Marlette Winter Sports Preview

Marlette Varsity Boys Basketball

Coach’s Name/Years Coaching: Tristin Pennington (12th year overall/ 2nd at Marlette)
Coach’s Record: 102-138 overall/ 8-15 at Marlette
Coaching Staff/Assistant Coaches: David Bliss, Denny Lester, Neal Bishop and Troy Macumber
Team’s record and finish last season: 8-15, 6th in GTE
Key returners with comments/last season’s honors/grade:
Quintin Sartin- Senior: Q was a key piece to our success a season ago and I expect that he has a huge leap in his output this year.
Tyler Izydorek- Senior: Tyler was a great role player last year and one of the best perimeter defenders in the area. I expect him to increase his output offensively and be more tenacious on the defensive end
Julius Johnson- Sophomore: Julius is the strongest kid in the program and I expect him to contribute greatly as a full time varsity player this season. I expect big things from him in the post
Trey Lester- Sophomore: Trey was the starting point guard as a freshman last year, I expect his role to expand and his maturity to show this season.
Key losses to graduation: Brandon Anderson
Top new prospects, grade and position:
Luke Thomas, Sophomore Guard
Login Smith, Sophomore Forward
Elijah Sartin, Junior Forward
Player to watch with comment:
Aaron Bower- Aaron has had to deal with some injury issues from football but he is ready to go for the basketball season, I anticipate that as the season rolls on that he gets better each week.
Team captains:
Team strengths: Our defensive tenacity is our staple. Our size is also a strength. The most important quality of this team is their competitiveness. They are going to work hard day in and day out.
Team goals: Compete for a league and district title. Improve each week so we are peaking at the right time
Comments on your league/conference: Similar to football I believe the league is very competitive. Harbor Beach and Ubly are the favorites but I expect Sandusky, Brown City and Capac to also compete for the league lead. Harbor Beach will be deep and athletic. Ubly will have two of the best players on the floor every night with Franzel and Peruski. Sandusky has a solid group of Seniors wanting to prove themselves. Brown City lost a bunch from last year’s undefeated team but are well coached and have returners that contributed vital minutes to their success last year. Capac returns a majority of their team and will be a year stronger. Memphis is rebuilding with the loss of many of their starters last season, they are the team that is less known in the early season.
Season expectations: I expect a roller coaster of a year. Highs and lows will exist and we have to fight adversity together. With 4 sophomores getting significant minutes we will have growth and a lot of learning opportunities every night. The expectation is that we compete each night and improve as the season moves forward.

Marlette Jr. Varsity Basketball

Marlette Varsity Girls Basketball

Head Coach: Cathy Storm 15 years
Key Losses: Hollie Hartwell and Ciatilyn Keys
Key returners: Gabby Martinez Olivia Findlay Dalaney Gage Adilyn Ruggles Emily Newland Lily Lemanski Hayley Hazen
Key newcomers Alexandra Findlay
Players to watch Gabby Martinez Olivia Findlay Dalaney Gage Adilyn Ruggles
Quote about the upcoming season (the team, conference, etc.) This team has a nice group of
returning players who are very competitive. We hope to be competitive every game and improve as the season progresses. As usual our league will be strong and we will need to come ready to play every night
Asst Coaches: Chris Storm Jessica Kursinsky
Strengths: Experience and competitiveness
Goals: Be competitive throughout the season and continue to improve Marlette Girls Basketball.

Marlette Jr. Varsity Girls Basketball

Marlette Varsity Wrestling Team

Head Coach: Tracy Bennett
Key returning athletes:
Turlough Bennett (11th), Two time league champion, district, regional champion. Two time state qualifier.
Brooke Reber (11th), Girls Regional Qualifier
Comments on returning players:
Westley Chapin (11th), 175 pound class. Westley is really coming into his own this season. He is getting stronger and more intense daily. He’s really tapping into technique and executing moves with power and dominance.
John Machia (12th), 285 pound class. John is becoming more offensive in his wrestling and starting to attach first. A great skill to have as a heavyweight.
Key losses to graduation:
Manus Bennett 3x state champion, 3x Regional Champion, 2x District champion, 4x League champion, 3x League MVP (Rich Reed award recipient). Losing Manus will be hard to overcome. He is a one of a kind athlete and made himself known in and outside the league as the wrestler to watch. But, the other wrestlers have stepped up in a big way by recruiting new wrestlers this season.
New athletes to the team: Walker Chapin (9th), 132 pound class, Lucas Hascall (9th), 157 pound class, Anthony Rosario (11th), 150 pound class, Tyler Ramirez (11th), 215 pound class, Cole Paque (12th), 285 pound class.
Comments about your team’s strengths/weaknesses and any goals for the season:
Strengths; Grit, Guts and Family. Wrestlers are a different breed of athlete. They have to dig in to survive for three 2 minute periods. No time outs, no teammates to help. It’s them versus their opponent. Each wrestler this year is working hard to gut out and dig in and get “gritty” at practice. The other unique quality about wrestlers is that you become a family. We have a great family this year. These athletes treat each other like siblings. They pick on each other in practice, but they will stand up for each other off the mat. Weaknesses; size. We could use 6 more wrestlers to fill the empty weight classes. We give up points in three of the lighter weights, one of the middle weights and two of the heavier weights.Goals; we would really like to bring a district title back to Marlette. It’s been a while since we had the numbers to actually make that happen. Marlette had a long run of team district titles back in the nineties. We would really like to get that momentum going again.
Outlook for your league – Where do you see your team fitting in? We are outnumbered in size compared to most of the league schools (we have 9 wrestlers we need a few more to round out the roster). But, we seem to be able to make that up in talent. We have seasoned wrestlers that help level out the field. We hope to beat at least 5 of the league teams and contend for a league title.