Soccer team’s state title honored in Grosse Pointe Woods

GROSSE POINTE WOODS — Grosse Pointe Woods Mayor Arthur Bryant and the Woods City Council recently acknowledged some outstanding athletes for a season that culminated in a major victory.

During the City Council’s Aug. 7 meeting, Bryant read a proclamation in honor of the Grosse Pointe North High School girls soccer team, which on June 16 won the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 2 soccer state championship, a first for this North team.

Bryant called it “a wonderful thing to have happen in our city.”

According to the proclamation, coach Olivia Dallaire, who played soccer for four years for Michigan State University, was herself a former member of the North girls’ soccer team.

Dallaire and the team members were on hand to receive a copy of the proclamation and be publicly recognized.

This wasn’t an easy season for the Norsemen, but they never gave up, even when they were behind in key games — a tenacity that contributed greatly to their state win. In the championship game against East Grand Rapids, they won by a score of 3-2 in a shootout, after coming back from being down by 2-0. As the proclamation notes, “Going into the post season with a record of 4-7-7, and winning just one game in the Macomb Area Conference Red Division, they were often referred to as the underdog or Cinderella team as they finished 5th in their division.”

The proclamation said Dallaire’s decision to change the offense in the second half of the state championship game, along with “phenomenal” goaltending by Grace McCormick, enabled the team to come back from a deficit to win it all.

Bryant said the “outstanding accomplishments” of the coaches, team and volunteers reflect “so well on the Grosse Pointe Woods community.”

Commemorative signs for the championship were created to mark this occasion as well. City Administrator Frank Schulte said the signs would be going up “at all of the entrances to the city” Aug. 8.