Ishpeming’s Mya Hemmer, left, and Brittanie Piotrowski, right, surround Portland St. Patrick’s Gracelyn Rockey as she drives for the basket during the MHSAA Division 4 state championship game played in the Breslin Center at Michigan State University in East Lansing on Saturday, March 21, 2026. (Photo courtesy Keionna Banks and Lilanie Karunanayake/Hockey Weekly Action Photos via the MHSAA)

EAST LANSING — It was the definition of a bittersweet day for the Ishpeming High School girls basketball team, athletics program and community.

The sweet part obviously was watching the Hematites win another MHSAA Division 4 state championship, doing so for the second time in three years with a 48-28 rout of Portland St. Patrick on Saturday morning at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center. 

Seniors Jenessa Eagle and Mya Hemmer ended their high school careers in the best way possible and cemented their status as two of the best girls basketball players to ever play in the Upper Peninsula. 

Eagle finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Hemmer had 18 points, 17 rebounds, nine blocks and six steals.

Fans drove through the middle of the night on a bus to get to the game on time and it was worth it all, getting to celebrate with the players and chanting “U.P. Power!” over and over again to celebrate another great moment for the Ishpeming community. 

But the not-so-sweet part will come next.

Eagle and Hemmer are graduating, and Ishpeming head coach Ryan Reichel said after the game he is leaving as head coach after 14 years at the helm.

Reichel said he’s stepping down to spend more time watching his daughter, who plays in Negaunee.

“I’ve got to watch my kid play,” Reichel said while fighting back tears. “It was a hard season because I missed seven games of hers. Her being unselfish, she told me to go get a title. I appreciate her.”

No doubt, the Ishpeming community will forever appreciate Reichel, Hemmer and Eagle for what they did over the last three seasons.

During the postgame press conference after a 37-34 semifinal win over Morenci on Thursday, both Hemmer and Eagle were making Reichel cry, but in a good way.

“This man is crazy and all props to him,” Hemmer said. “He stays up so late and gets up so early. He snow plows for people, does film for us, gets us in the gym.

“We’re so grateful for him. We would not be here without him and he makes so much time for us. He makes sure that we’re well fed on the way down here and that we’re sleeping. He’s just on top of everything.

“It’s great to have that kind of adult in your life as a coach.”

Reichel was just as appreciative for Hemmer and Eagle and how they led the Hematites to a win, just like they had all year.

“I’m pretty emotional about this right now because having these two girls and knowing it’s the finale of their career and seeing what they just did tonight to carry us and will our team to win, it was remarkable,” Reichel said after the semifinal victory.

Now, Ishpeming will have to move on without this big threesome.

The Hematites did have five sophomores on the roster this year, with Frankie Stetson and Camby Gauthier being the biggest contributors at both ends of the floor. 

Those players should be much improved as upperclassmen next year, but it will obviously be impossible to fill the shoes of Eagle and Hemmer.

The good news for Ishpeming is that given the legacy Eagle, Hemmer and Reichel left, young girls who have been in the stands all season looking up to them will want to achieve all that they did when it’s their turn to become a Hematite.

“This isn’t an accident,” Reichel said of his team’s success. “You go spend a lot of time with them. They work on it. When others are at the beach, these girls are shooting.

“It’s a different type of gang. The unseen hours that these girls put in are why we’re in this position.”

Keith Dunlap of Lake Orion also writes for the Michigan High School Athletic Association and several media and social media websites, and is a past sports writer for the Oakland Press. He has written stories for The Mining Journal the past three high school basketball postseasons, when the Westwood boys team reached the MHSAA Division 3 semifinals in 2025, the Ishpeming girls won the Division 4 title in 2024 and when the Munising boys won their Division 4 title in 2023.