Part of the responsibility that Mott Community College men’s and women’s basketball coaches have each year is putting together rosters for the annual Bruin Club Classic All-Star games.
The games, which feature some of the biggest senior standouts from Genesee County area basketball teams, began 35 years ago and have annually given graduating hoopers one more chance to play in front of a home crowd after their high school careers end.
Mott women’s coach Ryan Trevithick didn’t want to just assemble a roster, though. As someone who grew up in Mott Park and even played in Ballenger Fieldhouse himself as a kid, he understands the importance of the longstanding games, which are at 5:30 p.m. (women’s) and 7:30 p.m. (men’s) on Thursday, April 16, in Steve Schmidt Gymnasium at Ballenger Fieldhouse. Admission is $5 and proceeds go to the Bruin Club, an organization that supports Mott Community College athletics.
Trevithick took over the Mott women’s program last year, so in his first Bruin Club game this year he wanted to give the 15 girls’ basketball players selected to play a special experience and start a new tradition. He and assistant coach Andrew Talaga organized a special media day on April 13, so players and their families could come in, meet their coaches for the game, get uniforms, have dinner, participate in a photo shoot, and do interviews with media.
“There’s so much rich tradition and history in Flint basketball,” Trevithick said. “So the fact that they’re all a part of this lineage, it’s really awesome and a really big honor to be able to do that.”
Not all players could attend the media session due to other spring sports commitments, but for those in attendance, they even got to watch a live roster unveiling to learn who their teammates on Black and Gold teams would be.
The Gold team roster is: Park Liggins (Grand Blanc), Averie Zinn (Genesee), Danielle Smoots-Green (Flint Elite), Savannah Rice (Davison), Sammi Beller (Davison), Ella Mangett (Davison), Rachel Steinacker (Corunna), and Gracie TerMeer (Corunna). That team will be coached by Davison coach Lauhnna McMahan, who guided the Cardinals to their first district championship since 2020.
In addition to being excited to coach in the Bruin Club Classic for the first time, McMahan is also happy to have the chance to coach three of her seniors one more time before they move on to the college level.
“To be able to coach our three Davison Cardinals again, it’s gonna be a lot of fun,” McMahan said. “I’m really looking forward to coaching them, but there’s also so much other great talent in the Flint area. Park Liggins, we’ve been scouting and gameplanning against her for three years and she’s just a phenomenal player, and Averie Zinn’s, she’s one of the top players in the state, so I’m really looking forward to being able to work with them instead of against them.”
Zinn, who is committed to Wayne State after a historic career at Genesee High School, said it’s going to be fun to play with some girls she’s used to playing against.
“I think it’s super fun and super special,” Zinn said. “For the most part, we all know each other as players, so it’ll be interesting to see on the floor how we play around each other, knowing that we know each other’s game really well. I also think it’s great for all of us girls to be here and be recognized at such a special game.”
Zinn and Smoots-Green are two of those familiar players who will now be teammates. Smoots-Green wrapped up a standout career for Flint Elite and was recently named All-State for a second consecutive year. She and Zinn, both high-scoring guards, had several Genesee Area Conference battles in their careers and give team Gold some potent perimeter scoring.
“It feels good (to be selected), I’m glad I get to play in Flint again,” Smoots-Green said. “It’s nice to play against people that grew up around here too.”
Team Black also creates an interesting roster of players who have had fierce, competitive battles against each other over the years. The team will be coached by Goodrich’s Jason Gray, who just led the Martians to an undefeated season and state championship, his third in his 27 seasons coaching at Goodrich. He’ll have three Goodrich players from that state title team with him on the Black team, Kayla Hairston, Tanner Schramm, and Ceana Wilson. They’ll be joined by Powers Catholic’s Kendyl Smith and Paige Ringwelski, Lapeer’s Maddie White, and Owosso’s Danica Dwyer.
Powers, also coached by Trevithick, has been a longtime rival of Goodrich and also advanced to the state semifinals at the Breslin Center this season. If not for a close loss to Tecumseh, it would’ve set up a Goodrich-Powers matchup for a state championship.
“Kendyl and Paige, they’re just tremendous players,” Gray said. “We’ve competed against them many times and I’m excited to work with them. Danica Dwyer from Owosso, she’s been a problem we’ve been trying to solve for the last couple of years, she’s a really talented kid. So that to me is super fun. It’s been fun to compete against people, but also we’re all in this together in a way too.”
Hairston is also looking forward to playing with her teammates as well as players she’s played against all while celebrating Flint area basketball.
“It feels great, just being able to play with all these talented girls from the area,” Hairston said. “I feel like it’s gonna be really fun and all of us are just soaking it in and cherishing our last high school game. I’ve been playing against these girls, some since middle school, but a lot through high school. But just being able to see them on the opposite side now that we’re on the same team and now that we can be friendly, I’m looking forward to that.”
For Trevithick, he’ll get to see a couple future players as both Mangett and White have committed to play at Mott next season. But he’ll also get to see Smith and Ringwelski, who he coached at Powers, play one last time before they head off the college. Smith is committed to Liberty University and Ringwelski will play at Davenport.
“We have such a variety of basketball talent here in Flint,” Trevithick said. “It’s fun because you look up and down these rosters and there’s highly competitive players from D-1 athletes to D-2 to D-3 to our level (at Mott). And it’s kind of unique because I get to see some of my past players. I got the blessing to be able to coach Kendyl for three years and Paige for four years, so as a high school coach, to be able to let them have the opportunity to be coached again on one of our floors here in college, it’s a really cool, fun experience.”
Men’s Roster
The men’s Bruin Club game will also feature some of the most successful individual players in the area as well as teams.
The Gold team will be coached by International Academy of Flint coaches Kevin Crosby and Lance Adams. IAF won a district championship this season. Brandon Jackson from IAF will be on their roster along with Geo Cannon (Grand Blanc), Jordan McClain (Hamady), Cortez Porter (Davison), Aiden Tipton (Kearsley), Miles Washington (Goodrich), and Kendreyas White (Carman-Ainsworth).
That team should have plenty of firepower as Porter was one of the highest scoring guards in the area and McClain hit one of the most exciting shots of the state playoffs in a win over Frankenmuth.
Team Black will be coached by Tim Bunch and Joshua McManaman of Bendle, with Caleb Bingham from the Tigers on their team. Andrew Caldwell, a sharp-shooting and versatile guard from Powers who evolved from mostly a catch-and-shoot player last year to a focal point of Powers’ offense this season, will add versatility to the roster.
Two players from Flint Elite, a co-op team between New Standard and Madison academies, who led the Warriors to their first state semifinals appearance in school history, will join the roster. Jeffrey Turner, who eclipsed 1,000 career points earlier this season, and Dei’on Wright, who recently announced plans to play college football at LEAD Academy, will be joined by Cooper Boike of Genesee Christian, Bryson Evans of Kearsley, Jody Jackson of Hamady, and Madix Kinzie and Ray Neither of Flushing.
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