Second Half Starts Your Football Drive
August 31, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Just like that, the first weekend of MHSAA football season 2014 is in the books.
But we've got three more months of exciting stories to follow as September kicks off Monday.
Here's a brief breakdown of regular features to come this season on Second Half:
- A Game for Every Fan: Weekly looks each Friday at the best games to be played in every corner of the state.
- Drive for Detroit: Weekly reviews each Tuesday at the most significant results from the weekend across both peninsulas.
- Be the Referee: Weekly series from our director of officiating, Mark Uyl, that will include a number of football topics during the fall.
- This Week on MHSAA.TV: We'll fill you in on all the games available on-demand on MHSAA.TV from the week before and let you know which coming up can be watched live on a subscription basis.
- Inside Selection Sunday: Our annual explanation of how playoff pairings are chosen and some of our toughest decisions when building brackets in October.
- Live from the Finals: We'll cover all nine MHSAA Finals, beginning with the 8-Player championship game and through two days of 11-player title contests during Thanksgiving weekend.
- Records Report: Each week we'll fill you in on our latest additions to the MHSAA record books, including for football, which has our largest set of listings.
- All the scores, schedules and standings: Keep an eye on "Scores & Schedules" on MHSAA.com for scores every weekend as we receive them, and visit your favorite team's page for all results from this fall plus league standings, the rest of the schedule to come and playoff point averages.
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.