Latest Flushing Title Creates Lasting Buzz
April 17, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The banner is on its way.
Those who followed Flushing’s unexpected run to this season’s Class A girls basketball title – the school’s first in any sport since 1977 – should quickly understand the significance.
History, at least in small part, played a motivational role for the MHSAA/Applebee’s Team of the Month for March as it reached the Semifinals in girls hoops for the first time since 1976 and then added that second title in Raiders history to the first won by the girls golf team four decades ago.
And the fever is still going strong. On Tuesday, the team is scheduled to be recognized by the Flushing school board. On Thursday, the Raiders will join Sen. Ken Horn for an introduction on the Senate floor in Lansing. On Friday, the girls will be recognized during a ceremony at the school, hopefully with that banner to unveil. And of course, they’ll be part of Flushing’s annual Summer Festival parade June 7.
“I’ve been with the program 20 years – the first seven as an assistant – and when I first started, back when girls basketball was in the fall and we played in the old Big Nine Conference, we always had probably some of the bigger fan support than a lot of the other schools in the conference,” Flushing coach Larry Ford said. “Girls basketball has really been embraced by the community. When we switched seasons (to winter), it dropped off a little … but I still feel we have one of the better followings in the area. What the community did behind the run this year, it was second to none.”
And the same was true for a team not necessarily expected to be standing with the trophy on the season’s final day, despite a group that played for that moment going back to middle school.
After playing together at Flushing's junior high, now-seniors Lauren Newman, Breanna Perry and Kamryn Chappell joined the varsity starting lineup as freshmen, and senior guard Carson Wilson was added the following winter as a sophomore. They were four of six seniors from a class that dominated in middle school and over the last four seasons led the varsity to a combined 81-16 record – including a school record 24 wins both this winter (finishing 24-3) and in 2014-15 (24-1).
Still, the Raiders entered this postseason unranked by The Associated Press after losing two of their their first three games of the season but winning 17 of their final 18. Flushing’s only defeats came to Saginaw Heritage and Midland Dow during that opening run and eventual Class B runner-up Ypsilanti Arbor Prep during the final week of the regular season.
Flushing more than proved its merit during the playoffs. The Raiders opened by avenging last season’s District Final loss to St. Johns, and went on to eliminate 18-win Flint Carman-Ainsworth, 17-win Lapeer, 21-win Dow and 19-win Macomb Dakota. They knocked out reigning champion Warren Cousino (24-3) in the Semifinal 52-36 before downing East Kentwood (26-2) in the championship game, 49-38. All but the Dow win were by double figures.
“When they were eighth graders, we started talking to them about state championships,” Ford said. “I was over there for one of their games, and talked to them, or maybe at practice the next day, and I asked them if they knew what a state championship is. When they’re in eighth grade, that look at you like what is that?
“But we started making it a point (freshman year) what we wanted to do. I thought as juniors and seniors they might have a decent chance to make a run like this. These last two years they really were committed to it.”
The Raiders also can boast some all-around successes. Perry and sophomore Thailyia Christensen are multi-sport athletes also competing in track & field, while Wilson and Chappell play soccer during the spring and Newman played softball as well earlier in her high school career. Newman and Wilson carry 4.0 grade-point averages, while Chappell is at 3.5. Perry, a 6-foot forward, will continue her academic and basketball careers next season at Temple University.
But for now, she and her teammates have a busy week ahead and a lot more to celebrate from their history-making winter.
“They are humble beyond belief, and it’s really nice to see,” Ford said. “They’re very appreciative of the accolades they’re getting, the number of cards and emails they’ve gotten from fans and supporters. They’re really enjoying it."
Past Teams of the Month, 2016-17
February: Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central girls skiing - Report
January: Powers North Central boys basketball - Report
December: Dundee boys basketball - Report
November: Rockford girls swimming & diving - Report
October: Rochester girls golf - Report
September: Breckenridge football - Report
PHOTO: Flushing's girls basketball team poses with its championship trophy after winning the Class A title last month.
200 Wins Later, Lusk's 'Yes' Still Paying Off as Hanover-Horton Surges
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
February 3, 2026
Joe Lusk has had to be talked into coaching a couple of times.
But that hasn’t stopped him from being a winner.
The Hanover-Horton girls basketball coach picked up career victory No. 200 last week when the Comets improved to 12-1 with a victory over Homer. It’s the best start to the season for Hanover-Horton since girls basketball transitioned from a fall sport to winter two decades ago.
“He holds his girls accountable and wants to get the best out of each and every one of them,” said Comets athletic director Chris VanEpps. “We are very lucky to have him here at Hanover-Horton.”
Lusk’s career spans two Cascades Conference schools – his alma mater Michigan Center, and Hanover-Horton for the past five seasons. He was also on the bench at Michigan Center when the Cardinals enjoyed incredible success under coach Scott Furman.
Lusk’s story isn’t the typical one about a high school athlete growing up wanting to be a coach. The Consumers Energy retiree, in fact, never considered coaching basketball until his daughter Courtney came home one day and told him he was coaching her team.
“She was in the fifth grade,” Joe Lusk said. “She told me there was a tournament at Vandercook Lake, she was playing and I was going to coach. I told her no way.”
That no slowly turned into a yes.
After coaching the youth basketball team for several years, Lusk was asked by Furman to join his varsity staff.
“He probably asked me 20 times,” Lusk said. “I kept telling him no. Ten years later, I was still coaching.”
Courtney grew into a varsity player and Lusk became an assistant coach.
“The joke at our house was she was either going to be a good basketball player or she was going to be in therapy,” Lusk said. “She would come home after a tough game and say, ‘Is tonight a therapy night?’”
Not much therapy was needed. The Cardinals went through a remarkable run during which they reached the MHSAA Finals twice and Semifinals another season before Courtney graduated in 2006.
Joe Lusk remained an assistant but, in 2012, Furman died, shocking the Michigan Center community. The ultra-successful coach had won more than 350 games during his career. Lusk took over the job, although he had reservations about becoming head coach.
Over the next nine seasons those reservations were put to rest as the Cardinals won 149 games. In 2018, they went 23-3 and made a run to the Division 3 Semifinals.
Lusk’s last season at Michigan Center was 2020-21. In June 2021, he was hired at Hanover-Horton.
“They found out there was an opening at Hanover and my wife (Cindy) and Courtney put together my resume and sent it in,” Lusk said. “They told me they were doing it. They wouldn’t let me quit (coaching).”
He was hired.
“Having an experienced coach like Coach Lusk is very important for our program,” VanEpps said. “His consistency and effort to make things better, not just for his teams, but for Hanover-Horton in general, give our younger staff someone to model themselves after. As for the girls on his team, he is stern but fair, which is something that can be lost on our younger generations.”
As for his current team being 12-1, Lusk knows the Comets have difficult games coming up. The Comets face Michigan Center (12-2) on Wednesday, Brooklyn Columbia Central (9-2) in a Cascades Conference West game in two weeks and state-ranked Concord in a nonconference matchup. Hanover-Horton also is in a District with powerhouses like Jackson Lumen Christi and Grass Lake. If the Comets win the Cascades West, they will likely face Grass Lake in the conference title game.
“We know the second half of our schedule is loaded,” he said.
Through it all, basketball remains a family sport. Courtney is the Comets’ junior varsity coach. Cindy keeps the scorebook for every game, something she has done for years.
“We are a basketball family,” Lusk said. “If Cindy didn’t do what she does, I wouldn’t be here today. She does a lot of work. For our juniors program, she keeps track of everything, all of the kids, what their shirt sizes are. If I had to do all of that, I wouldn’t be doing it. She loves basketball.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Hanover-Horton girls basketball coach Joe Lusk monitors the action during a game this season. (Middle) Lila Hamisfar (1) puts up a shot against Homer. (Below) Lusk carries balloons celebrating his 200th win alongside Hanover-Horton teacher and basketball parent Courtney Toteff. (Top and middle photos by Hannah Tacy/JTV. Below photo courtesy of Cindy Lusk.)