Bellaire, McBain Follow Longtime Leaders
March 22, 2016
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
TRAVERSE CITY – Stan Sexton and Bruce Koopman have been down this road before.
When Bellaire rallied to edge Buckley last Wednesday, it was the Eagles’ sixth MHSAA Class D Regional basketball championship since 2000 under Sexton.
When McBain knocked off Tawas that same night, it was the Ramblers’ sixth Class C Regional title since 2002 under Koopman.
Now, the two coaches are one win away from leading their programs to a fourth Final Four appearance at Michigan State’s Breslin Center.
In tonight’s Quarterfinals, Bellaire (24-1) faces Fulton (18-6) at Traverse City West while McBain (25-0) takes on Ishpeming Westwood (12-12) at Petoskey.
It should come as no surprise that McBain and Bellaire are still in the mix this last week of the season.
The Ramblers graduated just two seniors off a 22-3 squad that lost in the Quarterfinals to Boyne City last March.
“Having gone through those wars last year and having that experience back has paid huge dividends,” Koopman said.
Sexton can say the same. He returned a solid nucleus from a 19-4 team that lost in the Districts to Boyne Falls.
“We had a good team last year,” Sexton said, “but we could get rattled in tight games. We’ve really developed some poise and confidence this season.”
That was evident Wednesday when the Eagles withstood the pressure to pull out a hard-fought 61-57 victory over Buckley.
“That’s coach’s favorite word - poise, poise, poise,” junior Gabe Meriwether said after the victory. “He wants us to be calm and collected (on the court), to play stable and confident basketball. That’s what we did, and that’s why we won.”
McBain had it a little easier, downing Tawas 63-36 with point guard Garett Gugle leading the way with 19 points. He hit five 3-pointers.
Now, Gugle said, the Ramblers need to stay focused. And the sting from last season’s Quarterfinal loss should act as motivation, he said.
“At this point, everyone is even,” Gugle said. “They’re (Westwood) undefeated in the postseason, we’re undefeated.”
Playing on the big stage in March has become a tradition for both Bellaire and McBain.
The Ramblers won the 2002 Class C title with a lineup that included current Ferris State basketball coach Andy Bronkema, former NFL defensive end Dan Bazuin, and Trent Mulder, an all-Great Lakes Interscholastic Athletic Conference pitcher at Northwood.
This, however, is Koopman’s first team to reach the Quarterfinals undefeated. The 2002 squad lost two games – to eventual Class D champ Wyoming Tri-unity Christian and to Class A Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern – in a holiday tournament at Cornerstone University. Those losses, Koopman said, turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
“We never lost after that,” Koopman said. “That taught us we had to be tougher, more physical. Had we not played in that tournament, I don’t think we would have won (the Class C title).”
So how does this team compare to the 2002 squad?
“I don’t know if you can compare teams because there are so many variables,” he said. “I can tell you this, if this team wins another game or two, regardless if they win it all, they deserve to be mentioned in the top two or three during my time here.”
Bellaire came as close as a team can come to winning an MHSAA crown in 2005, only to be denied by Detroit Rogers 71-68 on a miraculous four-point play with 1.6 seconds left in overtime. The Eagles, led by brothers Brandon and Michael McClary, reached the Final Four three times in a four-year span. The McClarys went on to play at Olivet College where Michael became the school’s all-time leading scorer.
The players on this Bellaire team still remember those days.
“When we were younger we looked up to the McClarys when those teams were making their Breslin runs,” senior leader Hayden Niepoth said. “We saw that, and now we want to copy it.”
“They’ll ask, ‘Are we as good as the team of ’05?’” Sexton added. “We (coaches) have to say we don’t have any McClarys on this team, but we have some very good basketball players. We have that important trait the ’05 team had – we’re a team. We play together, we support each other.”
Sexton, who was inducted into the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan Hall of Fame in 2011, is in his 27th season as the varsity coach. He did a three-year stint from 1978-81, stepped down and then took the job again in 1992. During that span, he’s posted a 493-139 record, a 78 percent win mark.
Koopman is finishing his 22nd season as McBain’s varsity coach. He’s also won 78 percent of his games, compiling a 407-116 record.
To make it even sweeter, Sexton, 74, and Koopman, 50, are coaching at the same schools they attended.
Sexton’s backstory, though, is quite different than most. He did not play sports in high school. And he certainly wasn’t thinking of a coaching career until Bellaire’s head basketball coach Ed Stoneburner approached him one day at school.
“I was teaching fourth grade at the time,” Sexton recalled. “Ed came up and said, ‘I need a fifth and sixth grade basketball coach.’ I said, ‘I don’t know anything about it.’ He said, ‘That’s all right. We’ll teach you.’”
That was in 1971. To this day, Stoneburner’s influence is part of Sexton’s philosophy.
“What I really took from him was to play this game aggressively,” Sexton said. “Play it hard, play it with intensity. That’s what we preach and I think it shows, especially in our defense.”
Sexton also watched and learned from some of the area’s best coaches – Maple City Glen Lake’s Don Miller, Leland’s Larry Glass, Traverse City’s Jim Anderson and Central Lake’s Gary Johnson, among others.
“I’d pay my two or three dollars to get in, and I’d watch these guys coach,” Sexton said.
He would also pore over the boxscores that were published in the newspaper in those days. One line that caught his attention – team fouls.
“I noticed Glen Lake would always have 8, 9, 10 fouls and the other team would have 18, 19, 20 – with guys fouling out,” Sexton said. “Fouling is poor defense. When you’re sending people to the line you’re giving them a 70 percent chance (to score). That’s what impressed me about Glen Lake. You could see the discipline in Don’s teams.”
Sexton, who also coached girl’ varsity basketball for two years and the baseball team for nearly 20, is aided by a veteran coaching staff that includes Paul Koepke, Jeff Smith and George Mason. All three have been with him for years.
“Great coaches,” he said. “They bring a lot to the game.”
Koopman, meanwhile, played basketball at McBain under Hall of Fame coach Bruce Brumels in the early 1980s. After graduating, he spent a year working in a factory in Cadillac before enrolling at Central Michigan University.
Four years later in 1989, it was Brumels, then the principal, who hired Koopman as a teacher.
“I was very fortunate,” he said. “Everything fell into place.”
Koopman coached junior varsity basketball for five years under Steve Anderson before taking over the boys varsity program in 1994. In addition, he coached girls basketball from 1990-98 and again from 2003-07. He stepped down soon after the girls season switched to the winter. At that time, he also took on the boys JV coaching duties to go with the varsity.
Koopman cites two reasons for his program’s continued success – community support and great players.
“Let’s be honest,” he said. “Great players make good coaches.”
Perhaps another reason is that McBain starts initiating interest in basketball early on. Right after Koopman was hired, the school instituted a co-ed basketball program for elementary students in grades 3-6. It runs seven consecutive Saturdays, starting in January.
“We had close to 140 kids involved this year,” Koopman said.
The elementary program dovetails into the middle school, the feeder program for the high school. Interest has remained strong. Koopman said 29 players tried out for JV basketball this season.
Koopman – who was mentored by Brumels, Anderson and former girls coach Dale Marie DeZeeuw – brings an “old school” approach to coaching. His practices start with defensive drills, followed by rebounding drills.
“We have some practices where that’s all we do,” Gugle said.
After that comes the offensive drills, where once again discipline is required.
“I’m all about patience, working the ball and looking for that good shot,” Koopman said.
His players get the point.
“He likes the basics,” Gugle said. “Nothing fancy.”
Craig Sterk, a 6-foot-7 junior who “plays everywhere,” leads the Ramblers, averaging 15.2 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. Cole Powell, a 6-3 senior, and Logan Eling, a 5-10 junior, average better than 14 points per outing. Powell is in his fourth year on varsity.
“We have experience, balance and depth,” Koopman said. “We defend pretty well. We rebound pretty well.”
Gugle is in his second season running the point. That experience is invaluable, Koopman said.
“That’s another reason we’re better,” he said. “Whatever teams throw at us doesn’t faze him. He handles it and get us into our offense. He doesn’t look to score, but (Wednesday night) they were leaving him open and he was popping ‘em.”
It’s been an exciting winter for Koopman. His oldest daughter, Michaela, played on the girls varsity team, which advanced to the Regional Finals. His son, Jarrett, is a sophomore on the boys varsity.
The Ramblers were taken to the wire twice during the regular season – both in games outside the Highland Conference. A Jimmy Schneider 3-pointer at the buzzer beat Big Rapids, a Class B quarterfinalist, on the road early in the season. Then a Sterk 3-pointer in the waning seconds forced overtime in a late season win at Frankfort.
Bellaire’s only setback came early in the season to a red-hot East Jordan team, which won the Lake Michigan Conference.
The Eagles ran the table in the Ski Valley, handing Johannesburg-Lewiston its only two regular-season losses. Bellaire also downed Onaway, a Class D quarterfinalist, twice. The Eagles’ tournament resume includes wins over Boyne Falls, Frankfort and Buckley.
“It means a lot (to win a Regional),” Niepoth said. “But we’re not done. We don’t want to just get to the quarters, we want to get to the Breslin, and we want to win at the Breslin. That’s our goal. We just have to keep working and getting better every day.”
Meriwether and Niepoth are the catalysts for the Eagles, averaging 18 and 14 points per game, respectively. Niepoth is also the team’s defensive stopper and assists leader.
“He plays both ends of the court,” Sexton said.
Jamal Lockhart provided some big plays in the win over Buckley, scoring 14 in the low post.
But that’s history now. It’s all about the present and tonight’s Quarterfinals.
“Anybody can beat anybody at this stage,” Meriwether said. “It’s survive and advance.”
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Gabe Meriwether dunks for Bellaire against Fife Lake Forest Area, while McBain’s Cole Powell works for position in the post against Tawas. (Middle) McBain coach Bruce Koopman, far left, stands with his team after its Regional championship win. (Below) Bellaire’s Hayden Niepoth drives to the hoop against Mancelona. (Bellaire photos courtesy of Michael Smith and The Antrim Review; McBain photos courtesy of Marc Vieau and The Cadillac News.)
2018-19 Stacking Up With Best on Records
By
Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
March 29, 2019
What a sports year.
There certainly have been some amazing athletic feats over the 2018-19 high school season in Michigan, and it’s just two-thirds of the way complete.
This past fall, Kobe Clark of Schoolcraft scored nine touchdowns in a single game. Stunning!
The winter sports season saw Dylan Jergens of Marcellus Howardsville Christian top the MHSAA single season scoring record in boys basketball, finishing with 971 points. Incredible!
Then a freshman, Emoni Bates, hits for 31 points in an MHSAA Semifinal for Ypsilanti Lincoln. Wow!
So, how does that compare to years past?
First, let’s hit the pool!
SWIMMING
Across the world, as well as in Michigan, record performances seem to fall regularly in swimming. I’m certainly no expert on the sport, but research seems to indicate that optimization of stroke count, kicks and other body positioning (and not a change in the density of H2O) impact the lowering of recorded times in the water. The continued synchronization and optimization of movement may mean we’ll see regular improvement for years to come.
It’s telling that MHSAA all class/division records in eight of the 12 events that make up a girls meet have been set this decade. The remaining four marks date to 2002 or 2007, and are held by Kara Lynn Joyce of Ann Arbor Pioneer or Allison Schmitt of Canton. Joyce, of course, went on to post 18 NCAA championships and four silver medals won during three Olympic competitions. A freestyle specialist, Schmitt won eight Olympic medals across the 2008, 2012 and 2016 games.
This past fall, the triumphs of three athletes, in particular, stand out. Kathryn Ackerman set a new state mark in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:57:25. A junior, Ackerman’s time should place nationally in the top 15 all-time. With the 2018 season complete, she now holds the top four times in the event according to the MHSAA record book.
Senior Ashley Turak sprinted to a new Division I record of 22.10 in the 50 freestyle for Harrison/Farmington on the first leg of the 200 freestyle relay, as well as a time of 22.20 in the 50 freestyle. Both those times also rank in the national record books within the top 15. The MHSAA All-Class/Division Final Meet mark still belongs to Joyce, who posted a time of 22.04, set while leading off the 200 freestyle relay team in the Class A 2002 preliminaries.
Turak again mesmerized the crowd, this time in the 100-yard freestyle, posting a time of 48.72 seconds to win the event. Again, Joyce holds the Michigan All-Class/Division mark with a then-national record time of 48:59 set in 2002.
This November, Grand Ledge junior Lola Mull fell less than a half-second short of her own state mark in the 500-yard freestyle, set in the 2017 preliminaries. Mull owns the state’s top three times in the event, while Schmitt ranks fourth on the list.
Sub 20
A winter sport in Michigan, boys swimming is no different, with records in 10 of the 12 events set in the 2010s. Cam Peel of Spring Lake became the first in state history to break 20 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle, accomplishing the milestone twice this March, first in the prelim race with a record time of 19.86 and again in the finals at 19.91. The marks surpassed the previous best, set by Henry Schutte of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central one year ago, and also rank among the “Best of the Best” in the National Federation record book.
FOOTBALL
Clark’s nine touchdowns came in Schoolcraft’s 63-27 victory over previously undefeated Constantine in a Southwestern Athletic Conference contest. Thanks to steady rain in the first half, Schoolcraft stuck to the ground game, opening a 21-0 first quarter lead on three Clark touchdowns, one of eight yards, the second of 24, and the third of 10 yards. Constantine battled back to within eight points, 21-13 late in the second quarter, but Clark would score for Schoolcraft twice more during the final three minutes before halftime.
Following a 24-yard scamper, a partially blocked punt would set up Clark’s fifth rushing TD from two yards out with under a minute remaining before the break. (This appears to be a great moment to note that five players have scored five touchdowns in a single quarter). Clark added two TDs in the third quarter and two in the fourth.
Amazingly, Clark’s nine touchdowns and 54 points scored are not state records. In fact, two others have matched the touchdown and point count, while three others have exceeded the accomplishment in each category. Of course, each of those events occurred at least 90 years ago, decades before the introduction of the mercy rule in high school football.
For many years, Herb Dunphy was listed as the state’s record holder for a pair of seemingly untouchable records: touchdowns in a single game and points scored in a game. In 1917 he scored 10 TDs for Lansing Central and stood alone at the top.
But as time has proven again and again, the work of historians and researchers can alter what we believe. In 1986, research by Tom Pellow of Gwinn uncovered that Marmaduke “Duke” Christie of Escanaba had also scored 10 touchdowns, matching Dunphy’s output. In addition, Christie added six point-after-touchdowns that day, totaling 66 points, as Escanaba defeated Ishpeming 102-0 in November 1920.
“In my humble opinion, Escanaba high school in 1920 had one of the greatest football teams that ever misunderstood a signal in any language,” wrote Cy DeLynes, recalling the exploits of Christie and his teammates in the Escanaba Daily Press in 1929. “Christie was its captain. The Duke had a pair of collapsible ankles and he was able to play in only a part of four games. That, however, was just enough time to permit him to score 21 touchdowns and 38 out of a possible 50 points after touchdown – a total of 164 points. He led a backfield that made Knute Rockne’s Four Horsemen look like a quartet of super-annuated milk wagon drivers turning off the alarm clocks at 4 o’clock in the morning.”
A few years later, additional study of yearbooks and newspapers revealed the exploits of Cecil Hardy of Flint Central, again reshaping the scoring entries in the MHSAA record book.
In the 1914 season opener – a 106-0 blasting of Lapeer – Hardy carried for more than 300 yards. Within the first two minutes of play, the captain of the Flint squad had scored the first of 11 touchdowns – a “new” state mark.
“His end running was the feature of the game, his longest run being one for 50 yards and a touchdown on the first play after the kickoff. Time after time as he was making his long runs he appeared to be tackled and would wriggle out of the grasp of his opponent and run 15 or 20 yards further,” was the report of the day.
“How Is This For Football?”
Muskegon 216, Hastings 0
The Boston Globe paired the question with the football score from a Michigan high school game to readers in their Sunday edition back on September 29, 1912.
“Most of Muskegon’s touchdowns were scored on the kick-off,” stated the Globe, “and few required more than one down.”
The score was believed to be a “world’s record” for points scored in a game, at the time. Indeed, the total ranks as the tops in Michigan. Indeed, it was a record nationally, but would be surpassed on three occasions in the coming years, first in 1923, again in 1924 and finally in 1927. With today’s employment of the running clock, the scoring totals will never again be approached.
The score was 40-0 at the end of the first quarter, 102-0 following the second, and 150-0 after three quarters. Touchdowns were scored by nine different players, with six scoring multiple times. As byproducts, captain Fred Jacks finished with nine touchdowns, while Muskegon’s Nelson Stuit booted 24 of 30 extra points in the contest (another state mark that also will never be equaled).
“Although world’s records fell in the game it is not anything to be particularly proud of …” stated the Muskegon Chronicle in the prose of the time. “The visitors had about three men that knew a football from an eff, and those three could not make the Muskegon second team.”
One of the best, as it turned out, was Fred Rehor, Hastings’ “big 220 pound fullback” who would later play for Michigan, then professional ball in Ohio for the 1917 Massillon Tigers, coached by Knute Rockne.
As a result of the Muskegon-Hastings game, “at least three of the football elevens which contracted this year to meet Muskegon high school have begun to make excuses in line with those usually offered before a team quits such an engagement,” wrote the Lansing State Journal. Muskegon rolled up 499 points on the year, but ended a flawless season in defeat, 13-12 against rival Grand Rapids Central in the finale. The loss was blamed on overconfidence.
The aptly named Francis Tallent of Menominee, became the next player to score nine TDs in a game.
Tallent’s skills on the gridiron had been spotted in 1928.
“Standing out like a missing tooth in a front row of the chorus … (Tallent) revealed as speedy a pair of heels as one could ever hope to cast his optics on in a high school game,” wrote one reporter after witnessing the left halfback’s performance in the annual twin cities battle between Menominee and Marinette, Wis., then played on Armistice day. Tallent scored twice in that “M & M” game, a 26-0 win by Menominee.
After thumping Green Bay in its 1929 season opener and a “helpless” Oshkosh Normal (now known as the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh) freshmen team, 46-6, Menominee squared off for its game against “a light and green squad” from Kingsford.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tallent scored nine touchdowns that day on runs of 46, 72, 90, 64, 50, 37, 90, 85 and 63 yards. In total, the paper noted that Tallent gained 597 yards rushing in the 150-0 thrashing of Kingsford. Other sources noted that it was likely more, as the sum of only the TD runs equaled the 597 yard total. Kingsford would finish its seven-game season without scoring a point. According to the Kingsfordian, the school’s high school annual, the Kingsford players “were no match for the heavier and more experienced teams on the range” that school year.
Menominee’s success and Tallent’s football exploits prompted the Journal-Sentinel to send a reporter to the U.P. to cover the 1929 M & M game between the border schools later that fall. “Mr. Tallent, who runs like the well-known hare and who slips out of tacklers’ arms and hands like a piece of wet soap, scored four touchdowns in the course of the afternoon,” wrote the staffer. “All told, this Mr. Tallent rolled up 284 yards,” as the “pride of the peninsula walloped Marinette,” 49-0, before a crowd of 10,000. The score was “the highest ever piled up in 45 years of bitter rivalry between the two cities.”
Menominee ended the 1929 season undefeated and untied in eight games, scoring over a point-a-minute while claiming the Upper Peninsula championship and demanding statewide consideration for Michigan’s mythical crown. Tallent finished the season with 27 touchdowns.
BASKETBALL
After 35 years, one began to wonder if Mark Brown’s single-season scoring mark, set in 1984-85 during his days at Hastings, would ever be surpassed. Brad Redford, named Michigan’s Mr. Basketball, came close as a senior in 2007-08, falling 17 points shy of exceeding Brown’s total of 969. Prior to that, only Drew Neitzel of Wyoming Park had come within reasonable striking distance, but that happened a decade and a half ago.
This year, Jergens of Howardsville Christian finally topped the total, finishing with 971 points. Jergens accomplished the task in 24 games, two games fewer than Brown, but with the advantage of the 3-point shot. The three was implemented after Brown had headed to college. According to press reports, Jergens had four games of at least 50 points during the season.
Still standing, 40 years later, is Jay Smith’s high school career scoring mark of 2,841 points, set at Mio between 1976 and 1979. Jergens finished third on the list with 2,782 career points, including 320 career 3-pointers – second most in state history. Brown ranks second with 2,789 points scored between 1982 and 1985.
Freshmen
Few followers of prep basketball in Michigan could avoid coming across the name Emoni Bates, especially after the freshman phenom from Ypsilanti Lincoln knocked down 17 points in the Quarterfinals, 31 points in the Semifinal round of the Division 1 tournament, then 23 in the championship game. The immediate question on press row was, “Had another ninth grader ever exceeded his totals in a MHSAA final-rounds contests?” There was nothing to exceed it that I could recall.
While we’ve kept final round records, including single-game scoring marks, the website minimum is 40 points, and we’ve never captured a list that’s broken down by year in school.
So, I decided to dig.
Quarterfinals
The state has certainly seen some talented freshmen pass through the last rounds of the tournament. Monte Morris scored 20 points in the Quarterfinals for Flint Beecher during its Class C run in 2010. Saginaw Buena Vista played two freshmen, Mark Macon and Shawn Randolph, along its route to the Finals in 1984. Macon, at the age of 14, scored 22 points in a Quarterfinal win over Menominee that season. Two players scored 24 points in the quarters as freshmen: Flint Beecher’s Roy Marble, Jr. in 1982 in a loss to Okemos and Manton’s Matt Stuck, who scored 24 in defeat against Mio in 1989. But, according to Detroit Free Press accounts, it appears Michael Payton from Detroit St. Leo is the leading freshman point-getter in the Quarterfinal round. Payton netted 26 in a 74-62 loss to Flint St. Redeemer in the 1970 tournament.
Semifinals
Macon in 1984 and perhaps the most famous of freshmen in MHSAA Tournament history, Willie Betts of River Rouge in 1961, both scored 14 in Semifinal victories. Clyde Corley from Pontiac Central tossed in 16 points during a heartbreaking Semifinal defeat, 53-52, to Saginaw in 1976. Kelvin Torbert posted 17 points (and 10 rebounds) in a 65-62 Semifinal loss to Belleville in 1998. Morris tallied 18 in a loss to Melvindale Academy for Business & Technology in the Class C semis in 2010. So, Bates’ total of 31 certainly appears to top the list.
Finals
Only one freshman prior to Bates has hit for double digits in a state final. In 1992, Saginaw Buena Vista’s Terrance Roberson went 3 for 7 from the field and 4 for 7 from the free throw line to finish with 10 points as the Knights grabbed a 54-44 win over Grandville Calvin Christian.
Please, let me know if I missed a top performer.
Ron Pesch has taken an active role in researching the history of MHSAA events since 1985 and began writing for MHSAA Finals programs in 1986, adding additional features and "flashbacks" in 1992. He inherited the title of MHSAA historian from the late Dick Kishpaugh following the 1993-94 school year, and resides in Muskegon. Contact him at [email protected] with ideas for historical articles.
PHOTOS: (Top) Grand Haven’s Kathryn Ackerman swims the breaststroke portion of her record-setting 200-yard individual medley this past fall. (Top middle) Harrison-Farmington’s Ashley Turak looks to the clock after her 100 freestyle at the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals. (Middle) Schoolcraft’s Kobe Clark. (Middle below) Muskegon's Fred Jacks. (Below) Ypsilanti Lincoln’s Emoni Bates fires a jumper during his team’s Division 1 Semifinal win over Howell