MUSKEGON, MI -- Abby Cole vividly recalls what she considers the worst moment of her prep sports career.

It was during her sophomore year, and her Grand Haven volleyball team was playing a match at Hudsonville with University of Michigan head coach Mark Rosen in attendance.

“I played my worst match ever,” Cole said. “It was horrible. I thought I blew my chance to play at Michigan.”

Cole’s mom, Dawn, remembers driving home and getting a call from her distraught daughter, unable to understand much of what Cole was trying to say through the tears on the bus-ride home.

The Cole family was able to briefly relive that moment and laugh about it when Rosen made a home visit recently.

Rosen, apparently, remembers that day a little differently.

“He laughed and said he didn’t think I played that badly,” Cole said. “He said they look at more than just how a player plays in one match. They also look at how you treat your teammates, how you react in certain situations and how you warm up. They don’t want just good athletes at Michigan, they want genuine people.”

With those criteria in mind, Cole was never in jeopardy of missing out on playing volleyball at Michigan, which she will do starting this fall.

Cole is by far the most decorated athlete to come out of Grand Haven, yet she gives younger kids in the Buccaneer program many more reasons to look up to her than just being 6-5 and a really good athlete. Her coaches will all tell you she’s an even better person and teammate than a player, and that’s saying something considering she nearly brought home honors as the top senior athlete in the state in both basketball and volleyball.

For her excellence on the court and her ability to make her teammates better, Cole was chosen as the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame’s female student-athlete of the year. She is the second athlete from Grand Haven to win the honor, joining 2004 honoree Maggie Dwyer.

“I was shocked and excited,” Cole said of the honor. “It’s quite an honor be named the top student-athlete in the area.”

Cole and male winner Reed Hrynewich of Mona Shores will be honored, along with the Hall’s 2013 induction class, at a banquet June 8 at Muskegon Country Club.

The other female finalists included Western Michigan Christian’s Rachel Bruinsma, Hart’s Macayla Greiner, Mona Shores’ Morgan Smith and Oakridge’s Keyara Wiard.

Cole is a 3.7 student who was active in student senate and National Honor Society at Grand Haven.

Cole’s accomplishments on the court are staggering. She was runner-up in the Miss Volleyball voting and third in the Miss Basketball voting, but just as easily could have won both awards. She was named Class A player of the year in basketball.

In basketball, Cole helped the Bucs to the Breslin Center three straight seasons, including back-to-back state titles in her junior and senior seasons. They went 81-2 in Cole’s three years on varsity.

What Grand Haven basketball coach Katie Kowalczyk-Fulmer will remember most about Cole though is the way she handled herself in practice and in pressure situations like the state finals.

“Abby’s always so humble, she’s a great teammate and leader, and she’s got the ability to make everyone around her better,” Kowalczyk-Fulmer said. “She’s so positive and encouraging. In the state finals in the huddle she’s got her arms wrapped around her teammates, encouraging them and saying ‘We can do this’. She earned the respect of her teammates.

“It doesn’t get much better than Abby Cole. She’s certainly made her mark in girls basketball and has left quite the legacy here. She’s a game changer. I was lucky to coach her.”

Cole easily holds the school record for blocks in a career with 535 and in a season with 234. She’s fourth in the state in career blocks in just three years, and is third in the state in blocks in a season.

In volleyball Cole helped the Bucs to their first trip to the state semifinals her senior year as an all-around player and huge front row presence.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better career,” Cole said. “I’ve had amazing teammates and great coaches. The programs here are top notch. I couldn’t have asked for any better ending in basketball, and in volleyball we made history and had a great run.”

Cole describes herself as a mellow person with a lot of intensity once she hits the courts.

Even when she’s in the midst of intense competition, Cole, who says she laughs at anything, can be found smiling.

“People who don’t know her off the court are always surprised when they find her goofing around or showing her good sense of humor,” Dawn Cole said. “They expect her to be serious all the time.”

Cole showed athletic promise at a young age. She started playing tennis when she was four, and played the sport competitively through her freshman year as the No. 3 singles player at Grand Haven.

The 17-year-old senior gave it up though to pursue excellence in volleyball, a sport which plays its AAU club seasons in the spring at the same time as girls tennis at the prep level.

Cole’s parents, Scott and Dawn Cole, knew their daughter was good at volleyball, but they didn’t really understand how good until she was playing for Michigan Volleyball Academy as a sophomore.

“We always attributed her success to being a little bit taller than everyone else,” Dawn Cole said. “But recruiting really started to heat up he sophomore year, especially when she went to nationals with her club team. There were dozens of coaches watching her and other players at matches, and that’s something we didn’t expect.

“It’s been exciting. I’m amazed at how well she’s handled it. She works very hard obviously. She’s her own worst critic. She wants to be better and work harder. It’s been fun watching her grow.”

Cole’s shown the willingness to work hard in volleyball for a number of years.

She started out by hitting from the right side as a freshman, moved to the middle her sophomore and junior seasons and then from everywhere on the court as a senior.

Her hard work on serving and passing made her an even bigger threat in her senior season as an all-around player. Her service game proved to be tough on opponents in the postseason.

“Abby’s a student of game, and she’s never satisfied,” Bucs volleyball coach Aaron Smaka said. She’s always looking to add elements to her game. She accepted the challenge to work on new things, and her willingness to try those things was huge for her and for us.

She was a huge in our postseason run. She was our best player but she’s the one staying late asking to get more balls hit to her so she could practice her passing. That attitude affected everyone.”

Smaka added that no one had a bigger impact on a match than Cole did her senior year. She racked up a Grand Haven career record 1,809 kills and 641 blocks.

As her game evolved Cole was recognized as the No. 3 player in the nation by Senior Aces. As her stock soared, so did the pressure to perform. She never let it affect her though.

“I wanted to prove that I belonged up there, and that stresses you out,” Cole said. “As an athlete though you strive to be the best, and I wanted to prove to people that I could play with the best. You want to make a name for yourself, so you just focus on playing your game.”

Cole’s ultimate dream is to play in the Olympics. She also would like to play professionally, perhaps even on the beach.

Cole tried out for the U.S. Women's Junior National Volleyball Team in late February. She was invited to play on a junior national team playing in Venice this year, but turned it down to complete her season with her MVA club team.

Cole, who hesitated to try out for the junior nationals because she would have to miss a basketball game, has always shown a commitment to her team.

She hopes her legacy at Grand Haven is more than just being a good athlete.

“I’m most proud of the person she is,” Dawn Cole said. “Athletics is awesome, but it could be taken from her tomorrow. As much as she loves athletics, it doesn’t define who she is. She’s got a big heart and a heart for people. She’s gotten a lot of attention, but she always hopes it doesn’t take away from her team and her teammates.”

MUSKEGON, MI – The best of both worlds would be a good way to sum up the high school experience of Reed Hrynewich.

The senior was a big part of a pair of state-ranked programs at Mona Shores, one that focuses on team play on the hockey rink and the other that puts individual performance at a premium on the golf course.

Add the two together, along with an outstanding academic resume, and it’s not hard to see why Hrynewich was selected as the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame male student-athlete of the year.

Alec Breit of Western Michigan Christian, Adam Clauss of Spring Lake, Jacob Marsh of Montague and Matt Mulcahy of Grand Haven were the other finalists from a pool of nominees submitted by area schools.

Hrynewich was an all-stater in both sports and is a candidate for Mr. Golf, which goes to the state’s top player. In the classroom, he carries a 4.3 grade point average. He is above the 4.0 scale because of the numerous advanced placement courses he has completed.

He has accepted a golf scholarship to attend the University of Michigan and plans to study environmental engineering.

Hrynewich is an analytical thinker and has a personality that is driven and goal-oriented. He is a firm believer in what you put into something is what you get out of it.

This spring, if he’s not at a golf course playing or practicing until dark, then he’s doing homework. It doesn’t leave much time for anything else, but he has big goals in all facets of his life.

“I have a time schedule that I set every Sunday,” he said. “I write a little calendar that says what I’m going to do throughout the week and you have to stay organized with the academics. I’m proud of my academic accolades as well as athletic and that’s one reason I’m going to Michigan for engineering.”

He said it hasn’t been easy, but well worth the sacrifice.

“It’s very difficult. One thing I’m going do is thank is all my teachers for their support and leniency because you have to make up a bunch of stuff,” he said. “Other than that, it takes a lot of discipline and you have to set your priorities straight, which is sports and school. If you don’t have either of those, which is pretty much never, then you can hang out and have fun.”

Reed said his passion to learn more about the game and the success he enjoyed in the junior ranks pushed golf to the top of his list by his freshman year of high school. His long-range goal is to play on the PGA Tour.

His father, Tim, who played for the Muskegon Lumberjacks and in the National Hockey League, said he hasn’t had to push his son. His role has been one of support and encouragement.

“Honestly, it’s something that comes from within him,” he said. “He has goals he wants to achieve and he works as hard as he can for it. … I’m a lucky parent, I guess. He just has that discipline. He wants to be toward top of his class and he takes pride in it.”

Tim said what he and his wife, Susan, have tried to push is a positive attitude to Reed and his twin sister, Hailey, who will attend Ohio University on a golf scholarship.

Their family grew up juggling a sports schedule, so that’s really nothing new.

Reed strapped on ice skates about the same time he could walk and often had a hockey stick or golf club in his hand at an early age. He also was a standout in baseball and soccer and found time to try gymnastics and tennis.

“I was always busy. Growing up, as a kid we didn’t have much homework in elementary school, but I remember having soccer practice after school, then I’d go to baseball and sometimes do three sports in a day,” he said.

Going into high school, he narrowed his choices down to golf and hockey. He played three seasons of varsity hockey and four seasons of varsity golf.

He played for a pair of first-year varsity coaches as a senior, Pat Rabbitt in hockey and Scott Volkmann in golf. Both had followed Hrynewich’s career and were impressed to see him in action firsthand every day.

“I’ve been around athletes and golfers that are very talented and I’ve been around really good students. Never have I been around a combination of the two (like Reed),” Volkmann said. “You’re talking about one of the top five in his class at one of the best high schools around and then you’re talking about a candidate for Mr. Golf. You’re talking upper echelon for both.”

Volkmann said one reason Hyrnewich is so special is his ability to work on his own and yet be coachable at the same time.

Even with his scholarship to U-M locked up, Hrynewich wasn’t afraid to make swing changes prior to his senior season. His spring highlights include medalist honors in the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association city meet and the OK Black Conference, all done while wearing a knee brace for an injury suffered during hockey.

“If he doesn’t get every shot out of his round, which us golfers never do, he’s not content and he’ll go work on it,” Volkmann said. “That’s the part I like and what I want others to learn. I have a great deal of respect for that type of demeanor and attitude.”

Rabbitt echoed those thoughts and said he’s seen few like Reed for his mental toughness and ability to handle adversity at such a young age.

After his knee injury that was expected to be season ending, Reed still came to practice every day and strengthened his knee enough to come back and play one final game in the state tournament.

“His talent is way above average, but he’s the hardest worker,” Rabbitt said. “When he did come back and skate, the whole level of practice did increase because he was pushing it.”

Rabbitt said Hrynewich offered to help tutor teammates and followed through with it with study sessions.

Rabbitt also recalled how Hrynewich would take younger players under his wing.

“As long as I’ve known him, he’s been very kind and gracious,” Rabbitt said. “When we’d have tryouts, I remember him telling some of the younger guys who were struggling or weren’t sure of themselves ‘come play with me.’ A lot of guys would want to be with the best players, but not Reed. That showed some real character.”