It’s mid-March, which means it’s time for us sports reporters to tell you, “Winter is over!” while Mother Nature disagrees, blanketing the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan with multiple feet of snow, a layer of ice and providing more than enough winter weather to prove it is definitely still not spring.
So, let me be precise; the winter sports season is officially over for the Gaylord area.
It was yet another exciting few months inside gyms, ice rinks and out on the slopes for Gaylord High School, Gaylord St. Mary and Johannesburg-Lewiston athletes, highlighted by championship runs and exciting individual moments. Before we move on (weather permitting), I wanted to take a last look at some of those moments that make Gaylord sports unique and special.
Walking off the Ford Field stage after falling in the Division 2, 165-pound title to Lowell’s Owen Segorski as a junior in 2025, Gaylord’s Zane Willobee was still the same kind, respectful kid who had endeared him to many in the high school wrestling community over the past few years.
The disappointment, however, was also pretty evident to those who knew him as the fiery competitor who holds himself to a high standard.
A year later, facing off against his biggest high school wrestling rival in Clio’s D’Marion Erlenbeck, Willobee got to leave that disappointment in the past, winning with a 4-3 decision to finish his high school career off with his second state title.
Willobee led the charge for Gaylord area wrestlers, one of three state qualifiers. GHS’s Kieran Beach fell to Portland’s Griffen Opperman, the eventual seventh-place finisher in the D2 157-pound bracket, while JoBurg’s Riley Buchler fell to Hunter Shelton from Pine River in the D4 215-pound bracket.
Final moments of Gaylord St. Mary’s upset win over East Jordan, watch
Here are the final moments of Gaylord St. Mary boys basketball’s upset win over East Jordan on Friday, Feb. 6.
If you’ve watched any of the Gaylord St. Mary boys sports this season, you’ve seen a pretty noticeable theme: while still very young, this group of mostly sophomores has a chance to be a talented, deep group in the coming years. For now, they’ll look to gain experience and earn their scars over the next few seasons.
Still, that sky-high ceiling shines through at times, as it did on Feb. 6.
Hosting the eventual Ski Valley Champions, East Jordan, the GSM boys played one of their best games of the season, handing the Red Devils 68-63 defeat, their only Ski Valley Conference loss of the season. Sophomore transfer Cal Royce had 22 points, proving the Snowbirds are a team to watch for the next two seasons on the hardwood.
Tom Johnson’s impact on Gaylord will leave a long-lasting impression.
Johnson has spent 50 years giving back to the Gaylord community and area athletes in so many ways, as an athlete himself, a coach for five different GHS programs and one of the most tenured and well-respected athletes in Northern Michigan. He is currently battling inoperable pancreatic cancer, yet he still gives nearly all his free time to area athletics.
This winter, the Gaylord community would make sure the Tom Johnson name would live on, ingrained in GHS athletics history forever.
Johnson, flanked by his brothers, son, nephew and grandchildren, got a special surprise prior to the Gaylord vs. Traverse City Central game, finding out the floor at Jim Mongeau Gymnasium would forever bear his name as ‘Tom Johnson Court’.
“I’m just so grateful that Gaylord Community Schools recognizes those who put so much hard work into the school system,” said Johnson. “To have my name on the court, they’ve been doing this a long time. It’s an honor for me to have it.”
High school sports, sometimes, are pretty predicatable. While it’s not necessarily easy to predict a winner and loser from each and every game, you can get a good feel for how a game may go from how teams perform against common opponents. Still, once or twice a season, a score comes back to me that makes me do a double-take.
I may have triple-taked when I read the GHS girls basketball vs. Petoskey score from Jan. 29.
Petoskey, a team that would go on to win the Big North Conference along with Division 2 district and regional championships, had an uncharacteristically poor shooting night and the Blue Devils took advantage, running away with a 47-32 victory for one of the more impressive victories of the 2025-26 season. Senior Addison McDonald led GHS with 12 points, Ella Cherwinski had nine while Molly Hicks and Karlee Pretzlaff scored eight.
While some teams had individual moments throughout the 2025-26 winter season, the last few months have been filled with memorable moments for the GSM Snowbirds girls basketball team.
Their senior leaders, Payton Glasby and Kaylee Jeffers, both reached 1,000 career points this season while helping GSM to a 21-1 overall regular season record and finish unbeaten in the Ski Valley Conference for a second-straight league title.
They went on to dominate in three playoff games, winning the program’s sixth consecutive district title before falling to Frankfort in a third-straight regional title game.
The GSM Class of 2026, including Jeffers, Glasby, Emery Blust and Allyra Cook, led GSM to a 62-15 record over three seasons in the starting lineup, captured two SVC Championships and three district titles.
Contact GHT Sports Editor Dylan Jespersen at Djespersen@gaylordheraldtimes.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @dylanjespersen, and Instagram, @dylanjespersen
