Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Lansing Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 2015 - - Stephanie Smiley - - Lansing Civic Events - July 30, 2015 - - by Chuck Krafft



Greater Lansing Area Sports Hall of Fame

2015 Induction Ceremony

Stephanie Smiley - - Holt High School Softball and Basketball

July 30, 2015

Stephanie Smiley was a great softball and basketball player.  In softball, she was a All District player at third base in 1995 and a Dream Team Catcher in 1997 and 1998; in 1998, she was the Lansing State Journal Position Player of the year!

In high school basketball, she was an All-Conference player for three years.  Her senior year, she was on the Lansing State Journal Dream Team and an All-Stater.  Holt High retired her basketball jersey in 2004 and she was inducted into the Holt High School Hall of Fame in 2007.

She only received one Division I College offer - - from Eastern Michigan University.  She spent the next four years making all the other schools wish that they had noticed her talent.

She was the Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year in 1999.  As a sophomore, she was second team All Conference; as a junior and senior, she was first team All Conference.  Ms. Smiley was the first Eastern Michigan’s women’s basketball player to achieve that honor twice.  She was also Honorable Mention for the All-American team; she was also the first Eastern Michigan player to achieve that honor.

Ms. Smiley thanked her coaches, friends and family.  She spoke of a coaching career in Alaska, where she also had really supportive friends to help her.  We learned that in basketball, the teams are spaced so far apart that they have to pay plane fare to get to the other games and stay there for a few days and play a number of games during each visit.  She thanked her friend Debbie Rohrer,  who helped her raise the funds to pay these costs so that her players could experience a sports program.

She also thanked her family - - especially her mother and her father.

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