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Charter school teams in recent years have been winning state championships at an amazing clip, certainly dispelling the notion that charter schools don’t offer sports.
Particularly in basketball and track, Michigan’s charter schools have been picking up more hardware than you’ll find at Home Depot. Team state champions, individual statechampions, All-American honors, and more.
And it all started with a group of girls at Crossroads Charter Academy in Big Rapids who beateveryone in 2004 to win the Division 4 cross-country state championship – the first charter school state championship team in Michigan history.
Then, with virtually the same team in place, they turned around and did it again in 2005, winning back-to-back state titles.
As we celebrate the success that Michigan’s charter schools have enjoyed in the world of sports, it’s appropriate to begin by recognizing and honoring the OG’s – the first in a long line of champions. So here’s a look back at the team that started it all.
Crossroads CharterAcademy opened in Big Rapids in 1998, and one of the first students to enroll was a local girl named Nicole Erler.
“I started at the school when it opened in ’98, and my parents worked in Big Rapids,” she said. “We lived in a different town just a little bit north of there. We were just looking for a different option. I was going to the Catholic school at that time, and then they heard the charter school was opening.”
Nikki Erler enrolled and immediately met some of the girls who would become teammates and lifelong friends. They realized that one of the things they had in common was that they liked to run, so when one of their school administrators, Kendall Schroeder, announced that he was starting a cross-country team at Crossroads, they were all in.
“We opened that charter school in ’98, and that first year we didn't have a cross -country team, but that second year we did,” Schroeder said. “That was always a passion of mine, and so we started it, and it was the fall of ’99, and then just started it with fourth, fifth, and sixth graders basically just at recess time running around the playground.”
That evolved into middle school and high school cross-country teams, and by the time Nikki Erler and her friends were juniors, they were one of the best teams in the state.
Along with Nikki, the other starters and standouts on the team were Rebecca Monroe, Stacy Leyder, Katie Thorne, Rachel Thorne, and Caryn Reynolds. There were a dozen or so other girls who filled out the bulk of the roster.
Since charter school teams were a new thing in Michigan, people didn’t know what to expect when a school called Crossroads Charter Academy started showing up at meets and winning.
“We were looked at more like a homeschool group because they didn't really know a lot about us,” Schroeder said. “They weren’t really sure what a charter school was. But all the West Michigan teams and coaches welcomed us with open arms, and all the other Division 4 teams in the state also welcomed us.”
Still, no one knew what to expect when all the Division 4 teams in the state gathered at Michigan International Speedway in October for the state meet. The CCA Cougars had been doing so well throughout the season that even the Detroit Free Press took note of what was happening.
The Free Press did a big sports story before the 2004 meet that was headlined, “Fast progress at charter school: Girls on top-ranked small team think big.”
The story said, “Acharter school has yet to win an MHSAA state championship in any sport, but the Cougars’ six-member team is making a strong bid to be the first.”
Which is exactly what happened. Cross-country is a unique sport, though, because the team that wins it all doesn’t immediately recognize that it has won it all. You have to wait until all the runners finish, and then you add up the placings of all your runners. (First place gets one point, second place gets two points, etc.) The team with the lowest total score wins.
“It was kind of between us and Traverse City St. Francis, and it took a while for them to add everything up,” Nikki said. “I think Kendall was adding everything up, and he came over and said, ‘Hey, I think we won!’ ”
They did indeed. And a short while later, the girls from Crossroads Charter Academy climbed onto the top step of the podium and claimed the trophy as the first charter school state champion ever.
“I think that was kind of one of the first times that we felt accepted into the community as a charter school, as a school alternative,” Nikki said. “Everyone at the school was so proud of us, and the community was so proud of us, too. And that was really the first time we felt fully accepted.”
With almost the same team intact, the CCA Cougars turned around and did it all again in 2005, winning their second state title. The significance wasn’t lost on their coach.
“Yeah, we were trailblazers,” Schroeder said. “I think we kind of thought of ourselves as trailblazers in a way, too, and we took pride in that, but we weren't. I don't know if we were fully aware of that at that time. We did show people that there is value in this type of school. And it's not just about school. It's about the relationships that you build and the people that you meet and the connections that you make. I think that gives value to those parents' choices and the students' choices. It was really a magical moment, certainly.”
Nikki said the members of the 2004 and 2005 teams keep in touch, mostly via text or social media, but they’ll all be coming together in person at the 2026 Charter Day at the Capitol in Lansing on April 22 to be officially honored and recognized as the original charter school statechampions.
Their coach, Kendall Schroeder, will be there, too.
It’s also interesting to note that both Kendall and Nikki are still involved in the charter school world. Kendall is the Headof School at the Michigan Great Lakes Virtual Academy, and Nikki – who is now Nicole Kantz – is a science teacher at MGLVA.
“I get to teach the fun classes, like forensic science and environmental science,” she said.
There have been dozens of other charter school state champions in the 22 years since then, but it all started with those six slender girls who raced around the grounds at the Michigan International Speedway and beat ’em all.
All hail the Crossroads Charter Academy Cougars.
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