CADILLAC — It’s like you don’t even need to see Makenna Bryant in person to realize she’s a great athlete.

Then seeing her in action not only justifies the reputation, but improves it.

Michelle Brines. Laura Dahlquist. Travis Schuba.

All heard about Bryant before they were able to coach her. She’s more than lived up to expectations for the first two. For the third, that experience awaits.

Seeing is believing, and that’s why Bryant earned selection as the Record-Eagle’s 2019-20 Female Athlete of the Year.

Brines and Dahlquist both heard of Bryant before she ever stepped foot in Cadillac High School as a transfer from Newberry before her sophomore year.

“The word spread quickly that a girl who placed in state moved here,” said Dahlquist, Cadillac’s girls track and field head coach. “Sure enough, she was as good as advertised.”

Bryant had developed a name for herself in one season at Newberry prior to moving to Cadillac.

Bryant placed in the top-three four times at the 2017 Upper Peninsula’s Division 2 state finals — winning the 400 relay championship with her older sister Taylor, placing second in the 800 relay and taking third in the 100 and 300 hurdles.

She lettered in five sports as a freshman at Newberry — volleyball, cross country, basketball, softball and track.

Cadillac doesn’t allow dual-sport athletes, so Bryant settled on volleyball in fall and track for spring.

Brines brought Bryant up from junior varsity volleyball late in her sophomore season.

In a regional final match against Alma, Brines needed a replacement defensive specialist. Bryant stepped up and played well enough that Brines left her in the back row middle the entire match, which the Vikings won.

Bryant didn’t find out until the bus ride to the match that she’d be starting a regional championship game in her first varsity action.

“That spoke a lot about her,” Brines said. “She did an awesome job and set the tone for the kind of kid and athlete she is.”

Bryant’s basketball teams won back-to-back district titles, blazing undefeated through the Big North Conference in each of those seasons. Her volleyball squad won three straight district crowns, and the track team won the 2019 regional championship and she qualified for the Lower Peninsula state finals twice in hurdles.

Her family moved from Newberry to Cadillac when her father, Fred, accepted the Vikings’ athletic director job. He served as football and basketball coach for the Indians, as well as teaching.

“He knows everything,” Bryant said. “Every little thing that man knows. I couldn’t get away with anything.”

The bonus, however, was access to the gymnasium keys. Makenna would frequently pilfer the keys to get in extra shots. That’s one more reason why she’s one of the area’s top 3-point shooters.

Bryant averaged 13.4 points a game, 3.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.8 steals to earn first-team all-Big North Conference honors. The 5-foot-5 guard and Molly Anderson led the Vikings to a 23-1 record and regional finals entry when the season ended. The one game the Vikings lost, Bryant didn’t play in because of a leg injury.

Both Vikings basketball teams didn’t end their season with a loss, because of the sudden end when coronavirus worries shut down sports in mid-March while girls played regionals and boys battled in districts.

“It was just heart-breaking to be done and not know about it,” Bryant said. “Every team we beat, they gave it their all and knew when it was over. We didn’t get that.”

Bryant not only missed her senior track season, but her freshman campaign at Davenport University — playing for Schuba, the former Traverse City Central boys basketball coach — was pushed back until at least January by the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference because of COVID-19.

“It really does suck,” Bryant said. “As long as we still have a season, I’m totally fine with it, though.”

One small bonus is the GLIAC’s new women’s basketball format results in the Panthers playing every league school twice instead of once. That means Bryant gets to play against Lake Superior State and her older sister Taylor double the times in the one year they’ll overlap in college.

Losing a year of track also cost her a shot at defending their team regional title and qualifying for the Lower Peninsula state finals a third time. Still, Bryant won 27 meet titles at Cadillac.

“I felt like it was going to be one of our strongest seasons yet,” Dahlquist said.

Bryant set goals during each track practice, whether it involved the number of steps between hurdles, overall time or time in between certain hurdles.

“Sometimes I’d have to tell her, ‘There’s a meet tomorrow. Get off the track!’” Dahlquist said.

Bryant captained the volleyball team as a senior. She finished her Vikings volleyball career with 1,058 digs in two seasons, averaging four per set. She earned 13 varsity letters, eight with Cadillac and five at Newberry.

“You never had to worry if Makenna was working hard,” Brines said. “You knew Makenna is never going to be dogging it.”

Instead, Brines calls her a bulldog. Maybe not the tallest, but strong, feisty and determined.

Bryant walked down the Cadillac hallway on Tuesday. The Vikings happened to be having volleyball practice, and were down a defensive player. Brines didn’t have to ask twice if Bryant would fill in. In fact, she said, “Do you need someone tomorrow?”

At Davenport, she joins Kalkaska’s Kenzie Wilkinson on the Panthers’ roster, with Schuba as the new head coach.

Schuba still hasn’t met Bryant face-to-face, but the team has done many Zoom meetings. He’s noticed just in those online chats that she’s a vocal leader.

“Obviously, she can shoot it,” Schuba said of watching film of her. “And she’s a tough player, mentally and physically.”

Students move in this week, providing Schuba the opportunity to duplicate the coaching experiences of Brines and Dahlquist.