Zeeland West senior defensive end Ethan Malec (55) celebrates his fumble recovery during the first quarter of last Friday’s Bird Bowl against Zeeland East.
Photo courtesy Angela Howe Creations
By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
A couple of big plays by the Zeeland West defense set the table, and the offense took it from there last Friday as the Dux routed Zeeland East 48-14 in the 28th Bird Bowl matchup between the two schools at Zeeland Stadium.
The win was the 11th straight for West in the rivalry. The Dux are now 21-7 all-time against the Chix. The 34-point margin was the largest margin of victory in the series since West blanked East 46-0 in a 2012 playoff game.
West improved to 5-1 on the season, 2-1 in the O-K Gold Conference heading into a huge showdown Friday night against Unity Christian at Jenison High School. East dropped to 0-3 in the conference and 3-3 overall.
East took the opening kickoff and moved into West territory. However, a fumble on fourth down was recovered by Dux senior Ethan Malec at the West 48-yard-line.
West then drove 52 yards in five plays – all run out of a single-wing formation instead of the Dux typical T-formation set – for the first points of the game. Senior Brandon Holman finished the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run, then ran in the two-point conversion.
Then on East’s next possession, West senior lineman Luke Walters sacked Chix quarterback Will Drnek for a 9-yard loss on fourth down to give the Dux the ball in East territory. That led to a 48-yard, five-play drive. Holman once again found the end zone on a 4-yard run, and West led 16-0 after one quarter.
The Dux added to their lead in the second quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run by Cam Brouwer and a 22-yard TD dash by Niko Moungkhoun, as the lead grew to 32-0 at halftime.
“I thought our guys came out ready to play. I’m really proud of how they played,” West coach Jeff Bolhouse said. “Last week against South (Christian), we really struggled in the first half and didn’t play with as much energy as we needed to. We worked on putting together 48 minutes of football (in practice all week), and I thought we did that tonight. We had a really good first half. We came out and started out fast.”
In the third quarter, junior Kenny Howe III raced 30 yards for a touchdown and senior Kye Chayer scored on a 3-yard run to make it 48-0 in favor of West. The running clock was in effect for nearly the entire second half.
East got on the board early in the fourth quarter when senior Isaiah Boonstra ran four yards for a touchdown. Chix sophomore Micah Jones closed out the scoring on a 16-yard touchdown run with a little more than three minutes remaining.
West outgained East 394-172 in the contest, including 347 yards rushing. Holman led the Dux ground attack with 126 yards on 15 carries, while Howe added 115 yards on just seven carries. Brouwer chipped in 43 yards on seven carries. Payton Sackett led East with 64 yards on 12 carries, while Boonstra caught four passes for 39 yards.
East hosts Wyoming Friday night for its homecoming game at Zeeland Stadium, with kickoff at 7 p.m.
By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
A couple of big plays by the Zeeland West defense set the table, and the offense took it from there last Friday as the Dux routed Zeeland East 48-14 in the 28th Bird Bowl matchup between the two schools at Zeeland Stadium.
The win was the 11th straight for West in the rivalry. The Dux are now 21-7 all-time against the Chix. The 34-point margin was the largest margin of victory in the series since West blanked East 46-0 in a 2012 playoff game.
West improved to 5-1 on the season, 2-1 in the O-K Gold Conference heading into a huge showdown Friday night against Unity Christian at Jenison High School. East dropped to 0-3 in the conference and 3-3 overall.
East took the opening kickoff and moved into West territory. However, a fumble on fourth down was recovered by Dux senior Ethan Malec at the West 48-yard-line.
West then drove 52 yards in five plays – all run out of a single-wing formation instead of the Dux typical T-formation set – for the first points of the game. Senior Brandon Holman finished the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run, then ran in the two-point conversion.
Then on East’s next possession, West senior lineman Luke Walters sacked Chix quarterback Will Drnek for a 9-yard loss on fourth down to give the Dux the ball in East territory. That led to a 48-yard, five-play drive. Holman once again found the end zone on a 4-yard run, and West led 16-0 after one quarter.
The Dux added to their lead in the second quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run by Cam Brouwer and a 22-yard TD dash by Niko Moungkhoun, as the lead grew to 32-0 at halftime.
“I thought our guys came out ready to play. I’m really proud of how they played,” West coach Jeff Bolhouse said. “Last week against South (Christian), we really struggled in the first half and didn’t play with as much energy as we needed to. We worked on putting together 48 minutes of football (in practice all week), and I thought we did that tonight. We had a really good first half. We came out and started out fast.”
In the third quarter, junior Kenny Howe III raced 30 yards for a touchdown and senior Kye Chayer scored on a 3-yard run to make it 48-0 in favor of West. The running clock was in effect for nearly the entire second half.
East got on the board early in the fourth quarter when senior Isaiah Boonstra ran four yards for a touchdown. Chix sophomore Micah Jones closed out the scoring on a 16-yard touchdown run with a little more than three minutes remaining.
West outgained East 394-172 in the contest, including 347 yards rushing. Holman led the Dux ground attack with 126 yards on 15 carries, while Howe added 115 yards on just seven carries. Brouwer chipped in 43 yards on seven carries. Payton Sackett led East with 64 yards on 12 carries, while Boonstra caught four passes for 39 yards.
East hosts Wyoming Friday night for its homecoming game at Zeeland Stadium, with kickoff at 7 p.m.
Zeeland Water Polo Reaches No. 1 Ranking in State
Zeeland water polo senior Andrew Skaggs (13) looks to get off a shot against a West Ottawa opponent during their Sept. 30 contest.
Photo courtesy Jennifer Posthumus
By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
The Zeeland High boys water polo team is enjoying an outstanding season this fall, as it has been at or near the top of the weekly poll from the Michigan Water Polo Association.
Zeeland regained the No. 1 spot in the state last week after pulling out two hard-fought one-goal victories against state-ranked foes, edging No. 2-ranked Rockford 6-5 and third-ranked East Grand Rapids 7-6.
Zeeland improved to 17-6 on the season Sept. 30 by blowing out West Ottawa 24-3 in a district-opening contest. The team jumped out to a 5-0 lead after one quarter, then added six goals in the second quarter and eight in the third as the Panthers had no answers for Zeeland’s relentless attack.
“We got a lot of good ball movement. The majority of our goals were assisted, which always makes me happy as a coach,” coach Zac Geschwendt said.
“Somebody put in the work somewhere else in the pool, and their teammate finds them. When it looks easy, it isn’t, but sometimes it looks that way.”
The 12-member varsity team all consists of athletes who swim during the winter for Zeeland – seven seniors and five juniors. Just about everyone got into the scoring act in the win against West Ottawa.
Geschwendt says a big key to the team’s success has been its resilience. They have 2-2 records against three teams that are expected to battle with Zeeland for the state title – Rockford, EGR and Ann Arbor Pioneer.
“We’re pretty battled-tested at this point of the season. I think we’ve gained a lot of confidence from that,” Geschwendt said.
Team members are seniors Andrew Pyle, Gibson Meyering, Hudson Kosten, Dylan Streeter, Andrew Skaggs, Branton Posthumus and Carson Durham; and juniors Isaac DeVisser, Lyam Vanderwood, Brady Vroegindewey, Gannon Merrill and Duncan Stack. Geschwendt is assisted by Nate VanDyken and Eric Posthumus.
The ultimate goal for the team is the state championships, which Zeeland will host Nov. 14-15.
Zeeland Record
The Zeeland High boys water polo team is enjoying an outstanding season this fall, as it has been at or near the top of the weekly poll from the Michigan Water Polo Association.
Zeeland regained the No. 1 spot in the state last week after pulling out two hard-fought one-goal victories against state-ranked foes, edging No. 2-ranked Rockford 6-5 and third-ranked East Grand Rapids 7-6.
Zeeland improved to 17-6 on the season Sept. 30 by blowing out West Ottawa 24-3 in a district-opening contest. The team jumped out to a 5-0 lead after one quarter, then added six goals in the second quarter and eight in the third as the Panthers had no answers for Zeeland’s relentless attack.
“We got a lot of good ball movement. The majority of our goals were assisted, which always makes me happy as a coach,” coach Zac Geschwendt said.
“Somebody put in the work somewhere else in the pool, and their teammate finds them. When it looks easy, it isn’t, but sometimes it looks that way.”
The 12-member varsity team all consists of athletes who swim during the winter for Zeeland – seven seniors and five juniors. Just about everyone got into the scoring act in the win against West Ottawa.
Geschwendt says a big key to the team’s success has been its resilience. They have 2-2 records against three teams that are expected to battle with Zeeland for the state title – Rockford, EGR and Ann Arbor Pioneer.
“We’re pretty battled-tested at this point of the season. I think we’ve gained a lot of confidence from that,” Geschwendt said.
Team members are seniors Andrew Pyle, Gibson Meyering, Hudson Kosten, Dylan Streeter, Andrew Skaggs, Branton Posthumus and Carson Durham; and juniors Isaac DeVisser, Lyam Vanderwood, Brady Vroegindewey, Gannon Merrill and Duncan Stack. Geschwendt is assisted by Nate VanDyken and Eric Posthumus.
The ultimate goal for the team is the state championships, which Zeeland will host Nov. 14-15.
On the Record
Smith, Raab Set School Records at Otsego CC Meet
Zeeland West sophomore Tanner Smith and Zeeland East junior Adalyn Raab set school records last Saturday in Otsego at the 25th annual Bulldog Invitational cross country meet.
Smith broke the West boys record for the fastest time ever in a 5-kilometer race by nearly 15 seconds as he finished fourth in 15 minutes, 21.8 seconds. Smith broke the previous record of 15:36.7 that had been set by Ethan Senti in 2019 at the Portage Invite.
Meanwhile, Raab broke her own East girls record again, this time by more than 24 seconds in 17:04, the fourth-fastest time in the state this year. She had set the record of 17:28.30 the previous weekend at the Ottawa Hills Invitational.
West finished eighth in the boys meet with a team score of 221 while East was 18th with 449 points. In the girls meet, East finished eighth (210) while West took ninth (229).
Only two other Zeeland runners finished in the top 50 at the boys meet – West sophomore Bryson Hassevoort, who finished 15th in 15:50, and East senior Nate Davis, who placed 32nd in 16:14.6.
In the girls meet, West sophomore Tessa Albrecht finished 21st (18:49.2), East junior Alivia Schnakenberg came in 25th (19:04.6), East freshman Charlie Vonk took 31st (19:10.1), and West freshman Ava Hoffer finished 38th (19:26.7).
Dux Unleash Scoring Barrage Against Hamilton
The Zeeland West varsity boys soccer team exploded for six goals in the second half last Thursday as the Dux routed Hamilton 8-1 to go over the .500 mark on the season.
West more than doubled its previous season high for goals in the win, improving to 5-4-1 in the O-K Black Conference and 6-5-2 overall.
The Dux opened the scoring when Kiah Hoffer took a pass from the outside and calmly placed to the left of a diving Hamilton goalkeeper. Owen Frego added a goal when ticked in a shot after the ball squirted in behind the defense. Hamilton got one back before halftime to cut the West lead to 2-1.
In the second half, Gabe Lichtenwalner made a run into the box, received the ball off of his thigh and laid a left-footed shot off of the far post for a 3-1 lead. Then Frego scored three times, twice off set pieces, and West added tallies from Garrett Kapenga and Mo Alichar to finish out the scoring.
East 3rd, West 4th at Conference Boys Tennis Meet
Zeeland East finished third while Zeeland West took fourth at last Friday’s O-K Black Conference boys tennis championships at the Janssen Tennis Courts.
Holland Christian won the tournament to claim the overall league championship, while Unity Christian came in second.
East was led by the first doubles team of Jacob Guerriero and Luke Hathaway, who won a three-set thriller from Unity Christian (6-0, 6-7, 7-6) in the semifinals to reach the flight championship before falling to Holland Christian.
East’s Andrew Colasanti finished third at No. 3 singles, while West’s Levi Kaynor defeated East’s Oliver Reese in the third-place match at No. 4 singles, 7-6, 6-1.
East’s No. 3 doubles tandem of Lukas Hafeman and Pierson Kolean defeated West’s Grady Fraza and Bryce Lucas in the third-place match, 6-2, 6-0.
Also claiming third place in their respective flights were East’s Jace Velderman and Payton Ott (No. 2 doubles), and Ben Slotman and Max Lewis (No. 4 doubles).
Zeeland West sophomore Tanner Smith and Zeeland East junior Adalyn Raab set school records last Saturday in Otsego at the 25th annual Bulldog Invitational cross country meet.
Smith broke the West boys record for the fastest time ever in a 5-kilometer race by nearly 15 seconds as he finished fourth in 15 minutes, 21.8 seconds. Smith broke the previous record of 15:36.7 that had been set by Ethan Senti in 2019 at the Portage Invite.
Meanwhile, Raab broke her own East girls record again, this time by more than 24 seconds in 17:04, the fourth-fastest time in the state this year. She had set the record of 17:28.30 the previous weekend at the Ottawa Hills Invitational.
West finished eighth in the boys meet with a team score of 221 while East was 18th with 449 points. In the girls meet, East finished eighth (210) while West took ninth (229).
Only two other Zeeland runners finished in the top 50 at the boys meet – West sophomore Bryson Hassevoort, who finished 15th in 15:50, and East senior Nate Davis, who placed 32nd in 16:14.6.
In the girls meet, West sophomore Tessa Albrecht finished 21st (18:49.2), East junior Alivia Schnakenberg came in 25th (19:04.6), East freshman Charlie Vonk took 31st (19:10.1), and West freshman Ava Hoffer finished 38th (19:26.7).
Dux Unleash Scoring Barrage Against Hamilton
The Zeeland West varsity boys soccer team exploded for six goals in the second half last Thursday as the Dux routed Hamilton 8-1 to go over the .500 mark on the season.
West more than doubled its previous season high for goals in the win, improving to 5-4-1 in the O-K Black Conference and 6-5-2 overall.
The Dux opened the scoring when Kiah Hoffer took a pass from the outside and calmly placed to the left of a diving Hamilton goalkeeper. Owen Frego added a goal when ticked in a shot after the ball squirted in behind the defense. Hamilton got one back before halftime to cut the West lead to 2-1.
In the second half, Gabe Lichtenwalner made a run into the box, received the ball off of his thigh and laid a left-footed shot off of the far post for a 3-1 lead. Then Frego scored three times, twice off set pieces, and West added tallies from Garrett Kapenga and Mo Alichar to finish out the scoring.
East 3rd, West 4th at Conference Boys Tennis Meet
Zeeland East finished third while Zeeland West took fourth at last Friday’s O-K Black Conference boys tennis championships at the Janssen Tennis Courts.
Holland Christian won the tournament to claim the overall league championship, while Unity Christian came in second.
East was led by the first doubles team of Jacob Guerriero and Luke Hathaway, who won a three-set thriller from Unity Christian (6-0, 6-7, 7-6) in the semifinals to reach the flight championship before falling to Holland Christian.
East’s Andrew Colasanti finished third at No. 3 singles, while West’s Levi Kaynor defeated East’s Oliver Reese in the third-place match at No. 4 singles, 7-6, 6-1.
East’s No. 3 doubles tandem of Lukas Hafeman and Pierson Kolean defeated West’s Grady Fraza and Bryce Lucas in the third-place match, 6-2, 6-0.
Also claiming third place in their respective flights were East’s Jace Velderman and Payton Ott (No. 2 doubles), and Ben Slotman and Max Lewis (No. 4 doubles).
Pink Power: Chix Sweep Dux in Rivalry Match
By Esbehidy Hernandez
Zeeland Record
On Sept. 29, the Zeeland East Chix swept the Zeeland West Dux 3-0 at the Pink-Out event, uniting the ZPS community in support of cancer awareness and the Shoreline Family Cancer Center.
East led 20-18 in the first set when a serious injury halted the game. It was a crucial moment for the Chix to show their resilience and unity as a team.
Coach Jake Szetela said the team’s preparation helped players step up when they were needed. Madison Bailey was a key player who stepped up during “a pretty scary situation” and handled one of the toughest parts of the defense.
East quickly regrouped and won the opening set 26-24 after being tied 24-24.
East maintained control in sets two and three, showing resilience and finishing the match with the sweep over its longtime rivals, 25-18 in the second and 25-8 in the third.
With every player bringing a different kind of talent to the court, a few others stood out under the Coop lights. Szetela said Elise Hoeksema had a dominant second set and is evolving every week, while Kyla Kuiper brought momentum and tempo, setting up hitters at the net for success.
“Our big thing is, like, preparing everybody. We don't have starters and bench. Everybody is a player that we are putting on the court,” Szetela said.
The Shoreline Family Cancer Center partnered with the Zeeland Community Pink-Out event to bring both Zeeland programs together around cancer awareness.
Szetela said seeing his players attend middle school games in support of younger players is what makes him most proud.
“Obviously, whether you're Chix or Dux, it's important for us to give back to our community, to the kids on both sides of the school,” Szetela said. “We spend all our time during practices and games talking about doing things that are bigger than volleyball; honestly, that's the most important thing that we do.”
The night was more than just a 3-0 result. It was a night of empowerment, bringing the East and West communities together to support cancer awareness, athletes supporting younger athletes and women supporting women.
“They just want a coach that believes in them, that trusts them, and we work really hard to develop that trust with them.”
The Chix continued into the rest of the week, sweeping Holland High School 3-0 last Thursday before heading to the Portage Central Invitational. The Dux fell to Unity Christian in four sets last Thursday.
East had a 2-2 record at the Portage Central Invitational last Saturday, defeating Kalamazoo Christian and Livonia Stevenson before losing to host Portage Central and Edwardsburg.
Zeeland Record
On Sept. 29, the Zeeland East Chix swept the Zeeland West Dux 3-0 at the Pink-Out event, uniting the ZPS community in support of cancer awareness and the Shoreline Family Cancer Center.
East led 20-18 in the first set when a serious injury halted the game. It was a crucial moment for the Chix to show their resilience and unity as a team.
Coach Jake Szetela said the team’s preparation helped players step up when they were needed. Madison Bailey was a key player who stepped up during “a pretty scary situation” and handled one of the toughest parts of the defense.
East quickly regrouped and won the opening set 26-24 after being tied 24-24.
East maintained control in sets two and three, showing resilience and finishing the match with the sweep over its longtime rivals, 25-18 in the second and 25-8 in the third.
With every player bringing a different kind of talent to the court, a few others stood out under the Coop lights. Szetela said Elise Hoeksema had a dominant second set and is evolving every week, while Kyla Kuiper brought momentum and tempo, setting up hitters at the net for success.
“Our big thing is, like, preparing everybody. We don't have starters and bench. Everybody is a player that we are putting on the court,” Szetela said.
The Shoreline Family Cancer Center partnered with the Zeeland Community Pink-Out event to bring both Zeeland programs together around cancer awareness.
Szetela said seeing his players attend middle school games in support of younger players is what makes him most proud.
“Obviously, whether you're Chix or Dux, it's important for us to give back to our community, to the kids on both sides of the school,” Szetela said. “We spend all our time during practices and games talking about doing things that are bigger than volleyball; honestly, that's the most important thing that we do.”
The night was more than just a 3-0 result. It was a night of empowerment, bringing the East and West communities together to support cancer awareness, athletes supporting younger athletes and women supporting women.
“They just want a coach that believes in them, that trusts them, and we work really hard to develop that trust with them.”
The Chix continued into the rest of the week, sweeping Holland High School 3-0 last Thursday before heading to the Portage Central Invitational. The Dux fell to Unity Christian in four sets last Thursday.
East had a 2-2 record at the Portage Central Invitational last Saturday, defeating Kalamazoo Christian and Livonia Stevenson before losing to host Portage Central and Edwardsburg.
