One year before the movie “Hoosiers” immortalized tiny Milan High School’s magical run to the Indiana state championship, the Newaygo High School girls basketball team took its small town on a similar, storybook run to the Class C state championship.
Not once, but twice.

Newaygo, coached by native son Stan Thomas, stunned the state with a roster featuring no one taller than 5-7 — beating Pewamo-Westphalia for the 1984 Class C title and coming back to knock off favored Detroit St. Martin dePorres (which featured 6-3 center Daedra Charles) for the 1985 Class C state title.  In 1984, senior Dawn Bulk and junior Keri Thomas led the Lions to an 18-2 regular season.

Other team members were seniors Kristen Westcott, Sonja Beckman and Sheryl Frye, juniors Sandy Wagner and Doreen Berger, sophomore Kristen Long and freshman Erica Thomas. The Thomas sisters are the daughters of Coach Thomas and his wife, Bonnie. Thomas had previously coached his two older daughters, Jodi and Jacki.
The 1984 Lions roared all the way to the Final Four at Western Michigan University’s Read Fieldhouse, where their biggest upset was a 48-46 win over a much taller Flint Academy team in the semifinals.

In 1985, only four members of the 1984 team — the Thomas sisters, Wagner and Long — returned, making a repeat state championship seemingly impossible. That returning foursome was joined by Lori Mauter, Tammy Morton, Amy Saum and Amy Schenk. Newaygo finished one game better in the 1985 regular season at 19-1, then took off on another run.
The signature win in the 1985 postseason was the 46-43 championship game win over Detroit dePorres, a David vs. Goliath battle and a fitting finish to a truly incredible two-year run for the “Little Lions.