Advertisement

Just the week before when I was trying to do a quick search of recent basketball coaches at Deckerville, I began to wonder how many varsity coaches there have been at all seven schools in Sanilac County in my long stay at the News.

I started counting just boys hoops head coaches, but then decided to look at the football positions and the girls basketball top jobs, all the way back to September of 1971. There were only a few varsity girls hoops programs in the early Ô70s, but then Title IX took over and programs evolved everywhere. What was surprising to me was the coaches I donÕt remember at all and a few that IÕve totally forgot were head coaches. Signs of my old age, maybe.

Most of the coaches in those three popular sports in my early days at the News have long hung up their clipboards. There are a couple of exceptions. Terry Reid at Marlette was the boys hoops coach from 1972-74 before taking that same position nearly 20 years later. In between that time, Terry found major success as the Lady Raiders basketball coach. He still assists in the varsity programs today. Reid also taught Roy ÒBubbaÓ Armstrong everything he knows about being a hoops manager.

Brown City had an early girls basketball program that was coached by Pat Grendon in the early 70s. You may know her now as Pat Bolda, the coach of the two-time Division 4 girls track champions at Ubly. I think Scott Long at Deckerville was so jealous of Pat that he resigned as the Eagles track coach recently. (Or, maybe that was not it).

Steve Keinath was just hired as the boys varsity basketball coach at Deckerville two weeks ago, making him the sixth coach in that position in the last 10 years. There have been 14 men in that position since the 1971-72 season. That just edges out CPS (or Carsonville before the consolidation) with 13. The Tigers had 14, too, if you count the co-coaching spot held by Ken Green and Fred Griebe in 1983-84. I believe I remember Ken telling they could have won a State title if he would have had two more 20- point-a -game perimeter scorers and a couple of 6Õ8Ó post players.

Tony Burton, still leading the way at Brown City, has the longest string of seasons as a varsity coach, all at one school, with 21, going back to 1986-87 (and I thought I was the only one to fool everyone for so long.) Actually, Cros-LexÕs current head mentor, Don Roberts has 21 seasons in , but the first two were at Peck (79-81), followed by a couple at Yale, and 10 at Cros-Lex before taking a hiatus that ended in 2000, which has taken him to this upcoming season this winter.

My old next door neighbor, John Guttowsky had several successful seasons at Sandusky, from 79-95 before coming back a couple years later to tick off his naysayers two more seasons. Gutt has moved on to coaching tennis and golf, where he hasnÕt even met a parent of a player in the last nine years.

At least a couple of hoops coaches had the shortest stints that I canÕt remember, literally. I donÕt think I would recognize Randy Swoverland (Deckerville (79-80) or Glenn Bengry (CPS, 88-89) today if they came back to blast me for the lack of coverage. HereÕs a quick quiz from Marlette basketball history. Rick Albro coached the boys hoops at MHS from 74-78 - where is he now? Answer, I just saw that he was hired as an assistant coach with the MSU womenÕs team.

Coaching girls how to play basketball must be easier. No pressure; well maybe no pressure when youÕre winning; well, maybe. But anyway, just take a look - Al DeMott at Sandusky with 27- 28 years, still counting, and just about to record his 500th win; Rich Lee at Brown City from 77-2002, and now at Capac, with well over 400 wins; Terry Reid at Marlette, with great success (76-97); John Presnell at Peck, Ô85-99, tons of wins and a State championship; Nort Schramm at Deckerville Ô78 to 92, another outstanding program; Cros-Lex had never had a season better than .500 until Darren Bongard took over in Ô94 and is still there, after producing the schoolÕs first championships. CPS went through eight coaching changes from its early days to the 1989 season when Brenda Humble took charge. She had the longest stay with the Tigers, lasting through the Ô95-96 campaign.

What basketball coach must have at least 40 seasons of coaching under his belt, still counting, but only eight years as a head coach in three different programs? Don Harbour coached a lot at Peck and even more at Cros-Lex, and is still Don RobertsÕ JV coach. He had one season as a boys coach at Cros-Lex (1986-87), three seasons as a girls coach at Cros-Lex, and four as a girls coach at Peck.

Football coaches get away with a lot. TheyÕre far enough away from the fans, plus there is noise from bands and cheerleaders going on. But, photographers and sports writers along the sidelines know whatÕs going on. Bill Brown! Why do keep saying those things about Brad Bays all the time?

To my best count there have been 65 varsity boys basketball coaches since my start in Ô71 and exactly the same amount for varsity football in the same period. IÕm not sure there is any correlation to draw up in those identical numbers. I do know which group drinks more beer after the games, though. But, IÕm not telling.

Football is a most popular high school sport. Fans, I think, are more avid about it and turn out in bigger numbers. But to say Sanilac County football teams have had tremendous success would be a stretch. I do think, year in and year out, there is a physical brand of football in the Thumb, though. Deckerville has had plenty of success in the long tenures of Bob Staskiewicz (77-86) and Bill Brown (Ô93 to present), including 11 league champions. Even in the six years between when Staskiewicz left and Brown was hired, the Eagles won three titles.

Cros-Lex went through eight coaches and different coaching schemes, mostly playing in the St. Clair Area League, before Joe Keglovitz took over in 1996 and eventually took the Pioneers to a couple of GTC East championships. Jason VanDerMaas led CL to a pair of BWAC co-championships the last two seasons before departing to coach at Flint Carman-Ainsworth.

Brown City has gone through the least amount of coaches in football, and basketball, than any other county school. There have only been five head coaches for BC football since 1971. Only four coaches have been on the sidelines in boys and girls hoops in the same time. Apparently, it is a pleasure to be in BC, a lot of perks.

Sandusky had the unusual situation of having co-head coaches for nine years with Al Squire and Fred Hicks from Ô81-89, and it worked pretty well. Maybe no coach IÕve known loved the game as much as Jim Waldo, who passed away just in the last couple of years. Football

is a physical game and he could get that out of his players despite being a gentleman and a gentle man. Coach Waldo, who was selected to the MHSFCA Hall of Fame several years back, coached at Deckerville before I was writing sports. He was at Marlette as a head coach in the early Ô70s and then resurfaced at Peck from 1980 through 1987.

As I was looking back at all of the people that have coached, I found that I forgot that Dennis Seifferlein was a head football coach at Carsonville in 1975. ÔSeifÕ has always been noted for his successful years as a baseball and golf coach at CPS.

There are tons of stories I can tell about all of the coaches in these three sports, and others, but there are some, too, I wonÕt tell. And some day, I will go back and research the coaches in all of the other sports - baseball, softball, golf (what all the smart people coach), track, volleyball, cross country, tennis (Howard LippengaÕs my hero; not really, I just wanted to say that), and all others. That, however, will probably be another summer day when I had absolutely nothing else to do. HereÕs a list of varsity football, boys basketball and girls basketball coaches in Sanilac County since 1971 compiled from the Sanilac County News archives:

Football

Brown City - Dick VanDrew (71-79); Jim Watkins (80-85); Jerry Steigerwald (86-95); Don Twiss (96-2001); Bob McClintic (2002-present); CPS (or Carsonville) - Randy Adams (71-72); Bob Fix (72-74); Dennis Seifferlein (75); Ken Sullins (76-80); Ron Huepenbecker (81-84); Daryl Walker (85); Scott Steele (86-97, no varsity team in Ô97); Eric Kovatch (98); Scott Steele (99-2001); Erick Burns (02-06); Eric Frank (07); Cros-Lex - Stu Parsell (71-73); Bob Ivan 74-75); no sports in Ô76; Ed Maloney (77-80); Harvey Veermeesch (81-84); John Zang (85); Fred Radske (86-87); Steve Motte (88-92); Ron Huepenbecker (93-95); Joe Keglovitz (96-2000); Sean Adams (01); Jason VanDerMaas (02-06); Pat Connell (07); Deckerville - Norm Jacobs (71-74); Barry Ziehm (75); Andy Ylisto (76); Bob Staskiewicz (77-86); Max Glupker (87-88); Nick Johnson (89-90); Dale Ladd (91-92); Bill Brown (93-present); Marlette - Jim Waldo (71-73); Bryon Ennis (74-77); Tom Burke (78-80); Bill Ullenbruch (81); Ken VanTrump (82-83); Tim Borsick (84-85); Terry Conard (86-90); Kevin Cowhy (91); David Quinn (92); Don Smeznik (93-95); Jeff Terpenning (96-99); Terry Conard (2000-01); Dennis Lester (02-present); Peck - Jim Rynbrandt (71-72); Harold Randolph (73-79); Jim Waldo (80-87); Winston McCanham (88-93); Willard Roles (94-2002); Tom Kreger (03-04); Rob Pouch (05-present); Sandusky - Larry Robinson (71-73); Don Tonelli (74-79); Keith Caurdy (80); Al Squire/Fred Hicks (81-89); Al Squire (90); Rick Tank (91-2002); Brad Bays (03-present);

Boys basketball

Brown City - (72-74); Jim Seidell (75-83); Jim Watkins (84-85); Tony Burton (86-present); CPS - Steve Basha (72-75); Keith Field (76); Daryl Walker (77-82); Fred Griebe/Ken Green (83); Andy Bujak (84-87); Glenn Bengry (88); Brian Jones (89); Bob Kress (90-93); Mick Benedict (94); Leon Westover (95-96); Roger Knight (97-2000); Bob Kolakovich (01-05); Jeremy Macejewski (06-present); Cros-Lex - Paul Jackson (71-73); Tony Monte 74-81); Don Harbour (82); Don Roberts (83-92); Wayne Hinton (93-98); Jim Marshall (99); Don Roberts (2000-present); Deckerville - Tony Monte (71-73); Larry Niederstadt (74); Dick Walker (75-78); Randy Swoverland (79); Tom Wolfe (80-81); Jerry Ernst (82); Steve Young (83-84); Warren Warczinsky (85-94); Jeff Long (95-98); Bill Thayer (99- 2000); Leon Westover (01-02); Keith Loss (03-05); Dave Bitzer (06); Steve Keinath (07); Marlette - Terry Reid (72-73); Rick Albro (74-77); Fred Mroczek (78-80); Bill Ullenbruch (81-83); Fred Mroczek (83 interim-87); Sandy Rutledge (88); Bill Jones (89-91); Terry Reid (92-2000); Darrin Weber (01-05); Chris Storm (06-present);

Peck - Gene Pearson (71-78); Don Roberts (79-80); Chuck Hutson (81-84); Wayne Smith (85-86); Shawn Amesbury (87-88); Dale Moore (89-91); Willard Roles (92-93); Tom Kreger (94-95); John Presnell (96-98); Mike McLaughlin (99- 2006); Garnett Kohler (07); Sandusky - Dick Huntington (71-73); Larry Pete (74- 75); Phil LaGore (76-77); Larry Pete (78); John Guttowsky (79-95); Dan Guibord (96-97); John Guttowsky (98-99); Jim Marshall (2000-02); Kurt Long (03-present);

Girls basketball

Brown City - Pat Grendon (72-76); Rich Lee (77-2001); Mike Banyas (02-05); Cindy Burton (06-present); CPS - M. A. Magri (72-74); M. A. Magri/Keith Field (75-76); Ann Jagotka (77); Ann Binienda (78); Paula Cole (79-80); Ruth Pries (81- 85); Ann Binienda (88); Brenda Humble (89-95); Craig Thurston (96-2001); Dennis Taylor (02-03); Todd Christy (04-present); Cros-Lex - Sue Trepod (75-78); Chuck Hutson (79-80); Randy Simmons (81-85); Don Harbour (86-88); Todd

Diedrichsen (89-92); Fred Shaw Jr. (93); Darren Bongard (94-present); Deckerville - Cathy Champion (75-77); Norton Schramm (78-91); Laurie Roberts (92-94); Karl Buhl (95-97); Jeff Long (98); Christi (Ferguson) Pavlovics (99-2003); Pat Oswald (04-present); Marlette - Coach Riedel (75); Terry Reid (76-96); Janet Gleason (97); Fred Mroczek (98-present); Peck - Cathy Baughman (75); Loren VanPort- Fleet (76-78); Don Harbour (79Ñ82); Dave Seddon (83-84); John Presnell (85-98); Paul Cowley (99-2001); Luke Engler (02); Willard Roles (03-04); Carrie Robinet (05-present); Sandusky - Kathy Murphy (72-75); Phyllis Reinelt (76-77); Darryl Blank (78); Al DeMott (79-present).