Get Prepped for a Fantastic Finale
May 24, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
We love this time of year. And not just because school is nearly out for summer.
There’s little argument that the week ahead is the most exciting of each MHSAA school year. And you’ll want to set your bookmarks for MHSAA.com and Second Half for updated results and coverage not just next week – but through the rest of this spring season.
The MHSAA.com Score Center is our home for scores from all District softball, baseball and soccer games, which begin Tuesday. You also can view real-time brackets for every District by going to the “Sports” page for each, and updated brackets for lacrosse by visiting our girls and boys pages for that sport as well.
In the Lower Peninsula, we’ll have same day or next morning results as golf Districts are played, and first-day results from next weekend’s Girls Tennis Finals on May 31 – followed by final results at the conclusion of play June 1. We’ll post Finals results for Upper Peninsula golf and tennis as we receive them Wednesday and Thursday, and then results for all seven Lower and Upper Peninsula Track and Field Finals as they come in June 1.
But results are only the start. As we have during the fall and winter, Second Half will provide coverage including photos from every MHSAA Final – beginning with Wednesday’s Upper Peninsula Girls and Boys Golf and Boys Tennis Finals. Keep an eye on Second Half throughout the week, or follow the Second Half feed on the cover page of MHSAA.com.
Transfer rule clarification
We released Monday the actions our Representative Council took earlier this month at its Spring Meeting, including an addition to the athletics-related portion of our transfer rule. Based on some questions we’ve received and read, here’s some further explanation of what will be installed for 2014-15:
The longer period of ineligibility for athletes who transfer because of athletics is not new. This has previously existed for cases in which a school could prove that it lost a student to another school purely for sports-related reasons.
What’s new is what must be proven and by whom for the longer ineligibility period to take effect. Now, a school that lost a student does not have to file a report with the MHSAA for the case to be considered. As long as one of a set of offending activities can be verified – including practicing, competing or training with a member of the new school’s coaching staff during summer or non-school sports activities or seasons – that student will have to sit 180 days instead of the usual period of roughly a semester. The 15 exemptions that allow a student to be eligible immediately – like making a full move to a new district or a student’s school closing – may still apply.
So, to conclude: The longer athletics-related ineligibility period is not new, just how athletics-related transfers are considered and reported. Click to read the full release.
Kickoff is coming
And that means we’re collecting varsity football schedules.
In fact, we have most of them thanks to our athletic directors, their secretaries, coaches and many others who chip in to help us keep complete and accurate information throughout the season.
But there are still plenty of steps in getting ready for August – and a huge one is locking down correct leagues for our teams this season, especially as schools continue to switch things up.
Check out your school’s schedule page by click on the “Schools” button in the menu bar at the top of MHSAA.com and searching for your school. Once on the school page, click the blue “Boys” button next to football. The schedule will appear in the middle of the page, with standings to the left.
See an error in a schedule or the standings? Email me at [email protected]. I thank you in advance.
Kramer’s words of wisdom
Long before Roy Kramer served as athletic director at Vanderbilt University, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference and creator of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) for Division I college football, he coached multiple sports at East Lansing High School.
He recently was named winner of this year’s Duffy Daugherty Award, given in honor of the former Michigan State University coach to a valued coach or contributor to college football. The award, presented in East Lansing, is among those recognized by the College Football Hall of Fame.
Kramer finished his acceptance speech with a stirring endorsement of the sport that brought the crowd of more than 300 to its feet. If you’re a fan, former or current player or coach, see below.
PHOTO: Athletes race toward the finish of a relay during this spring's Alma College Invitational. (Click to see more at HighSchoolsSportsScene.com.)
Gach Brings Major Spotlight to Groves Football, Major Goals Into Final Season
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
September 6, 2024
It’s not like Birmingham Groves head coach Brendan Flaherty hadn’t had players in the past who received a lot of recruiting attention, given several Division I college talents such as Jaden and Jaren Mangham and DeOn’tae Pannell have come through the program under his tenure.
But make no mistake, Flaherty hadn’t coached anyone who has received as much recruiting attention as Avery Gach.
Before committing to Michigan over the summer, Gach held scholarship offers from 40 schools, and we’re not talking about smaller or upstart programs, either.
Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia and Florida State were among the programs to offer Gach, a hulking 6-foot-5, 290-pound senior lineman.
“He’s a unicorn,” Flaherty said. “The attention it has brought the school and the limelight it has shined on us. I haven’t had anybody like this in 24 years. We’ve had Big Ten players before. But he obviously takes it to another level being a national guy. It’s well-deserved, and he’s done a great job handling it.”
Indeed, this fall will be the last chance for Groves to experience a player who might not come around again for a while once he signs and enrolls early at Michigan, as he plans to do.
Gach always has towered over everyone — he said he was 6-3 as an eighth-grader — and has done that on the football field since becoming a rarity at Groves by making the varsity as a freshman.
After getting some experience during his freshman year, Gach really started to reach another level.
“After my ninth-grade season, I knew this was the sport I wanted to do,” said Gach, who also played basketball and baseball growing up. “I just hit the weight room. That helped me a ton.”
It wasn’t just weights and getting stronger, but flexibility and agility training as well that helped him become more than just someone who was bigger than everybody.
Gach also got to work mastering technical aspects of being a lineman.
“Just having heavy hands, containing the bull rush and keeping my core tight,” Gach said.
From there, the scholarship offers and attention started pouring in.
Gach didn’t allow a sack his sophomore and junior years, so it’s a good bet opposing defensive linemen know what they’re up against this fall.
The wrinkle this year, though, is that opposing offensive linemen might be up against the same challenge. Gach is going to spend a significant amount of time at defensive tackle for the Falcons, likely commanding constant double and triple-teams.
“I’m going to play it a lot this year,” he said. “I’m going both ways. I’m excited. I’m going to make plays out there. They’re two separate positions, but you have to be aggressive at both.”
Flaherty, for one, firmly believes Gach can be just as much of a factor on the defensive side of the ball as he has been on offense.
“His mind is wired that he is an offensive lineman,” Flaherty said. “But if you rewired it a little bit and said he was a defensive lineman, he would be a force. He just plays with such a great energy, tenacity and intensity. He’s going to do a lot of great stuff on defense.”
Gach also played baseball for Groves his first two years of high school but decided to give that sport up to throw shot put for the track team this past spring while preparing for the football season.
He’s fully ready and has ambitions that are similarly sizable for a Groves program that has never reached the MHSAA Finals.
“The expectation this season is to win a state championship,” Gach said.
It might seem like an ambitious goal for a program that has never done so. But then again, there also never been a player in program history quite like Gach, as people should once again see on the field this fall.
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.
PHOTO Groves’ Avery Gach stands in for a photo during Oakland Activities Association media day this preseason. (Photo by Keith Dunlap.)