Beginning Another Tourney Journey
August 8, 2016
Below is the introductory commentary to the MHSAA's spring issue of benchmarks. Histories of MHSAA tournaments published in that issue have been appearing on Second Half every Tuesday and Friday.
By Jack Roberts
MHSAA Executive Director
Concussions and cutbacks. Participation fees and part-time employment. Student safety and specialization. International students and interstate travel. Transfers and trials.
Through a myriad of issues which periodically cloud our mission, the foundation on which the MHSAA was built still shines brightest three times each year: Tournament Time!
It can be daunting and overwhelming to make a living at this business of interscholastic athletics these days, not to mention a tad confusing. Do we need legal degrees? Medical degrees? Business degrees? Marketing degrees? There seems to be no escape from threat of legislative mandates which continually change the landscape of our product and how it’s delivered. Demands pile up, resources dwindle.
Add the daily challenges of scheduling issues, inclement weather and pleasing teenagers and their parents on a daily basis, and it’s easy to lose focus of the primary missions for the MHSAA and its member schools.
And then, scenes like this happen:
• Holly Bullough, a senior cross country runner from Traverse City St. Francis takes her second straight Division 3 championship, winning by 36.4 seconds ... with a stress fracture in her left foot.
• Detroit Martin Luther King QB Armani Posey directs a game-winning drive to give his school the Division 2 football championship ... a drive which started on his own 3-yard line with 37 seconds left and ended with a 40-yard heave to receiver Donnie Corley on the final play of the game.
• Leland sweeps the Class D volleyball title match 3-0 over Battle Creek St. Philip ... ending a string of nine straight titles for St. Phil, the 10th longest national streak in history.
• Davison’s Taylor Davis becomes only the fourth person in MHSAA Girls Bowling history to roll a 300 game in the Singles portion of the tournament ... and the first ever in the championship match.
• The Upper Peninsula’s Hancock HS wins the Division 3 ice hockey title in its first trip to the Final since 2000 ... a trip funded in part from a “Go Fund Me” web page that raised $6,620 from 99 donors in two days.
• Junior Kierra Fletcher of Warren Cousino carries her team to the Class A girls basketball championship with 27 points in the Final ... after scoring 37 of her team’s 60 points in the Semifinals and totaling 198 during eight tournament games.
That’s just a sampling of the magic from last fall and winter.
These moments shine through the current challenges and the unseen future that awaits us as they always have. The uniforms and faces are different, but the tournaments have always yielded the fruits of our labors, and the memories for our mental scrapbooks.
PHOTO: Leland's volleyball team hoists its Class D championship trophy last fall at Kellogg Arena.
GR Catholic Central Dominates in Repeat, O'Grady Pulls Away for Medalist Honor
By
Tom Lang
Special for MHSAA.com
October 19, 2024
BATTLE CREEK – It was tough enough for the competition to gain ground on defending champion Grand Rapids Catholic Central with its massive lead after shooting a first-round 331 on Friday.
Then the Cougars did even better in Saturday’s final round with a 321 to blitz the field in the Lower Peninsula Division 3 girls golf championship, played at Bedford Valley Golf Club.
Catholic Central finished with a two-day total of 652, well ahead of runner up Detroit Country Day, which had 717 strokes. Williamston, the team runner-up last year, recorded a 722 for third place, and Goodrich, which came in ranked No. 2, took fourth place at 727 ahead of Grand Rapids South Christian at 730.
GRCC coach Kim Napieralski, who also coaches the successful boys’ team in the spring, said winning by such wide margins – like the team’s 34-stroke win at its Regional (in a single round) – does not get boring.
“Truly, it doesn’t matter how much you win by, it’s how well the girls played,” she said. “The score is going to be there if the girls all play well. Every shot has to be played well.”
Both Napieralski and junior Kelsey Preston admitted there was some serious focus needed to complete the repeat.
“We knew we had a job to do,” Napieralski said. “Winning last year was the first in school history for our girls golf team. Winning this year for back-to-back is really something else. It was awesome to be able to do that, but we went into it very humble. We knew we had a good team, but we don’t have anyone that goes super low, so we all have a good solid score. That’s what was important. Every shot. Day one we did well. Day two, we have to do the same thing. It’s not ‘sit back and relax.’ It’s go all the way.
“The coaches make sure they stay humble,” she added with a laugh. “Since we have no individuals who go super low, they all know we have a job to do, and all have to perform on the same day.”
Preston – if that name is familiar, she’s the younger sister of the reigning 2024 Mr. Golf, Will – led the team with an 81-76-157, good for third place individually.
“I think it’s great we were able to put this together and go back-to-back,” Preston said. “We’ve been working for this even since last season – and I’m very proud of our team and everything we’ve accomplished.”
Preston said it was hard to avoid the conversation of successfully repeating after the program’s first championship.
“It was definitely hard – we mentioned it quite a few times and some people were saying don’t jinx us,” she said. “But I just think the confidence really helped us get to where we are today.”
She agreed the team was able to react humbly in practice and in spirit, giving credit to parents, the school culture and, “Our coaches kept us in check, from over-celebrating and that being overly-confident could get us into bad situations.
“This was definitely a team effort, and everyone contributed,” Preston said. “It wasn’t just one person. It’s really huge for our school winning the title last year and making it here for back-to-back.”
Also scoring for the Cougars were senior Ava Wisinski and junior Sofia Piccione tying for seventh overall at 164 (84-80), and junior Margaret Deimel tying for 12th with 167 (82-85).
Medalist Lillian O’Grady was the only golfer under par (-2) during the final round. She closed out a 145 (75-70) for a nine-stroke win over second place Averie Pumford of Freeland. O’Grady was the runner-up in 2023 and has one more season ahead of her at Grand Rapids Christian.
“Going into the summer I definitely grew a lot in my game, and I knew with some seniors graduating I had a pretty good chance to win this year,” O’Grady said. “I held onto that confidence all year and had a good season leading up to this weekend, so just putting it all together at the end felt good.”
Her team did not make it out of Regionals, but “I did have (teammate Kiera Bishop) here, and that was pretty great. Having the full team would have been a lot better, but it worked out. I think we were in one of the hardest Regionals, that if we’d been placed in other Regionals would we have won; but we have next year.
“This weekend I was able to hit a lot of greens,” she added. “Today I hit all 18 greens (in regulation), which I don’t think I’ve ever done before. So, it was great staying consistent with that, and my putting was good too – getting it close to the hole and making the two putts.”
At just 5-feet tall, O’Grady still packs a powerful punch, with an average drive of about 225-230 yards.
“I really work on my strength,” she said. “And if you have the right mechanics, you can hit it well no matter what size you are.”
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s Margaret Deimel follows a drive during Saturday’s second round at Bedford Valley. (Middle) Grand Rapids Christian’s Lillian O’Grady lines up a putt. (Below) The Cougars take a team photo as champions for the second-straight season. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)