Tony Annese
BORN: MARCH 24, 1961, OWOSSO, MI
Annese led Muskegon High School to three state championships and a 92-15 record during his nine seasons as head
football coach from 2000 to 2008.
The son of Nick Annese, longtime coach at Corunna High School, Tony played college football at Alma before starting his own
coaching career as an assistant under legendary coach
Roger Chiaverini,
first at Muskegon Catholic Central, then at Holland West Ottawa. Annese
accepted his first head coaching job at Montrose, followed by stints at Ann
Arbor Pioneer and Jenison before coming to Muskegon.
Under his guidance, the Big Reds returned to state
prominence, earning nine consecutive playoff appearances and state Division
2 titles in 2004, 2006 and 2008. Each of those championship teams finished
with perfect 14-0 records.
In 22 seasons of coaching high school football across
Michigan, Annese compiled a remarkable .826 win-loss percentage, posting a
195-41 record. He has since enjoyed tremendous success at the college level,
first at Grand Rapids Community College (30-4 over three seasons), and at
Ferris State in Big Rapids, where he has built that program into a Division
II national power.
Tanya Place-Hommes
BORN: FEBRUARY 20, 1973,
RAVENNA, MI
A
1991 graduate of Ravenna High School, Place was a three-sport star in
basketball, volleyball and softball, earning 11 varsity letters and
all-state honors in volleyball and basketball for the Bulldogs. Her biggest
achievements came on the basketball court, where she averaged 26.2 points as
a senior and finished fourth in the Michigan's Miss Basketball balloting.
Place went on to have a stellar four-year career at Michigan
State University, playing in all 28 games and averaging 13.1
minutes as a freshman. She is remembered as a deadly long-range shooter who
led the MSU in career three-point field goals with 159 in 110 career
contests. Place started 57 games for the Spartans, scoring 999 points during her time
in East Lansing, falling a single point shy of joining the school's elite
1,000 point club before graduation in 1999.
Place was a teacher and coach at Grand Rapids
Forest Hills Central before starting a family and undergoing a battle with
cancer. She underwent a stem cell transplant for from her twin brother in
2004.
Roy Smith
BORN:
MARCH 8, 1922, MUSKEGON, MI
DIED: JULY 1, 1989, MUSKEGON, MI
Widely regarded as the top horseshoe pitcher to ever come out
Muskegon, Smith won 13 Michigan Horseshoe Pitchers Association state titles
between 1962 and 1982. He competed in 25 state tournaments and placed in the
top three on 21 occasions.
Smith was known for his consistency and mental toughness,
posting an amazing 80 percent ringer average during the 1977 state
tournament, a record that still stands today. His best finish in the
National Horseshoe Pitchers Association tournament was fifth place in 1969.
Smith also won Class B world titles in 1968 and 1979. He was inducted into
the Michigan Horseshoe Pitchers Association Hall of Fame in 1972 and joins
his wife, Dorothy, as the only two members in that hall of honor from
Muskegon.
A lifelong resident of Muskegon, Smith worked at Teledyne
Continental Motors Corporation for many years and organized many local
horseshoe competitions for the city's recreation department before his
passing in 1989 at the age of 67.
Ken VanDyke
BORN: May 22, 1940, MUSKEGON, MI
As a 6-foot-6 senior, VanDyke led Muskegon Western Michigan Christian
to a Class C state championship in 1958, the first for that basketball-rich
school. It was the first of four state titles for the Warriors' head coach
Elmer
Walcott, a 1988 MASHF inductee.
VanDyke went on to a stellar career at Central Michigan
University in Mt. Pleasant, immediately making his presence known. In his
first season for the Chippewas, VanDyke grabbed 271 rebounds, establishing a
freshman record that still stands today.
He started every game during his four-year career, averaging
a double-double in both points and rebounds over that span. More than 50
years later, VanDyke remains third on the college's all-time rebounding list
with 958 - just 20 behind fellow MASHF inductee,
Dave
Nelson. VanDyke ranks fourth on Central's all-time list for per game
rebounding average (10.4) and is in the Top 20 in school history for points
scored with 1,126 – a 12.2 per game average.
Following college graduation, Vandyke taught for 31 years at
Fruitport, where he coached both boys and girls basketball. He was inducted
into CMU’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.