A pair of varsity basketball head coach positions have changed, along with a couple of athletic director positions, too.

We’ll have more details in a few days, but William “Billy” Hill is taking over the reins of the Negaunee High School boys basketball program from Brad Nelson, who held the position for several years.

Another change to look at in detail today is at the top of the Westwood High School girls hoops program, with former junior varsity coach Christie Makela taking the place of Ann Skewis, who had been head coach since the summer of 2021.

In a related note, Skewis’ husband, Jake Skewis, has stepped down as athletic director at Westwood to take the same position at Negaunee, his alma mater and where he was a past teacher and coach.

Jake Skewis

Jake Skewis succeeds Paul Jacobson, who was also the 25-year head football coach who won a state title with the Miners. In fact, Jake Skewis played on that 2002 Negaunee state championship team.

And now, Westwood is looking for a new athletic director, too, with Monday being Jake Skewis’ last official day in the NICE district.

“I’m excited to get started,” Jake Skewis said in a Monday text about the Negaunee position. “(It was a) very tough decision to make and I’ll always be grateful to the NICE Community, they’ve been fantastic and I wish nothing but the best to them.”

The Makela hire was made official at a June 16 NICE Community Schools board meeting, according to a Facebook posting on the school district’s website.

There was some possibility that Ann Skewis could remain with the Westwood girls program, but that seems uncertain at this time.

Makela, 36, is more than your average JV coach being elevated, however.

She moved to the Upper Peninsula with her husband, Dan Makela, in 2016 from the West Coast. While she is a native Californian, he is a Westwood and Northern Michigan University graduate.

Christie Makela played basketball throughout her life starting in third grade and going through high school, four years of college and even playing on a professional team in Brazil for a season.

She then did some varsity high school coaching in California for about four years before her move to the cooler climes of the Upper Peninsula.

“I told Dan we could move to the cold, but you have to do all the shoveling,” she said with a chuckle.

Now she has been a third-grade teacher at Aspen Ridge Elementary School for a decade or so.

She has held various position in the Westwood girls program, including eighth grade, JV and assistant varsity coach.

“I think it will be a pretty smooth transition,” Christie Makela said. “I know the girls who are going to be sophomores this year — it’ll be my third year with that group.

“I’ve already had some of the girls at open gyms. My main goal is that basketball can teach life lessons — it’s a great platform for the lessons to learn for living.”

She feels she has a good group to work with — five seniors, two or three juniors, and that sophomore class she knows well.

“They give 110% on every possession — it’s those kind of intangibles that make a good team,” she said of her upcoming varsity players.

Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.