Logo

High 5s: 11/14/12

November 19, 2012

All three of this week's honorees have achieved some sort of first-time stardom this fall, either individually or as a team. And both Carli Snyder and Alex Grace will be back next fall to continue building on these accomplishments. 

Carli Snyder
Macomb Dakota junior
Volleyball

(UPDATED 11/19) Snyder, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter, was an all-stater her first two seasons of high school. But she will be remembered even more for leading Macomb Dakota this fall to its first MHSAA championship in any girls sport. The Cougars defeated Temperance Bedford in three games in Saturday's Class A Final at Kellogg Arena. Snyder unofficially finished this season with 913 kills, good for seventh in the MHSAA record book since the beginning of the rally scoring era in 2004-05. Her 31 kills against Bedford were third-most for a Final during that time. Snyder already has committed to sign with the University of Florida next year. She likely will be among frontrunners for next fall's Miss Volleyball award. 

Title talk: "We wanted this thing so bad. Every girl on this team wanted it so badly. Megan (Manierski) was setting the ball perfectly. She made it very easy to get kills. ... Just talking about this moment, this gym, it makes you just want to play harder than you ever have."

Winning recipe: "We've been a competitive team in practice and in games all year, so I think that helped us at that moment (in three close Finals games) when we just didn't want to lose. We refused to lose. ... We support each other no matter what. And we hustled so hard."

Shake it up: "We have some secret handshakes with other people, but mine are very complex. I don't know how we went about that. Megan and mine is from "Parent Trap," and then Megan Downey and mine, we just made it up at team dinner. We make it a bit more complex than it needs to be, but it's fun. And it's a great thing to calm us down for a game when we've played a bad one before."

Had to be a Gator: "I like warm weather. I love the coaches. I actually called Florida for my recruiting phone call because I was kinda bored one day at home and I was like, 'I got a letter from them.' I fell in love with the coaching staff, and I told my mom that I needed to go on a visit down there. It's incredible, and when I went down there I was even more in love. Even on the phone, I knew this is where I would end up. It's just that feeling. You know when you get that feeling, and it's incredible."

Click to read more.

Alex Grace
Saginaw Swan Valley sophomore
Football

The Vikings' leading rusher is also one of the leading rushers in the state this season heading into Saturday's Division 4 Semifinal against Detroit Country Day. Grace has gained 2,091 yards plus run for 27 touchdowns, and needs only 109 yards and three more scores to make the MHSAA record book in both categories. He ran for 182 yards and three scores in the Vikings' Regional Final win over Croswell-Lexington. Grace took over as Swan Valley's running back this season after the graduation of his brother Johnathan, who rushed for 1,790 yards last season and now plays at Michigan Tech. Both brothers ran on Swan Valley's 400-meter relay that finished runner-up at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Track and Field Final in the spring. Alex is 6-0 and 185 pounds and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds.

I'd like to run like: "Even my brother. I like to look at myself as close to him. Professionally, (Minnesota Vikings back) Adrian Peterson. He's a tough runner, fast. He's strong."

Underdogs again: "The last game against Croswell, they were the No. 2 team and we were predicted to lose. But we came back and beat them. I use that underdog feeling to work harder each day."

Best brotherly advice: "Work hard, and if there are doubters, don't let them get you down."

Science and math: (My favorite classes are) biology and economics. They just come easy to me. I enjoy it."

Click to read more. 

Flint Beecher football

The Buccaneers, coached by former Michigan State and NFL standout Courtney Hawkins, were one of the final teams selected for the playoffs, at 5-4 after a 3-4 start. But Beecher advanced to this week's Division 7 Semifinal against Detroit Loyola by eliminating reigning champion Saginaw Nouvel, 19-15, in last week's Regional championship game. Beecher, now 8-4, has made the playoffs six straight years. The first of that run came in Hawkins' second as coach and after 12 straight losing seasons. 

Click to read more. 

Previous 2012-13 honorees:

New Boston Huron’s Ian Petrick celebrates scoring a goal this season against Grosse Ile.

Petrick's Goals: 100 & Growing as New Boston Huron Continues Rise As Well

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

October 2, 2025

NEW BOSTON – Lately, New Boston Huron senior soccer player Ian Petrick has been immensely enjoying his newest bedroom decoration. 

Greater DetroitOn his wall sits a soccer ball signed by teammates and his coaching staff commemorating a significant milestone he achieved Aug. 22 during a win over Flat Rock. 

That’s when Petrick scored his 100th career varsity goal, and now the ball used to score that goal is something wonderful to stare at every day. 

“It just kind of sits there,” he said. “It’s nice to look at it when I wake up in the morning to remind me of everything I’ve put in.”

Now with 118 goals for his career (and 30 this season), Patrick joined 43 other players in state history by getting to the 100-goal career mark. 

“When it happened, it just meant everything to me,” he said. “All the training over the summer and work I had put in over the past four years at the high school level had really paid off in that moment.”

Petrick said he has played soccer since he was 3 years old, but for a majority of his career, preventing goals was more of his task. 

He was a central defender for his club team until he was in seventh grade, when his coach decided to have him give the striker position a try. 

Petrick reached 100 career goals this August. Since then, scoring goals has become his passion on the field. 

Petrick said there have been two main technical aspects of the striker/forward position he has tried to master since switching to the position. 

One is knowing when to move without the ball, and what type of movements to make.

“When you see the midfielder pick their head up to send the ball, you start the run,” he said. “The runs can’t be just vertical. They’ve got to be diagonals, and they have to be overlaps.”

The other has been finishing in the box when he comes up on the goalkeeper with the ball. 

“Finishing one-on-one with the keeper is huge,” he said. “I’ve trained on that so much. If you are running up the box from different sides of the field, you have to figure out where you need to shoot the ball. If you are coming from the left side, (the shot) has to be far post right side. If you’re coming from the right side, it’s got to be far post to the left. Sometimes it’s a chip over the keeper. It’s just all those different scenarios where the keeper comes out or the keeper stays in net. Making that final finishing touch to the shot is the most important thing.”

Huron head coach Matt Lividin said the way Petrick has contributed offensively of late has been one of his biggest transformations. 

Lividin said during his underclassmen years, Petrick would score goals simply on his raw speed and strength. Now, he is becoming a more technically complete player who is scoring and generating more assists, something that should make him more attractive to college programs currently recruiting him.

“I think they have been kind of holding off to see if he’s more than just the speedster,” Lividin said. “To see if he’s someone they are looking for to add depth to their forward lines. This year, I think he’s trying to complete the full package to make sure the colleges are still interested in him.”

In addition to his individual accolades, Petrick has helped elevate the Huron program to heights not reached in a long time. 

Last year, Huron (14-1-2) won its first District title in 18 years before falling to eventual Division 2 champion Warren De La Salle Collegiate in a Regional Semifinal. 

With 12 seniors on this year’s roster back from last year’s team, Huron is understandably eyeing big things for when the MHSAA Tournament begins next week. 

“That has meant everything to the school, to rejuvenate the soccer program,” said Petrick, who said he will run track in the spring, hoping to specialize in the 200-meter dash. 

If Huron can win it all in the coming weeks, a Finals championship medal would be a nice display partner for that 100-goal ball in Petrick’s room. 

Keith DunlapKeith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.

PHOTOS (Top) New Boston Huron’s Ian Petrick celebrates scoring a goal this season against Grosse Ile. (Middle) Petrick reached 100 career goals this August. (Photos courtesy of the Petrick family.)