By Ron Pesch
LocalSportsJournal.com
MUSKEGON–Folks have played baseball at Conklin Park in Ravenna since at least 1909. Once comprised of some 28 acres, the park property was originally acquired by brothers Oscar F. and William P. Conklin, merchants of a large general store in Ravenna then donated to the township around 1912.
Renovations to the popular site, located on the western edge of the village, have occurred on several occasions over the years. With the blessing of the Ravenna Village Council, and often under the guidance and fundraising efforts of the American Legion and the Lions Club, local citizens have banded together to focus on and provide recreational opportunities for the area’s youth and young at heart.
Frank Coletta has long been involved in that quest. Born in Muskegon in 1928, he was schooled in Muskegon Heights. Like his father, Charles, he went to work for Sealed Power, located a short distance from the family’s home. At Sealed Power, Frank met Mary Jane Botruff of Ravenna, and in the fall of 1949, the couple married. They moved to that village in 1953, and for 70 years, have lived in the same house in Ravenna. Blessed with three sons – Tom, Tim, and Joe – athletics became a focus for the Coletta family.
Muskegon and Muskegon Heights had strong existing and wide-ranging recreation programs during Frank’s youth. Active in Ravenna’s American Legion and the Lions Club, Coletta quickly became a stalwart volunteer devoted to service, aiming to offer many of those same recreation benefits to village residents.
In 1957, Coletta was part of the Lions Club program aimed at increasing year-round use of the field by adding lights to Conklin Park. In 1959, Frank, along with Frank Petrusky, was a volunteer manager of Ravenna St. Catherine’s Little League team, winners of the eight-team Little League loop. Six-year-old Tom was the team’s bat boy. In 1964, along with Jack Broton, he was a director of the American Legion’s summer recreation program. Frank soon was working on the committee that brought Rocket Football to the village.
Elected to the Ravenna Village Council in 1965, Coletta would serve for 18 years. His sons were skilled athletes, and along with countless others, benefitted from the youth sports programs available. But Frank remained involved with local sports for decades after the sons graduated from the local high school. He served as board president of the Ravenna Summer Recreation for 25 years, working with the Lions Club to complete the youth baseball and softball complex at Conklin Park that helps shape the prep players of tomorrow in the area. For 10 years in basketball and a whopping 45 seasons in football, he ran the clock and scoreboard for the high school’s Bulldogs. Somewhere in there, he spent 5 years on the Ravenna school board.
On May 1, 2021, he was honored for a lifetime of dedicated public service and influence on countless others with a “Frank Coletta Day” program at the complex. On Saturday, June 10, Coletta became the 40th individual honored with the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame’s Gene Young Distinguished Service Award. Since 1991, the honor has been presented annually to community members dedicated to athletics in a non-participatory manner marking a wide array of services.
2023 Dick Hedges Female & Gary Ostrom Male Student-Athlete Awards
For 28 years, the Sports Hall of Fame has requested area high schools to submit the name of one senior male student-athlete and one senior female student-athlete for consideration for the hall’s annual Scholar-Athlete Awards. Candidates are considered across three areas: athletics, academics, and community service. Applications for each are considered by a Hall of Fame subcommittee, then narrowed to two lists of five, from which a single name is chosen as the winner in each.
One thread runs with near consistency throughout the list of past winners – virtually all have been multi-sport athletes. The 2022-23 selections continue that same stream.
Photo/Joe Lane II
Former Reeths-Puffer high school principal, Dan Beckeman, now Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame board president, once again served as the master of ceremonies at this year’s induction ceremony and banquet, this year hosted before a packed house at Muskegon’s new downtown convention center.
Sophia Hekkema has played soccer since she was 3, basketball since the second grade, then took up volleyball in sixth grade. When she reached high school, she continued in each sport and excelled, grabbing repeated all-conference, all-area, and all-academic honors along the way across all three. (She even slipped in a season of track.)
A two-time all-state honorable mention in basketball as both a junior and senior at Reeths-Puffer, Hekkema finished as one of just three players to score more than 1,000 career points on the court for the Rockets. The pandemic, as it did for thousands of students/athletes, wiped away the MHSAA prep athletics before the 2020 spring sports season could begin. Hence, Hekkema’s freshman soccer season disappeared. When the sport returned in her sophomore year, she scored a school-record 22 goals. She matched the total as a junior, then topped the mark this past spring notching her 23rd in the Rockets’ MHSAA district semifinal win over Ludington before the season ended with a loss to Spring Lake.
The ability to tap into her size, quickness, physicality, and/or finesse as needed allowed her to shine. Twice named as a third-team All-State pick by the Michigan High School Soccer Coaches Association, Hekkema will likely be named by the group once again later in June.
Quizzed at the banquet by her former principal on the sport that provided the most memories, Hekkema was challenged.
“That’s a hard question because I have so many memories in all my sports.” She chose basketball, as the Rockets won three conference championships and a district title during her four seasons. “(We) didn’t win any championships in soccer, but I did have a lot of memories in all of them.”
This fall she plans to take a break from sports to adjust to and focus on college academics. She’s headed to Michigan State University.
“I want to study psychology, but I’m kind of in-between with business and psychology.”
Photo/Joe Lane II
Oakridge’s Matt Danicek played football, basketball and baseball at the varsity level, but football was his No. 1 sport. A two-year starter at quarterback, Oakridge compiled a 19-5 record over that span in the always tough West Michigan Conference. Danicek worked to improve his passing game between his junior and senior seasons, becoming a true dual-threat as the Eagles opened up the offense based on the team’s personnel. The work paid benefits defensively as well and Danicek was honored as a Michigan High School Football Coaches Association all-state defensive back in 2022. A West Michigan Conference basketball honorable mention selection as a senior, he is the sixth scholar/athlete from Oakridge to win the Hall of Fame honor.
Beckeman also asked Danicek about his memory, noting that his father was one of his football coaches. The senior mentioned that the Eagles winning three district football titles was certainly one of them.
“Not just winning the districts, but the meaning behind it,” Danicek said. “The first district I got pulled up for playoffs and I got to see my brother (Jacob) lead his team to a district title (during the COVID-delayed playoffs). And he just taught me a lot. I got to see his passion, and he showed me how to love the game, and I can’t thank him enough for that.
“And another reason is just being along with my teammates so I couldn’t have done it any other way without them. Just all the hard work we put in (during) the summer and having that family and that brotherhood is what Oakridge football is all about.”
Danicek’s next stop is Muskegon Community College to obtain his associate degree, focusing on business.
In alphabetical order, the remaining top-five finalists on the female side for 2022-23 were Kent City’s Lexie Bowers, Ravenna’s Emma Gillard, North Muskegon’s Natalie Pannucci and Montague’s Emma Peterson.
On the male side were Muskegon’s Jordan Briggs, Whitehall’s Shane Cook, Ravenna’s Hunter Hogan, and Muskegon Catholic Central’s Sam Kartes.
