The Ravenna softball team captured a Michigan High School Athletic Association state championship this spring.
(Photo: Scott DeCamp)
By Scott DeCamp
LocalSportsJournal.com
The climb to the mountaintop for the Ravenna softball program in capturing a Michigan High School Athletic Association state championship this spring began with some all-important first steps years ago.
It started during the rec ball days more than a decade ago with coaches Scott Herremans, Mike Gillard, Fred Denhof, Geoff Nelson, and Jeff Nutt guiding their daughters and others.
Of course, those coaches had some things to learn at the beginning, too.
“I’ll never forget this story: Scott and I formed the first travel ball team and Ravenna had never had a travel ball team. We didn’t even have enough girls to do like a 10U, 12U, 14U – we had to take a combination of all of them,” Gillard recalled.
“I’ll never forget … we played in Allendale. I can’t think of the name of the team, we played some veteran travel ball coaches.
“It was a husband and wife (coaching tandem). We were on the first-base side and the wife was coaching first base and she walked over, she said, ‘Well, look at this. Two baseball guys trying to coach softball.’ We laugh at it still to this day, ‘Well, we must have learned.’”
Herremans was a second-team all-state baseball player at Ravenna in 1997 for father Paul, a Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach. Gillard was a standout pitcher for the Bulldogs in the early-1980s, who went on to play at Ferris State University.
Scott Herremans and Gillard eventually became assistant coaches for Ravenna’s varsity team once their daughters arrived on the scene.
From Ravenna’s Tee-ball to Ponytails to 10U to 12U to Junior Elite (middles school) to high school levels, with travel softball and even a band of Renegades (that was actually the name of the team) thrown in there, it’s been a long but fun and memory-filled journey for a large group of people who helped pave the Bulldogs’ path to the top.
Ravenna’s 2026 varsity softball team made history with the first MHSAA state title for Muskegon County. A 4-2 victory over
Grass Lake in the Division 3 final June 13 at Michigan State University’s Secchia Stadium perfectly capped the Bulldogs’ dominant 40-1 season.
“It’s just a very long journey and I’m so proud of the program and the girls because the momentum just kept building and building and building and building and now we’ve got a JV program back,” Gillard said. “It’s a blessing to see it all come together, regardless of whether my girls (Emma and Addy Gillard) are in it or Emma (Herremans) or Kara Postema or Maddie Kilbourne and Laney Mabrito … Liberty Willick. I can keep on going … Kendra Denhof. There’s a lot of parents, plus girls, that contributed to just the expectations, the standards. It’s just great.
“It was a mountain and we reached the top of it. I was along for the ride for quite a bit of it,” added Gillard, who stepped down as a Ravenna varsity assistant coach after his younger daughter graduated in 2025. “It was fun – it was really fun – and I’m just happy as heck that they did it, man. I really am.”
In the words of Ravenna athletics supporter and photographer Scott Robar, “Previous teams built the foundation. This team put the roof on.” Several people laid that foundation, as mentioned above, and helped put the program in position to seize the ultimate prize. The aforementioned previous Ravenna softball players were not able to hoist a state-title trophy, but they have played big roles in this rise. This season’s super-talented, hard-working, and laser-focused squad finished the job.
“If you take a look at when these kids were little, it takes a village and there were a lot of people that coached these kids when they were little, coming up,” Ravenna head softball coach Dave Sherman said. “It takes a village and there’s been a lot of people that put a lot of time into this final result this year.”
In the three years prior to 2020, when COVID forced the shutdown of the MHSAA spring sports season, Ravenna was more of a middle-of-the-pack program with a 50-48 overall record during that span.
In the last six seasons, the Bulldogs have soared to rarefied air, amassing an eye-popping 198-35 overall mark with one state championship, three semifinal appearances (2023, 2025, 2026), four regional trophies, five district crowns, and five West Michigan Conference titles.
Dave Sherman believes that his staff, consisting of Herremans, Tim Jones, Matt Geoghan, and Penny Sherman, is the best in the state. Each coach has his or her specialty, but they’re all bought in and understand their roles.
Winning big requires talent, hard work, buy-in across the board, experience, and some good fortune. The ’Dogs had it all this season. When they got back to Secchia Stadium, they knew what to expect and played loose but with much confidence, too.
The first bricks of the Ravenna softball program’s sturdy foundation were laid at Conklin Park, home of the youth program.
“If you call (Tim Jones) and ask him, the reason this happened is years ago when he was down at the baseball field with (son) Dom, he kept seeing these little girls constantly at the ball field,” Herremans recollected. “He’s like, ‘I’m going to peek in and see what these girls are doing.’ He’d come to watch when they were 10 and 12 and tells the story, ‘I knew we had something special going when you just constantly saw this group of girls over and over again and then you start winning in the 10U championships, 12U championships, Junior Elite back-to-back-to-back, all the way through.’ … Jones could see it happening right in front of him.”
Additionally, Ravenna players and coaches have absorbed top-notch instruction or tips from the likes of Steve Howard of West Coast Fastpitch, Wally King of Brown University, and Greg Jones (Tim’s brother), who enjoyed a great deal of success as an assistant coach at Gaylord High School and has two daughters playing for Oklahoma State.
Perhaps the biggest factor is Ravenna’s players and coaches embracing the grind. In the offseason, particularly beginning in January and leading up to the first week of practice, players take thousands of swings and put in countless hours getting better. Leading up to this season, Bulldogs players logged more than 58,000 swings combined.
“It’s amazing that you can hold workouts, open gyms at the beginning of January, and have as many kids show up, just to come and take swings, just to come and take picks off the gym floor – just to be with their friends,” Dave Sherman said.
“They’re just trying to get better. It definitely paid off. This is one of the goals that they had set right from the get-go. They wanted to be back (at MSU), they wanted to win it, and that work that they put in definitely paid off.”
They did it by following the example left by players before them. The standard had been set, and this Ravenna squad took it one step further.
They’re definitely cognizant of the fact that success of this degree occurred by standing on the shoulders of those before them.
“I don’t think Emma G (Gillard) and my sister and Addy G (Gillard) realize the big role models they played,” said Ravenna junior all-state shortstop Reese Herremans, a Saginaw Valley State commit, referring to the trio that’s now playing at Ferris State. “Us young ones, we’d come from Junior Elite and come watch the older girls or they came and watched us, that just made us want to be more like them. They played such big role models for us, so us filling in their shoes is insane.”
Added Scott Herremans: “The work that the Gillard girls and Emma (Herremans) and Ellie (Solem) and Kendra Denhof put in, those girls did all the same things that these girls did, it just didn’t happen (winning a state title).”
Many of those former players and ex-coaches were on hand at Secchia Stadium, proud ’Dogs passionately cheering on Ravenna. They feel a big part of it, too.
The pressure was real on the current players and coaches, too. Scott Herremans admitted that he felt it. He said he had a pain between his shoulder blades for three weeks and it vanished after the ’Dogs realized their goal.
“I didn’t realize the amount of pressure that you’re under and these kids are under. Since they’ve been (in) Pony Tails or U10, all they’ve been doing is talking about winning a state championship,” said Herremans, who helped Ravenna win back-to-back state football titles in 1996 and 1997 as a lineman. He acknowledged the feeling of seeing daughter Reese and her teammates celebrate their title far exceeded anything he experienced during his days as an athlete.
“Every win builds a little more, builds a little more, then all of a sudden you’re standing on third base coaching, all you see is a wave of blue – you saw how many people were there,” Herremans said. “I mean, it was incredible.”
LocalSportsJournal.com
The climb to the mountaintop for the Ravenna softball program in capturing a Michigan High School Athletic Association state championship this spring began with some all-important first steps years ago.
It started during the rec ball days more than a decade ago with coaches Scott Herremans, Mike Gillard, Fred Denhof, Geoff Nelson, and Jeff Nutt guiding their daughters and others.
Of course, those coaches had some things to learn at the beginning, too.
“I’ll never forget this story: Scott and I formed the first travel ball team and Ravenna had never had a travel ball team. We didn’t even have enough girls to do like a 10U, 12U, 14U – we had to take a combination of all of them,” Gillard recalled.
“I’ll never forget … we played in Allendale. I can’t think of the name of the team, we played some veteran travel ball coaches.
“It was a husband and wife (coaching tandem). We were on the first-base side and the wife was coaching first base and she walked over, she said, ‘Well, look at this. Two baseball guys trying to coach softball.’ We laugh at it still to this day, ‘Well, we must have learned.’”
Herremans was a second-team all-state baseball player at Ravenna in 1997 for father Paul, a Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach. Gillard was a standout pitcher for the Bulldogs in the early-1980s, who went on to play at Ferris State University.
Scott Herremans and Gillard eventually became assistant coaches for Ravenna’s varsity team once their daughters arrived on the scene.
From Ravenna’s Tee-ball to Ponytails to 10U to 12U to Junior Elite (middles school) to high school levels, with travel softball and even a band of Renegades (that was actually the name of the team) thrown in there, it’s been a long but fun and memory-filled journey for a large group of people who helped pave the Bulldogs’ path to the top.
Ravenna’s 2026 varsity softball team made history with the first MHSAA state title for Muskegon County. A 4-2 victory over
Grass Lake in the Division 3 final June 13 at Michigan State University’s Secchia Stadium perfectly capped the Bulldogs’ dominant 40-1 season.
“It’s just a very long journey and I’m so proud of the program and the girls because the momentum just kept building and building and building and building and now we’ve got a JV program back,” Gillard said. “It’s a blessing to see it all come together, regardless of whether my girls (Emma and Addy Gillard) are in it or Emma (Herremans) or Kara Postema or Maddie Kilbourne and Laney Mabrito … Liberty Willick. I can keep on going … Kendra Denhof. There’s a lot of parents, plus girls, that contributed to just the expectations, the standards. It’s just great.
“It was a mountain and we reached the top of it. I was along for the ride for quite a bit of it,” added Gillard, who stepped down as a Ravenna varsity assistant coach after his younger daughter graduated in 2025. “It was fun – it was really fun – and I’m just happy as heck that they did it, man. I really am.”
In the words of Ravenna athletics supporter and photographer Scott Robar, “Previous teams built the foundation. This team put the roof on.” Several people laid that foundation, as mentioned above, and helped put the program in position to seize the ultimate prize. The aforementioned previous Ravenna softball players were not able to hoist a state-title trophy, but they have played big roles in this rise. This season’s super-talented, hard-working, and laser-focused squad finished the job.
“If you take a look at when these kids were little, it takes a village and there were a lot of people that coached these kids when they were little, coming up,” Ravenna head softball coach Dave Sherman said. “It takes a village and there’s been a lot of people that put a lot of time into this final result this year.”
In the three years prior to 2020, when COVID forced the shutdown of the MHSAA spring sports season, Ravenna was more of a middle-of-the-pack program with a 50-48 overall record during that span.
In the last six seasons, the Bulldogs have soared to rarefied air, amassing an eye-popping 198-35 overall mark with one state championship, three semifinal appearances (2023, 2025, 2026), four regional trophies, five district crowns, and five West Michigan Conference titles.
Dave Sherman believes that his staff, consisting of Herremans, Tim Jones, Matt Geoghan, and Penny Sherman, is the best in the state. Each coach has his or her specialty, but they’re all bought in and understand their roles.
Winning big requires talent, hard work, buy-in across the board, experience, and some good fortune. The ’Dogs had it all this season. When they got back to Secchia Stadium, they knew what to expect and played loose but with much confidence, too.
The first bricks of the Ravenna softball program’s sturdy foundation were laid at Conklin Park, home of the youth program.
“If you call (Tim Jones) and ask him, the reason this happened is years ago when he was down at the baseball field with (son) Dom, he kept seeing these little girls constantly at the ball field,” Herremans recollected. “He’s like, ‘I’m going to peek in and see what these girls are doing.’ He’d come to watch when they were 10 and 12 and tells the story, ‘I knew we had something special going when you just constantly saw this group of girls over and over again and then you start winning in the 10U championships, 12U championships, Junior Elite back-to-back-to-back, all the way through.’ … Jones could see it happening right in front of him.”
Additionally, Ravenna players and coaches have absorbed top-notch instruction or tips from the likes of Steve Howard of West Coast Fastpitch, Wally King of Brown University, and Greg Jones (Tim’s brother), who enjoyed a great deal of success as an assistant coach at Gaylord High School and has two daughters playing for Oklahoma State.
Perhaps the biggest factor is Ravenna’s players and coaches embracing the grind. In the offseason, particularly beginning in January and leading up to the first week of practice, players take thousands of swings and put in countless hours getting better. Leading up to this season, Bulldogs players logged more than 58,000 swings combined.
“It’s amazing that you can hold workouts, open gyms at the beginning of January, and have as many kids show up, just to come and take swings, just to come and take picks off the gym floor – just to be with their friends,” Dave Sherman said.
“They’re just trying to get better. It definitely paid off. This is one of the goals that they had set right from the get-go. They wanted to be back (at MSU), they wanted to win it, and that work that they put in definitely paid off.”
They did it by following the example left by players before them. The standard had been set, and this Ravenna squad took it one step further.
They’re definitely cognizant of the fact that success of this degree occurred by standing on the shoulders of those before them.
“I don’t think Emma G (Gillard) and my sister and Addy G (Gillard) realize the big role models they played,” said Ravenna junior all-state shortstop Reese Herremans, a Saginaw Valley State commit, referring to the trio that’s now playing at Ferris State. “Us young ones, we’d come from Junior Elite and come watch the older girls or they came and watched us, that just made us want to be more like them. They played such big role models for us, so us filling in their shoes is insane.”
Added Scott Herremans: “The work that the Gillard girls and Emma (Herremans) and Ellie (Solem) and Kendra Denhof put in, those girls did all the same things that these girls did, it just didn’t happen (winning a state title).”
Many of those former players and ex-coaches were on hand at Secchia Stadium, proud ’Dogs passionately cheering on Ravenna. They feel a big part of it, too.
The pressure was real on the current players and coaches, too. Scott Herremans admitted that he felt it. He said he had a pain between his shoulder blades for three weeks and it vanished after the ’Dogs realized their goal.
“I didn’t realize the amount of pressure that you’re under and these kids are under. Since they’ve been (in) Pony Tails or U10, all they’ve been doing is talking about winning a state championship,” said Herremans, who helped Ravenna win back-to-back state football titles in 1996 and 1997 as a lineman. He acknowledged the feeling of seeing daughter Reese and her teammates celebrate their title far exceeded anything he experienced during his days as an athlete.
“Every win builds a little more, builds a little more, then all of a sudden you’re standing on third base coaching, all you see is a wave of blue – you saw how many people were there,” Herremans said. “I mean, it was incredible.”
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