouses met again in the finals of the Cornerstone holiday tournament last Friday night in a 69-67 thriller pulled out in the last 2.1 seconds by the Wolverines. The contest included all the atmosphere of championship basketball.

So the ‘Cats absorbed only two losses, owing a great deal to point guard Avery Hudson and his long-time partner in crime, 6-7 center Zack Nieuwkoop. Both will continue together next year at Davenport University.

The supporting cast is pretty good as well, with Mitchell Dykstra, Carter Nyp, Travis Cutler, Mike Velting, Auston Whitley, Jack Donewald and Depress Holloway. Soon, they hope to add the services of Jake Holtz, who has been sidelined by a knee injury. They’re going into 2017 still hoping to win a state title or go deep into the tourney. And these certainly are not idle dreams.

On the girls’ side, Presley Hudson last winter was named Freshman of the Year in the Mid-American Conference, playing for Central Michigan University, and she was named second team all-MAC. Not halfway through her sophomore season, she already is 10^th on CMU’s all time list for making threes.

Now comes Wes Hudson, who was All-State as a player for Wayland in 2010 and an all-star performer at Cornerstone. Now he’s taken on the daunting challenge of rebuilding the Wayland girls’ basketball team, which graduated its top six players last spring.

Cheri Ritz just has to regard the 2016 season as one of her most satisfying. She did have a couple of sluggers returning in Sydney Urben and Bethany Teunissen, but Abby Merice was an inexperienced first-year pitcher who lived larger than expectations.

The Lady Wildcats captured their 13^th straight O-K Gold Conference crown and ran the table in the district and regional tournaments before finally bowing in the quarterfinals.

But if there was such a thing as an individual athlete of the year, there would be plenty of nominees:

• Sophomore Laura Velderman of Hopkins won her second straight league and regional championships in cross country and she qualified for the nationals in the Junior Olympics in the 800-meter run. She also was a key figure in the Lady Vikings’ dominating relay teams that helped them win the league title again and qualify for the state meet.
• Urben, now a junior, was runner-up in the state Division 2 individual bowling championships besides being a heavy hitter on the diamond. The Wayland girls’ bowling team, under the tutelage of Bill Holbrook, was ranked No. 5 in the state.

Holbrook also was selected coach of the year in Division 2 and landed a job as a collegiate coach in Nebraska.

• Hopkins freshman Brendan Gossman was individual league champion in bowling and he qualified for the Division 2 state tourney.
• Ali Martus closed out her impressive prep golf career by finishing fifth in the state meet and she went to Northwood University to be one of the Timberwolves’ top performers.
• Rory Myers recorded a hole in at Michigan State University and the Wayland boys’ golf team to qualify for the Division 2 regionals.

Mike Hudson was named Class B basketball coach of the year by an officials’ group and Chris Drew was accorded the same honor for girls’ golf after the team broke the school record for team score and just missed going to state by three strokes. Jennifer Antel was chosen middle school track coach of the year in Michigan.

Other local high school stars who were grabbing headlines in the collegiate ranks were Mike Miklusicak and Quentin Sweeney in MIAA football, Matt Modreske in NCAA Division II football, Allison Getty in volleyball at Northwood and Krissy Dill set a record for volleyball kills at Davenport.

Others making huge contributions to collegiate athletics were Mallory Teunissen, Haley Obetts and Sam Merren in Davenport winning the league softball title and Autumn Anderson closed out a successful career at Hope softball with 200 hits.

But Wayland graduate Tyler Merren had perhaps the biggest success story of all by placing third in the Paralympics in goal ball in Rio.

Team successes were scored by the Martin boys’ basketball team, which went 14-5 on the regular season and took its division with a 10-0 record. Tanner Curry, off to a strong start this winter, just might be seriously considered for Class D all-state.

But there were two stories that were downers.

One was the abrupt resignation by Darrin Smith as head basketball coach at Hopkins High School. A small group of parents presented a petition for his removal to the Hopkins Board of Education, which declined to take any action until after the current season concluded. Smith resigned shortly afterward, coaching the Vikings’ first two games only and explaining he didn’t want to put his family through the ordeal.

The other downer was economic. Hopkins and Wayland ended their “neighborhood rivalry” football season opener after four years. Wayland instead played Grand Rapids Union and Hopkins met Newaygo at the new field at Davenport University.

As a result, the Wayland Athletic Boosters reported a significant drop in gate receipts and concession stand revenues, nearing $9,000. The athletic directors at both schools have been reviewing that situation, but there has been no word of restarting the rivalry.

PHOTOS: Wayland softball coach Cheri Ritz is doused by Bethany Teunissen.

Sydney Urben

Presley Hudson

Laura Velderman at the nations for the Junior Olympics.

The Hopkins girls’ track team takes yet another turn in the Parade of Champions in the annual MITCA meet.

Krissy Dill getting one of her record-setting kills at Davenport.

Austin Wroblewski kicked two game-winning field goals for the Wayland football team.

All-state pitcher Mallory Teunissen graduated from Wayland to Davenport University.