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.
Southfield Christian Boys Win Final Event to Clinch Program's 1st Finals Title
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
May 31, 2025
HUDSONVILLE – Win and make school history.
That’s what it came down to for Southfield Christian in the pressure-packed final event of Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals at Baldwin Middle School.
The final heat of the 1,600 relay proved to be the deciding factor as the Eagles earned the dramatic victory and their program’s first Finals team title.
“We were down by three points, and we knew that we had to get first and they (Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep) had to get third,” Southfield Christian senior Brock Morris said. “I talked to my team and told them that this is going to be the last race that we will ever have, so go out and get a win.
“Crossing that line first was exhilarating, and I’m just excited to win, and make history and build a path for others to follow.”
Four points separated the top three teams entering the final race with Hackett owning a slim lead over Southfield Christian and Hillsdale Academy.
Morris joined fellow seniors Dylan Taylor-Wilkerson, Robert Brown and Jadon Staten in the clinching relay as they combined to clock a winning and personal-record time of 3 minutes, 24.36 seconds.
“We knew going into it that it was going to come down to us having to win, and I just told our guys, who are all seniors, this is the last race of your career so you have to put it all out there,” Eagles coach Andrew McFerrin said. “If you want to be state champs, you have to win this race. And that's what they went out and did, and I’m proud of them.”
The Eagles’ previous best finish was runner-up in 2019.
“We just had the pieces this year, and we were able to put it together,” McFerrin said. “I knew coming in we had fast guys, and they had to want it. They made it happen.
“It was nerve-racking throughout the day watching us go up and then down, and the 200 really helped us when we got first, third and seventh. That put us up and then we were just hoping and praying that we were going to pull it out, and that's what we did.”
Morris also anchored the winning 800 relay team and won titles in the 200 (22.31) and 400 (49.30).
“Brock is an outstanding athlete,” McFerrin said. “And just seeing how he has developed from his freshman year to now has been an absolute pleasure.”
The Eagles finished with 60 points, edging Hackett by one. Hillsdale Academy took third with 50 points, and 2024 champion Fowler (44.5) was fourth.
“To be honest, I didn't think it was going to come down to the final event and I thought Southfield Christian was going to have it from the get-go,” Kalamazoo Hackett coach Charissa Dean said. “But these boys battled their little hearts out, and I couldn't really ask them to do any more. They had a phenomenal day with PRs all over the place.”
Junior distance runner Marek Butkiewicz led Hackett with a pair of wins in the 1,600 and 3,200 and was part of the winning 3,200 relay.
“The mindset was if I just do what I've been doing the whole season, then I'm coming away with what I came away with,” Butkiewicz said. “I knew I was going to end up with leads in both of them.”
Two other athletes also repeated as Finals champions, with Fowler’s Brady Feldpausch winning the 110 hurdles and Morrice’s Oliver Long securing top honors in the shot put.
Fruitport Calvary Christian senior Bradley Richards, competing as part of a cooperative with Muskegon Catholic Central, won his second high jump title after previously finishing first in the event in 2023. The Cornerstone University basketball and track commit cleared a personal-best 6-10¼.
PHOTOS (Top) Southfield Christian's Brock Morris, middle, crosses the finish line first in the 200 on Saturday, just ahead of Riverview Gabriel Richard's Derek Lesko to his left and teammate Jadon Staten to his right. (Middle) Hackett's Sean Siems and Royal Oak Shrine's Abenezer Cerone lead the 800 championship race; Cerone would go on to finish first. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)