Grayling, High-Scoring Senior Off to Fast Start, Setting Sights Higher
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
September 8, 2023
Grayling is not normally mentioned among the contenders for the Lake Michigan Conference soccer championship.
Nor have deep postseason runs been expected.
All that may be changing. The Vikings are making it known they will challenge the likes of Elk Rapids, Harbor Springs and Charlevoix for the league title, with Kalkaska hoping to contend in the LMC as well.
Grayling is scoring goals. The Vikings (7-1) won their first seven contests this year scoring a combined 46 goals in the process. They picked up wins over Ogemaw Heights and Mount Pleasant along the way. They also won an early-season tournament they hosted.
Senior Mitchell Harrington is leading the way with 25 goals and eight assists.
“Mitch wasn’t on the radar last year preseason,” acknowledged Grayling coach Andy Moore. “He came back late preseason and then of course he gets all-state honorable mention last year as a junior.”
As a freshman Harrington played mostly defense for the Vikings. He switched to football his sophomore year. He came back to soccer last season and scored 26 goals and picked up five assists.
Now he has the single-season school scoring record in his sights along with challenging for the conference title and leading the Vikings into the postseason.
Harrington is helping put the Vikings as a team on the radar screen too. They are coming off a 9-12-1 finish last year. They were 8-12-1 in 2021 and 12-6-1 in 2020, Moore’s first year at the helm.
Harrington is widely acclaimed for his speed and ability to put the ball in the net. Opposing coaches know they can never rest with a lead knowing Harrington is dangerous and can make the game interesting with his quick strikes.
“Mitch is a good kid,” Moore said of his senior star. “He’s a class act, and that’s what we tell these kids to be.”
Harrington is surrounded by talented soccer players, Moore is quick to say.
“We have a good supporting cast,” Moore asserted.
Junior Drake Dunham has six goals and 11 assists. Senior Alex Moore has contributed five goals and four assists, and sophomore Brody Cobb has six goals and an assist.
Center back Grant Dunham, also a junior, leads the defense in front of sophomore Jordan Peters, who gained valuable experience in net last year.
“For me, it starts with our center defender Grant Dunham,” Moore said. “And, Jordan is an amazing keeper.”
Grayling suffered its first loss of the season Thursday to perennial champ Elk Rapids. The Elks blew open a 1-1 second-half tie with five goals over the final 25 minutes of the contest. Harrington scored the Vikings’ lone goal.
“We had a learning experience,” Moore said of his team’s first loss. “We’ve got to adjust and move on and get ready for Harbor Springs.
“We’ve got to move forward as a team and get better.”
The Vikings will play next at Harbor Springs on Sept. 12. They get to host both Harbor and the Elks later in the season. They also will play Kalkaska in a home and home. The Blazers tied Harbor on Thursday and are off to a 1-0-1 league and 4-1-2 overall start.
Harrington has high hopes of keeping the Vikings in the league race as he reaches for the school’s scoring record. The bar is set at 42.
“Mitch is aiming for the school record,” Moore pointed out. “He should get it, but we’ll see.”
Elk Rapids remains the measuring stick for much of the league, but especially Grayling’s fourth-year coach.
“Elk Rapids is the team where you want to be,” Moore said. “I always tell the kids this is the team you want to beat and want to compete against.
“Mentally, I think we’re there,” he continued. “I thought last year in the Districts we were there mentally as well, but we played nervous and fouled (and) gave up two early penalty kicks.”
The Elks defeated Grayling 5-2 last year in that contest on their way to the District and Regional titles. Harrington had both goals.
The Vikings, who will host the District tournament including both Elk Rapids and Kalkaska this fall, aren’t really surprised to be off to a 7-1 start.
“We kind of expected it a little bit with what we’ve been building on the last couple years,” Moore said. “We’re excited.
“We beat a couple of quality teams in Ogemaw Heights and Mount Pleasant,” Moore continued. “We feel pretty good about ourselves.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. 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) Grayling, including Caleb Baker (2), Ben Gardiner (13), Mitchel Harrington (4) and Gibsen Barnett (10), is off to a 7-1 start. (Middle) Harrington and Alex Moore (12) work to control possession against Charlevoix this season. (Below) Grant Dunham drives the ball downfield. (Photos by Stacy Moore.)
Country Day Proves Coach's Intuition True in Claiming Record 16th Finals Win
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
November 1, 2025
GRAND LEDGE — Often at the start of a season in August, Detroit Country Day boys soccer coach Steve Bossert said he will tell his wife that “we don’t have it this year.”
But before he could mutter those words this fall, Country Day went up to a tournament up at the Boyne Mountain Sports Complex in the middle of August and went 3-1 in four games.
At that point, Bossert had some different words for his wife.
“After we came back from that Boyne trip, I said, ‘I think we’re pretty good,’” Bossert said. “And then a couple of weeks after that, I said that ‘we might do this.’”
What “this” turned out to be was Country Day adding to its already record total of Finals championships won, as the Yellowjackets captured their 16th with a 4-1 win over South Haven in Saturday’s Division 3 Final.
It took Country Day seven years since winning its 15th title in 2018, but Country Day delivered in dominant fashion.
Country Day scored three goals during the first 18:50 of the game and never looked back in a one-sided effort, outshooting South Haven 31-5.
If not for 14 saves and overall brilliant play by South Haven senior keeper Alex Jaimes, the final score might have been more lopsided.
Senior Micah Zacks had two goals and an assist, and senior Tino Haratsaris had two assists to lead Country Day (22-2-1).
“We knew it was a good goalie, but we just had to keep shooting,” Zacks said. “There wasn’t much to it. Just keep shooting, and they’ll eventually go in. That’s what we did.”
South Haven (18-5-4) was attempting to win its first Finals title since being co-champion with Jackson Lumen Christi in 2003, but simply ran into a buzzsaw in Country Day.
“Overall, the season was something to be proud of,” South Haven head coach Randy Bautista. “Coming into the tournament we were not ranked. We beat tough opponents and ranked opponents throughout the playoffs. … Unfortunately it didn’t go our way today. But we keep our heads up and keep going.”
Country Day opened the scoring with 29:29 left in the first half on a beautifully constructed goal.
Stationed in front of the South Haven goal, Zacks headed a pass within the box to sophomore teammate Rye Clegg, who headed the ball himself into the goal to make it 1-0 Country Day.
The Yellowjackets took a 2-0 lead with 24:50 left in the first half on a goal by senior Yousef Darwich, who tapped the ball into an open goal after South Haven’s keeper couldn’t quite corral a strong cross sent in by Country Day junior Luke Hourani.
The Yellowjackets then went up 3-0 with 21:10 to go in the first on a goal by Zacks, who sent home the ball off of a corner kick.
With 36:35 remaining in the game, Country Day took a 4-0 lead when Haratsaris brilliantly maneuvered around a defender and sent a pass in front of the goal to Zacks, who buried the chance.
South Haven got on the board with 1:17 remaining on a goal by junior Jaden Bolhuis, who fired a shot from roughly 30 yards away that went under the crossbar.
PHOTOS (Top) Country Day’s Tino Haratsaris (2) connects on a shot while South Haven’s Isaac Chalupa (25) rushes to defend. (Middle) South Haven keeper Alex Jaimes goes high to get his hands on the ball. (Below) DCD’s Yousef Darwich makes a run with the Rams’ Luke Swearingen defending. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)