University-Liggett, Bishop Foley and Shrine all cruising to division titles with undefeated records

GROSSE POINTE WOODS — There are several common threads between the girls’ basketball teams at Grosse Pointe Woods University-Liggett, Madison Heights Bishop Foley and Royal Oak Shrine. All three are Catholic League division, each sailing through the conference schedule with undefeated records.

Perhaps more impressively, each of the three teams accomplished their successes under new coaches. Here are their stories:

White brings new attitude to Knights

Craig White originally set his sights on leading the boys’ varsity at Liggett following the 2018 season, but that job went to the school’s existing junior varsity coach.

Still, school leaders were impressed enough with his interview and his experience (12 years of playing overseas) and brought him on staff to teach basketball fundamentals to students in all grades and both genders.

“I worked with everyone from grade school up to high school; I try to teach the correct way,” he said. “Then the following year, the athletic director called me in and said the girls’ varsity coach was stepping down for whatever reason, and would I be interested?”

White, who formerly led the girls team at Harper Woods High School, accepted the job, and immediately went to work instilling a new attitude.

“Basketball is like any other game, you play it to have fun,” he said. “That’s my No. 1 thing; to have fun. I’ve seen a lot of other coaches over the years make their players run. I say put the ball in their hands, give them some competitive drills. As long as they’re doing those, they get their running in and they don’t even think about it. And it becomes fun.”

At a small school, White is often challenged to do more with less.

“We’ve got nine girls,” he said. “They had a whole team last year, and since this is my first year, some of those girls didn’t come back for whatever reason, but we did get five freshmen and we made it happen.”

Liggett is 11-3 overall, 8-0 in the Intersectional II Division.

Junior guard Delaney Garvey is the team’s most experienced player, devoting attention to her game year-round. But White also sees potential in ninth-graders Grace Rahaim, Summer Orlowski, Alexis Gormely, Braniyla Willis and Samantha Krasnicki, laying a foundation for future seasons.

“Our team motto is ‘We’re all we got, we’re all we need.’” White said. “I really like it because these girls really pay attention; they want to learn. We have fun but we do put in our work. I can ask them to run through a brick wall. They know they probably can’t do it, but they’re going to try.”

Joseph makes a smooth transition with Ventures

Ray Joseph didn’t have much time to acclimate himself to the varsity job at Bishop Foley, where he was the JV coach for 15 seasons. Right before the team’s first scrimmage, the former coach stepped down for personal reasons, and Joseph was called upon to fill the immediate opening.

“They asked me if I would take over, and I said yes,” Joseph said. “I’m very happy with this group. They know who I am and what I expect of them.”

While the Ventures have gone 14-2, 8-0 in the Intersectional I division, there have been some challenges to overcome. The school did not have a JV squad in 2018-19 due to a lack of players. In addition, three of the team’s seven seniors have suffered significant injuries this winter.

But Joseph was quick to credit his assistant coaches, Erin Mullen and Jared Ocampo, and his senior captains, Kayla Moore, Erin Craig and Mary Ruth Oster, for not letting the team stray from its mission.

“We have a team motto this year that is ‘Accept the challenge.’ That came from one of our captains,” Joseph said. “We’ve been playing really well and really hard. I give our coaching staff a lot of credit – great, great coaches. We’re getting a lot of support from parents and we’re having fun along the way.”

Joseph said the key to the season was beating defending division champion Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes twice.

“One thing that’s really changed is we’ve got some talent,” Joseph said. “We’ve got some upcoming freshmen that can handle the ball, and they complement our post players. Our posts work hard; our bench does a remarkable job. They may only get two or three minutes, but when they’re out there, they know what their role is, and that’s what makes a complete team.”

Noble continues Shrine’s record of success

Lindsay Noble, who formerly coached the Troy Athens varsity, didn’t think she’d be back on the sideline this year.

“No, not at all,” she said. “I can say it was probably not even on my radar, to be honest with you.”

But a few weeks before the season started, she heard the top spot at Royal Oak Shrine was open, and sent in her application.  

“I have to say ever since I got out of coaching when I had my family, it has always been the job that I wanted to get back into coaching for,” she said. “I didn’t necessarily think it was going to happen this fast, but I talked to my husband (Dan, who’s Shrine’s baseball coach) and told him this is always something I wanted to do, and I went for it. About three days before the season started, I got hired, and had tryouts right after that.”

Shrine has won Catholic League championships the past three years, with seniors Allison LaPoint and Regan Smith returning starters from all three teams, so the foundation was already in place. It was just a matter trusting each other while the players learned a new system. The team has been able to jell, going 11-4 overall, 8-0 in the AA Division.

“I think it was just kind of laying out some of the first things that were important to us,” said Noble, who played at Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes and Central Michigan University. “I have high expectations and they know that, but I’m also going to protect them and care for them and to know I’ll always be there for them no matter what. I just really got to know them, not just on the basketball court, but on a personal level, what their family’s like, where they want to go next year, what their goals are, what’s important to them when it comes to things outside of basketball, too.”

As the relationships between the coaches and players have grown, so has the team’s morale, and ultimately, the accomplishments.

“‘One team, one goal’ – that’s been our motto this year,” Noble said. “That’s where we’re aiming, and that’s what we work for every day at practice.”

All three schools’ teams have goals yet to accomplish, and will pursue them in the Catholic League C/D playoffs (which begin Saturday) and the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Division III post-season tournament, which begins March 2.