10 to Remember: Winter 2014-15
April 2, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
As one might imagine, six straight weekends of MHSAA Finals produce enough highlights to distract us from our seemingly endless Michigan winters.
As explained to preface “10 to Remember” many times before, all championships are lifetime memories for those who achieved them. Those listed below are just one person’s thoughts on which moments from this season will continue to be discussed most in the seasons to come.
10. Brother Rice Rides Team Effort to Repeat
Birmingham Brother Rice repeated as Lower Peninsula Division 1 swimming and diving champion, and did so by winning by more than 100 points for the second consecutive season. But what made this Warriors finish so impressive was that it didn’t include a single individual championship – they won the opening and closing relays of the meet and took seven second-place individual finishes along the way.
9. Kearsley Sweeps Bowling Championships … Again
Flint Kearsley varsity bowlers are guaranteed one other title this season – MHSAA champions. Both the girls and boys teams won team titles in Division 2, just as they had in 2014. The Kearsley girls again defeated Bay City Western in the championship match, this time by a mere 30 pins, 1,242-1,212. The Kearsley boys also earned their title by defeating Bay City Western, and by only seven pins – 1,351-1,344.
8. Rockford/Sparta Owns the Weekend
Rockford hosted the MHSAA Gymnastics Finals, making the cliché “bringing home the title” a short trip – twice. The Rams, a co-op with Sparta, won the team competition by 1.750 points over reigning champion Canton; Rockford’s only other MHSAA gymnastics championship also was the first in any sport in school history, in the Lower Peninsula in 1989. Juniors Madi Myers and Morgan Korf led the effort with the third and fourth-highest all-around scores of the Team Final – and Korf came back the next day with a stunning move to take the Division 1 individual championship. She had finished 18th in Division 1 as a sophomore.
7. Breckenridge Returns to Cheer Elite
In its second season back as a competitive program, Breckenridge added to its stature as one of the most powerful competitive cheer programs in MHSAA history by claiming the Division 4 championship by nearly 24 points over runner-up Pewamo-Westphalia. Breckenridge has won eight MHSAA titles in cheer, but didn’t have a team for six seasons because of low participation until bringing back the program for 2013-14.
6. Cowboys Lasso First Basketball Title
First Detroit Western International won its first Detroit Public School League championship since 1922. Then it made its first MHSAA Semifinals since 1974. The Cowboys capped this season with its first MHSAA Final victory, a nail-biter 62-59 over Saginaw Arthur Hill in Class A. Western also defeated Detroit Catholic League A-B champion Detroit U-D Jesuit in the Semifinal, and finished the season 26-0.
No team traveled farther to the MHSAA Basketball Finals than the Calumet girls – and it can be argued that no team came from farther away in expectation to become an MHSAA champion. The unranked Copper Kings traveled more than 500 miles to arrive at the Breslin Center, then defeated top-ranked Laingsburg in a Class C Semifinal and perennial power Flint Hamady in the championship game to claim its first MHSAA title in the sport.
4. Skatzka, Olson Become Latest of the Greatest
Richmond’s Devin Skatzka and Davison’s Lincoln Olson pushed the list of MHSAA four-time individual champions to 21 by finishing their careers with big victories. Olson actually was the 20th, winning his match at 135 pounds by technical fall in Division 1. Skatzka then became No. 21 with four MHSAA titles, with a technical fall in the 160-pound match in Division 3.
3. Brighton Claims First Title in Final Match
Few Finals in any sport this winter carried the drama of Brighton’s 31-25 win over Hartland in Division 1 wrestling. Bulldogs 112-pounder Lee Grabowski entered the final match carrying his team’s three-point lead but facing the scenario that if he lost even by decision, and the team score went to 28-28, Brighton would lose the tie-breaker. Oh, and Grabowski was facing an opponent he’d lost to twice in league competition earlier in the winter. Grabowski won a 4-2 decision this time, and Brighton won its first team title.
2. Godwin Heights, Powers North Central Cap 3-Season Surges
Wyoming Godwin Heights and Powers North Central made the MHSAA record book by adding to a pair of the most successful three-season runs in boys basketball history – and capping them with championships. Godwin Heights won its first MHSAA title, downing Detroit Henry Ford 85-68 in the Class B Final, to finish the last three seasons a combined 74-5. North Central, meanwhile, downed Morenci 67-47 in Class D to win its first title since 1984 and cap a three-season 75-5 run.
1. Record Comeback Sends Saints Home as Champs
St. Ignace trailed undefeated Pittsford by 20 points two minutes into the Class D Final when it launched a comeback equaled by only one other team in MHSAA girls basketball history. The Saints tied the score with 35 seconds to play in regulation and continued the rally in the extra period to claim a 64-60 title-clinching victory. Detroit Cass Tech, in the 1987 Class A Final, also had come back from 20 down in the third quarter to win. The championship was St. Ignace’s fifth in girls basketball.
PHOTO: St. Ignace basketball players celebrate after the Saints tied the largest comeback in MHSAA Finals history on the way to claiming the Class D title. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
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.
On 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.
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 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.)