When asked separately last week what their favorite accomplishment of the season was, three different Powers Catholic girls’ basketball players all said the same thing: Paige Ringwelski, Kendyl Smith, and Evah Smith all pointed to winning the Saginaw Valley League championship as a key highlight for the season.
Now, after defeating Petoskey 53-38 in the state quarterfinals on March 18, they might have another one. Powers (24-3 on the season) is one of the remaining four teams standing in Division 2 and advances to the MHSAA state semifinals at the Breslin Center against Tecumseh at 5:30 p.m. on March 20.
For Evah Smith, a sophomore, the Breslin Center won’t exactly be unfamiliar territory. Her dad, Antonio Smith, was the cornerstone of Tom Izzo’s legendary tenure as coach, the first of the famed Flintstones recruits that led MSU to its greatest successes. But Evah has already carved out her own unique niche in Flint hoops lore as a fierce inside presence for Powers. And she’s done it as someone who didn’t immediately expect to play basketball.
“I’m gonna be honest, at first I didn’t like it when I was younger,” she said. “But as I started to do it, it brought me joy and of course my dad played. So I started to see, okay, this seems like fun. So I was in the gym a lot with him.”
Smith gets asked about her dad frequently, and although she’s finding her own niche as a player, also says she’s, “figuring out new things as I talk to him.”
“I would feel super excited to play where he played in college,” Smith said of the chance to play in the Breslin Center.
When she got to Powers as a freshman, though, that’s when the foundation built within the program took over and influenced her. The close-knit team is constantly supportive of each other, and the experienced players in the program have done a great job of welcoming and integrating young players into the program.
“I love playing with my teammates,” Smith said. “That’s the really big thing, like having this team to play with, it just brings me happiness.”
A Foundation of Trust
Throughout the season, a strength of Powers has simply been their togetherness. A key component of that approach has been looking at what is in front of them in the moment.
“Our mission all year is to try to find ways to extend our season one day at a time,” said coach Ryan Trevithick. “When we went into the locker room before the regional final, we just said, ‘Hey, no matter what happens, our focus should be that we wanna show up to practice tomorrow.’ It doesn’t matter who we play, doesn’t matter where we play. Our mindset is that we wanna show back up to school the next day and be able to practice.”
That has paid off throughout the playoffs. Powers has won four of its five playoff games by double figures, but every game has been a little different. In their regional final, for example, leading scorer Kendyl Smith was held to a quiet (by her standards) single digit scoring night. But the level of trust on the team is so high that they’ve been able to win in different ways. Against Portland, senior Paige Ringwelski was able to exploit some advantages.
Ringwelski is great at cutting and moving without the ball, and Portland’s continuous efforts to force the ball out of Smith’s hands early in possessions opened up Ringwelski for cuts to the basket. She finished with 19 points and was constantly around the rim. Ringewelski has a good mix of height and quickness that makes her difficult to defend – she’s bigger than most guards and faster than most frontcourt players.
“My advantage most of the time is inside,” she said. “So being aware of that and taking advantage of the other team’s bigs really does open up opportunities for me.”
Junior Giselle Wolschleger also stepped up offensively in that game, scoring six points off the bench in the fourth quarter to help secure the win. Earlier in the season, Bella Harley stepped up in an overtime win over Hartland. Presley Schriner, a sharpshooting freshman, has also had big games for the team.
Kendyl Smith is clearly an orchestrator on offense, but a hallmark of Powers this season has been the ability of multiple players to step up at any moment.
“We’ve had different players with different unique skill sets and they’ve done a great job of staying ready for that moment,” Trevithick said. “We say, ‘Hey, I need a little bit more of this. We need a little bit more of that, a little more shooting, a little more defense, a little more rebounding.’ And certain players fit those roles and they do them very well. They’re buying into their role, they’re buying into what their team needs them to do. And for us as coaches it’s pretty fun to be able to put the pieces together and see it work out in the end.”
A Foundation of Trust
Senior Kendyl Smith has had a standout career at Powers, including a senior season in which she was a Miss Basketball finalist and averaged more than 20 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals per game. She’s known for her quick-strike ability as a scorer, but perhaps most impressive about her is her willingness to defer to her teammates. She said that trust was developed outside of basketball.
“ I’d say just being like best friends off the court and just spending time together,” Smith said. “Like going to the movies together, just doing unplanned team bonding that wasn’t planned by the coaches is a big thing for us. We just want to be together.”
Ringwelski said that part of how the program has been built requires unselfishness.
“The ones that have been here the longest really bring in the younger girls and make them feel welcome into the program,” she said. “That unselfishness just comes from being a part of the program. You have to be an unselfish player here. We do that a lot by bus rides. We do a lot of team bonding outside, like Christmas break and over times that we don’t have school, we get together. And then in practice, coaches make us communicate at a really high level on defense most of the time. So just really locking in with each other in important moments. I think especially as a senior and understanding what it’s like to be the younger girls on varsity, I get a lot of enjoyment watching the younger girls play. So every single game I step into the mindset of, ‘Okay, I wanna get the score high enough so everybody gets an opportunity to play.’”
Chasing History
Trevithick has had an impressive run as the coach at Powers since taking over in 2020. The team has improved from 4 wins his first season to 24 this season. They’ve won district and regional titles in two of the last three seasons and are primed to add to Powers’ proud girls’ basketball history after advancing to the state semifinals. But that won’t be easy.
Powers is matched up with defending Division 2 state champions Tecumseh. They defeated Carleton Airport 75-44 in their quarterfinal matchup on March 18. Tecumseh and Powers had one common opponent this season, Midland. Powers lost to Midland 57-47 while Tecumseh beat them 55-39.
Powers has won four state championships in girls’ basketball, in 1991, 1996, 2000, and 2001. The last state championship any Flint basketball team has won in boys’ or girls’ basketball was the Beecher boys’ team in 2021. The last girls’ state championship was won by Hamady in 2010.
The strength of this Powers team is its versatility and ability to win in different ways throughout the season. But for the team, their goal is simply what is in front of them next.
“It’s a blessing to be in this situation to represent our fans, we’re excited for our school, we’re excited for our players to be able to have the opportunity to keep this team together for at least one more game,” Trevithick said after their regional title win.
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