Tag Archives: Irvin Sigler III

Wyoming high’s Irvin Sigler honored as West Michigan Officials Association’s Coach of the Year

Wyoming high head coach Irvin Sigler at a press conference. (WKTV/K.D. Norris)

By Zach Cantalice, WKTV intern

ken@wktv.org

Wyoming’s High School’s head football coach Irvin Sigler was supposed to be awarded the West Michigan Officials Association’s Coach of the Year award at an association ceremony early this year. But then came COVID-19, and pubic ceremonies were put on hold.

While he did received the honor over the summer, during a socially-distant visit form association officials, Sigler says the honor was special none-the-less.

“I feel very honored, but it is truly a reflection of our program, players and assistant coaches,” Sigler said to WKTV. “It is more significant than any award I’ve received in coaching.”

And the reason is simple, Sigler said: “It comes from officials, who don’t get much recognition and thanks for what they do. But without whom we would have no game.

“It means so much to me, because officials have the chance to see coaches at our best and our worst. To know that I’ve earned the respect of this group of men tells me that we are doing things right as a team and program.”
 

And Coach Sigler, who is also the Dean of Students at Wyoming high, wants his players to win off the field as well as on at the field.

“I want to continue for us to portray the best values of sportsmanship, and ambassadors of the game,” he said. “I want our players to take pride in knowing that their attitude and behavior are respected by the ‘gatekeepers’ of the game.”

During a pandemic-shortened football season, Sigler said his expectations for his team are equally simple.

“To get better every day, be a great practice team and play as hard as we can on Friday nights,” he said .”That we will continue to honor the game and our community. That we will continue to treat people with dignity and respect.”

Wyoming looks to get back to winning ways in WKTV’s OK-Gold featured game

The Wyoming High School football team at practice this week. (WKTV)

By Micah Cho/WKTV Intern

ken@wktv.org

 

After opening the season with three 2017 playoff teams, Wyoming High School is looking to come out of Week 4 strong with a win over another playoff team, South Christian, this week. Both teams are coming off of Week 3 losses.

 

Wyoming (0-1 in OK-Gold/ and 1-2 overall) was able to capitalize two weeks ago with a win against Comstock Park, a team that went 7-4 with a playoff run last year.

 

Wyoming High School football coach Irvin Sigler. (WKTV)

“We came out of the gate with four playoff teams and so we have to be at that caliber of football right from the very beginning.” Coach Irvin Sigler said when WKTV visited the Wolves practice field this week. “The thing we did best against Comstock Park is how we started. We started fast, played really hard, and we were able to hold onto a win.”

 

Sigler has nothing positive things to say about his season so far. The Wolves had a well-synched defense in the first game against Holland and a well-played game on both sides of the ball in the second game against Comstock Park — both of which has shown what the Wolves are capable of.

 

“It’s really kind of finding our rhythm and make sure we’re doing things the way that we’re coached to do them,” he said. “We talk a lot to our kids about attitude and effort with those being the only things we can control.”

 

With the Wolves preparing for Friday nights game, it’s important to remember that Wyoming is a rebuilding program, with Sigler in his second year at the school. A win against South Christian Friday night could establish the Wolves as a team to watch this season.

 

“Well, they’re a playoff team, they’ve got a great tradition and they have a great coaching staff,” he said about the Sailors. “Their players have grown up believing in what they do, so it’s a great tradition (and) program and the kids always play very hard and do what they’re supposed to do, so we’re gonna have to do that and do it better if we want to win this game.”

 

 

These and other sports events are cable broadcast either live, immediately after the event and/or in rebroadcast, on Comcast WKTV Channel 25 and on AT&T U-Verse Community 99.

 

WKTV’s featured football games are rebroadcast on the night of the game (Thursday or Friday) at 11 p.m. and Saturday starting at 11 a.m. See WKTVjournal.org/sports for complete schedules.

 

WKTV’s coverage of high school sports and select community events are also available on-demand within a week of the event at wktvondemand.com.

 

Some of the biggest stories of 2017 for Wyoming and Kentwood

2017 top story: Grace Bible College’s Kate Shellenbarger makes a difference by working with Wyoming police Det./Lt. James Maguffee. (WKTV/K.D. Norris)

As 2017 comes to a close, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the most popular stories for the cities of Kentwood and Wyoming.

 

In compiling this list, I took a look at both page views on a story, which indicates the number of people who clicked on the article, and also social media statistics. The result is a mix of both most read and shared articles from the WKTV Journal website.

 

One of the most read stories, and shared extensively on social media, was Grace Bible College student ‘part of solution’ to local human trafficking problem and almost tied was Grab a seat – the eagles are back and viewing is easy through online sites, written by WKTV contributor Catherin Kooyers.

 

 

In fact, the City of Wyoming had several of our most read and shared stories which included Wyoming’s Spring Carnival is back at new location, Lamar Park and Wyoming set to have a brew, or two with Two Guys Brewery.

 

A room with a view: The partnership to make the Kelloggsville Library a community library wrapped up the year and our list for most read and shared stories of 2017.

Other top Wyoming stories were:

 

Wyoming Public Schools seek millage extension to modernize buildings, expand high school

 

New Godfrey Lee district board member brings Latinx perspective to educational leadership

 

Ribbon cutting celebrates redevelopment of former Wyoming Village Mall to 28 West Place/ With commercial and city cooperation, grand opening of 28 West Place more than a ribbon cutting

 

Intersecting of 56th and Ivanrest scheduled to get traffic signal

 

‘Boots and Badges’ brings first responders, community together for day of appreciation and fun

 

Wyoming seeks to open up library maintenance millage for park improvements

 

Get to know your neighbor at the first-ever Wyoming Winterfest/It may have been warm but WinterFest was a success

 

 

The first Kentwood City Commission met on Feb. 27, 1967. The city kicked off its 50th anniversary by hosting a commission meeting on Feb. 27, 2017.

The biggest event that took place in the City of Kentwood was the city’s year-long 50th anniversary celebration, so it only makes sense that many of the most read and shared Kentwood stories centered around the celebration. Some of those stories were:

 

Kentwood 50: Kentwood’s fifth graduating class celebrates its 50th anniversary

 

Kentwood kicks off year-long 50th anniversary celebration with a special city commission meeting

 

Kentwood 50: Opening celebration brings dignitaries to town

 

Kentwood 50: City recognizes establishments that have been apart of the community for 50 years or more

 

Celebrating Kentwood is what this upcoming weekend event is all about

 

Kentwood hosts Trunk or Treat event Oct. 21

 

Kentwood gives summer a final hurrah with food truck festival

 

 

The Wyoming Kentwood Area Chamber of Commerce kicked off the year with some of the hottest news: the 2016 Chamber Award winners which included Chamber names Valorous Circle ‘2016 Service Business of the Year,’ Lacks Enterprises named manufacturer of the year by chamber, and Craig’s Cruisers named retail business of the year by chamber. Another popular Chamber story was on the  2017 SouthKent Expo: More than 80 vendors scheduled for this year’s SouthKent Expo.

Wyoming high head coach Irvin Sigler, at a preseason press conference. (WKTV/K.D. Norris)

 

 

There was a lot going in local sports including the newly appointed Wyoming High School Football Coach Irvin Sigler III and in fact one of the top shared sports stories was Wyoming football team learning, growing under new coach’s guidance. Another top sports story was the September piece Godwin Heights honors one of its own, Chris Pulliams, prior to home football game, recognizing the longtime athletic director and teacher.

 

 

In entertainment, theater stories did quite well with everyone loving the story of Kira Alsum in Local resident takes the Civic Theatre stage in upcoming production of ‘Annie.’ taking a top spot. In fact, readers seemed to really enjoy hearing of the accomplishments of many of our local thespians with other Civic Theatre stories such as Civic Theatre’s ‘Fancy Nancy’ features Kentwood resident in lead and Four local residents celebrate the wisdom of Dr. Seuss in Civic Theatre production were popular as well. Another well shared and popular entertainment story was Retirement’ on the menu for owners of Pal’s Diner.

 

Jason Morrison as Oliver Warbucks with Kentwood’s Kira Alsum as Grace Farrell in Grand Rapids Civic Theatre holiday production of “Annie”

Other top WKTV Journal 2017 entertainment stories were:

 

For semi-serious beer-fueled runners, a new pub run/crawl series

 

Public Museum’s Beer Explorers pairs beer, doughnuts this month

 

Reciprocal membership benefits for GRPM members with Mt. Pleasant Discovery Museum 

 

On Tap: Cedar Springs Pub Crawl or passport stops, your call after Black Friday

 

Still available, Jamie, from Crash’s Landing.

 

Who does not love a good animal story? Through partnerships with such groups as Crash’s Landing and the Humane Society of West Michigan, we have featured a number of adoptable animals and of the top five, Nessarose, Jamie, Heihei, Cuervo, and Salsa (All from Crash’s Landing), three have been adopted, Nessarose’s adoption is pending and Jamie is being fostered.

 

 

Wrapping up our list of the 2017 biggest stories is Kelloggsville, KDL join together to open high school library to entire community, which I could not think of a better way to cap off the year. The story, which was published in December and did remarkably well for the short time it has been up, serves as an excellent example of how various community groups working together can find a way to fill a need. Those partnerships are what has enabled the cities of Wyoming and Kentwood to accomplish some pretty amazing things, as you can tell from this list of 2017 most read and shared stories.

 

And with that said, we look forward to covering the amazing things that both the cities of Wyoming and Kentwood accomplish in 2018.

 

Victoria Mullen contributed to this story.

Wyoming football team learning, growing under new coach’s guidance 

The Wyoming High Wolves on the field, in the team’s opening-season game and a WKTV featured game. The team will again be featured with WKTV coverage this week. (WKTV)

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

 

Wyoming High School head football coach Irvin Sigler III would likely call it an “opportunity” not a “challenge”, but he had to know his team was going to have some growing pains this season after he took over the program midway though the summer.

 

With new coaches and a new system, the Wolves experienced some competitive, and not-so-competitive, games as it opened the season 0-5 including tough losses to OK Gold Conference powers Grand Rapids Christian and East Grand Rapids.

 

But with Sigler’s first win leading the Wolves last week, a 33-21 home win against conference foe Middleville Thornapple Kellogg, the coach thinks his team is close to flourishing in the new system.

 

Wyoming head coach Irvin Sigler (WKTV)

“There’s always that question in the back of your mind, and this game definitively answered it for us,” Sigler said, in an interview with WKTV. “We understand now what it takes to win a game and how to accomplish that.  (It was a) major milestone as far as I am concerned.  Something we really had to work at.

 

“The most important thing we did (against Middleville T-K) was battle through adversity. We had a lot of tough situations, some self-imposed with turnovers, and yet found a way to stay together and figure out how to win.”

 

Wyoming has experienced its share of “tough situations” so far this season.

 

After staying close until late in its season opening game, a 28-6 loss to Holland, and the Wolves (1-5, 1-3 in the OK Gold Conference) played three of their next four games on the road with a 20-16 home loss to Wayland being their most competitive contest.

 

After another road game this week, against another conference power — South Christian (5-1 2-1 in OK Gold) — Wyoming will close the season with two more home games, a non-conference tilt against Greenville (3-3, 1-3 in OK White) and a conference game against Forest Hills Eastern (3-3, 2-1).

 

And Sigler expects his team will continue to grow within the new system and strive to be competitive week-in and week-out, for several reasons.

 

The first reason is that his team is learning from their sometimes-hard lessons, both on and off the field.

 

“I tell our kids that a football game is a microcosm of life,” Sigler said. “There will be great things that happen and really tough things. We’ve got be resilient in the face of both. We’ve got to handle both situations with equal grace.  Learn how to do that, and you learn how to navigate in life.”

 

Another reason for optimism is that he has players getting back from injury and players who have set an example for the rest of the team, win or lose.

 

He said that senior Donnie Buentello and junior J’Darious (JD) Jones, both running backs, have gotten healthy and “are starting to play really well. Donnie is a very quick and shifty runner, JD is a more of a one-cut and slash type player.  The compliment each other very well.”

 

He also said the offensive line has solidified as senior Elijah Harden has moved into the right tackle position and “started playing really well”, as has senior tight end Grant Nabors.

 

On the defensive side, Sigler praised junior Rush Bash, the team’s leading tackler, as a “big hitter” who is getting comfortable in the new defensive scheme. He also pointed out senior defensive ends Sean Dewent and Travis Wright — “As these two go, our team goes, (and) both had great games against TK. Both … do a great job as leaders on our team.”

 

Sigler made special point of pointing out senior offensive and defensive lineman Jackson McClure: “Playing both ways on the offensive and defensive line, he’s had a great season and his strength and durability have allowed him to be a two-way player in the toughest of positions.”

 

The final reason Sigler sees optimism for his team to finish this season and in the future is the work being done at the junior varsity level.

 

“Our JV team has had a really difficult year,” Sigler said. “They’ve not had the numbers for a game every week — yet they have really toiled to get better and have given a great deal to our program. It’s hard to practice on weeks when you know that you won’t have a game. Yet these guys have really done special work and we feel they are going to have a great contribution to our future.”

 

That future starts with the teams remaining three games of this season.

 

The Wyoming against South Christian game, to be played at Byron Center Friday, Oct. 6, is the WKTV featured football game of the week and will be broadcast the night of the game on Comcast Channel 25, usually at 11 p.m., and repeated on Saturday at 11 a.m. on WKTV Comcast Channel 25 and AT&T U-verse Channel 99 in Wyoming & Kentwood.

 

For a complete schedule of all local high school sports action each week, any changes to the WKTV feature sports schedule, and features on local sports, visit wktvjournal.org/sports/

 

New Wyoming Wolves coach talks football, student mentorship on WKTV’s ‘In Focus’ 

New Wyoming High School football coach Irvin Sigler, at his introductory press conference in June. (WKTV/K.D. Norris)

WKTV Staff

news@wktv.org

 

On the latest episode of “WKTV Journal: In Focus”, WKTV’s public affairs show, we bring to the public a discussion with Irvin Sigler III, Wyoming High School’s new head football coach and dean of students.

 

In the discussion with on “In Focus”, which will air twice a week on WKTV channels starting this week and running through Aug. 27, WKTV’s Ken Norris talks to “Coach Sig” about his on-the-field work with the Wolves but also the “opportunity” of his off-the-field work for all the students at the school.

 

“I don’t know that I see challenge (with his dean of students position), what I see is tremendous opportunity,” Sigler told WKTV. “The ability to interact and work with a wide variety of students. The ability to spend time one-on-one with them. To be able to help them, and advocate for them.”

 

Taking the dual job at Wyoming, he said, “was a slam dunk once we talked about the teaching position in the building, because I feel like I have tremendous passion for helping people to succeed.”

 

As part of WKTV’s season-long football coverage schedule, the station’s cameras and announcers will be at Sigler’s first game leading the Wolves, Thursday, Aug. 24, a home game against Holland.

 

“WKTV Journal: In Focus” will start airing on Tuesday, Aug. 15, the program will air on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 6:30 p.m., on cable television in the Wyoming and Kentwood areas on Comcast WKTV Channel 26 and on AT&T Channel 99 Government channel.

 

Visit here for a YouTube video of the Coach Irvin Sigler segment.

 

Wyoming High names Hope College’s Sigler as new football coach

New Wyoming High School football coach Irvin Sigler, at his introductory press conference Tuesday, June 20. (WKTV/K.D. Norris)

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

 

Wyoming High School’s new head football coach will be Irvin Sigler III, a Michigan Man who comes to the school after most recently serving as the offensive coordinator at Division III Hope College, Wyoming Public Schools announced today at a mid-day press conference.

 

Sigler was a graduate assistant at University of Michigan in the early 1990s while earning his master’s degree.

 

Sigler will succeed as Sam Becker, who left Wyoming after two years to take the head coaching position at Kenowa Hills High School. Becker took over a Wolves program that had a combined 1-17 record in the two years prior and led them to records of 3-6 in 2015 and 5-4 in 2016.

 

From left to right, Nate Robrahn, Wyoming high principal; Ted Hollern, Wyoming Public Schools athletic director; Irvin Sigler, new Wolves head football coach; and Dr. Thomas Reeder, WPS superintendent. (Supplied.)

“Coach Sigler provides us the opportunity to build upon work already started rather than to start over,” Wyoming Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Thomas Reeder said in supplied material. “He will take the program to an even higher level.”

 

Sigler will be the high school’s dean of students as well as leading the Wolves football program.

 

“As I told the kids this morning,” Sigler said at the press conference. “There are three things I strive to do, when I work with young people: Number 1 to be a great roll model, two to be a great teacher, and three to be the kind of coach that gets the best out of every player. That’s my goal, here, and I intend to do it for a long time. I intend to make a home here at Wyoming.”

 

Sigler has coached at both the high school and collegiate levels.

 

Prior to Hope College, he was an assistant head football coach and assistant track coach at Grand Rapids Christian schools, from 2013-15.  He served as head football coach at Jenison High School from 2008-12. His prior coaching experiences include Kell High School in Marietta, Ga., Grandville High School from 1998-2004, and Cadillac High School from 1993-97.

 

In addition to his head coaching duties, Sigler has experience teaching both physical education and Social Studies.

 

“Outside of getting an excellent football coach, one of the things that is most exciting is the additional things that Coach Sigler brings to the table,” Wyoming Public Schools Athletic Director Ted Hollern said in supplied material.

 

“It is a tremendous opportunity for our community and all our kids,” Hollern said at the press conference. “Some of the initiatives that he has done in the past that he will bring to Wyoming, will be absolutely terrific, especially in regards to his leadership programs … academic programs he plans on bringing, that he has brought to other schools, that he plans on bringing to Wyoming high school. … And one of his biggest goals is for the opportunity to teach young people to become great citizens.”

 

Sigler’s coaching accomplishments, in addition to his time at U-M, include MHSAA Regional Coach of the Year in 2001 and 2003 while at Grandville, the MHSFCA Community Service Award in 2009. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from Adrian College in 1990 and his Master of Science in Kinesiology from the University of Michigan in 1992.

 

Sigler’s wife Erin is a sixth-grade teacher at Bauerwood Elementary in Jenison. They have four children: Tyler, Caden, Sydney and Riley.