Irish Celebrate Homecoming Sky High
October 4, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
You’ve got to see this – from high in the sky – to believe it.
The disappointing news for Pontiac Notre Dame Prep from its Homecoming game last Friday was that the Fighting Irish fell to Detroit Catholic League AA leader Detroit Loyola by seven points.
But the Irish will remember fondly (and probably click on frequently) the video of this sky high view of the game including the team’s entrance to the field.
Thanks to a camera attached to a helicopter-like apparatus flown by local Aerial Imagery Works, Notre Dame was able to capture a rarely-seen view. See more by watching the brief video embedded at the bottom of this post.
SLC-TV Rolls 300
It's fair to assume few television stations in Michigan have been as dedicated to the local football team as South Lyon's SLC-TV, which will celebrate a milestone broadcast Oct. 11 when South Lyon faces South Lyon East.
SLC-TV has followed South Lyon football home and away games for 31 years and will broadcast its 300th game that night. SLC-TV’s games appear on WOW network channel 19 and Comcast Southfield channel 90, which reaches 33 communities in metro Detroit.
Sports director Tedd Wallace will have done play-by-play for 298 of those games, and said he believes no station in America has done TV broadcasts of a team’s home and away games as consistently. Check out more about the network’s weekly work on its Facebook page.
Friendly gesture to opponent in need
One of the most heart-warming parts of following high school sports is experiencing the camaraderie among athletes from opposing teams they likely know nothing about except for what they learn during competition.
Concord’s volleyball team shined especially brightly in this way last week.
Amazingly, Union City junior Marissa Mead played in her team’s match against Concord on Sept. 24 despite her home being destroyed by a fire that morning. As told by the Jackson Citizen-Patriot’s Leanne Smith, Concord’s players had heard about the tragic event and were surprised to then see Mead take her place as defensive specialist that night.
On the bus ride home, the Concord players decided they needed to do something to help Mead and her family. As a team, the players collected $80 – and then pushed the total to $300 with the help of teachers, parents and administrators. They delivered the funds in a card to Mead at Union City’s home match two days later.
It’s a gesture that might seem small, but speaks loudly to the awesome way our athletes relate to each other not just on, but off the court as well. Click to read the entire report.
Official of the Year
Marcy Weston, Central Michigan University’s Executive Associate Director of Athletics/Sports Administration and a longtime contributor to MHSAA officiating initiatives, has been named the Naismith Women’s College Official of the Year.
Weston spoke at the 2001 MHSAA Officials Banquet and has served as part of the association's officials committee and with the National Federation of State High School Associations as a liaison to its Basketball Rules Committee.
She also served as NCAA national coordinator of women’s basketball officiating from 1991-2005 after working as a women’s college basketball official from 1964-84. Click to read more from CMUChippewas.com.
Opsal Overcomes Potential Season-Ending Injury to End Season as Champion
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
March 24, 2026
You couldn't blame Kade Opsal for being a little teary-eyed as he stood quietly on the medal stand at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Swimming & Diving Finals earlier this month at Holland Aquatics Center.
By rights, you could easily make the case he shouldn't have been there.
It wasn't through a lack of talent for the Adrian senior, who was undefeated in four years of conference championship meets in the 50-yard freestyle and 100 backstroke while taking second in Division 3 in the 100 backstroke as a junior. Talent wasn't the problem.
The problem was the freak accident Opsal had suffered six months ago which doctors feared could cost him his final year of swimming.
So as Opsal waited anxiously on the stand for a medal to be hung around his neck, he found himself fighting a flood of emotion.
"My coach handed out the medal, and I heard my name over the public address system," he said. "I leaned down and my coach said, 'You really did it.' I got a little emotional, I cried a little. I was so full of emotion. I was glad I had finished my career how I did."
Opsal's dream for his final year of high school swimming was simple: win a Finals championship. But that goal seemed potentially unattainable after an accident on the soccer field in early September.
After having been convinced by friends to go out for soccer when Adrian needed a goalkeeper, Opsal stepped up to fill the void. But during a practice session, Opsal faced shot from a teammate less than a dozen feet away. He stuck his hand in front of his face to shield himself from the shot, but the ball crashed into Opsal's wrist, causing a fracture of the scaphoid bone near where his wrist and thumb meet.
It was the second time Opsal had broken the bone. The first was during the swim Finals as a freshman when he slammed his hand into the end of the pool at the end of a race. He spent 16 weeks in a cast.
But while Opsal dodged surgery three years ago, this time doctors diagnosed a displaced fracture which resulted in surgery, screws inserted in the wrist and a bone graft. Qualifying for the Finals and fulfilling a lifelong dream at that point seemed miles away, Opsal admitted.
"I went into a spiral," he said. "I thought I was going to miss the whole season. It was terrible."
Doctors weren't exactly in disagreement with that prognosis. After surgery Oct. 12, doctors encased his hand in a nine-pound cast, basically a club, Opsal said. He spent two weeks in the cast, had a checkup, spent four more weeks in a cast, then was placed in a removeable cast. By now it was the second week of December, this season’s Finals were three months away, and Opsal had yet to enter the water. By Jan. 9, Opsal was finally pronounced ready to swim by doctors, but he was seriously behind in his attempt to simply qualify for the Division 3 championship meet, let alone be in the hunt to win a race there.
Still, Opsal wasn't ready to toss in his goggles.
"I knew I could do something with the little time I had left," he said. "I knew I had put in a lot of work over the summer and had gained like 30 pounds of muscle. But I didn't know how all that would translate in the final two months of the season. I did know that every practice and meet had to count."
By the MISCA meet in early February, there was a ray of light. Opsal swam a 21.2 in the 50 free and a 50.4 in the 100 backstroke. Suddenly there was hope that he still had a shot at his dream.
Opsal continued to pick up the pace until the Division 3 Finals prelims March 13. He wound up seeded first in the 100 backstroke with a time of 50.1 and was third in the 50 free.
There was, Opsal told himself, hope.
One day later, he began his Finals by helping Adrian's 200 medley relay to a ninth-place finish. Then, in his first attempt at a title, he finished runner-up in the 50 free with a time of 20.87.
Opsal's championship dream had come down to the 100 backstroke. He finally turned that dream into reality when he outdistanced Spring Lake's Dane Trask to win the event, swimming a lifetime-best time of 49.20 to nudge the 50.46 by Trask.
Tears aside on the medals stand, all Opsal could think about was advice he received from family members.
"I thought about my grandfather who always reminded me about that Vince Lombardi quote that winning wasn't everything, it was the only thing," he said. "I had thought I had a shot at it and I kept telling myself this was my senior year and I wanted to go out with a bang."
Considering his two broken hands and a fractured patella he suffered as a youngster, Opsal can now laugh at the obstacles he's had to overcome.
"My mom has definitely made comments that they need to bubble wrap me," he said. "I've been around the block in getting hurt."
PHOTOS (Top) Adrian’s Kade Opsal stands on the medal podium after winning the 100-yard backstroke at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals in Holland. (Middle) Opsal swims to his championship. (Action photo by High School Sports Scene.)