Mixed Messages
November 27, 2013
One of the very few enjoyable aspects of waiting in an airport is the guiltless time it allows me to visit its bookstores and page slowly through some of the old classics I vaguely remember and the new releases I can’t wait to read.
Two months ago in one of the terminals of Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, my attention went quickly to a prominent display of books about football. Five titles were mostly critical of the game, focusing on the sport at the major college and professional levels. Down at the bottom of the display was one title that addressed the positive value of football to students, schools and communities.
One month ago, while I was eating breakfast, the television news reported on the results of new research about youth concussions. While the narration mentioned multiple sports, the video was mostly of football. I saw that story repeated on another television channel that evening. I wondered, how many times on how many channels did how many people get this gift of the latest youth concussion statistics for all sports presented in football-only wrapping paper?
The public is getting mixed messages about school-sponsored football. The problem of college and professional football is not the problem of school-sponsored football. And what problems of head trauma that do exist in school sports are not exclusively problems of football.
In fact, school-sponsored football has never been freer of serious injury than it is today – that’s true whether we are talking about heads, necks, knees or nicks. It’s the result of the most careful and cautious rules making, coaching and officiating ever. And it’s safer – not less so – as we ever more quickly assess and refer injuries to ever more educated and capable health care professionals.
Record Win Streak Setters Meet in Opener
September 4, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Friday’s varsity football season opener between Ithaca and Hudson at Alma College was the first time the teams had met on the field.
But the programs have been mentioned in the same conversations concerning record success frequently over the last decade. They are the only programs statewide that have won more than 44 consecutive games during the state’s long history of the sport.
The Hudson teams from 1968-1975 put together a 72-game winning streak that remains the MHSAA record and fourth longest in national high school football history. The Tigers’ streak ended at the first MHSAA Finals with a loss to Ishpeming in the inaugural Class C championship game.
Beginning on opening night 2010 and until a loss in the 2014 Division 6 Final, Ithaca mounted a serious challenge to Hudson’s accomplishment, winning 69 straight games to rank second in Michigan and tie for seventh on the national winning streak list. The Yellowjackets’ run included four straight Division 6 championships. Coincidentally, both teams won their first MHSAA Finals titles in 2010 – Hudson won Division 7 that fall.
Ithaca won Friday’s first matchup against Hudson, 38-24, and the teams came together after for this photo below (and partially above).
Journalist’s Schools to Remember Him
Southwestern Michigan is mourning the loss of Sturgis Journal sports editor Corky Emrick, who died unexpectedly Aug. 19.
The high schools he covered for two decades also will be honoring the memory of their ardent supporter.
Bronson, Burr Oak, Centreville, Constantine, Colon, Mendon, Sturgis, Three Rivers and White Pigeon all will be wearing helmet stickers and uniform patches with “CE” in green and yellow during this 2019-20 school year.
Emrick joined the Journal staff fulltime in 1999 and took over as sports editor in 2008, according to the paper’s report after his death. Click to read that Sturgis Journal piece in full.