The original idea for this essay was to talk about basketball at Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes with the Robak brothers — Steve, starting his eighth season coaching the girls varsity, and Paul, the newly named coach of the boys varsity. In addition, Steve is Paul’s assistant with the boys, and Paul assists Steve with the girls, a role he has played for six years.

Allow me to digress for a moment, going back 47 years ago when Arthur Robak married Millie Bauer. They met in Minnesota, where Arthur spent summers working on the farms, and getting acquainted with Millie’s 11 siblings — who eventually produced 75 children and 100-plus grandchildren.

“We go to Minnesota twice a year,” Paul says, “and I’m always meeting new cousins. As long as I don’t have to remember their names, it’s OK.”

After their marriage in Caledonia, Minn., Arthur and Millie moved to Pontiac. When St. Michael Church in downtown Pontiac closed in 1967, they headed north to Waterford two years later to a house in which they still live.

Thus was born the Robak family’s lifetime connection with Our Lady of the Lakes. “We’re Lakers,” says Paul. “Church and family are No. 1 with us.”

Also born to Arthur and Millie were seven children in a span of nine years. “We’re the bookends,” says Steve, 46, about himself and Paul, 37, to five sisters.

Growing up, sports was a way of life. “We’d get home from school,” recalls Paul, “and play (whatever sport was in season) outside until the street lights came on.”

Using sports parlance, here’s the lineup of Arthur and Millie’s “team” of seven offspring and 27 grandchildren:

Steve (1985 grad): An all-state guard his senior year on the Lakers’ squad considered one of the best teams in school history, whose quest for a state title was short-circuited in the districts by one point by Detroit Country Day; he and his wife Chris have six children, including Lauren (’11) and Lexi (’13), both all-state players on their father’s three state Class D champ squads, and Nick, a junior member of the current OLL team coached by his Uncle Paul.

Michelle (’87): played third base on the Lakers’ 1987 Class C softball champs; she and husband Tim Ross have four children, including Garrett Ross (’13), all-Catholic and a redshirt freshman on the Michigan Tech football team. Tim is one of Steve’s assistants.

Maria (’88): She and husband, Dan Stemper, have four children. They live in Minnesota.

Patti (’89): Shortstop on that 1987 championship team; she doubled in the winning run for the title; she was a three-time basketball letter-winner at Oakland University. Michelle remembers how Patti developed her “high-arc free throws shooting over the electric wire that ran across our backyard court.” She and husband Kevin Oliver have five children, two of whom play on Uncle Steve’s team.

Sue Ann (’91): Aquinas College grad, where she played basketball; you can catch her weekends on the Big Ten Network handling pre- and post-game interviews. She’s not married, but says about her siblings and their progeny: “We’re Catholic and proud of it.”

Teresa (’92): Played basketball at Lake Superior State. She and husband, Hardy Sawall, and four children live in Wisconsin.

Paul (’93): All-state guard his junior and senior years at OLL who reached the state semifinals in 1993; a National Small College All American in 1998 at Rochester College. He and wife, Chris, are parents of four youngsters.

But, getting back to where we started:

Both the boys and girls teams are 3-4 entering Catholic League play in the new year.

The girls team is “in transition,” says Steve, whose teams in the past five years have won three Class D state titles and four Catholic League crowns. “We lost 85 percent of our scoring from last year.”

Paul’s challenge, he says, “is to get the boys (program) back to where the girls’ is.” He’s encouraged that “we’re improving day by day.”

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Don Horkey is a freelance writer residing in Shelby Township. He may be reached at [email protected].