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New beginnings: First day always brings forth changes, challenges

Dan Stickradt | August 12, 2011 | Comments (0)

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

There’s never been much change when it comes to soccer at Troy Athens. Since launching the program 30 years ago, Tim Storch was always the man in charge.

Storch retired from teaching and coaching at Athens at the end of June, leaving the door open for a “second coach in school history” to take the reigns.

That coach, Todd Heugh, began Wednesday with the traditional three-a-days at Athens. Heugh is a 1990 graduate of Athens with extensive high school and club coaching experience in the area.

“I’m glad the first day is over,” admitted Heugh, who won a state championship as a player at Athens in 1989 and as a coach at Rochester High in 2002. “I was so nervous and excited all at once.”

Fall sports at over 800 Michigan high schools began this week, including at 765 members of the Michigan High School Athletic Association. The weeks of summer leagues, camps and anticipation are over.

Athens had over 70 kids come out for the school’s three soccer teams. Athens, like many teams around the state, will venture out for scrimmages this weekend and will begin games late next week.

Heugh knows the drill. There’s a lot to accomplish in just a matter of days. He has lived it as both a player and coach.

“It’s weird. I am running kids out on the same track that I ran on over 20 years ago,” said Heugh, recollecting his senior season in the fall of 1989 under Storch. “I know what’s it’s like. I understand going through tryouts as a player, all of the running and hard work.”

Heugh and the Red Hawks were not the only ones in the www.northoaklandsports.com coverage area returning to the athletics surface this week.

ROCHESTER HILLS LUTHERAN NORTHWEST

Volleyball coaches have become like a revolving door at Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest. Heather Lower hopes to change that.

Formally Heather Daniel, the Lutheran Northwest alum and former player at Michigan State is in her third season with the Crusaders and is ready to get back into volleyball mode.

“It’s hard because I just got back from my honeymoon on Sunday,” she laughed. “I just have to get back into volleyball.”

Lower is trying establishing some consistency in her program. Northwest won a district in 2008 but had had five coaches in eight years.

“I think this is the first time that we had all of the coaches come back,” she added. “All of the JV and freshman coaches returned. It seems like we’ve had a lot of coaches here. I know when I played here we had a few head coaches.”

Northwest returns a bulk of its players and welcomes a deep talented freshman class of 19, pushing the total numbers over 40 trying out for the school’s three teams..

“We have some really good numbers,” added Lower. “It’ exciting when you get that many freshman. You’re hoping that some can turn out to be some really good players. But it’s a lot of kids to evaluate.”

PONTIAC NOTRE DAME PREP

Betty Wrubel has had good numbers over the years for her volleyball program at Pontiac Notre Dame Prep. But never quite like what showed up at Wednesday’s first tryouts session. There were 71 girls, including 40 eager freshmen hoping to land a spot on one of the three teams.

“I thought about adding another (freshman) team, but then we keep kids in the program that won’t make varsity in a couple of years. Perhaps it’s better to steer them to another sport,” pondered Wrubel. “Tryout week is the hardest for any coach. You don’t have much time to form your teams and get ready for the season. There are so many kids who have put a lot of time into it. There’s just not enough spots for everyone.”

Notre Dame Prep is a talented Class B school, having made some deep runs in the postseason in the past decade under Wrubel. This year the Irish will field another talented team, although young.

“We might be a younger team than we have been, but that goes back to all of the young players we have in the program,” said Wrubel. “There are some sophomores and freshmen that have a chance to make varsity.”

ROCHESTER ADAMS

At Rochester Adams, there’s rarely a down year when it comes to boys soccer. In fact, in 30 years since starting their program in 1981, the Highlanders have never dipped below five-hundred.

AlI of the Highlanders’ state tournament success has come since 1999. The Highlanders won their first district, regional and state titles that year, advanced to the state finals in 2001 and the Final Four in both 2004 and 2009.

“It all comes down to the kids. We end up with good kids, not just talent. We get quality kids that want to work hard,” said third-year coach Josh Hickey, who used to play at rival Troy Athens and won a USCAA national title at Rochester College in 2006. “They fight for the program, fight for each other. You can tell that they can appreciate tradition with the way they work. It’s great knowing that coming in that you have kids that care.”

This year there is no clear-cut favorite in the Oakland Activities Association Red Division. There is plenty of talent from top to bottom.

“It’s good,” admitted Hickey. “There will be a lot of good games.”

LAKE ORION BAPTIST

This is the 10^th year for tiny Lake Orion Baptist, nestled in the shadows of Lake Orion High School. As one of Oakland County’s smallest schools, the Lions still field varsity and junior high teams in six sports, including girls volleyball and boys soccer in the fall.

Anne McWethy is in her 10^th season as part of the volleyball coaching staff, sixth as head coach, ands she knows the battles of small-school athletics. There’s rarely a need to cut.

“We are so young,” she admitted. “You know who most of the kids are, but we’re not really big. And we’re young. We only graduated a couple of (players). We don’t have a lot of seniors again.”

The Lions compete in the Fundamental Baptist Athletic Conference Red Division, which consists of four other schools.

ROCHESTER STONEY CREEK

Rochester Stoney Creek soccer coach Adam Bican always likes to travel around the state in the early portion of the season, getting his players accustomed to different styles of play.

“I like going against the top teams, but I also like to see teams that we normally wouldn’t play,” said Bican, who is in his second season with the Cougars and four years at Clarkston. “That’s why we’re going to Hope College on Saturday to play some scrimmages. We also play in (weekend tournaments) at Petoskey and Portage this season. We’ll see some teams from all over. It’s cool to see teams play different styles. Around here it’s very high-skilled but also very physical. Kids need to learn how to play against all types of teams. It will get them ready for the state tournament because you never know for sure who you might play if you make a run in the postseason.”

Stoney Creek will scrimmage Hudsonville, Grand Haven and Holland this Saturday. They will play in the Portage Tournament against Portage Central, Battle Creek Lakeview and defending state champion East Kentwood in two weeks and also visit the Traverse City Invitational to face Petoskey, Traverse City West and Traverse City Central later this month.

The Cougars will be good at Michigan geography by the time September rolls around.

ROCHESTER

Numbers were down to under 50 soccer players at Rochester High Wednesday. The Falcons are normally a quality program and are just nine years removed from a state title.

“I don’t know what it is. I know we won’t be very deep,” said Chris Purgatori, head coach at Rochester and a former All-State goalkeeper with the Falcons. “We are way down in numbers.”

The Falcons reached the regional finals in 2007 but have not advanced past the district round the past three years, losing to Troy in the opening round last season, 2-0.

“We have some good players. We just won’t have very big teams,” added Purgatori. “We’re hoping that some more freshmen show up the next few days. Everyone else seems to have 70-80 kids trying out.”

Purgatori is also concerned about a possible new ruling coming from U.S. Soccer, the nation’s governing body for the sport, in 2012. U.S. Soccer wants its top-level academy players to only train with their clubs and not play high school soccer or any other sport.

“It’s a problem if you have academy kids and a lot of the OAA teams have some players that play with the Vardar and Wolves academy teams. These kids might have to make a choice next year,” said Purgatori. “We’ll see what happens.”

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Tags: Fall Prep Sports Week 1