78 | SEPTEMBER 26 • 2019
heard about a tryout for the
football team in the winter of
my freshman year, so I decided
to go. I’
m very happy I made
that decision.”
Louis didn’
t get into any
games in the 2016 or 2017 sea-
sons, although he was named
Scout Team Player of the Week
twice in 2017 for his role in
helping U-M’
s special teams
prepare for wins over Air Force
and Rutgers.
He saw limited game action
in 2018, but enough to earn
a letter, and this fall, the
5-foot-11, 196-pounder is on
the kickoff and kickoff return
teams and a backup on the
punt and punt return teams.
A two-time Academic All-
Big Ten honoree (2017 and
2018), Louis was granted a
scholarship for the past winter,
spring and summer semesters.
“It’
s been a great, fun ride
playing football for U-M,” he
said. “I’
ve done what I could
do to help. I’
m always trying to
make myself into a better play-
er, and I’
ve accepted my role.
“There are so many details
to the game at this level. And
you have to make quite a com-
mitment.”
Louis played mainly in the
defensive backfield for the WL
Northern football team as a
junior and senior. He was on
the school’
s golf team for four
years.
Nathan brought a gymnas-
tics background to U-M. He
was looking to join a group at
U-M with his same interests,
he said, when he learned about
cheerleading tryouts.
Besides cheering at home
football games — he also got
to cheer at U-M’
s game at
Northwestern last season —
Nathan also cheers at home
men’
s and women’
s basketball
games.
U-M cheerleaders compete,
too.
Nathan (5-8½, 170 pounds)
helped the Wolverines win
the National Cheerleaders
Association Division 1A
national championship in April
in Daytona Beach, Fla.
He was a member of
Intermediate Coed Division
squad that won its division
title.
The brothers’
parents are
Michigan State University
grads. Their sister Heidi
Grodman,18, is a sophomore
at MSU.
Louis
Grodman
Nathan
Grodman
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Terrific Trio of Girls
Named High School
Athletes of the Year
T
he Jewish News and
Michigan Jewish
Sports Foundation
have been naming High
School Athletes of the Year
since 1991.
For the first time, three girls
are honorees in the same year.
They are Elle Hartje from
Detroit Country Day School,
Mikaela Schultz
from Bloomfield
Hills High School
and Dani Wolfe
from Walled Lake
Northern High
School.
Each girl
graduated from
high school this
spring and has
moved on to
play collegiate sports at the
Division I level.
Hartje is playing women’
s
hockey and women’
s soccer
at Yale University. Schultz is
playing on the University of
Michigan women’
s golf team
and Wolfe is playing women’
s
soccer at U-M.
“It was a difficult decision
(to select all three girls as
Athletes of the Year) and
at the same time, it was an
easy decision,” said longtime
selection committee member
Harry Glanz.
The decision was difficult
because there was no way to
eliminate any of the three
girls from consideration. The
decision was easy
because the three
girls are some of the
most accomplished
athletes — male or
female — ever to
win the award.
“These three girls
have been on the
committee’
s radar
for three or four
years,” Glanz said.
A philosophical change
made by the committee
several years ago to select the
best athletes for the award
each year regardless of gender
instead of only one male and
only one female also played
a role in this year’
s history-
making decision.
Hartje is one of the most
Elle Hartje
Mikaela Schultz
Dani Wolfe
Josh Nodler
sports HIGHlights
continued from page 76
continued on page 80