Breslin Bound: Boys Report Week 11
February 24, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Sunday was historic as for the first time, Boys Basketball District brackets were released with the top two teams separated to opposite sides, according to rankings produced by the Michigan Power Ratings formula.
While that was just another preliminary step for teams hoping to be Breslin Bound over the next month, more are to come this week as the state’s best finish off league titles or prepare to make their memories when the tournament begins in 14 days.
“Breslin Bound” is powered by MI Student Aid and based on results and schedules posted for each school at MHSAA.com. Send corrections or missing scores to [email protected].
Week in Review
The countdown of last week’s five most intriguing results:
1. River Rouge 58, Benton Harbor 52 – The Panthers (17-1) further cemented themselves among Division 1 championship favorites with a close win against one of the best in Division 2 in the Tigers (16-2).
3. Howell 75, Canton 71 (3OT) – The Highlanders locked up their first Kensington Lakes Activities Association West title since 2017 by outlasting co-runner-up Canton – a good thing because Howell fell three days later to also-second-place Northville.
3. Erie Mason 62, Blissfield 58 – The Eagles (13-3) avenged their lone league loss, by two to Blissfield (15-2) on Jan. 21 – to take over first place in the Lenawee County Athletic Association.
4. Coldwater 56, Battle Creek Pennfield 52 – After being upset by Jackson Northwest three days before, league leader Coldwater (11-6) hung on against one of three other teams in Pennfield (11-5) sitting within a game of first place in the Interstate 8 Athletic Conference.
5. Ypsilanti Lincoln 108, Chelsea 102 (2OT) – This didn’t have bearing on a league title – Lincoln (15-2) had already clinched the Southeastern Conference White and Chelsea (11-6) is fourth – but it was the first time since 1998 that two teams in Michigan combined to score at least 210 points.
Watch List
With an eye toward March, here are two teams in each division making sparks:
DIVISION 1
Muskegon (15-2) The Big Reds locked up their seventh Ottawa-Kent Conference Black title last week and have won 77 of their last 78 league games. Their only instate loss this season was 54-51 to Grand Blanc (15-3) – with the other defeat by 10 to Chicago Curie in December. They’ve been otherwise successful during an impressive nonleague slate that’s included wins over Ferndale (8-9 against the state’s ninth-strongest schedule), Saginaw (10-7) and Belleville (15-3) and with Kalamazoo Central (13-4) coming up next week.
River Rouge (17-1) Saturday’s win over Benton Harbor goes well with other nonleague victories over Ypsilanti Lincoln (15-2), Detroit Martin Luther King (13-5) and North Farmington (12-5) – and with Romulus (14-3) and Southfield Christian (13-3) coming up. Rouge’s only loss was 63-60 in overtime to Grand Rapids Catholic Central – the top-ranked team by MPR in Division 2. The Panthers also won their fifth-straight league title, going undefeated in the Michigan Metro Athletic Conference Blue thanks in part to sweeps of Hamtramck (14-3) and Ecorse (10-6).
DIVISION 2
Frankenmuth (14-2) – Two Tri-Valley Conference East teams are ranked among the top eight in Division 2 by MPR, Frankenmuth at No. 8 following No. 3 Bridgeport. The Eagles beat the Bearcats on Feb. 7 and trail in the standings by a game with two left. Frankenmuth also boasts solid wins over Jack Pine Conference co-leader Sanford Meridian (14-3) and Freeland (10-7) twice, and with room for a boost with Flint Southwestern (13-3) and Alma (12-6) coming up this week.
Otsego (17-1) The Bulldogs have won 15 straight and clinched the Wolverine Conference North championship, their third straight, and they can move to 24-0 in league play over those three seasons with a win over Allegan on Friday. The only loss was by 17 to Grand Rapids Catholic Central (see above) on Dec. 14. Only one team since – Battle Creek Lakeview – has come within nine points. Otsego also has an 11-point win over Edwardsburg, which it could see in next week’s conference crossover.
DIVISION 3
Iron Mountain (16-0) Returning a pair of stars from last season’s Division 3 runner-up run, Iron Mountain predictably has been dominant. The Mountaineers can clinch a share of the Western Peninsula Athletic Conference East title Tuesday and own a 69-51 win over second-place Negaunee (15-2) in from their first meeting Jan. 28 – they meet again March 5 to likely decide the title outright. Gladstone, with a 15-point loss Jan. 6, has come the closest to Iron Mountain so far.
Maple City Glen Lake (14-2) A 75-67 win over Frankfort on Friday finished a season sweep of the second-place Panthers (12-4) and clinched for Glen Lake the Northwest Conference title. The Lakers have won three straight league championships, including the last two outright, and are looking to make a run at a third-straight 20-win season as well. Their only losses were to Charlevoix (14-3) and Division 1 Traverse City West, and they beat Division 1 Saginaw Heritage (9-7) on Jan. 20 at Saginaw Valley State.
DIVISION 4
Hale (15-3) The Eagles have locked up the North Star League Little Dipper championship – their third consecutive – and despite losing two of their last three league games to second-place Posen (by one) and then Friday in a crossover that counts in the standings against Big Dipper champion Oscoda (by five). Those two and an earlier defeat to Oscoda (17-0) are the only losses this winter, and Hale did win its first meeting with Posen (12-4) by 16. The Eagles also have nice wins over Rogers City (11-7) and Mio (11-5).
Wyoming Tri-unity Christian (11-5) The Defenders are 10-2 after a 1-3 start and sit tied for first in the Alliance League with Wyoming Potter’s House Christian (11-6), which they face Friday. Tri-unity always loads its nonleague schedule with bigger opponents, and all five losses have come to Division 3 teams with 11 or more victories. Tri-unity also is one of five teams in its league with 11 or more wins, making its place at the top even more impressive. The Defenders take on four teams with double-digit wins over the next two weeks.
Can't-Miss Contests
Be on the lookout for results of these games coming up:
Tuesday – Detroit U-D Jesuit (11-6) vs. Detroit Loyola (13-2) at Bloomfield Hills Marian – This winner faces Wednesday’s Orchard Lake St. Mary’s/Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice winner for the Detroit Catholic League Bishop championship.
Tuesday – Grand Rapids Northview (12-6) at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern (14-4) – After handing Forest Hills Central its only O-K White loss Friday, Northern must beat third-place Northview to keep in the mix for a shared league title and then root for Northview to beat Central on Friday so it can claim the outright championship.
Friday – Mount Pleasant (16-0) at Grand Blanc (15-3) – The Saginaw Valley League Blue champion hosts the winner from the Red in a matchup of top Division 1 teams statewide.
Friday – Ann Arbor Huron (16-1) at Kalamazoo Central (13-4) – The Maroon Giants start off the week hosting Stevensville Lakeshore (14-3) and finish with another of the best from Division 1.
Friday – Traverse City St. Francis (15-2) at Charlevoix (14-3) – St Francis will likely clinch the Lake Michigan Conference title Tuesday, but second-place Charlevoix still will enjoy a chance to avenge its earlier 42-33 loss to the Gladiators.
Second Half’s weekly “Breslin Bound” reports are powered by MI Student Aid, a part of the Office of Postsecondary Financial Planning located within the Michigan Department of Treasury. MI Student Aid encourages students to pursue postsecondary education by providing access to student financial resources and information. MI Student Aid administers the state’s 529 college savings programs (MET/MESP), as well as scholarship and grant programs that help make college Accessible, Affordable and Attainable for you. Connect with MI Student Aid at www.michigan.gov/mistudentaid and find more information on Facebook and Twitter @mistudentaid.
PHOTO: Menominee's Keagan Monroe drives to the basket while being surrounded by Ishpeming defenders Ben Pruett (23), Breck Bell (22) and Griffin Argall (34) and teammate Keaton Uecke. (Photo by Cara Kamps.)
'Who Will Cheer for the Nimrods?' Peterson IV, Watersmeet Found Fans Worldwide
By
Jason Juno
Special for MHSAA.com
July 15, 2025
WATERSMEET — George Peterson IV talks to a lot of people through his job as a police officer in the Green Bay, Wis., area. When some of those folks are headed up north for the weekend, he tells them he’s from the Upper Peninsula.
Many are expecting to hear about one of the bigger towns located a couple of hours drive from Green Bay, like Iron Mountain or Escanaba. But they usually know his hometown, too.
“There’s more people than I would have thought know exactly – ‘Oh Watersmeet, the Nimrods,’” Peterson said.
Some surely know the tiny town because it’s not light years away from Green Bay – only about three hours. But Watersmeet’s dot on the map got a little bigger when Peterson was in school two decades ago, thanks to a run of media exposure that all started with an ESPN commercial that wondered: Without sports, who would cheer for the Nimrods?
Peterson and his teammates can look back on a high school sports experience unlike pretty much anyone else’s, which included the popular ESPN commercial, an appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, and an eight-part miniseries and media exposure from print and television outlets throughout the country. All because of their quirky nickname that has come to be an insult but was chosen because the biblical figure Nimrod was a mighty hunter, and hunting is a big deal in the U.P.
That era also coincided with the best basketball Watersmeet has ever seen. The 2004-05 team, with Peterson was a junior, won its only MHSAA Regional championship and only U.P. small-school team of the year award.
“Great memories from that year,” Peterson said.
The first moments he mentions from his time in high school sports as a aren’t of going to Hollywood – although that certainly came up later – or of being on ESPN. He instead recalled the camaraderie with his teammates, the bus rides, and proving people wrong even in elementary school that Watersmeet could be good.
“The Watersmeet Nimrods weren't supposed to be good,” he said. “We weren’t supposed to win elementary tournaments; we were supposed to fall apart.”
They definitely didn’t do that, as one of the smallest high schools in the state enjoyed instead an unforgettable three-year run.
The cameras first showed up when Peterson was a sophomore. ESPN staff came to get footage early that season, during a December 2003 game against rival Bessemer. The cameras didn’t faze the Nimrods, who upset the rival Speedboys that night; Peterson remembers Bessemer putting 100 on them later that season.
No one told the Nimrods when the commercials were going to air. Then one came on one night when Peterson was watching ESPN.
“That was really cool, just little surprises you weren’t expecting,” Peterson said.
Watersmeet was featured in major newspapers, “CBS Sunday Morning” came to town, and Nimrods merchandise flew off the shelves.
They were even on “The Tonight Show.”
“I would say Jay Leno was probably the coolest experience,” Peterson said. “A small-town kid from Watersmeet, all of us that went, getting treated like we were important, something that a lot of people don’t get to experience. They flew us out, we had limos, we had a hotel right down the road – I think it was a Hilton.”
After the national attention died down during their very successful 2004-05 year – which included the run to the Class D Quarterfinals – the cameras were back for Peterson’s senior year. This time it was the Sundance Channel for an eight-part miniseries about life in his team’s small town.
Those cameras were around that entire season. But if something came up along the way – and it did – the team could just ask the filmmakers to go away while they hashed it out privately. Peterson said they didn’t pressure him to do anything, and the staff members were great to he and his teammates, while doing what they could to make them feel comfortable.
The buzz for the miniseries wasn’t quite the same as for the commercials. But Peterson enjoyed going to a screening ahead of its debut in Madison, Wis. And he can look back on scenes with his late grandfather.
“Now I can show my kids when they get older,” he said.
The basketball part of Peterson’s high school days was a pretty big deal as well.
Growing up, Peterson’s dad George Peterson III took him to the Regionals in Marquette each year. Rooting for area teams like Ewen-Trout Creek kept the fire going.
“I’d go back home, I’d shoot hoops and play ball,” Peterson IV said.
As he and his teammates entered in high school, the Nimrods finished well under .500 his freshman year. The next year, they flipped their regular-season record to 14-6, which included the early season upset of rival Bessemer with ESPN’s cameras recording commercial material.
“And then we were kind of like, ‘OK, we got something here,’” Peterson said.
They went to Michigan Tech’s basketball camp the following summer and won pretty much every game, including against the U.P.’s big schools like Marquette and Iron Mountain.
The Nimrods also won constantly early in the 2004-05 season – until Baraga gave them another piece of humble pie. But that proved to be a quick bump in the road. They won their District tournament at home and then both Regional games by double figures.
Watersmeet then lost a heartbreaker in overtime in the Quarterfinal against Posen, but it didn’t diminish what they had accomplished.
For Peterson, he got to do it with his dad coaching, his brother Jordan playing with him and the whole community cheering for them. He still remembers the bus ride home and the reception they got going through Bruce Crossing, part of the E-TC school district.
“We got to experience something we never got to experience before,” Peterson said. “That was probably one of, if not my favorite, moments from my junior year.”
He learned a lot of lessons from that time in his life — just from playing sports but also from playing for his dad and with the kind of spotlight most small-school athletes don’t see.
“Being an athlete and working in law enforcement, a lot of the lessons learned go hand-in-hand with my profession, because you have to be teachable, you have to be coachable and you have to take the losses,” Peterson said. “Obviously in sports, every time you step foot on the court, we didn’t win. There’s some things in life that you don’t get what you want, but you just learn you gotta work harder for it and strive to be better. That helps me in my profession.”
His dad, who recently retired from coaching boys basketball after walking the sideline for more than three decades, taught his son many things like humility, how to be respectful, patience, and how to respond when things don’t work out.
“That doesn’t mean the door’s closed; you just gotta find a whole different way to get what you want,” Peterson IV said. “I remind myself of that every day when I’m at work.”
As for being in the spotlight, he took valuable lessons from that as well.
“It’s helped me learn to take a step back and not get too excited about certain things,” he said. “Like when I’m around a crowd or when I have stuff going on, like board meetings, or we just have a crowd where people could be mad or people could be in support. It’s helped me to learn to take a step back and mentally just prepare, take that deep breath and everything seems to run smooth.”
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PHOTOS (Top) At left, George Peterson IV (12) puts up a jumper playing for Watersmeet in 2004. At right, Peterson holds his son George V while pictured with wife Elise and daughter Braelynn. (Middle) This Ironwood Daily Globe photo from 2007 shows Peterson talking with “Nimrod Nation” director Brett Morgan. (Past photos by Jason Juno; current photos courtesy of the Peterson family.)