Jets' Record: Never to be Broken
April 13, 2017
By Dennis Grall
Special for Second Half
ESCANABA - The North Central Jets are champions.
Of the billions of words I've typed on keyboards over the years, none are more appropriate or more true than "The North Central Jets are champions."
It is more than what they have done on hardwoods and gridirons across the state.
Five MHSAA championships in the past three years underline those six words, but it is how the guys wearing red, black and white uniforms have comported themselves on those playgrounds.
They've done it with class all the way. They display wide smiles – at least where you can see their faces in basketball. They hug themselves and you after the game and thank you for coming and for your support.
They may run you over in football and leap above you in basketball, but that is their job and they have supreme joy in doing it well and getting it done the right way.
No matter who they play or where they play, the result has always been the same, another win. Think of it: They have won 134 games in those two sports, including 26 straight in football and a state-record 83 in basketball, with one lonely defeat over those past four hoops seasons. The title runs included two in 8-player football and the last three in Class D basketball.
The word “lose” is simply not in their vocabulary.
It has been a treat for all of us to watch them go about their business as they share a tremendous skill set and build an incredible legacy that has surpassed anything else in the Upper Peninsula.
Ishpeming football and girls basketball at Carney-Nadeau also have been model programs. And of course Chassell, which won three straight Class D basketball titles and 65 straight games in the 1950s.
It is unlikely North Central's current streak of 83 straight basketball wins will ever be surpassed. Don't forget, Chassell's record lasted 59 years and the Jets are now 18 games beyond that standard.
You can put this record up with Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak and the 18 majors of Jack Nicklaus as being unbreakable, along with the recently-ended University of Connecticut women's basketball streak of 111 straight wins that is beyond reality.
I don't know what the national high school win streak record is for boys basketball but found that Palmer, Iowa, is only fifth with 103 straight wins from 1986-89. (Editor’s Note: The record belongs to Passaic, NJ, with 159 straight from 1919-25, but no team has won even 85 consecutive since 2003-06.)
Let us just remember how wonderful it has been to be a spectator of this outstanding accomplishment and what it has done for the school, the community and the entire Upper Peninsula.
Thank you Jets. You are champions.
Denny Grall retired in 2012 after 39 years at the Escanaba Daily Press and four at the Green Bay Press-Gazette, plus 15 months for WLST radio in Escanaba; he served as the Daily Press sports editor from 1970-80 and 1984-2012, and as interim during the 2016-17 school year. Grall was inducted into the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 and serves as its executive secretary. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for the Upper Peninsula.
PHOTO: The Powers North Central boys basketball team holds up its Class D championship trophy last month at the Breslin Center.
Teams of the Month: Hart Girls & Boys Basketball
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 23, 2023
Few communities in Michigan this winter celebrated as many sizable basketball achievements as small-town Hart.
The 2,000-resident Oceana County seat, about seven miles off the Lake Michigan shore and sitting about 20 miles south of Ludington and 30 north of Muskegon, celebrated accomplishments by both its girls and boys basketball teams that carried statewide significance – and made choosing either over the other’s impossible.
The Hart girls and boys basketball teams are the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Teams of the Month” for February, and this announcement is coming toward the end of March as both just kept winning and adding to their season-long lists of feats.
The Pirates girls made the first major headline when they defeated second-place Mason County Central 51-32 on Feb. 10 to clinch the outright West Michigan Conference Rivers championship. The Hart girls had also won the formerly one-division WMC in 2021-22, and this year’s run ran their league winning streak to 31 games.
Then the boys took their turn, clinching a share of the Rivers championship Feb. 17 with a 67-51 win over North Muskegon and then the title outright by defeating Mason County Central 63-45 on Feb. 23. This league title received some statewide buzz as it was the Hart boys’ first since 1963.
A week later, Hart’s boys finished a 22-0 regular season – becoming the only boys team, and joined by only three girls teams – to go 22-0 this first season that MHSAA member schools were allowed to play 22 games instead of the previous longtime maximum of 20.
The Hart boys then drew into one of the strongest Districts in the state in any division, with the Division 2 group at Big Rapids including four league champions. The Pirates opened with a win over the host Cardinals – winners of the Central State Activities Association – before ending their season at 23-1 with a loss to Big North Conference co-champ Cadillac in the District Final.
The Pirates girls, meanwhile, had clinched their Division 3 District with a third win over Mason County Central, and then won a Regional by edging two-time reigning Finals runner-up Kent City 37-34 – in the process also avenging Hart’s first loss of this season, from Dec. 20. The Regional title was the Hart girls' first since 1992.
Next up was 23-1 Buchanan – and Hart made its biggest statewide splash by handing the Bucks a 45-41 Quarterfinal defeat that sent the Pirates to the MHSAA Girls Basketball Semifinals for the first time.
Hart would end up falling to eventual champion Hemlock 57-26 at Breslin Center, finishing the season 24-4.
“I said it the other day: We’re kinda overlooked. Last year we had a really good team, probably one injury away from another run like this,” said Hart girls basketball coach Travis Rosema during the press conference after the Semifinal. “It started with people investing into the girls. Now that players like Aspen (Boutell) and Abbey (Hicks) have made this run, I saw so many young faces. … We left this morning, the elementary school was packed, and every kid had a sign. It’s a positive impact (and) it’s going to be a lot moving forward.”
The Pirates girls were keyed by Hicks, a junior, sophomore Addi Hovey and Boutell, one of three senior starters.
The boys were paced by senior Parker Hovey, who went over 1,000 points for his career and will continue at Hope College.
Past Teams of the Month, 2022-23
January: Taylor Trillium Academy bowling - Report
December: Byron Center hockey - Report
November: Martin football - Report
October: Gladwin volleyball - Report
September: Negaunee girls tennis - Report
(PHOTOS by Kara Raeth/CatchMark SportsNet.)