MUSKEGON — This November marked the end of an era at Whitehall High School, as Ted Edsall stepped down from coaching the Vikings' volleyball team after 27 seasons at the helm. He announced his decision to the team after its final match of the season, a district defeat to Fruitport in November.
Edsall led the Vikings to a pair of state final four appearances - in 2004 and 2012 - and won over 1,000 matches in his overall career, which also includes six seasons at his alma mater, Reeths-Puffer.
Edsall said the 1,000-win milestone, which he achieved at the West Michigan Conference Lakes tournament in October, meant something to him, but so too did leaving the Vikings with a solid base of talent. Although Whitehall will graduate four-year varsity stars Sidney Shepherd and Bella Fogus from this season's team, the lineup also included four sophomores and a freshman whose experience will help set up the next coach with a benchmark to start from.
"It was a great team to go out with," Edsall said. "(Our record wasn't) what you want. However, they gave me
everything and they listened and they were coachable. They tried hard
and cared for each other. That's all a coach could ever ask."
Edsall is a volleyball lifer. He grew up playing the sport on the beach in Muskegon - the late Kevin Davis organized the Muskegon Beach Volleyball program for 20 years, and former coaches Tim Smillie and Stan Denman were also mentors - and grew close with high-level players who took him to play at indoor tournaments.
"That's who taught me how to play the game," Edsall said. "I played a lot of indoor, but it mainly started on the beach."
Edsall, who holds bachelor's degrees from both Grand Valley State and Michigan State universities, took on the JV coaching job at Whitehall for three seasons to start his career on the bench before accepting the head coaching job at R-P, reasoning that the varsity coach at the time, Mary Ruth Morningstar, would be there a while and he wanted to cut his teeth at the top level. It was always his goal, though, to get back to Whitehall to be the varsity coach; it's where he and his wife Terry lived, taught and raised their kids. (Edsall's son Jaren was Whitehall boys basketball's all-time leading scorer until current Viking Camden Thompson broke the record last season.)
Morningstar ended up stepping down from Whitehall after only three more seasons, but Edsall, who "was right in the middle of some good stuff at Reeths-Puffer," didn't jump over to the Vikings right away. His friend and colleague Bryan Mahan, best-known for his success as Whitehall's boys soccer coach, took the job instead, though Edsall joked that there was always an understanding that Mahan would step down as soon as Edsall was ready to take over. That moment came after three more seasons at R-P.
The rest, for the Vikings, was history.
"Everything worked out great as far as that goes," Edsall said. "I always wanted to
coach at Whitehall...It's a community school, man. There's no transfers. There's no portal.
We didn't have kids moving in to play volleyball at
Whitehall. We did it with our homegrown kids in our community, and
there's nothing better than that."
It helped a lot that some of those homegrown kids ended up being truly outstanding players. Edsall coached three Division I stars in his career, and all three were part of his two final four teams. Melissa Griffin led the Vikings to the state semifinals in 2004 and went on to Ohio University, where she terrorized the Mid-American Conference for four seasons and was MAC player of the year in 2007. She's now in that school's athletics Hall of Fame, as well as Whitehall's.
In 2012, two future Division I stars, Autumn Christenson and Hope Rillema, happened to be in the same Whitehall graduating class, and they led Edsall's team to another final four appearance. Christenson went on to Michigan State University, and Rillema, who like Griffin was a Miss Volleyball finalist, played at Morehead State University. After the Vikings fell to North Branch in the semifinals that fall, Edsall joked that he didn't do a lot of coaching that season.
Beyond that trio, the Vikings churned out numerous players who earned all-state mention during Edsall's time, not to mention all-West Michigan Conference performers and players who played collegiately at both four-year and junior college levels. One of those players was Jenna Pesch (now Pider), who was also on that 2012 team, played at Alma College and Muskegon Community College, and joined the Whitehall staff this year as an assistant coach.
"There's nothing magical about coaching," Edsall smiled. "You give me good players, and
I'm a pretty good coach...I've been blessed with talented kids and a community and administration
that supported volleyball."
Edsall, who also coaches at the Michigan Volleyball Academy club team, said he'll stay involved in volleyball at the club level. He might even pick up a whistle and officiate the high school game next fall.
"I am super content with my decision," Edsall said. "It's hard to stay in any job this long. Sooner or later, they usually want to get rid of you. I've been lucky."
