The Sun and News, Saturday, March 11, 2023/ Page 13Caledonia girls middle of pack at D1 State Finals
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The 2022-23 varsity girls’
bowling season concluded for
Caledonia juniors Kala
Bisterfeldt and Emma
Whitman at the MHSAA
Division 1 Girls Bowling
Singles Finals at ThunderBowl
Lanes in Allen Park.
Bisterfeldt placed 33rd and
Whitman 42nd in the qualify-
ing round at the state finals.
The top 16 girls in the six-game
qualifying series advance to the
match play bracket.
Bisterfeldt had an overall
pinfall of 1,052, which was
70- pins behind the last of thematch play qualifiers. She
rolled high games of 200, 193
and 191 among her six.
Whitman tallied an overall
score of 1,001. She had high
games of 188, 186 and 174.
Clarkston sophomore Katie
Stephens was third in qualify-
ing with an overall pinfall of
1,199 which included a 266
which was the highest single
game from any of the 60 girls.
She went on to win the state
championship by outscoring
Flushing junior Hannah Reid
411-307 in the championship
of the match play bracket.
Stephens put together games
of 187 and 224 to clinch thetitle.
New Baltimore Anchor
Bay senior Melanie Straub
had the top qualifying score of
the day with a six-game total
of 1,272. Traverse City West
junior Jordan Lafleur was sec-
ond at 1,218.
Reid bested Straub in the
round of 16 to open match
play.
Waterford Mott junior
Brendan Riley won the boys’
singles title in D1 Saturday.
He had games of 175 and 202
to top Mattawan senior Charlie
Johnson’s games of 152 and
211 in the finals.
Wayne Memorial won theMHSAA D1 Boys’ Bowling
Team Finals Friday at
ThunderBowl. The Wayne
Memorial team had Baker
games of 224 and 170 in the
finals against Brownstown
Woodhaven and then tallied a
score of 937 in the regular game
to close with a total of 1,331.
Brownstown Woodhaven fin-
ished at 1,244 total.
Teams rolled eight Baker
games and two regular games
in the qualifying Friday to get
into the 8-team match play
bracket.
Jenison, out of the OK Red,
was second in the boys quali-
fying rounds but fell toBrownstown Woodhaven in
the semifinals.
Holt took the girls’ team
state championship in Division
1, outscoring Traverse City
West 1,197-1,078 in the finals.Zeeland was tops in the
girls’ qualifying rounds and
Grandville third. The
Grandville girls had their tour-
nament run in a semifinal loss
to Traverse City West.New TK boys’ volleyball club plans March 21 PowderPuff game
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Practice begins March- The brand new
Thornapple Kellogg Hgh
School boys’ volleyball
team will play its first
Grand Rapids South
Conference matches April
High school boys’ volley-
ball continues to spread around
the state. Trojan head coach
Carla VanHaitsma said that
this spring there are expecta-
tions for 58 high schools to
host boys’ club teams.
Caledonia played its first sea-
son in the GR South
Conference a year ago, and
conference member
Hudsonville won the 2022
boys’ state championship.
The sport started in
Michigan with four schools in
“It has just grown tremen-
dously since then,”
VanHaitsma said.
The Trojans will introduce
their sport to the community
Tuesday, March 21, hosting a
Powder Puff Volleyball game
at Thornapple Kellogg High
School. Guys that plan to be a
part of the upcoming boys’
season will be taking on mem-
bers of the TKHS girls’ vol-
leyball program beginning at 7
p.m.
VanHaitsma said she
hopes it will be competitive.
High school varsity girls’
teams play on a net that is 7
feet 4 inches high. The high
school boys play on an 8-foot
net. The plan for the
PowderPuff game is to use
the boys’ height. That’ll give
the boys something of an
advantage at the net, and
they might need every advan-
tage they can get. The girls
have had years to build uptheir passing and serving
skills.
The entry cost for specta-
tors is $5, but the fundraising
event is more about introduc-
ing everyone to the sport than
helping the club cover expens-
es.
“I want people to come and
see this and see the guys can
play volleyball too,”
VanHaitsma said.
She especially hopes some
younger boys, like fourth and
fifth graders from across the
parking lot at Page Elementary,
will get the chance to experi-
ence the sport at the event and
want to get involved.
“I have a strong group of
about 7 or 8 guys who have
come consistently to the prac-
tices, so I think we can hold
our own [against the girls],”
coach VanHaitsma said. “I do
have some new guys.”
She said she has a dozenor more guys committed to
playing already, including
her son Kyle VanHaitsma, a
junior who just finished up
the varsity boys’ basketball
season at TK. She expects
him to be one of her setters.
He has a bit of volleyball
passing experience due to his
years in the gym as a young-
ster with his mother while
she coached eighth grade
girls at TK.
Coach VanHaitsma has
been hosting open gyms for
the guys since October.
While there are a couple
AAU club teams in the area
for boys, like Impact out of
Grandville, coach VanHaitsma
doesn’t expect to have any
guys with club experience on
her school team this spring.
Colleges across the country
have club and varsity teams as
well.
It’ll take some work for anyof the TK guys to be ready for
a college scholarship.
“The first thing is to make
sure to know that they can not
touch the net, if they’re up
there hitting and blocking. We
don’t want them to fall into the
net, we don’t want them to go
under the net and twist an
ankle or hit somebody on the
other side,” coach VanHaitsma
said.
It’s also a point for the other
team when a player touches
the net.
Beyond safety at the net,
coach VanHaitsma said the
first thing she works on with
new players are the techniques
of passing – but that’s not real-
ly the most important thing.
“Really it’s about trying to
have them have fun playing
volleyball. They’ll pick up the
technique stuff along the
way,” she said.
At the March 21 event,there will be the opportunity
to purchase raffle tickets to
win items donated by local
businesses. There are also
plans for a “Serve for Pizza”
game between he first and
second set, where contestants
will get to pay $1 for a
chance to win pizza by serv-
ing across the net into a pizza
box.
Once the season gets
underway, the Trojans will
face off against East Grand
Rapids, South Christian,
Caledonia, Grand Rapids
Christian, East Kentwood
and Forest Hills Eastern on
a regular basis in the GR
South Conference. The plan
is for Tuesday evening con-
ference jamborees through-
out the season at a single
location. The volunteer
coaching staff will work to
find some non-conference
competitions as well.from TK that I know were
heavy hitters. I remember my
classmates and I remember
the girls after me. I am proud
we stayed where we have
been historically in the pro-
gram.”
The TK girls opened the
met with a score of 228.70,
and passed Mason and Forest
Hills Northern in the standings
with their score of 220.18 in
round two.
The Trojans closed the
night with a score of 313.40 in
round three that pushed them
past South Lyon East.
“I think our round three was
honestly probably one of the
best round threes we have ever
done,” Hall said. “Just feeling
that stick of every single stunt
hit in the air and not even
move a single bit and then
doing the flip and the twist
cradles catch and not moving
is actually probably one of the
best feelings a cheerleader can
have.”
Junior Ava Jahnke was a
flyer above one of the three
Trojan stunt groups in round
three, and the only returning
flyer for the Trojan team this
season.
“It was a dream come true
really,” Jahnke said of her
team reaching the finals.
“[We’ve wanted this] a very
long time. We were set on it
last year and we made it come
true this year.”
Nichols is excited to have a
roster next year that will be
filled with girls who know
what kind of dreams they can
make come true.“Now, they know what it
feels like,” Nichols said. “That
is what I have been trying to
get them to understand all year
long. They will never truly
understand it until they do it.
Now they know what to expect
next time and what the feeling
is like. Now they know the
venue. This is a new venue foreverybody. All it does is give
them more ammunition in the
future.”
The Trojans previously
qualified for the state finals in
2012, 2014 and 2015. They
won their second district
championship and ninth con-
ference championship this
season.CHEER, continued from previous page
Thornapple Kellogg freshman flyer Mia Hilton
spins high above her stunt group inside McGuirk
Arena on the campus of Central Michigan University
in Mt. Pleasant during the MHSAA Division 2
Competitive Cheer Finals Friday, March 3. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)Thornapple Kellogg seniors Lydia Berg (from left), Presley Hall and Monica
Serrano Aguilar lead their team onto the mat for introductions at the MHSAA
Division 2 Competitive Cheer Finals inside McGuirk Arena on the campus of
Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant Friday, March 3. (Photo by Brett
Bremer)