Troy Repeats with Doubles Domination, Pioneer's Miller Takes Championship Step
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 15, 2026
MIDLAND — For Ann Arbor Pioneer sophomore Grant Miller, it was the culmination of a two-month process where he was able to trust his tennis game again.
Miller said he didn’t have his best summer on the junior circuit, and that carried over a bit to the start of the season in August when he admitted that his confidence “was a little bit low.”
Entering the second and final day of the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals on Friday, the objective was simple.
“I’ve spent the last 2½ months really working on my game,” Miller said. “Now is the time to trust it. Now is the time to not worry about anything. I’ve got to go and I’ve got to trust all the work I put in.”
Miller did exactly that, ultimately riding that trust and work into an individual championship at No. 1 singles.
The runner-up last year as a freshman, Miller took the next step, prevailing 6-1, 6-1 over senior Aarav Shah of Salem in the championship match at Midland Tennis Center.
Miller lost to Shah back in August when he was still rounding into form, but that turned out to be his only defeat this season. Miller also defeated Shah at last week’s Regional tournament.
The top seed going in, Miller also earned a 6-1, 6-0 win over Dheeraj Yelleti of Troy in a semifinal.
In particular, Miller said honing and trusting his forehand really paid off as the season went on.
“That was the biggest thing for me, just building that trust and confidence in my game,” Miller said. “That keeps me more mentally stable, knowing I have that trust, so I’m able to kind of stay more steady instead of going so up and down throughout the match.”
Team-wise, it came as little surprise that Troy repeated as champion.
The Colts earned 29 points, well ahead of runner-up Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice (20) and third-place Pioneer (19).
Troy rode its strong doubles teams, prevailing in three of the four doubles flights.
The team of junior Sourish Daruri and senior Jesse Hao won at No. 1 doubles, the tandem of juniors Jyottiraditya Kashyap and Siddarth Manikandan triumphed at No. 2 doubles and the pairing of sophomore Vivaan Shan and junior Stas Barodka won at No. 4 doubles.
“It’s just honestly one of those years where a lot of teams put their best players in singles,” Troy head coach Brian Miska said. “Some years they put their best players in doubles, some years they put them in singles. So this year, the singles draws were just tough. A lot tougher than last year.”
Even worse for the rest of the field is Troy should be back for more, given it had just two seniors on the roster.
“I had seven new starters this year from last year’s championship team,” Miska said. “We have only two seniors. That was our fear, to see how they kind of would respond under pressure. Give these kids credit. They really did. They worked so hard on their game.”
Clarkston had a pair of individual winners, sophomore Evan Geisz at No. 2 singles and freshman Athan Brozovich at No. 4 singles.
Ann Arbor Skyline freshman Marc Mocanu captured the title at No. 3 singles. The No. 3 doubles title was claimed by the Brother Rice pair of junior Dylan Fisher and sophomore Sam Dimerman.
PHOTOS (Top) Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Grant Miller prepares to smash a forehand during Friday’s final rounds at Midland Tennis Center. (Middle) Troy’s Siddarth Manikandan sends back a powerful volley during a No. 2 doubles match. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)
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Field Hockey Debut, Tennis Finals Change Among Most Notable as Fall Practices Set to Begin
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 8, 2025
The addition of girls field hockey as a sponsored postseason championship sport and a revised schedule for Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals are the most significant changes to fall sports as practices are set to begin Monday, Aug. 11, for an anticipated 100,000 high school athletes at Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools.
The fall season includes the most played sports for both boys and girls; 36,210 football players and 19,679 girls volleyball players competed during the Fall 2024 season. Teams in those sports will be joined by competitors in girls and boys cross country, field hockey, Lower Peninsula girls golf, boys soccer, Lower Peninsula girls swimming & diving, Upper Peninsula girls tennis and Lower Peninsula boys tennis in beginning practice next week. Competition begins Aug. 15 for cross country, field hockey, golf, soccer and tennis, Aug. 20 for swimming & diving and volleyball, and Aug. 28 for varsity football.
Field hockey is one of two sports set to make its debut with MHSAA sponsorship during the 2025-26 school year; boys volleyball will play its first season with MHSAA sponsorship in the spring.
There are 37 varsity teams expected to play during the inaugural field hockey season. There will be one playoff division, with the first MHSAA Regionals in this sport beginning Oct. 8 and the first championship awarded Oct. 25.
To conclude their season, Lower Peninsula boys tennis teams will begin a pilot program showcasing Finals for all four divisions at the same location – Midland Tennis Center – over a two-week period. Division 4 will begin play with its two-day event Oct. 15-16, followed by Division 1 on Oct. 17-18, Division 2 on Oct. 22-23 and Division 3 played Oct. 24-25.
Also in Lower Peninsula boys tennis, and girls in the spring, a Finals qualification change will allow for teams that finish third at their Regionals to advance to the season-ending tournament as well, but only in postseason divisions where there are six Regionals – which will be all four boys divisions this fall.
The 11-Player Football Finals at Ford Field will be played this fall over a three-day period, with Division 8, 4, 6 and 2 games on Friday, Nov. 28, and Division 7, 3, 5 and 1 games played Sunday, Nov. 30, to accommodate Michigan State’s game against Maryland on Nov. 29 at Ford Field.
Two more changes affecting football playoffs will be noticeable this fall. For the first time, 8-Player Semifinals will be played at neutral sites; previously the team with the highest playoff-point average continued to host during that round. Also, teams that forfeit games will no longer receive playoff-point average strength-of-schedule bonus points from those opponents to which they forfeited.
A pair of changes in boys soccer this fall will address sportsmanship. The first allows game officials to take action against a team’s head coach in addition to any cautions or ejections issues to players and personnel in that team’s bench area – making the head coach more accountable for behavior on the sideline. The second change allows for only the team captain to speak with an official during the breaks between periods (halftime and during overtime), unless another coach, player, etc., is summoned by the official – with the penalty a yellow card to the offending individual.
A few more game-action rules changes will be quickly noticeable to participants and spectators.
- In volleyball, multiple contacts by one player attempting to play the ball will now be allowed on second contact if the next contact is by a teammate on the same side of the net.
- In swimming & diving, backstroke ledges will be permitted in pools that maintain a 6-foot water depth. If used in competition, identical ledges must be provided by the host team for all lanes, although individual swimmers are not required to use them.
- Also in swimming & diving – during relay exchanges – second, third and fourth swimmers must have one foot stationary at the front edge of the deck. The remainder of their bodies may be in motion prior to the finish of the incoming swimmer.
- In football, when a forward fumble goes out of bounds, the ball will now be spotted where the fumble occurred instead of where the ball crossed the sideline.
The 2025 Fall campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls Tennis Finals during the week of Sept. 29 and wrapping up with the 11-Player Football Finals on Nov. 28 and 30. Here is a complete list of fall tournament dates:
Cross Country
U.P. Finals – Oct. 18
L.P. Regionals – Oct. 24 or 25
L.P. Finals – Nov. 1
Field Hockey
Regionals – Oct. 8-21
Semifinals – Oct. 22 or 23
Final – Oct. 25
11-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
District Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
District Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Regional Finals – Nov. 14 or 15
Semifinals – Nov. 22
Finals – Nov. 28 and 30
8-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
Regional Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
Regional Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Semifinals – Nov. 15
Finals – Nov. 22
L.P. Girls Golf
Regionals – Oct. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11
Finals – Oct. 17-18
Boys Soccer
Districts – Oct. 8-18
Regionals – Oct. 21-25
Semifinals – Oct. 29
Finals – Nov. 1
L.P. Girls Swimming & Diving
Diving Regionals – Nov. 13
Swimming/Diving Finals – Nov. 21-22
Tennis
U.P. Girls Finals – Oct. 1, 2, 3, or 4
L.P. Boys Regionals – Oct. 8, 9, 10, or 11
L.P. Boys Finals – Oct. 15-16 (Division 4), Oct. 17-18 (Division 1), Oct 22-23 (Division 2), and Oct. 24-25 (Division 3)
Girls Volleyball
Districts – Nov. 3-8
Regionals – Nov. 11 & 13
Quarterfinals – Nov. 18
Semifinals – Nov. 20-21
Finals – Nov. 22
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.