Lakers Gear Toward Basketball, Volleyball Season
By David Latva

The 2006-07 Mackinac Island Lakers boys basketball team (from left front row): Michael Gamble, Robert Chaffee, Paul Fisher, Thomas Rilenge, and Brandon Brown; (back row) Robert Chambers, Woody Beardsley, Joshua Richards, Tyler McLean, Riley Chaffee, and Coach Jim Fisher.

Underclassmen will dominate Mackinac Island basketball and volleyball teams this winter, with just one senior on the volleyball squad. Coach Jim Fisher, in his second season on the bench for the Laker hoopsters, has seven returnees and Coach Mary Patay, returning to the volleyball court after having coached the Lakers back in 1996-97 and 1997-98, will build her squad around eight returnees.

Lakers Hoops

The Lakers are without a senior on their basketball roster, but has a strong group of returning players, led by juniors Woody Beardsley at forward and Riley Chaffee at center.

The trio of sophomores include guards Robert Chambers and Michael Gamble and forward Tyler McLean. Freshmen are guards Paul Fisher and Thomas Rilenge.

First-year teammates are sophomore Brandon Brown and eighth graders Andrew Chambers and Robert Chaffee.

Mackinac Island Lakers volleyball team includes (back row, from left): Kristi Kamphuis, Danielle Wightman, Marie Bunker, Michi Mullings, Karlena Mosley, and Arial Leeper, and Coach Mary Patay; (front) Jane Finkel, Ashley Gough, Morgan Brodeur-Bunker and Maggie Chambers. Missing from the photograph are Shayleen Mosley and Shelbie Mosley.

"We have diversity on our roster and that will be a positive factor," said Coach Fisher. "Our inside and outside game will be a key to our success."

Lakers Volleyball

Mackinac Island's volleyball team will be led by senior Kristi Kamphuis and junior Karlena Mosley, along with sophomores Shayleen Mosley, Danielle Wightman, Michi Mullings, and Arial Leeper and freshmen Shelbie Mosley and Jane Finkel, all returning for the upcoming season.

First-year players are eighth graders Ashley Gough, Maggie Chambers, Marie Bunker, and Morgan Brodeur-Bunker.

"This is a strong team, athletically," said Coach Patay. "We are still a young team with just one senior, but have experience and leadership on this team."

The Lakers will host their own tournament, with teams coming to the Island from DeTour, Mackinaw City, Hannahville, Grand Marais, Paradise, Ellsworth, Northern Michigan Christian Academy, Vanderbilt, and Maplewood Baptist Academy.

"This is a strong field that means the competition will be very tough," Ms. Patay added.

Mackinac Island is a member of the Northern Lights League (NLL), affiliated with the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

Two Island schools, Mackinac (28 students in athletics) and Beaver Island (33), two schools along the Lake Superior shoreline, Grand Marais (27) and Paradise (31), and Wilson/Hannahville (51) west of Escanaba make up the fiveteam league. The league has the smallest MHSAA roster, with a combined total of 169 students.

Mackinac Island, Paradise, and Grand Marais are the original members of the league, which once included schools from northern lower Michigan. The league broke up in the late 1980s, but Beaver Island joined the three Upper Peninsula schools to form the NLL. Later, Hannahville became the fifth team.

The teams play a two-game series on Friday nights and Saturday mornings, with the visitors sleeping in the host team's gymnasium. The Lakers' modes of travel include planes, snowmobiles, horse-drawn carriages, and buses.