Seven Sensational High School Athletes to Watch in 2025-26

From alpine skiing to volleyball, these students shine on and off the field, court, or slopes

By Craig Manning | Sept. 6, 2025

A local distance runner so good that she’s already achieved All-American status. A basketball star taking his talents to a new school for his senior season. Multiple returning members of state-title winning teams. These are a few of the storylines to watch in the world of northern Michigan high school sports during the coming academic year. With school back in session and sports back in action, Northern Express profiles seven local athletes that we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on in the coming months.

Katie Berkshire

School: Gaylord High School
Sport: Cross country/indoor and outdoor track
Graduation year: 2026

Proudest accomplishment: “My biggest athletic accomplishment so far was when I earned All-American honors by placing sixth at Nike Indoor Nationals, with a 17:05.49 in the 5000-meter girls championship,” Berkshire says.

Goal for the year: Now that she’s gotten a taste of All-American status in indoor track, Berkshire wants to achieve the same level in cross country and outdoor track, as well. “I also am working toward winning a state championship,” she says.

Next steps: Berkshire hasn’t committed to a school just yet, but tells the Express that she absolutely plans on running competitively as part of an NCAA Division 1 cross country and track program.

Why we’re watching: You might have seen Berkshire’s name in the papers this summer, when she won her second-consecutive National Cherry Festival Half-Marathon. Those wins prove this Blue Devil has big prospects at longer distances, but for now, she’ll stay focused on the high school comfort zones of the 5,000 meters (in cross country) and the 1600 and 3200 meters (her specialties in track).

Berkshire has undeniable state champion potential during her senior year, in all those distances. She’s already a five-time All-State track star, having finished as the Division 2 runner-up in both the 1600 and 3200 her junior year; she was runner-up in the 3200 as a sophomore, too. She holds respective personal records of 4:55.25 and 10:30.74 in those distances. In cross country, she clocked a 17:31.1 personal best last season, ultimately capping the season with a third-place finish at the D2 state finals.

Berkshire’s stellar performances have even taken her to national competitions, where she’s more than held her own. Our favorite of those big-league performances is the one Berkshire herself touted as her biggest accomplishment: a sixth-place, 17:05 finish in the 5,000 meters at the Nike Indoor Track Nationals meet last March. That race put the Gaylord star in the same field as Provo, Utah, phenom Jane Hedengren, the greatest runner in the history of American high school girls competition. (Hedengren won the event in a national-record-setting 15:13.)

Drew Esper

School: Traverse City West Senior High
Sport: Football
Graduation year: 2026

Proudest accomplishment: Esper was the lone local selection to the 2024 Michigan Sports Writers Division 1-2 All-State football team—and was one of just four defensive backs in the state to earn that honor. While he’s mighty proud of the recognition, Esper says his favorite accomplishment is a more local one: “In my opinion my biggest athletic accomplishment so far is winning the Patriot Game both of my years on varsity,” he tells the Express, referring to the annual crosstown rivalry game between the Titans and Traverse City Central’s Trojan squad.
Notably, before Esper came along, the Trojans had tied up the West-Central football rivalry 14 games apiece. The Titans’ wins in 2024 (23-7) and 2023 (17-8) gave West the advantage again, after four straight losses to Central.

Goal for the year: Since West and Central’s football teams left the Big North Conference in 2022 to join the larger and more competitive Saginaw Valley League, neither team has won a conference championship. Esper would like to change that, with his sights set on bringing a conference title to TC West for the first time since the 2022 shakeup.

Next steps: In May, Esper announced that he had committed to play Division 1 college football at Central Michigan University.

Why we’re watching: Even as a sophomore, Esper was a defensive powerhouse, racking up the second most tackles of any player in all of Michigan’s Division 2. He got even better his junior year, tallying 86 tackles, blocking five kicks, and combining for 1,272 yards. We have a feeling Esper’s upward trajectory will continue this fall, and we can’t wait to see what it means for the Titan team as a whole.

Just looking at the numbers shows how much Esper’s defensive skill has been a core piece of the puzzle for West’s resurgence over the past few years. The team went 2-7 in 2022, handily West’s worst season ever, and just the third losing season in the Titan football record books. West improved their record to 4-5 in 2023, with Esper’s defensive line allowing 196 points across nine games, compared to 249 the year before. Then, last season, West’s opponents only scored 139 points against the team, across 10 games—one of the five best defensive seasons in school history.

Quinn Gerber

School: Traverse City Central
Sport: Alpine skiing
Graduation year: 2026

Proudest accomplishment: “Winning states this past year, both as an individual and as a team,” Gerber says.

Goal for the year: A return to the winners’ circle is on Gerber’s mind as winter draws closer, with the multi-time state champ setting her sights on repeat individual and team titles in skiing. Also a key cog for the TC United girls lacrosse team, Gerber hopes to lead that squad to an even better season than they had last school year. TC United went 14-3 this past spring and made it to the first round of the state playoffs.

Next steps: While skiing has earned Gerber state titles, it’s lacrosse that she plans on pursuing in college. “I also plan on just skiing for fun with my free time, and hopefully some coaching as well,” she says.

Why we’re watching: Traverse City is a behemoth when it comes to high school alpine skiing. Just check out the results from the 2025 MHSAA Division 1 state championships. Among boys teams, Traverse City West and Traverse City Central finished second and third, respectively. In girls, Central clinched a state championship title, while West landed in the runner-up slot.
Now, the question is whether the Central girls can make it two in a row.

The Trojans and the Titans have been trading the girls’ skiing title back and forth for five years running. Central won titles in 2021 and 2022, West struck back with their own double in 2023 and 2024, and Central took the glory back last season. (On the boys side, West won three in a row, from 2021 to 2023, before Central snagged a title in 2024.)

All this to say that, if the Central girls are going to nab their fourth title this decade, Gerber is going to figure heavily into that outcome. As a junior, Gerber led the Trojans to a championship win by claiming an individual title in the giant slalom and a runner-up finish in the slalom. It was the second individual title for Gerber, who also tied for first in the giant slalom in her freshman season back in 2023. If she wins that event again, she’ll be just the fourth female skier in state history with at least three giant slalom titles from the MHSAA—an outcome we’re rooting for.

Braeden Flynn

School: Petoskey
Sport: Basketball
Graduation year: 2026

Proudest accomplishment: A lightning-in-a-bottle point guard, Flynn says he’s proudest of netting over 1,500 career points throughout the first three years of his high school basketball career, “and being named first-team all-state,” he adds.

Goal for the year: Flynn’s short answer to this question? “Win.” Also on the agenda: eclipsing 2,000 high school career points, “and, most importantly, lifting up my teammates and being a leader with a predominantly younger team,” he says.

Next steps: “I plan on continuing to play basketball in college,” Flynn shares. “I currently hold offers from Lake Superior State University and University of Olivet.”

Why we’re watching: If there’s a basketball “royal family” in northern Michigan, it’s the Flynns. Northern Express featured Braeden’s older sister, Olivia, a year ago, en route to a senior season that saw her lead the girls team at Harbor Springs High School to a stellar 22-3 record and finish the year as runner-up for the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan’s prestigious “Miss Basketball” award.

The Flynn family has relocated to Petoskey, where Braeden will play both football and basketball during his senior year.

Braeden sailed past the 1,500 career points mark at Harbor Springs last year, and was just 10 points shy of breaking the school’s all-time scoring record by the time the season came to a close. While a change of schools means Braeden won’t join his sister in the annals of Harbor Springs High—Olivia scored over 2,300 points for the school, handily smashing the previous all-time scoring record of 1,641 points—we’re still excited to see what Braeden can do on the court as a senior. Last season, the point guard led Harbor Springs to a 21-4 record and a runner-up finish in the Lake Michigan league, behind Elk Rapids. This year, he’ll aim to boost the fortunes of Petoskey, which finished last season with a rare losing record.

Sidney Richmond

School: TC Central
Sport: Volleyball
Graduation year: 2026

Proudest accomplishment: “Winning our school’s first-ever volleyball regional title,” Richmond says. “That team meant a lot to the school’s volleyball program and to me personally.” One thing that made the experience so special for Richmond? Sharing it with her sister: team co-captain, starting setter, and 2025 graduate Marley Richmond.

Goal for the year: Richmond hopes to build the same type of “strong bond” with her teammates that powered last year’s winning team. “Building the trust and positive relationship within the team makes it easier for everyone to connect and play well together,” she says.

Next steps: Though she hasn’t decided on her post-high-school plans yet, Richmond says her goal is “to continue playing volleyball at the college level.”

Why we’re watching: Perhaps our favorite local sports story to follow during the 2024-25 school year was the dominance of the Traverse City Central volleyball squad. The Trojans enjoyed their best season in program history last fall, finishing the year with 39 wins and just two losses. Both of those losses came at the hands of Rockford, which ultimately ended Central’s season in the quarterfinal game of the Division 1 state playoffs. Still, that’s the deepest playoff run Trojan volleyball has ever made, and it came with a third straight district title and a program-first regional victory. Not too shabby.

Only two members of last year’s game-changing squad were seniors, which means most of the team is returning for a second bite at the apple this year. Richmond is one of those players, and she’s an easy one to watch for a lot of reasons. For one thing, Richmond is Central’s “libero,” the name for the specialized back row defensive player who sports a different-colored jersey than the rest of their teammates.

For another thing, Richmond is simply a lot of fun to watch on the court, with sharp reflexes, lightning-fast speed, and a fearless willingness to hit the deck when necessary to save a ball. Last year, in the regular season alone, Richmond tallied 265 digs—good enough to rank her as the sixth best libero in the state of Michigan, according to MaxPreps. Let’s see if she can get to number 1—the number that, incidentally, she already sports on her jersey.

Hawthorn Sutherland

School: Glen Lake
Sport: Tennis
Graduation year: 2027

Proudest accomplishment: For Sutherland, the big point of pride is how well he’s done in his previous two seasons of varsity tennis. We’d be proud, too: Though he’s only a junior—and the only underclassman on our list this year—Sutherland already has two state runner-up finishes under his belt.

Goal for the year: Sutherland is moving up a flight for Glen Lake tennis this year to No. 1 singles. Sutherland says his personal goal is “to try and make it to the state finals match” in the top flights. “But the main goal is trying to win states as a team this year,” he says. “We came really close, but ended up second last season.”

Next steps: “I will definitely continue playing tennis in my free time,” Sutherland says. “I might also consider trying to play college tennis somewhere close to home, or maybe out west with my brother.”

Why we’re watching: That “brother” Sutherland mentioned above is Colebrook Sutherland, a Glen Lake sports dynamo who broke four track and field records and also occupied the No. 1 singles slot for all four years of high school. The elder Sutherland graduated last spring, which means it’s Hawthorn’s time to shine.

Not that he wasn’t shining already. With the Sutherland brothers occupying the top two slots on the Glen Lake boys tennis squad last year, the team won their first regional title since 2002. And at the Division 4 state finals, the Lakers came within 10 points of a state title. Hawthorn looked like he was bound for an individual title after toppling Division 4’s top-seeded No. 2 singles player in the semifinals. But while Sutherland ultimately lost in the finals, he put up a heck of a fight.

While Glen Lake boys tennis has seen five key players graduate, including Colebrook Sutherland and Division 4’s No. 3 singles state champion Michael Houtteman, the shakeups haven’t slowed the team down. As of press time, the Lakers are off to an undefeated start to the season, with Hawthorn maintaining a 10-3 record in his first few weeks at No. 1 singles.

Tyler Thompson

School: Traverse City St. Francis
Sport: Baseball
Graduation year: 2026

Proudest accomplishment: “Definitely winning the 2025 baseball state championship this past spring with my coaches and teammates,” Thompson says. “I was also thrilled about being named second-team All-State shortstop and Record-Eagle defensive player of the year.”

Goal for the year: Thompson is taking things one step at a time as he and his team prepare to follow up the Glads’ title-winning run from last season. He says he wants “to be a good leader both on and off the field” and to “stay focused and locked in” in hopes of putting St. Francis “back in position to have another chance of winning the state title.”

Next steps: “I definitely want to pursue baseball at the next level,” Thompson says, noting that he has “opportunities to play in college” but hasn’t decided where he wants to go just yet.

Why we’re watching: The athletic program at Traverse City St. Francis is no stranger to state championship teams. The school’s football program alone has brought home six state titles, most recently in 2009. When it comes to baseball, though, it had been 35 years since the last time the Gladiators had hoisted a trophy. The drought came to an end this past June, when St. Francis overcame Marine City to win the Division 3 state title game 5-4. It was the Glads’ third championship game in eight years, but the first of those three to convert to a win.

Thompson was key to that victory, scoring two runs, including one that put St. Francis up 5-0 in the fourth inning. That run proved crucial. While Marine City mounted a strong comeback throughout the remaining three innings of the game, Thompson’s second score kept the Gladiators just out of reach of their opponents.

Thompson was also critical in punching the Glads’ ticket to the big show, contributing pitch-perfect plays on both offense and defense to beat University Liggett 4-3 in the D3 semifinal. That game was a rematch of the 2021 state final, in which Liggett had mercied St. Francis in a brutal 12-0 game. We’re excited to see what kind of difference one year of extra training and fitness will make for Thompson during his senior season.