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.)
Back Line Comes to Forefront as Byron Center Shuts Down Saline to Lock Up 1st Title
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
June 14, 2025
EAST LANSING – John Conlon praised his Byron Center defensive players Saturday for not just their play, but their selflessness all season.
As the Bulldogs powered through to the Division 1 Final, the backline of Carli Alexander, Ashtyn Stuck, Leah Willey and Jordan Kerns did their jobs, leaving the glory to their teammates further up the field.
But in the biggest game of the season, they went ahead and grabbed some of that glory, too.
Alexander and Stuck combined on the lone goal in Byron Center’s 1-0 victory against Saline at Michigan State University, giving the girls soccer program its first Finals title.
“Honestly, it’s awesome,” said Alexander, who provided the assist on Stuck’s goal. “It’s just unreal. I love playing defense, but when I get to play up there on the corners, it’s just awesome. And I love helping out the team; it’s great.”
Byron Center (21-1-3) had never played in a girls soccer Final prior to Saturday, but didn’t shrink from the moment as it handed Saline (21-1-2) its lone loss of the season.
That might be because it was used to playing in high-pressure situations, having won all its postseason games by a single goal, five victories coming at 1-0, and the other a 3-2 overtime win against Midland in the Regional Final.
“We talked about this back in March, that soccer is a fickle game,” Conlon said. “You can dominate and lose 1-0, or you can dominate and win 1-0, so you just have to be comfortable with that. I don’t think they understood it at first, but they do now. They ground out some great wins against some good teams.”
The biggest win against the best team included holding off top-ranked Saline’s dynamic scoring duo of Sadie Walsh and Sienna Snyder. They had combined for 50 goals (30 for Snyder, 20 for Walsh) leading up to Saturday, but were held to just five shots, with three on goal – accounting for every Saline attempt on the day.
“Walsh is a great player,” Conlon said. “She undid a couple of very good defenders running with the ball. She’s very good. We had to layer our defense and make sure she had to break through multiple levels. I think 1v1, she’s almost unguardable, so it was great team defending.”
The Bulldogs did it with composure on the back end, despite Kerns, a senior, being the only upperclassman on the starting back line. Alexander and Willey are sophomores, while Stuck is a freshman, as is starting goalkeeper Nora Schans.
“My wife started with a lot of these girls when they were 5, so we’ve been training them from a really young age,” Conlon said. “And they play at a high club level; a lot of our backline players do. They’re just great players, and they’re humble, they’re OK with defending and not scoring. They’re OK with coming away with a win and never coming away with the scoring, so our back four are fantastic.”
The scoring did come from the back four in this one, of course, and it was a beautiful set play from a Jadyn Glover corner.
Alexander met the ball near the top of the box, flicking it into a dangerous area, and Stuck struck it out of the air and into the net.
“The corner went short, so I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to try and at least get my head on it,’” Alexander said. “So I just flicked it, and Ashtyn just happened to be there and it was amazing. I’m really happy that she got that as a freshman.”
The goal was just the sixth allowed by Saline all season, and first it had allowed in the postseason. Goalkeeper Kaylee Mitzel, who made five saves Saturday, entered the game with a 0.23 goals-against average and 18 shutouts.
“I couldn’t be prouder of them,” Saline coach Leigh Rumbold said. “The amount of effort they put in day in and day out to get to this stage – getting to this stage is hard. Over the course of the boys and girls program at Saline, we’re the third team to get to this stage.
“It hurts. I don’t even have the words for it – you could obviously see it when they came off. It hurts to get to this stage and have this be our one loss, but the fact of the matter is, when you kind of take a step back and take a couple days, weeks to let it set in, it’s been an unbelievable season.”
Saline was able to put some pressure on the Bulldogs midway through the second half, but couldn’t turn it into quality chances on goal. And Byron Center did a good job of clearing the ball and moving it forward to striker Ella Alexander who, while she didn’t score, did have three shots and stressed the Hornets defense, often by herself as her team was set back defending.
“She’s a demon,” Conlon said. “She’s a demon. I jokingly have called her the Tasmanian Devil because I don’t think I’ve ever coached a front-runner who can run 80 or 90 minutes at that pace and press. I convinced her early on that, ‘You might not score, but you’ll turn balls over pressing the back line. She didn’t go in the scorebook today, but she created a lot of things for us.”
PHOTOS (Top) Byron Center keeper Nora Schans, far right, prepares to stop a shot from Saline’s Sienna Snyder on Saturday. (Middle) The Hornets’ Caylin Sturms (3) works to maintain possession despite pressure from a Bulldogs defender. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.