SAC Sound-off: The Sixth Man
February 14, 2012
It's double overtime and your legs are exhausted. The score is tied with 10 seconds left. Your team needs that key play to win the game. It’s do-or-die, and all the while there are fans screaming so loud your ears are ringing.
I don’t know about you, but most athletes get a much-needed boost in adrenaline when they hear this. I know I have.
Crowd noise plays a huge factor in deciding the outcome of the game. It doesn’t necessarily have to be that “double-overtime buzzer-beater” moment. Steady cheering throughout the game can help a team gain momentum and push through while the other team is near exhaustion.
Once in a while, when I’m playing, I’ll glance up at the crowd. Just to see the excitement on their faces gives me the extra drive. They are there to watch you. YOU are the showcase, the main event, the entertainment.
The MHSAA Student Advisory Council has been featuring the best student sections in the state with our “Battle of the Fans” contest. The fan bases for some of the schools in Michigan is incredible. They all have one goal – help their team to victory.
I attend Rudyard High School in the Upper Peninsula. I come from a small area, and the population is much smaller than many communities down-state. Life is a little slower up here, but the townspeople all have one thing we can do to get away from everyday stress – go to the big game.
Whether it be Friday night football, or District Finals in basketball, you can expect to see Main Street empty and the school parking lot full of cars.
One game I will always remember for lots of fans and noise was our basketball Quarterfinal in 2010. I was a sophomore, brought up to varsity toward the end of the regular season. I had gotten more playing time in the playoffs and got to play some solid minutes in the Quarterfinal. We ended up losing the game, but the atmosphere was exhilarating. To step on the court, and look up and witness 3,000 fans going absolutely nuts gave me an experience I will never forget. Keep in mind, Rudyard’s population is a whopping 500 people.
For me, there are those certain fans for whom you always want to perform well. I am always working hard to impress my grandparents. They live more than 100 miles away and still manage to attend a good portion of my games. They always have been supportive, and I always try my best to win for them and for my team.
Then there are the young ones who look up to you. Just this year, my basketball coaches started a youth basketball camp, and every Saturday we open the gym and kids as young as 3-years-old get their chance to be like us. They bounce the ball with the biggest smiles on their faces, and we know that they are always watching us on and off the court – and always learning from us.
I once had a young boy ask me, “Can you slam dunk it during a game for me this year?” He had been attending camp every Saturday and watched some of our practices. Just knowing how much of an influence we have on the youth of our town makes me want to be even better, and work even harder.
Young or old, sold-out house or not, fans always will be essential in supplying the home team advantage and deciding the outcome of the game. And they’ve left me with more sports-related memories than just those made on the court.
Tyler Wilson, Rudyard senior
- Sports: Football, basketball, baseball
- Non-sports activities: Student Council, band, drama, National Honor Society
- Favorite class: AP government
- Must-see TV: "Pardon The Interruption"
- One shining moment: When we made the football playoffs this year after starting the season 2-3.
- What's next: I plan on attending college and playing a sport. I’m not exactly sure where, but I have been narrowing it down. I plan on studying pre-med.
- My favorite part of game day is: ... spending time with teammates. Sometimes we will have a team breakfast on game day. We’ll get together during lunch at school, etc. Just the feeling you get when you walk around the halls wearing a jersey or being dressed up.
PHOTO courtesy of Tyler Wilson.
Coldwater's McGuire Focused on Final Goal
February 21, 2019
By Wes Morgan
Special for Second Half
Four year ago, Gage McGuire sat down with his mother, Carrie, and made a list of high school basketball goals. That piece of paper is still hanging on his bedroom wall, and nearly all the items have been checked.
“Looking back on it, I can’t thank her enough,” said the 6-foot-6 Coldwater senior forward. “Once you set a goal, you know you can chase it.”
Except for hitting a bit of turbulence earlier this month that resulted in a three-game skid, the Cardinals (14-5) have been flying high. The cast includes starters Dylan Targgart, a 6-2 junior center who has won an individual Division 2 Finals championship in the shot put as well as a team state title. Damon Beckhusen, a junior guard who helps set the tone for everything the Cardinals do on the court, was an all-Interstate 8 Athletic Conference football selection. And underclassmen Ethan Crabtree (freshman guard) and Spencer Rodesiler (sophomore guard) have played more like veterans.
But it’s undeniably McGuire’s team, and his list of accomplishments is quite impressive. The small forward set an all-time scoring record for the Cardinals back in December when he hit 1,180 points — a tally that will be significantly higher once the season ends. McGuire was an Associated Press Class A all-state honorable mention last year, and his sophomore season, as well as the Interstate 8 Most Valuable Player last winter.
Averaging around 20 points, 12 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 blocks and steals per game, the future Emporia State University player has one last thing to check off that list.
“One of my goals was to become the all-time leading scorer,” McGuire said. “When I got it, it was pretty exciting. But I’d much rather have a state championship than an individual record.”
Noticeable improvement on defense and rebounding the ball this year has made McGuire one of the more complete players in the state.
“He has gotten a lot better,” first-year Coldwater coach Aaron Bucklin said. “He has really bought into the kind of system we want to play. That’s something he has added to his game, and his rebounding numbers are up a ton from the previous year.
“He is able to do so much. If we are being pressed, he can be the guy to bring the ball up the court as well. We just kind of try to exploit any mismatch. Defensively, he does a pretty good job on the ball and can guard all five positions as well. He causes problems for guards with his length and centers with his athletic ability.”
McGuire’s actions off the court, including a work ethic in the classroom and a willingness to speak up in the locker room have equally influenced the program.
“I think it’s just his sense of leadership and his ability to add that part to the game and the mental toughness he can bring to this game,” Bucklin said. “I think in years past he has kind of gone with the flow and done very good things on the basketball court. But his senior year he has really stepped up and become a leader. He gets everybody else involved, whether it’s offseason workout stuff or getting into the gym extra times. He’s that guy. He wants to be in the gym 24/7. That’s been big for us.”
Emporia State, a Division II school in Kansas that competes in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, believes McGuire can do the same there. But McGuire is focused on closing out his prep career strong.
After losing three straight, McGuire and fellow captains called a players-only meeting to get things sorted out as the regular season winds down and the Cardinals prepare for their Division 1 District Semifinal game Feb. 27 against either Battle Creek Lakeview or Battle Creek Central.
“We called everybody out — just kind of a man-to-man conversation to see what we’re doing wrong,” McGuire explained. “The past couple games we had averaged like 20 turnovers per game. You’re not going to win the game with 20 turnovers. We have a special team, and we needed to figure it out to make the deep run in the playoffs that we know we’re capable of.
“Everybody took it like a man, and I think it worked out really well. I asked everyone if they truly believed we could win state. Everyone said yes.”
Wes Morgan has reported for the Kalamazoo Gazette, ESPN and ESPNChicago.com, 247Sports and Blue & Gold Illustrated over the last 12 years and is the publisher of JoeInsider.com. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph and Branch counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Coldwater’s Gage McGuire (standing, fourth from left) and his teammates celebrate his becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer this winter. (Middle) McGuire goes for a block against Jackson Lumen Christi. (Photos courtesy of the Coldwater boys basketball program.)