By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — Four athletic standouts from Three Rivers High School’s history were inducted into the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame during a ceremony following the Wildcats’ girls’ basketball game Friday.
Amy Newell (Class of 2011), Drew Shutes (Class of 2010), Michael Peterson (Class of 1997) and Kirk Mason (Class of 1978) were honored with their plaques during the ceremony to a joyful crowd.
Each of the student athletes had fantastic careers with the Wildcats. The following is more info on each of the inductees:
Amy Newell – Class of 2011
Amy Newell was a leader of a few different Wildcat teams during her time at TRHS, playing four years of varsity basketball, one year of cross country, as well as four years of varsity softball for the ‘Cats from 2008-2011.
Most notably, Newell was the captain of the 2010-11 girls’ basketball squad that became the first girls’ basketball team in school history to reach the state finals, finishing as runner-up. The team finished with a 20-0 conference record that season and won the district and regional championship.
Individually, Newell racked up a number of accolades in 2011 in basketball, being named as a Kalamazoo Gazette Honorable Mention All-State, making the South Bend Tribune’s Michigan Dream Team, being named to the BCAM’s Best Class B Team, made Academic All-State, and made the Sturgis Journal’s All-Area Team.
In her lone year of cross country in her freshman year, Newell was named all-county in 2008.
Softball was where Newell made plenty of waves, making the Sturgis Journal’s All-Area Team all four years, and receiving a softball scholarship to the University of Toledo, where she played for a year before transferring to Trine University for softball and basketball for three years. With Trine, she broke the single-season MIAA conference record for RBI, was named First-Team All-Region, and helped take Trine to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Division 3 College World Series.
Academically, Newell was a four-year class president at TRHS, was a member of the National Honor Society and 4-H, and was a mentor at Three Rivers Area Mentoring. At Toledo, Newell made the Academic Dean’s List, and was a representative athlete for Toledo at the Mid-American Conference’s leadership symposium. At Trine, she was on the MIAA Academic Honor Roll, was the president of the National Chemical Engineering Honor Society chapter on campus, and was a transfer student mentor and student ambassador.
Newell graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, and worked for Pfizer up until recently as a manufacturing engineer and project engineer. She now lives just outside of Charlotte, N.C. with her husband and works for the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly as an associate director of operations, and is working toward her Ph.D.
Newell said her biggest memory in high school was the state finals basketball team, in particular the bonds the team shared through the season and the community support the team got.
“That was something I never experienced before and will be a lasting memory. All of the fans and the overall community support during that run was incredible,” Newell said. “The journey to get there was the coolest part, because that specific group had six seniors that year, and we’d been playing together since fifth grade. A lot of people remember that one season, and I think one of the coolest things was the blood, sweat and tears that went into that and having the support.”
Overall, Newell credited her parents, in particular her dad, for her success in high school athletics.
“My dad always went above and beyond as far as providing opportunities to fail and to learn and to practice and to grow. He coached me in both basketball and softball and Little League, and helped coach the softball team in high school,” Newell said. “He helped kind of pave the way through my collegiate years and into my professional career as well.”
Drew Shutes – Class of 2010
Drew Shutes was a three-sport athlete at TRHS, playing varsity football and basketball his junior and senior years and varsity baseball all four years of high school from 2007-10.
Shutes, who played for the Wildcats alongside his brother and fellow TRHS Athletic Hall of Famer Dan Shutes, was the captain of the 2009 football team and the 2010 baseball team, helping lead the football team to the Division 4 state finals and the baseball team to its only district championship in school history those years.
Statistically, Shutes is fifth all-time in school history touchdown receptions in a season with 10 in 2009, 10th all-time in school history in receiving yards in a season with 597 yards on 45 catches in 2009, and shares the MHSAA state finals record with three receiving touchdowns in a championship game. In baseball, he has the second-most home runs in school history with 17, including eight in his senior season in which he also sported a .500 average, .658 on-base percentage, 13 doubles, and 31 RBI.
He was All-State second team in 2009 and 2010 for baseball, All-State honorable mention in 2009 for football by the Detroit Free Press, and first-team all-conference in 2009 for football on offense and for baseball in 2009 and 2010.
Following high school, Shutes went on to play baseball for four years between Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Adrian College. At KVCC, he finished 14th in the country in RBI with 57 in 2012, was a two-year captain for the team, and won the MIAA conference and tournament championships at Adrian College in 2014 and 2015.
Today, Shutes lives in Kalamazoo with his fiancé, and works for a commercial excavating company in Paw Paw in its safety department.
Shutes called being inducted “humbling.”
“I remember being in high school myself and watching the hall of fame inductees and not really putting much thought into one day potentially being in myself,” Shutes said. “There’s a lot of athletic history here at the school, and to be mentioned in the same breath is cool. It’s not something I take for granted.”
Shutes recalled the story of the 2009 state finalist football team and how the squad came together to make the state finals after watching the 2003 state championship team, calling it “one of the most fun times of my life.”
“Our graduating class from middle school coming into high school, there were a lot of expectations and high hopes for our groups,” Shutes said. “I remember the photo [our rocket football team] took in front of the city limit sign in 2004, and the coaches brought us together and said, hey, when you’re old enough and seniors, you can have the same opportunity. We were young and didn’t fully understand what it meant at the time to win the state championship, but when we got older and were playing well, and we kind of understood senior year was going to be special.”
Overall, Shutes credited his parents and his brothers with his athletic success.
“There’s some athletic background with my mom and dad; they came from a couple families of athletes too, so we were blessed,” Shutes said. “With Dan and Sam, competing from five years old on, we were in that competitive mindset all the time, so it just kinda stuck as we got older.”
Michael Peterson – Class of 1997
Michael Peterson was a two-sport athlete at TRHS, having shined in both football and track and field from 1994-97.
Track and field was where Peterson shined, as he competed on varsity in all four years, and was a member of the Wolverine Conference Championship track and field team in 1997. He was a county champion and conference champion in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes and the 400-meter and 800-meter relays, qualifying for the state finals in all four events.
In football, Peterson was a member of the 1996 and 1997 Wolverine Conference championship teams, and in 1997 won MVP, received first-team all-conference and all-county honors, and was named to the Kalamazoo Dream Team Offense and the Detroit Free Press All-State Honorable Mention team.
Following high school, Peterson received a partial scholarship to attend Siena Heights University and run track for their team. He spent a year at Siena Heights before transferring to Western Michigan University, where he walked on to the football team and made the team in 1999 for one season. He currently lives in the Portage area and works in Battle Creek as a service representative at a senior living community in the area.
Peterson said it was “amazing” to be acknowledged for his athletic accomplishments with being inducted.
“It feels amazing to be recognized for the hard work and time that I put into sports in general,” Peterson said. “It’s something I get to share with my family, and it’s an opportunity to showcase the hard work I put in when I was younger and having something to speak about to my kids about what expectations are as athletes.”
His biggest memory from football was a rivalry game against Vicksburg, where he took the opening kickoff for a touchdown, and his biggest memory in track came from the state finals, where he finished in second place in the 200-meter dash from the No. 8 lane, a tough proposition for many runners.
“I had just made it out of the semifinals to make it into Lane 8, which people say is the worst lane to have,” Peterson said. “Out of the block and toward the finish line, I was looking for the guy I always lost to in the past, and there was no one here. Five meters out, there was a kid that was just his day, and he edged me out by a tenth of a second. It was the time I had never run before, and was enough to get me a collegiate scholarship. It was a great opportunity and experience.”
Overall, he credited the coaching staffs he worked with and his teammates for his athletic success.
“The coaching staffs gave me the opportunity to do well, and my teammates with football and track and field are some of the primary factors,” Peterson said.
Kirk Mason – Class of 1978
Kirk Mason was a standout athlete in three sports in his time at TRHS, competing for three varsity years in wrestling and baseball, as well as two years on the Wildcat football team.
In wrestling, Mason was the co-captain of the team in his senior year, winning the Coaches Award in 1978, and was first-team all-conference in 1976-78. At the time he graduated, he had the most career wins (61), most career pins (35) and most career takedowns in school history. He also placed in several tournaments, including taking home the White Pigeon Tournament championship in 1978, and was runner-up in the conference tournament multiple times to future state champion Randy Jensen.
In baseball, he was an all-conference honorable mention in 1978, raising his batting average 100 points his senior year, and in football, he was a first-team all-conference defensive lineman in 1978.
Today, Mason lives in Georgia an hour north of Atlanta, and works as a builder in the area.
Mason said he feels “lucky” to be inducted, but still felt pretty good about it.
“When you have these achievements and done these things, and it happened a long time ago, you’re not the same person anymore and you get some accolades like that for 45 years ago, that’s a pretty good deal,” Mason said.
Mason said sports was an outlet for him to succeed, because “things weren’t so easy” for him growing up.
“It was a way to reach a different level and a different standard,” Mason said. “I had some great people that took a lot of interest in me to make sure I was doing the right thing. I had a lot of great people involved.”
One of those “great people” Mason looked up to was former principal William Jacobs.
“He came to me my senior year and said, ‘look at yourself here, you’re one of our better athletes in the school, and I’d like to see your name and see where you’re at.’ I was below the halfway point in the senior class level, and he said, ‘let’s get you in the top half,’” Mason recalled. “You’re talking about 1978, somebody’s thinking about me and my future, and I took that personally, and we achieved that.”
Mason credited plenty of people for his success in athletics, notably his mom Gay Warner.
“My mom was a single parent, but she was the one out there hitting me baseballs and pushing me. She went to all the games, and she was the food cart for a lot of our summer ball games; everybody knew her,” Mason said. “I owe a lot to my mom for keeping me involved and getting me there and so on, even when it wasn’t easy for her.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@threeriversnews.com.