Senior-Led Stevenson Makes Statement
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
March 22, 2016
STERLING HEIGHTS – Three times coach Rick Bye took Sterling Heights Stevenson to the MHSAA Finals in football.
Since the mid-1980s few schools in the Metro Detroit area have a football program as successful as that at Stevenson. Since 1985, Stevenson has qualified for the football playoffs 20 times. Twelve times the Titans won 10 or more games. During one stretch they reached the Semifinals six consecutive seasons (1993-98).
The baseball program has thrived recently under coach Joe Emanuele. The Titans won the Division 1 title in 2005, reached the Semifinals twice (2011 and 2013) and went to the Quarterfinals in 2014.
But in boys basketball, the Titans have not been able to compete at nearly as high a level as football and baseball. Before this season, Stevenson had one Regional title.
Now it has two.
Stevenson (20-4) defeated Roseville, 60-44, last Wednesday in a Class A Regional Final. The Titans will face North Farmington (22-2) in tonight’s 7 p.m. Quarterfinal at Calihan Hall at the University of Detroit Mercy.
Perhaps we should have seen this coming. Coach Mark LaCombe is in his third season, and the Titans have shown improvement each winter. They were 13-8 in 2013-14 and 16-5 last season, a finish that included a Macomb Area Conference White title.
But first-round knockouts in the MHSAA Tournament didn’t sit well with the five seniors who start for LaCombe this season.
Luke Lamoreaux, a 5-foot-9 point guard and a three-year starter, is one of four returning from last season’s lineup. He was the captain on the soccer team in the fall and is the leader of this team. Lamoreaux said the difference between last season and the team this season is experience.
“We’ve gotten stronger in the weight room,” he said. “We hit the weight room a lot.
“It’s a lot of hard work. Plus it’s a senior-led team. We played a lot of tough teams in the summer. And we played a tough nonconference schedule. We played (Macomb) Dakota. We had a 15-point lead and lost in overtime. We said if we can play with the No. 2-ranked team, we can play with anybody. We’d like another shot.
“We’ve always been a good football school. We’ve wanted to make our mark in basketball. What we’re doing now is we’re making a statement with this run.”
Stevenson isn’t a tall team. Its tallest starter is Stacy Howard at 6-2. LaCombe uses a four-guard lineup and generally subs two to three off the bench. Jahi Hinson (6-3) is one of those reserves, and he’s the lone junior in the rotation.
“We’re undersized,” LaCombe said. “The kids play harder than anyone we play. The kids that play, play at a high level.”
Three players, including Lamoreaux, average between 11 and 12 points. Mylon Weathers (6-0) and Vince Ramachi (6-1) averaged 12 points apiece, Lamoreaux 11.5. Lamoreaux has stepped up his game in the tournament. He’s averaging 15.5 in four tournament games.
“The basket looks really big to him now,” LaCombe said. “He’s getting a name for himself. He plays well on the big stage.”
Weathers is the team’s top defender and will guard the opposition’s top scoring guard. In a District Semifinal, he held Clinton Township Chippewa Valley senior Steven Lloyd to 11 points, 10 below Lloyd’s average.
Stevenson hasn’t received much publicity this season for obvious reasons. LaCombe knows a team has to earn respect, and he said that’s what his team has done. The MAC White isn’t a strong basketball division, and to prepare his team for a long run LaCombe scheduled nonleague games against Rockford, Detroit Western International, Rochester Adams, Warren DeLaSalle and Detroit Country Day. Stevenson’s four losses were to teams that won District titles.
“We weren’t quite ready last year,” he said. “Defensively they’ve executed as well as a coach could ask for. They’ve made adjustments. We trap a lot.
“The brackets were set up perfectly for us. A lot of times you set goals for the season: a league and district titles. That wouldn’t have been good enough for this group. I don’t think we’ll have a group like this come out of Stevenson for a long time.”
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Luke Lamoreaux and assistant coach Bill Szlaga share a celebratory embrace during Stevenson's Quarterfinal run. (Middle) Stacy Howard (3) prepares to signal a 3-pointer as teammate Austin Beba launches the shot. (Photos courtesy of the Sterling Heights Stevenson boys basketball program.)
Inspired by Home, Eager to Give Back, Spencer Hosts Hoop City Alumni Games
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
July 2, 2026
Eddie Spencer now lives more than 1,100 miles away in Dallas, but his thoughts are never far from his hometown of Muskegon Heights.
It was there in “the Heights” where Spencer learned the game of basketball, developing into a 6-foot-5 forward who could shoot and handle the ball – leading Heights to the Class C Semifinals as a junior in 2002 and the Class B Final as a senior in 2003.
Spencer, 41, said the biggest lessons he learned from basketball had nothing to do with shooting or rebounding.
“Playing basketball taught me how to work hard, stay focused and, really, how to be a man,” said Spencer, who went on to become a three-year starter at Central Michigan, graduating in 2008.
“I wanted to find a way to give something back.”
Spencer’s desire to return some love to his hometown led to the Hoop City Alumni basketball tournament, which is set for its third year at Muskegon High School’s historic Redmond-Potter Gymnasium on Aug. 22 with five alumni games – highlighted by the finale, featuring Muskegon vs. Muskegon Heights.
The last two years, the RPG was standing-room-only with more than 2,000 fans for the finale, with Muskegon fans in their trademark cardinal red and Heights fans proudly in their orange and black.
“Honestly, when I walked out of the locker room that first year and saw all of the excitement and pride in that gym, it brought tears to my eyes,” said Spencer. “It really brought back that old feeling of Heights vs. Muskegon, like back in high school.”
A rivalry like no other
Few rivalries in the state can match the history and the intensity of Muskegon vs. Muskegon Heights.
The Big Reds and Tigers played each other in football 55 years in a row from 1922-76, with the most competitive years and largest crowds occurring during the 1940s and 1950s.
In more recent years, the rivalry was on the basketball court, including a run of nine years from 2003 to 2011 when the two schools played the final game of the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame Holiday Classic, with Heights winning six of those nine matchups. The rivalry came to an end in 2011 after a period of upheaval and enrollment losses at Heights.
Now, thanks to the efforts of Spencer and his crew (notably Muskegon head coach and athletic director Keith Guy and 2014 Mr. Basketball Award winner DeShaun Thrower from Muskegon) the rivalry has resumed each August at the alumni game.
“It definitely divides the community for a couple of hours,” said Spencer, who also ran cross country at Heights. “There is already a huge buzz about this year’s event and tons of trolling and trash talking.”
Spencer played several years of professional basketball, including overseas, after graduating from CMU. He then returned home and coached basketball for several years at Muskegon Heights under Guy before the latter moved on to lead the Big Reds.
Spencer moved to Dallas eight years ago and has coached AAU basketball and served as a personal trainer, in addition to his work in the mortgage industry. About five years ago, he helped a friend organize an alumni basketball game in the Dallas area – and he knew immediately that he had to do the same back home.
“The first thing I thought was that we have to do this with Muskegon and Muskegon Heights,” said Spencer, who noted that the games also feature alumni cheerleaders.
The event is not designed for recent high school graduates, with most of the teams’ players in their 30s and 40s.
This year’s tournament will begin with Mona Shores vs. Muskegon Orchard View alumni at 2 p.m. and a Muskegon-area girls game (East vs. West) at 3 p.m.
North Muskegon squares off against Muskegon Reeths-Puffer at 4 p.m., followed by the addition this year of ex-standouts from Grand Rapids against Kalamazoo at 5 p.m. – all leading up to the Heights vs. Muskegon finale at 6 p.m.
Spencer expects attendance to be strong all day (admission is $10), but acknowledges the crowds and atmosphere move to a whole different level for the final game. This year’s tournament also will be live-streamed so people can pay to watch the games from anywhere in the world, with those details still being worked out.
Beyond basketball
Spencer knows that beyond the basketball and beneath the banter, the Hoop City Alumni event is really a celebration of two proud communities.
It has become the weekend when many make plans to come back home to Muskegon, not only to relive the glory days, but to celebrate the post-basketball accomplishments of those prep greats – including some who have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, business leaders, coaches and school principals.
“We are really utilizing the game of basketball to help the community,” said Spencer, whose daughter, Nya, graduated from Muskegon High. “When people feel pride in their community, they want to make it better. We want all the kids, especially, to be there and to see how playing sports can be the start of great things for them.”
The Hoop City games have evolved into a full weekend of events, starting with a Friday back-to-school event with backpacks and school supplies giveaways at Rowan Park in downtown Muskegon Heights, pre- and postgame adult gatherings Friday and Saturday night and a picnic Sunday.
But make no mistake, basketball is the centerpiece.
Heights won the inaugural alumni game in 2024, and Muskegon prevailed at the buzzer last year, making this year’s event (which has been dubbed “The Trilogy”) the rubber match, at least for now, in the latest installment of the decades-old rivalry.
This year’s game will be hard-pressed to match the drama and emotion of last summer’s contest.
In a back-and-forth affair, it was Thrower who forced a turnover at the defensive end and then hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer for Muskegon, leading to a raucous scene as Big Reds fans stormed the court.
It was a highly-emotional moment for Thrower, who was playing his first competitive game in years after a foot injury, and it came just a few months after the death of his mother, Nina Morgan Thrower.
“The way the whole event went and the way it ended, it felt like a movie, for sure,” said Thrower, who has worked alongside Spencer to grow the showcase.
“I know that my mom was with me on that day, in that moment.”
PHOTOS (Top) At left, Muskegon Heights’ Eddie Spencer (1) defends during the 2003 Class B Final against Grand Rapids South Christian; at right, Spencer (far right) stands for a photo at last year’s Hoop City alumni event with former coach Keith Guy and past Muskegon High standout DeShaun Thrower. (Middle) Spencer, far left, poses with the rest of the Muskegon Heights and Muskegon High alumni teams after last season’s Hoop City matchup. (Below) This season’s Hoop City poster advertises five alumni games. (Hoop City photos provided by Eddie Spencer.)