In its listing this spring of high school girls basketball awards, there are 20 area players who received at least one of the academic awards handed out by the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan.

There are five awards listed at its website, bcam.org/bcam-awards-published/, that are not strictly performance based, three of them specifically for academics.

Those three are Academic All-State, All-State Academic Teams and Outstanding Senior Student-Athletes. The first and last are for players, the “team” awards is naturally for full squads.

The other two nonperformance awards are the Team First Award and Coaches of the Year.

Ishpeming's Jenessa Eagle, right, is double-teamed while taking a shot during a high school girls game played against Gladstone at the Hematites’ gym in Ishpeming on Feb. 4. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

All of these awards are only open to teams and players whose head coach is a member of the BCAM. A look at a full list of state schools on the BCAM website does show the vast majority of schools and/or their coaches are members.

Among Journal-area schools, that includes Marquette, Negaunee, Ishpeming, Westwood, Gwinn, Munising, L’Anse and Baraga.

Let’s look at each award:

Academic All-State

This award actually does have something to do with performance, as nominees for this honor not only have to be a junior or senior and have a 3.50 grade-point average (based on 4.00), but have been listed with an all-state honor by The Associated Press, Detroit Free Press or Detroit News, or be on the BCAM Best list.

Marquette’s Brianna Anderson works her way around a Bark River-Harris defender and to the basket during the second quarter in their high school girls basketball game played at the Barb Crill Gymnasium in Marquette on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (Journal photo by Caden Sierra)

Six of the seven area honorees are seniors, making them eligible for the other individual academic award, the Outstanding Senior Student-Athletes — and the entire half-dozen won that award, too.

This group includes two from Marquette, Brianna Anderson with a 4.0 GPA and Aubree Blackburn with a 3.91 GPA.

There’s also two from Westwood, Isabelle Marta with a 3.899 GPA and Lexi Olson with a 3.818 GPA.

And there’s also Negaunee’s Aubrey Johnson, sporting a nifty 4.28 GPA, and Munising’s Bailey Corcoran, with a 3.96 GPA.

The only non-senior locally earning this award is Ishpeming junior Jenessa Eagle, who has compiled a 3.5889 GPA.

The entire list, which includes about 160 names statewide, includes another 10 players from other areas of the Upper Peninsula.

The seniors are Jackie Kiilunen of Calumet with a 4.00 GPA, Emily Jokela of Lake Linden-Hubbell with a 3.71 GPA and Jillian Fraser of St. Ignace with a 3.632 GPA.

The juniors are Elsie Williams of Forest Park with a 4.00 GPA, Emma Besonen of Ewen-Trout Creek with a 4.00 GPA, Emma Choronzy of Wakefield-Marenisco with a 3.96 GPA, Aubrey Olson of Rapid River with a 3.93 GPA, Irelynd McGeshick of E-TC with a 3.79 GPA, Lakelyn Bunker of Mackinac Island with a 3.726 GPA and Cleo Milkey of LL-H with a 3.68 GPA.

Outstanding seniors

The six area seniors listed with the previous award — Marquette’s Anderson and Blackburn, Westwood’s Marta and Olson, Negaunee’s Johnson and Munising’s Corcoran — cleared an even higher bar to win this award.

The BCAM states this award is for seniors who have played four years of high school basketball and have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.80.

Despite the higher GPA level, another 13 area players joined the aforementioned half-dozen for a total of 19 earning this honor.

Munising added in four more players for five total on this list — there’s also Dayne Behning, Kate Mattson, Tessa Salo and Elizabeth Wing, every one of them with a cumulative 4.00 GPA.

Westwood has another three, also making five total from its school — Hailey Markham has a 3.924 GPA, Nolia Dawson is at 3.897 and Hannah Niemi at 3.855.

Add in two more from Marquette making it four in all for the Sentinels — Payton Pleaugh is at 3.96 GPA and Claire Maskart at 3.94.

Negaunee had another pair for a total of three for the Miners — Macyn DellAngelo and Madison Pekrul both have a 4.00 GPA.

Gwinn and Baraga each have one honoree — the Modeltowners’ Miaha Schiefel is at 3.80 GPA, while the Vikings’ Rylee Holm is also at 3.80.

Just four other U.P. players made this list, none who were also Academic All-State. They are Dalany Wagner of Forest Park at 4.00 GPA, Alexa Wetthuhn of Gladstone, also at 4.00 GPA, Deziray Casey of Mid Peninsula at 3.92 GPA and Brooke Pierce of Pickford at 3.811 GPA.

All-State

Academic Teams

Most of the schools with outstanding individual performers also shined as a group in the classroom.

BCAM says on its website that it uses a “weighted” team GPA, though that wasn’t explained, with a 3.30 GPA earning All-State and 3.00 as Honorable Mention.

Twenty-one U.P. teams made the cut here, every one of them earning the higher All-State distinction, including seven from the area.

Marquette was the lone U.P. team in Division 1, finishing eighth in the state with a 3.9410 GPA as Port Huron Northern led the way with 3.9976.

In Division 2, Negaunee was seventh-highest statewide with a 3.9342 GPA as West Branch Ogemaw Heights led the state at 3.9851.

Also from the U.P. in D-2, Escanaba was 25th with a 3.7861 GPA and Gladstone 75th with 3.4763.

For Division 3, Westwood shone in 14th with a 3.8476 GPA as Ovid-Elsie led all with a 3.9681.

Gwinn was 80th with a 3.4957 GPA and Ishpeming 87th with 3.4013. Also in the U.P., Calumet was 75th with 3.5329 and Menominee 79th with 3.5028.

And just like the overall makeup of schools in the U.P., there were more Division 4 schools making the list from the U.P. than the other three divisions combined.

Area-wise, Munising was ninth with a 3.8553 GPA as Petersburg-Summerfield led all with 3.9243. Baraga registered 66th with a 3.4422 GPA.

Also in the U.P., Forest Park approached the top with the third-highest average of a 3.9019 GPA and Stephenson was next in fourth with 3.8962.

Rapid River was 10th with a 3.8496 GPA, Mackinac Island 16th with 3.8166, E-TC 20th with 3.7887, LL-H 23rd with 3.7676, Bessemer 43rd with 3.6647, Mid Pen 44th with 3.6643, St. Ignace 50th with 3.6134 and Cedarville 55th with 3.5798.

Team First

This is a unique, nonperformance, nonacademic award, which has one player chosen per team by their BCAM member coach who most exemplifies putting team before self, along with teamwork, commitment, service and sacrifice.

Just one local player who received an academic award also earned this honor — Marquette’s Aubree Blackburn.

The others winning this distinction are Sadie Rogers of Negaunee, Journey Comment of Ishpeming, Hailey Markham of Westwood, Aubrey Paquin of Gwinn, Emma Conklin of Munising and Shayla Elmblad of Baraga.

Other U.P. honorees are Jackie Kiilunen of Calumet, Dalaney Wagner of Forest Park, McKenzie Engebretson of Escanaba, Hannah Ferguson of E-TC, Alexa Wetthuhn of Gladstone, Emma Sundling of Rapid River, Kaia Branstrom of Mid Pen and Cadence Cullen of St. Ignace.

Coach of the Year

None of the area coaches earned regional (U.P.) or statewide coach of the year, though two from elsewhere in the U.P. did.

Charlie Kemppainen of Calumet was named the Division 3 state Coach of the Year, while E-TC’s Jaclyn Besonen was cited as the top coach in Region 15, which is the entire U.P.

Negaunee’s Mike O’Donnell was among the seven Region 15 nominees, which also included Andy Cretens of Gladstone, Dorene Ingalls of St. Ignace, Ward Helakoski of Hancock and Brian Adams of Norway.

This is the second of four stories about the awards distributed by the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan. Later stories will look at boys awards. Story contents based on an examination of the BCAM website, bcam.org/bcam-awards-published/. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.