CLARKSTON — For the most part of last year’s volleyball season, Everest Collegiate was among a handful of teams ranked “Honorable Mention” in Top 10 listings. At season’s end, Everest claimed the top of the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 4 world. Befitting their school’s nickname, the Mountaineers, it was an arduous undertaking.
In the semi-final match, Everest lost the first two sets of a best-of-five series to No. 1-ranked Adrian Lenawee Christian, but rebounded to win the three remaining sets to move on to the finals.
The next day, less than 24 hours later, Everest repeated the ordeal against Leland, losing the first two sets, winning the next three for the school’s first state volleyball championship.
“I’m blown away by these girls,” first-year Everest coach Danielle Walker said afterward. “To come back two days in a row from two sets down. It’s just amazing.”
“We want to keep the momentum and intensity going from last year,” Walker said the other day at a scrimmage at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s. “We know we can do it, but we know it’s going to be hard.”
Everest is losing just one player from its roster, which will be top-heavy with nine seniors.
One of them is outside hitter Sarah Bradley. “She’s an incredible leader,” Walker said, “on and off the court. She knows how to lead the team, to keep the positivity and bring that intensity on the court.”
In the state semi and final matches, Bradley had 43 kills, Madelyn Krappmann 40 kills, setter Erica Walker 102 assists, and libera Samantha Pietras 29 digs.
Bradley, who is expected to be a Miss Volleyball candidate, said she, Krappmann and middle hitter Addison Pearce “played all over the country this summer against high-level Division 1 commits, working hard to become stronger and more mentally tough.”
Bradley has committed to Calvin College in Grand Rapids. “I was looking for a Christian school and study to be a nurse. A lot of Division 1 schools wouldn’t let me do it.”
In summary: “We have to play one game at a time,” Walker said, “and not get ahead of ourselves, to get better as a team.”
There will be no “honorable mentions” this season.
Mercy starting season ‘feeling healthy’
There may well be, however, a No. 1 ranking for Farmington Hills Mercy.
The Marlins return all but one player from last year's MHSAA Division 1 title team whose championship formula resembled Everest Collegiate’s: lose the first two sets, win the next three.
“Last year our season hinged on our setter Campbell Flynn,” coach Loretta Vogel said. Last summer, Campbell played on the Under 19 USA National team in Croatia along with 23 other teams for the world championships Aug. 1-11. The USA won all 14 matches it played, topped off by a dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Turkey for the gold medal to become the first girls U19 world champs.
The Team USA experience “took a lot out of her physically,” Vogel said. “We didn’t have her for a big part of the season. When the state playoffs began, we put her in the lineup, and that’s when everything started working for us.” The Marlins, unranked with an unimpressive 13-12-3 record entering the state tournament, went 21-3 from thereon for the state championship.
The 6-foot-3 Flynn, the Gatorade Michigan Volleyball Player of the Year, heads into her senior year with 1,910 assists and 737 kills. She has committed to Nebraska. She will be a strong contender for the Miss Volleyball award.
Sophomore outside hitter Kate Kalczynski had 310 kills, including 25 in the state title game. “She’s fantastic. She carried the team on her shoulders,” Vogel said. Other key returnees are junior “clutch performer” Maya Zarow, junior Cree Hollier and senior Jill Collins. New to the team are junior transfer Ella Andrews, a 6-foot-4 middle, and 6-foot-3 freshman sister McKenzie Andrews.
“The difference this year,” said Vogel, who is starting her 14th year at Mercy, “is that most girls coming into the season are feeling healthy. If we can remain healthy we’ll have a higher level of success.”
Noteworthy: Mercy’s victory is its second in school history. The other came in 2019. In between, Bloomfield Hills Marian won the 2020-21-22 championships, making it five Division 1 titles in a row for the CHSL. The two squads meet Sept. 18 at Mercy.
St. Mary’s hires new AD, two coaches
With the sudden departure of Molly Campbell in mid-July — less than a month before the start of fall sports practices — to assume the athletic director position at Bloomfield Hills Marian, St. Mary’s Prep faced the task of filling not one, but three vacancies in its girls program.
Campbell had served as athletic director and coach of softball and volleyball for four years when St. Mary’s restructured its decades-long, boys-only curriculum to incorporate a girls co-division.
On Aug. 1, Allie Winiarski, 31, was hired to coach the girls varsity volleyball team. A graduate of Central Michigan University, she was a varsity assistant for five seasons at Lake Orion, her high school alma mater, when it won the state title in 2018 followed by a semifinal appearance in 2019.
“It was a bit of a challenge,” she said. “About the 10 days' transition between signing the contract and the start of tryouts and practices.”
The Eaglets have won the CHSL Cardinal Division title the last two years. “We expect to win the title again and advance to the state playoffs,” Winiarski said. “That’s the minimum goal.”
“They asked me if I would help out. I said yes.” That was pretty much the sum and substance of Don Buchanan’s decision to take the athletic director’s post.
He’s been a known quantity on the St. Mary’s campus for nearly 32 years when he first hired on as an assistant varsity football coach. Before that, he was an assistant principal and athletic director of Imlay City public schools from 1993-95. He taught physical education classes in Fenton-area schools for 22 years until 2016.
The girls have won league championships in volleyball and softball and have won state and national rowing titles.
“One thing about girls,” Buchanan said. “The girls set their minds to something and they work hard. In athletics, that’s a great recipe in itself. Having talent, we know, is wonderful, and there are plenty of girls here with talent. You couple that with hard work and the eagerness they have, and that’s why the girls programs have done so well. We hope it will continue.”
St. Mary’s hired Dave Langlois as softball coach. He has a background of 20-plus years in prep and travel softball. Langlois was the assistant coach at South Lyon for the 2021 Division 1 state championship and head coach in 2023 in a D1 semifinal.
Contact Don Horkey at [email protected].
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