10 to Remember: Spring 2013
June 25, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Nine teams won their first MHSAA championships this spring. Birmingham Brother Rice's boys lacrosse team won its ninth in a row.
And those are only among the toppers of the long list that made memorable moments during this season's Finals, which finished up the school year two weekends ago.
Locking down the 10 most significant performances is impossible. But endeavoring to do so, here are one person's guess at those that will continue to be discussed most in the years to come.
Among those that just missed this list: Brother Rice boys lacrosse, St. Ignace's girls track and field team after winning its fourth straight team title, Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett's baseball team after its extra-innings Final win over Beal City, Grandville Calvin Christian's girls soccer team after winning a rematch of last season's Division 4 Final and Port Huron Northern's girls tennis team after it emerged from a loaded field to win the Lower Peninsula Division 1 title.
Sami Michell Shines Once More
In her final high school meet, Reed City senior Sami Michell won four more MHSAA Finals individual titles to finish her career with 12 – two more than the previous Lower Peninsula record. A year after becoming the second female to win four events at one Finals meet, she did so again by finishing first in the 100 and 300-meter hurdles, the 200 dash and the long jump. She scored 40 points to claim the team runner-up trophy for her school. Click to read more.
Best Class of All-Time?
That could be the argument for this season’s girls track and field seniors, as twins Hannah and Haley Meier and Erin Finn joined Sami Michell, Detroit Country Day's Kendall Baisden and a host of others in finishing their careers. The Meiers already are members of a national record-holding relay (which set its milestone in 2012), and Hannah won two more Division 1 individual titles (setting all-Finals records) while Haley placed in the same two races and joined her sister on two winning relays. West Bloomfield’s Finn, considered as well one of the nation’s top high school distance runners, finished third to the Meiers in the Division 1 1,600 before cutting nine seconds off her 2012 time in setting an all-Finals record in the 3,200. Click to read more.
Warriors Earn First Title for Winning Coach
Bay City Western’s baseball team strung together two 1-0 shutouts by pitchers Brett Adcock and then Connor Foley to claim its first MHSAA baseball championship – and the first to go with coach Tim McDonald’s other 563 wins over the last 21 seasons. The 1-0 championship game victory over Brother Rice was Western's 35th straight of the season; Western finished 42-2. Click to read more.
Gull Lake Soccer Makes Mark
Richland Gull Lake hadn’t played in a girls soccer Final since 1999, but survived two overtimes against reigning champion Bloomfield Hills Marian to win the Division 2 championship game 1-0. The title was Gull Lake’s first since 1992 and came against a program that not only won in 2012, but three of the last five Division 2 championships. Click to read more.
Upper Peninsula Ace Shoots Record Round
Snow and rain put a damper on a good portion of the girls golf season in the Upper Peninsula this spring. But no U.P. female golfer has ever finished as strongly as Marquette’s Avery Rochester. She claimed her second straight individual Finals championship with a U.P. Finals-record 69, which was three under par at Portage Lake Golf Course in Houghton. Her score also was just one more stroke than the all-Finals record of 68 shot by Grandville’s Stacy Snider in 1998. Click to read more.
7 ... 2 ... 1 ... Champion Tecumseh
Tecumseh entered the MHSAA Tournament after finishing the regular season an honorable mention in the Division 2 softball coaches poll. But the Indians defeated No. 1 Stevensville Lakeshore in the Quarterfinal, reigning champion and No. 2 Livonia Ladywood in the Semifinal and No. 7 Saginaw Swan Valley in the Final to claim their first championship since 2008. Click to read more.
Bishop Foley Sets Baseball Bar
Madison Heights Bishop Foley claimed its third straight Division 3 baseball championship to become the first in MHSAA baseball history to win that many consecutive titles. Bishop Foley is 112-8-1 over the last three seasons and finished 35-2-1 this spring. The Ventures outscored their Bailey Park competition by a combined 18-5 over Finals weekend – getting junior Garrett Schilling to 15-0 for this season and 31-0 for his career with a 6-0 Semifinal win. Click to read more.
Done Deal for Dundee
The Dundee softball team eliminated two-time reigning champion Clinton on the way to Bailey Park this spring, and then beat three-time champion Unionville-Sebewaing in the Division 3 Final to claim its first MHSAA championship in the sport. In the process, Dundee finished 45-1 – setting an MHSAA record for wins in a softball season. Click to read more.
Troy Moves Up to No. 1
After two-straight Division 1 runner-up finishes, Troy earned its first girls soccer championship since 2003 with a 2-1 Final win over Grandville. The Colts had been outscored a combined 3-0 in the last two MHSAA Division 1 Finals, and began this season 3-6-2 before rattling off 15 wins and a tie on the way to claiming the championship. Click to read more.
Tie-Breaker After Heart-Breaker
The Battle Creek Lakeview boys golf team had finished one stroke behind Birmingham Brother Rice at the 2012 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final, and found itself tied with Plymouth this month after the final round was complete. But thanks to a fifth-player tie-breaker, Lakeview claimed its first MHSAA championship since 2008. Click to read more.
Taorminas Recognized by Lake Orion for Hall of Fame-Level Contributions in Several Roles
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 1, 2026
LAKE ORION — Sammy and Anthony Taormina are two fantastic examples that you don’t necessarily have to be a great athlete in high school to have a Hall of Fame impact on a school and sports community.
Twin brothers, the Taorminas are 2006 graduates of Lake Orion High School who were members of the football and track & field teams (Sammy competed in both sports, Anthony in track) but neither stacked stats or accolades most all-state and future college athletes accumulate in high school.
Still, it was a no-brainer when Lake Orion athletic director Chris Bell and a committee chose the Taorminas to become part of the school’s first Hall of Fame class last week.
Simply put, there have been few who have had a bigger impact and served in more roles for the school than the Taorminas over the past two decades.
Both have been statisticians for teams, clock operators, announcers, mentors, and promoters of the school and athletic department. Sammy even has spent time inside a Dragon costume as the school’s mascot.
They regularly host a podcast called “OAA Now,” where coaches from around the league call in to chat and give insight on their teams. The two also have a blog where they regularly break coaching news.
During the spring, both have served as middle school track coaches, mostly presiding over throwers.
More importantly, both work for the district as middle school aides, with their friendliness and knowledge regularly mentoring kids to become better students and people.
“When you make an impact on someone’s life for the positive, then you know you’ve done your job,” Anthony Taormina said.
Students and communities are drawn to the Taorminas not only for how much they help, but because they have overcome obstacles and adversity during their lives. Both have navigated autism and related challenges.
“I originally did not want to be a mentor, but I became one,” said Anthony Taormina, who like Sammy is also a graduate of Oakland University and who served as a team manager for Oakland men’s basketball coach Greg Kampe.
That first Lake Orion Hall of Fame class also included 20 athletes, the 1990 wrestling team that won a Class A championship, and longtime track & field and cross country coach Stan Ford.
Despite all the great athletes inducted such as Mr. Baseball Award winner Randy Frye, Mr. Soccer winner Billy Weaver, all-state girls basketball player Bethany Watterworth and all-state running back Marques Stevenson, the most popular inductees were likely the Taorminas, who five years ago also were named Citizens of the Month by Orion Township.
During a football pregame ceremony Friday before Lake Orion played Rochester Adams, the Taorminas got the loudest ovation from the crowd, likely because both current students and alums know them well.
Sammy Taormina said they found out the news from Bell in August after leaving a doctor’s appointment.
“At first I was like, ‘Please don’t call me, I’m in the doctor’s office,’” he said. “Then I called back and he told me the news we were going into the Hall of Fame. We were just very ecstatic about it.”
Now, the two will have plaques displayed in the school halls for all to see, although students will still love seeing their real faces each and every day.
The Taorminas are as much a part of the fabric and identity of Lake Orion as the Dragon or lake itself, and plan on continuing to put kids first in everything they do for years to come in every role they serve.
“I would always encourage kids to be the best they can be,” Anthony Taormina said. “That’s all you can ask in this game we call life. It’s not a bad thing to be a manager or support staff person because you can be successful while not being a student-athlete. I’ve had a lot of students that may or may not have been athletes, but they end up helping me and Sammy out on several occasions, whether it be on the (score)book or on the (game) clock. Those type of things. I’m extremely proud of that.”
Keith 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.