Mason County Eastern, Pentwater and Manistee Catholic Winter Sports 2015-2016

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Your guide to the upcoming sports season, featuring stories, team photos and schedules

Ludington Daily NewsTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2015

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2 | Ludington daiLy newS/SPoRtS taB | tHuRSday, deCeMBeR 3, 2015

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By DAVID BOSSICKdaiLy newS SPoRtS editoR

Mason County Eastern’s boys basketball team is much further along than a team that returns just a handful of play-ers from year’s team might expect to be.

Eastern coach Ed Knizacky said his team has quickly learned what’s expected, and he believed they were raring to go before the Thanksgiv-ing weekend.

“They’re already ready. I’m giving them structure, but it’s freelance-style bas-ketball,” Knizacky said of the parameters he set for his team. “It’s read the defense, and if you’re open shoot the ball. If you’re double-teamed, look for the open the person. We’re going to run a lot. They’re starting to grasp it.

“They’re going to keep go-ing and going and going.”

Just one starter from last season, Austin Rader, re-turns to the lineup for the Cardinals. The big man, though, isn’t the only play-er with varsity experience returning. Mason Saya and Kyle Lee saw some action to-ward the end of last season on the varsity roster. Greg Bender and Josh Pomor-ski also were on the varsity team a year ago.

Eastern graduated a slew of players, from Travis Mc-Cormick and Jonathan Stew-art to Hunter Hofmann. But Knizacky said the learning curve for the team this sea-son is much more acceler-ated. He’s not worried too much about some of the newcomers to the varsity team such as Ben Cossette, Abe Shoup, Joe Mickevich and Fisher Spencer.

“We’re running same plays last year, but last year we got to A to B (after an ex-tended time) and (this year)

we’re already on D right now. They’re buying into what I want done,” he said. “They’re starting to see the outcome of their work.

“(Playing on varsity is) not going to bother them. It might the first couple of games. I’m also instructing on it. I’m pushing scenari-os in practice. I don’t think there’s going to be a culture shock.”

That could come in handy considering Eastern’s sched-ule out of the gates. The Car-dinals play their first three games — all Western Michi-gan D League games — on the road to start the season. And it’s Brethren, Baldwin and Bear Lake in that order. Eastern doesn’t host a game until after New Year’s Day when Pentwater comes to Custer.

The first-time varsity jit-ters could be well behind the Cardinals before Christmas, Knizacky said.

“It’ll be a real joy to watch them play. They’re at 100 mph and looking good. I had some kids come in from last year’s team, and they said these guys are really doing good. Either before Christ-mas or just after Christmas we’ll be ready to go,” he said.

Knizacky figures Baldwin and Onekama, the league’s co-champions from last sea-son, are the ones to beat this year again, too.

“Onekama has three or four players back from last year. I think they will be in the top of the conference. Baldwin still could be cham-pions, and you never know what’s there. Brethren could be tough,” Knizacky said.

But don’t discount East-ern’s chances, either.

“We’ve always got the goal to win the league and win the district. Sometimes it hap-pens, sometimes it doesn’t. This year looks more prom-ising. I’d like to shoot for re-gionals,” he said. “This year, we’ve got the height, the outside shooting and ball handlers. I’ve got the whole package.”

Mason County Eastern boys basketball

Cardinals young, but eager to win

DAVID BOSSICK | daiLy newSMembers of the Mason County Eastern varsity boys basketball team are, from left, Josh Pomorski, Austin Rader, coach Ed Knizacky, Gregory Bender and Hunter Keilman; back row, Kyle Lee, Mason Saya, Abe Shoup, Ben Cossette, Fischer Spencer and Joey Mickevich.

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Mason County Eastern’s girls basketball team will be small on numbers, but Car-dinals coach Kate Chaney was thrilled with what she saw out of the mix in the run up to the season opener.

“I definitely feel comfort-able with the group of girls that I have even though we have a small group,” Chaney said. “They’re playing re-ally well together. It’s great to see them working hard. They’re playing really well. I’ve been impressed with them at this point.”

The Cardinals have seven players out with two full-time varsity players return-ing from last year’s team that went 2-19 overall and 2-14 in the Western Michi-gan D League. Madisyn Mc-Cormick and Brooke Lee are the returning full-time varsi-ty players. Jordan Goodman and Taylor Dykman saw some action on both the var-sity and junior varsity.

“I think we look to Madi-syn as a leader. Really, she keeps everyone motivated. But, they’re all like that,” Chaney said. “It’s easy for them to get all get along and work together. They play hard. It’s easy for her to fall into that role. They all share those same qualities.”

Because Goodman and Dykman both moved up to the varsity at times last season, both should have the confidence to be able to compete at the varsity level.

“I think it’ll be huge. With Taylor, she feels more con-fident. She did have the ex-perience. She’s more aggres-sive,” Chaney said. “Jordan is falling right back into place. She’s very skilled (and a) good athlete.”

The Cardinals will add Me-gan McCormick, Erin Witt-lieff and Jenny Appledorn into the mix. Megan McCor-mick and Wittlieff played on the junior varsity while Ap-pledorn is a freshman.

Mason County Eastern graduated several players from last year’s team, in-cluding Emily Knizacky and Ryann Oomen. The Cardi-nals also lost Tammy Camp-bell and Lauren McCumber as each decided not to play this season. But Chaney is glad to have the seven that are on the roster, and she is happy with their attitude.

“They want to do better. They have a common goal,” Chaney said. “We want to im-prove on last year. It’s nice. We’re working toward that.”

Chaney expects Mason County Eastern to be more competitive within the West-ern Michigan D League. She was able to take a look at

Walkerville and Baldwin in scrimmages earlier this pre-season. But she did tab a few favorites.

“Onekama is going to be a standout,” she said. “Their (junior varsity) was real-

ly strong. Brethren and Big Rapids Crossroads are good. There’s going to be tough games in the conference.”

The district tournament also figures to be wide open, similar to last season. Man-

istee Catholic came away with the title with a team full of now seniors.

“We gave Brethren a run for their money last year. It was a close game. I definitely think it will be a competitive

district this year.”The Cardinals start the

season at home in a Western Michigan D League contest against Manistee Catholic on Friday.

Mason County Eastern girls basketball

Eastern going with seven-player team

DAVID BOSSICK | daiLy newSMembers of the Mason County Eastern varsity girls basketball team are, sitting, from left, Jordan Goodman, Madisyn McCormick, Megan McCormick and Taylor Dykman; standing, coach Kate Chaney, Erin Wittlieff, Jenny Appledorn, Brooke Lee and assistant Woody Millspaugh.

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JV/VArSIty BOyS BASKetBAllThur., Dec. 10, at Brethren, 6

p.m.Tue., Dec. 15, at Baldwin, 6 p.m.Thur., Dec. 17, at Bear Lake, 6

p.m.Tue., Jan. 5, Pentwater, 6 p.m.Thur., Jan. 7, at Walkerville, 6

p.m.Tue., Jan. 12, McBain Northern

Michigan Chrisitan, 6 p.m.Thur., Jan. 14, Onekama, 6 p.m.Tue., Jan. 19, at Hesperia, 5:30

p.m.Fri., Jan. 22, Manistee Catholic,

6 p.m.Wed., Jan. 27, at Big Rapids

Crossroads, 6 p.m.Fri., Jan. 29, Brethren, 6 p.m.Wed., Feb. 3, Baldwin, 6 p.m.Fri., Feb. 5, Bear Lake, 6 p.m.Wed., Feb. 10, at Pentwater, 6

p.m.Fri., Feb. 12, Walkerville, 6 p.m.Mon., Feb. 15, White Cloud, 6

p.m.Fri., Feb. 19, at Onekama, 6 p.m.Wed., Feb. 24, Big Rapids Cross-

roads, 6 p.m.Fri., Feb. 26, at Manistee Catho-

lic, 6 p.m.Thur., March 3, at Hart, 6 p.m.

JV/VArSIty gIrlS BASKetBAllFri., Dec. 4, Manistee Catholic,

6 p.m.Mon., Dec. 7, Hesperia, 6 p.m.Wed., Dec. 9, at Brethren, 6 p.m.Fri., Dec. 11, at Baldwin, 6 p.m.

(varsity only)Wed., Dec. 16, at Bear Lake, 6

p.m.Fri., Dec. 18, Pentwater, 6 p.m.Wed., Jan. 6, at Walkerville, 6

p.m. (varsity only)Mon., Jan. 11, at White Cloud,

5:30 p.m.Wed., Jan. 13, Onekama, 6 p.m.Fri., Jan. 15, Big Rapids Cross-

roads, 6 p.m.Thur., Jan. 21, at Manistee Cath-

olic, 6 p.m.Tue., Jan. 26, Brethren, 6 p.m.Thur., Jan. 28, Baldwin, 6 p.m.

(varsity only)Tue., Feb. 2, Bear Lake, 6 p.m.Thur., Feb. 4, at Pentwater, 6

p.m.Tue., Feb. 9, Walkerville, 6 p.m.

(varsity only)Tue., Feb. 16, Lake Leelanau St.

Mary, 6 p.m.Thur., Feb. 18, at Onekama, 6

p.m.Tue., Feb. 23, at Hart, 6 p.m.Thur., Feb. 25, at Big Rapids

Crossroads, 6 p.m.

JV/VArSIty BOyS BASKetBAllTue., Dec. 8, Baldwin, 6 p.m.Thur., Dec. 10, Bear Lake, 6

p.m.Tue., Dec. 15, Hart, 6 p.m.Thur., Dec. 17, at Walkerville,

6 p.m.Tue., Jan. 5, at Mason County

Eastern, 6 p.m.Thur., Jan. 7, Onekama, 6 p.m.Tue., Jan. 12, at Brethren, 6

p.m.Thur., Jan. 14, Manistee Catho-

lic, 6 p.m.Tue., Jan. 19, Muskegon Catho-

lic, 6 p.m.Thur., Jan. 22, Big Rapids

Crossroads, 6 p.m.Wed., Jan. 27, at Baldwin, 6

p.m.Fri., Jan. 29, at Bear Lake, 6

p.m.Fri., Feb. 5, Walkerville, 6 p.m.Wed., Feb. 10, Mason County

Eastern, 6 p.m.Fri., Feb. 12, at Onekama, 6

p.m.Wed., Feb. 17, Brethren, 6 p.m.Fri., Feb. 19, at Manistee Cath-

olic, 6 p.m.Fri., Feb. 26, at Big Rapids

Crossroads, 6 p.m.Tue., March 1, at Hesperia, 6

p.m.

JV/VArSIty gIrlS BASKetBAllFri., Dec. 4, at Big Rapids Cross-

roads, 6 p.m.Mon., Dec. 7, at Hart, 6 p.m.Wed., Dec. 9, at Bear Lake, 6

p.m.Mon., Dec. 14, Walkerville, 6

p.m. (varsity only)Fri., Dec. 18, at MCE, 6 p.m.Mon., Jan. 4, Kent City Algoma

Christian, 6 p.m.Wed., Jan. 6, Onekama, 6 p.m.Fri., Jan. 8, Brethren, 6 p.m.Mon., Jan. 11, at Brethren, 6

p.m.Wed., Jan. 13, at Manistee

Catholic, 6 p.m.Fri., Jan. 15, Baldwin, 6 p.m.

(varsity only)Mon., Jan. 18, at Montague,

6 p.m.Thur., Jan. 21, Big Rapids

Crossroads, 6 p.m.Tue., Jan. 26, Bear Lake, 6 p.m.Tue., Feb. 2, at Walkerville, 6

p.m. (varsity only)Thur., Feb. 4, MCE, 6 p.m.Tue., Feb. 9, at Onekama, 6

p.m.Thur., Feb. 18, Manistee Catho-

lic, 6 p.m.Tue., Feb. 23, Hesperia, 6 p.m.Thur., Feb. 25, Baldwin, 6 p.m.

(varsity only)

JV/VArSIty gIrlS BASKetBAllTue., Dec. 1, at Walkerville, 6

p.m. (varsity only)Fri., Dec. 4, at MCE, 6 p.m.Wed., Dec. 9, Northport, 6 p.m.Fri., Dec. 11, Bear Lake, 6 p.m.Mon., Dec. 14, Big Rapids Cross-

roads, 6 p.m.Fri., Dec. 18, Walkerville, 6 p.m.

(varsity only)Wed., Jan. 6, at Baldwin, 6 p.m.

(varsity only)Fri., Jan. 8, at Onekama, 6 p.m.Wed., Jan. 13, Pentwater, 6 p.m.Fri., Jan. 15, Brethren, 6 p.m.Mon., Jan. 18, Mason County

Central, 6 p.m.Thur., Jan. 21, Mason County

Eastern, 6 p.m.Tue., Jan. 26, Traverse City

Homeschool, 6 p.m.Thur., Jan. 28, at Bear Lake, 6

p.m.Tue., Feb. 9, Baldwin, 6 p.m.

(varsity only)Thur., Feb. 11, Onekama, 6 p.m.Mon., Feb. 15, at Northport,

6 p.m.Thur., Feb. 18, at Pentwater, 6

p.m.Tue., Feb. 23, at Big Rapids

Crossroads, 6 p.m.Thur., Feb. 25, at Brethren, 6

p.m.

JV/VArSIty BOyS BASKetBAllTue., Dec. 8, Brethren, 6 p.m.Thur., Dec. 10, Mesick, 6 p.m.Tue., Dec. 15, Bear Lake, 6 p.m.Thur., Dec. 17, at Big Rapids

Crossroads, 6 p.m.Tue., Jan. 5, Walkerville, 6 p.m.Thur., Jan. 7, at Baldwin, 6 p.m.Tue., Jan. 12, at Onekama, 6

p.m.Thur., Jan. 14, at Pentwater, 6

p.m.Tue., Jan. 19, Traverse City

Homeschool, 6 p.m.Fri., Jan. 22, at Mason County

Eastern, 6 p.m.Wed., Jan. 27, at Brethren, 6

p.m.Fri., Jan. 29, at Northport, 5:30

p.m.Wed., Feb. 3, at Bear Lake, 6

p.m.Fri., Feb. 5, Big Rapids Cross-

roads, 6 p.m.Wed., Feb. 10, at Walkerville,

6 p.m.Fri., Feb. 12, Baldwin, 6 p.m.Wed., Feb. 17, Onekama, 6 p.m.Fri., Feb. 19, Pentwater, 6 p.m.Tue., Feb. 23, at Mesick, 6 p.m.Fri., Feb. 26, Mason County

Eastern, 6 p.m.

Mason CountyEastern schedules

Pentwaterschedules

Manistee Catholic schedules


Mason County Eastern’s bowling team will be tasked with a tough season because although it is mostly com-posed of girls, it will be com-peting with the boys during the season.

Elaine Busch takes on the challenge of coaching the players.

“It’s been fun. It’s been a lot of fun,” she said. “We have two returning juniors, a new junior who bowled in her freshman year and I have

a brand new (bowler) be-cause she’s a freshman.”

D.J. Busch, Elaine’s son, is an experienced bowler who has been around the lanes for a long time. Casie Mick-evich, Harley Smakal and Zeressa Craig make up a big portion of the bowling team.

“They know what’s expect-ed of them. When we get to a game, the seriousness of trying to win those points (comes through). I think they’ll do good. I don’t try to put a lot of pressure on them,” Elaine Busch said. “I think they come out to just

have a fun sport that they can get into that doesn’t take a lot of overly physical ex-hertion. I think they all jive well together.”

Although Busch is in her first year as the team’s coach, she knows very well what to expect out of the high school season.

“I expect them to do well. I’m just not sure how well because we’re classified as a boys team,” she said. “When we hit regionals, as a team, we don’t need to go.

“I think they’re having a lot of fun, and they’re learning.

That’s kind of what I want for them.”

Beyond the fun, the team has already learned a lot so far from Busch.

“They’re picking up new things and doing some things they haven’t thought of before. I want to make it fun, but I also want them to learn things.”

The conference has two boys teams from Mason County Central, a team from Baldwin, a team from Big Rap-ids Crossroads and the Cardi-nals. Busch is hopeful that the Cards can grow the program.

Mason County Eastern bowlingCardinals aim to learn, have fun

DAVID BOSSICK | daiLy newSMembers of the Mason County Eastern bowling team are, front row, from left, Casie Mickevich, Harley Smakal and Zeressa Cregg; back row, DJ Busch and coach Elaine Busch.

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Pentwater’s girls basket-ball program took another big step forward going into the 2015-16 season as the Falcons reinstituted its ju-nior varsity program.

The Falcons haven’t had a junior varsity team for a handful of years as the varsi-ty team even had to dip into the pool of girls in the eighth grade to field a team.

But the varsity team is full of experienced players, and the need to groom girls for varsity after some gradua-tion hits after this season is needed.

And those experience players are eager to turn last year’s 7-13 record overall and 6-10 mark in the West-ern Michigan D League into more victories.

“We return almost all of our varsity team from last year, after graduating only one senior, Savannah Slik-kers,” Pentwater coach Jeff McDonough said. “As far as key returning players, I see everyone as a key to our suc-cess this year.

“There is a different at-mosphere in the gym this year, a different attitude on the court. It was evident in the first week of practice. I see improvement over last year in every single player.”

The Falcons have two all-league returning players in Emily Gebhart and Linnea McDonough. Gebhart, a se-nior, averaged 12 points per game last year with aver-ages of three steals and two assists. She is a three-year starter at point guard for the Falcons.

McDonough, a junior, is a returning small forward who averaged 11 points, eight re-bounds and three blocks last season. She’s one of those players who’s played on the

varsity team since being an eighth grader, and she starts her fourth season on the var-sity team.

Taylor Wilkinson, a soph-omore, hopes to return to form after illnesses wiped away part of her freshman year. She, like McDonough, began playing on varsity as an eighth grader.

That was one of the prob-

lems with last year’s re-cord, though. The illnesses and injuries weren’t limit-ed to Wilkinson and coach McDonough was left shuf-fling his lineup for much of the season to overcome the shorter benches.

Pentwater returns Anna Hoffman, Grace Alvestef-fer, Jill Miller and Madeline Wagner from last year’s

team. Chyanne Smith and Desirae Coronado played, also, but were limited by in-jury.

He is, though, optimistic about the team’s chances.

“I am cautiously very op-timistic,” he qualified. “The cautious side of me knows we are playing the tough-est schedule we’ve seen so far. Out of the four noncon-

ference games, three are against Class C schools.

“In our conference, Big Rapids Crossroads will be the preseason favorite. Onekama and Bear Lake have solid teams while Manistee (Catholic) and Brethren also look strong this year.

“My optimistic side knows we can reach our goal of fin-

ishing in the top half of our conference and winning our district. I truly believe we have the talent and passion to achieve it.”

Pentwater begins the season against defending league champion, Big Rapids Crossroads, on the road Fri-day to kick off not only the season, but also the Western Michigan D League race.

Pentwater girls basketball

Falcons program takes step forward

DAVID BOSSICK | daiLy newSMembers of the Pentwater varsity girls basketball team are, from left, coach Jeff McDonough, Chyanne Smith, Sophia Nyberg, Desirae Coronado, Madeline Wagner, Linnea McDonough, Taylor Wilkinson, Emily Gebhart, Anna Hofmann, Grace Alvesteffer, Jill Miller and assistant Greg Chye.

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Pentwater will be in a bit of a transition in 2015-16 as the Falcons will be looking for a new group of leaders for its boys basketballl team.

The Falcons were hit es-pecially hard by gradua-tion, but the leadership roles should be filled by senior Ja-cob Emick-Free and junior Damon Martz.

“Jacob is an outstand-ing asset to this program and team,” Pentwater coach Ashley Wojtas said. “He has a positive attitude and great work ethic. Jacob re-ally peaked at the end of the 2014-15 season and had an outstanding district game. I am looking forward to his leadership and efforts again this season.”

Out of Martz, Wojtas sees a player that lead the team nearly throughout the floor.

“Damon is a dynamic play-er because he can play a guard or small forward posi-tion. I am looking forward to seeing his experience show statistical incline,” Wojtas said. “Damon is a strong rebounder and has grown to be very wise beyond his years.”

Pentwater’s roster:

SeniorS: Jacob Emick-Free, Connor Lipski and Semaj Collier.JuniorS: Ryan Hasty, Jacob

Whitford and Damon Martz.SophomoreS: Billy Sproul and

Owen Knudsen.FreShman: Max Stoneman.

A vacuum of leadership was created when four-year player Sam Wagner and Nick Anscombe both graduated. Wagner was the floor gener-al for the Falcons with Ans-combe being a steady pres-ence in the lane.

“The leadership that Sam and Nick provided our team will be missed the most,” Wojtas said. “I am looking forward to seeing in the be-ginning weeks of practice what guys will fill that lead-ership role.”

Those roles could be filled by players coming off of the junior varsity team or even incoming freshman to the high school program. How-ever, they’re getting their feet wet with the way varsity basketball is played.

“I have several freshmen and sophomores who have stepped up to the challenge of playing on the varsity squad,” Wojtas said. “I am looking for a couple of them to have a breakout season and help their teammates find success.”

Although the roster for Pentwater is in a bit of transition because of the amount of inexperience it may have, the expectations for the Falcons have not wavered.

“I have strong expecta-tions for my team this sea-son. I think that we will need to be mindful of the growth we will need to make throughout the season,” Wojtas said. “I will have a youthful team this year that will need to educate our-selves in the game of basket-ball. I think film and scout-

ing reports that will be vital to our success and finding execution on offense and de-fense.”

Wojtas said she expects Onekama, Bear Lake and Baldwin all will be tough teams in the Western Michi-gan D League race this sea-son.

“I strongly believe we have

a great athletic group of boys that need to build from some experience,” she said. “I am looking forward to them exceeding my expecta-tions.”

On top of those three league foes, Pentwater has Muskegon Catholic and Hart scheduled in nonconference games.

“We are looking forward to the hometown rivalry and the challenges that (Muskeg-on) Catholic will present us,” Wojtas said.

The challenges for the Falcons start immediate-ly. Pentwater plays its first three games at home start-ing with Western Michigan D League play against Bald-

win, Dec. 8. Then the Fal-cons host league foe Bear Lake and neighboring Hart.

Pentwater boys basketball

Falcons in search of leadership

DAVID BOSSICK | daiLy newSMembers of the Pentwater varsity boys basketball team are, from left, Billy Sproul, Connor Lipski, Jacob Emick-Free, Austin Hoffman, Ryan Hasty, Max Stoneman, Damon Martz, Semaj Collier, Owen Knudsen, Jacob Whitford and coach Ashley Wojtas.

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By greg gIelCZyKdaiLy newS SPoRtS wRiteR

MANISTEE — Chad Robke is the most experienced player with two years on the varsity under his belt, which makes him the recognized leader for the Manistee Cath-olic Central boys basketball team in Mike Feliczak’s de-but season as head coach.

Other than that, Feliczak isn’t sure what kind of hand he’s been dealt in becoming the Sabers’ third coach in as many seasons. He knows there’s talent, but is still evaluating where everyone will fit into the puzzle.

The Sabers are on the short-er side, and will need to find other ways to keep from be-ing totally dominated on the boards. Which means they’ll focus more on getting posi-tion in front of the taller play-ers they’ll face, and box out.

“Maybe we’ll try to run on some teams, rather than slow it down with them,” said Feliczak, who coached the junior varsity for three years and is not a new face for the players. “It’ll be a game-by-game, night-by-night matchup decision.

“We have five freshmen (who’ll play on the junior varsity), and those kids played as eighth graders last year. It almost felt as though they were sophomores (the first night of practice). They knew the drills. They know what I’m talking about, be-cause I had them last year. It was not like it was foreign to them. They were on (the same) page with everybody, which was nice.”

The Sabers roster:

SeniorS: Blake Robke, Michael Deising, Mac Swidorski, Justin Feliczak, Chad Robke and Joseph Slivka.JuniorS: Jacob McComb and

Nick Bialik.

Sophomore: Austin VanAelst.

Feliczak is carrying six se-niors, two juniors and one sophomore for eight total on the varsity. Like the girls basketball squad, he’s hop-ing that he can avoid dipping down into the junior varsity ranks because of injury or illness.

Right now, everybody is healthy and he hasn’t been missing any players from practice as the Sabers pre-pare for their season opener at home on Tuesday against Brethren. The first week was used to get everyone in game shape, and boning up on the fundamentals.

Feliczak is stressing an up-tempo game to overcome the Sabers’ lack of size.

“We’re trying to get the ball and go,” Feliczak said. “We’re trying to push the ball up the floor. We’re try-ing to get baskets in tran-sition. If we get into a half-court game, you’ve just got to play defense and box out.

“Size is a disadvantage, but there’s ways that we can use that to our advan-tage also, being undersized. They can be taller then you, (but) you can still box them out. It’s all position. There are different rules this year, through the MHSAA, basical-ly called ‘displacement.’

“You cannot box out like you used to be able to. If you displace that player, that’s now a foul. You cannot box out strong off a free throw. The old backing into him ... those days are gone. It’s more of a European style, in my opinion. They (MHSAA) want hands off inside the lane.”

Chad Robke is the Sabers’ best 3-point shooter, and Fe-liczak admits that a lot of their success will be predi-cated on how he shoots the ball.

Feliczak’s son, Justin, has battled knee injuries the last two years and comes in with high expectations, as well as a fire in his belly. If he can stay healthy, he should be a big contributor offensively.

“It looks like Nick Bialik has taken a step forward,” coach Feliczak added. “I think he’s going to be a criti-cal part of running the point, breaking the press and being

a ball handler for me. Aus-tin VanAelst is just a sopho-more, but he’s shown strides of playing really well.

“All I heard last year was that he was one of the best kids on the floor when he was on the JVs. I expect him to go through a learning curve, but I think he’s got a lot of potential and he’s starting to show it.”

Chad Robke’s brother,

Blake, is considered as a spot-up shooter while Bialik is a driver who can get to the rim. Michael Deising and Jacob McComb show a lot of hustle and hard work in practice, and will be impor-tant role players.

The Sabers run the floor pretty well at this point, Fe-liczak says, and now he’s installing offenses, defens-es and out-of-bounds play

while at the same time get-ting in the conditioning they’ll need as the season wears on.

Feliczak feels this is the most balanced he’s seen the Western Michigan D League, and expects the Sabers to have a bounce back season.

He knows the Sabers will play hard every night, and hopefully good things will come from that.

Manistee Catholic boys basketball

Feliczak takes charge of boys team

greg gIelCZyK | daiLy newSMembers of the Manistee Catholic boys basketball team are, kneeling, from left, Jacob McComb, Blake Robke, Nick Bialik and Michael Deising; standing, Marc Swidorski, Austin VanAelst, Justin Feliczak and Chad Robke. Not pictured: Joseph Slivka.

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By greg gIelCZyKdaiLy newS SPoRtS wRiteR

MANISTEE — The good news is Manistee Catho-lic Central girls basketball coach Terry Walker has ev-eryone back from last year’s Class D district champion-ship team, but on the debit side he only has eight play-ers to work with and that could be a concern should anyone get hurt, or be sick for any length of time.

Given the fact Manistee Catholic didn’t even field a junior varsity team last year, and a majority of the players who’ll fill those ranks this season are eighth graders, it would obviously be a poten-tial disaster should either of the above events occur. Lib-by Johnson is coaching the junior varsity this season.

Except for junior Molly McLinden, all of the varsity players are seniors. While that experience should make the Sabers a force in the Western Michigan D League this season, as well as a vi-able contender to repeat as district champion, it does leave the cupboard bare for next year with a boat load of freshmen coming up from the junior varsity to fill the empty spaces.

The present isn’t particu-larly rosy, either, with for-ward Meagan Sorenson due to miss all of December with a tendon issue in her foot and isn’t expected to re-turn until sometime in Jan-uary. McLinden is out un-til sometime next month as she heals an injury as well. Walker himself has his left arm in a sling after surgery to repair an injured shoulder (he hurt his right shoulder a year ago to the day).

Manistee Catholic’s roster:

SeniorS: Shelby Papes, Jodi Janowiak, Lauren Golem-

biewski, Mia Hogan, Meagan Sorenson, Paige Picardat and Meghan Miller.Junior: Molly McLinden.

But, as stated earlier, the Sabers have an experienced group that includes post player Meghan Miller, guard Jodi Janowiak, guard Shel-by Papes, guard/forward Mia Hogan, forward Lauren Golembiewski, post player Paige Picardat and forward Meagan Sorenson.

“We have experience back, we’re just short on numbers (to start the season),” Walk-er said, wincing as he ad-justed his left shoulder in its sling. “With two players out right now, we have six var-sity players and we’ve been practicing together (with the junior varsity) because we have seven JVs is all.

“It’s real thin. We’ll prob-ably practice together a lot this year. I intend to use Liz Nelson, who was up last year because we did not have a JV team last year and she played JV the year before as an eighth grader. We had her on the varsity as a fresh-man, but we decided to keep her on the JV this year because of numbers, and that will give her a lot more playing time and bring her along quicker. We open with Walkerville on Dec. 1, and I intend to dress Liz for that game and hopefully get her some playing time.

“She’ll be one that will be bouncing back and forth quite a bit. But, we’ve got a pretty good core back. They pretty much know our of-fenses and defenses, and all of our sets. That’s a plus right there.”

Keeping everyone healthy clearly will be a concern this season, but so will stay-ing out of foul trouble so all eight players who start the game are able to finish it.

Walker expects that to pres-ent problems at times.

Walker sees the league as being more balanced this year, with a couple of domi-nant teams, but some others who were down to start the season to be improved after strong finishes that they will carry over.

Big Rapids Crossroads Academy should be one of the main contenders again, but the Sabers coach antici-

pates Mason County Eastern being one of those teams that is a lot better this year, while Brethren has experience and size to give everyone fits in-side. Onekama graduated a number of players, but also returns some talent, while Bear Lake surprised everyone a year ago and has most of its team back. Pentwater was a young team that has some 3-point shooters.

“You’re going to have to be

on your ‘A’ game every sin-gle night,” Walker said. “Ev-erybody has improved a lot, and I hope we have, too. We didn’t have the kind of sum-mer program I’d hoped we’d have.

“The girls were involved this summer. A lot of them had jobs, and were busy. We didn’t make it to Hope this year for our team camp. We did do a camp at Ben-zie (Central) and a camp at

Manistee High, but that was about the extent of our play-ing this summer. It shows up right now. We’re going to be working on things right through Christmas break.

“If our girls will just com-pete night in and night out ... I tell them to play with a chip on their shoulder, play with an attitude, be competitive (and) play as hard as you can play, I’ll take the results and live with it.”

Manistee Catholic girls basketball

Sabers have wealth of experience

greg gIelCZyK | daiLy newSMembers of the Manistee Catholic girls basketball team are, front row, from left, Shelby Papes, Jodi Janowiak and Lauren Golem-biewski; standing, Mia Hogan, Meagan Sorenson, Paige Picardat, Molly McLinden and Meghan Miller.

Documents

Mason County Eastern, Pentwater and Manistee Catholic Winter Sports 2015-2016