Jackson Area Efforts Net New Officials
February 16, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Recruitment of new high school officials to eventually take the reins from those currently conducting MHSAA events is a challenge faced all over Michigan.
The Jackson Area Officials Association is working to restock its ranks by recruiting directly from local schools and developing them with help from veteran mentors.
Eight new officials – ages 15 to 24 – who worked a series of youth and middle school games together earlier this month, are among those who have been introduced through a program that begins with a meeting at the end of the high school basketball season between JAOA official Bill Walker and local athletic directors, coaches, fellow officials and other young adults he’s made contact with over the course of a season. From that meeting, Walker builds a list of potential candidates to become officials and then invites them to the annual JAOA Legacy Camp in June.
The camp includes two days of scrimmages between local teams, plus classroom and mechanics teaching. Similar to the MHSAA Legacy program, new officials are paired with veterans, and clinicians evaluate their work during scrimmage play. Walker then keeps in touch with the new officials during the rest of the summer, plugging them in for local youth tournaments and scrimmages, and uses as many as possible while assigning officials for youth tournaments over the winter.
All eight officials who worked the event this month are part of the JAOA legacy partnering, and some of the group already are working games at the junior varsity level – with one, a 19-year-old, recently completing his first varsity game. They come from a variety of Jackson-area schools – Parma Western, Napoleon, Jackson Christian, Michigan Center, Concord and East Jackson. Walker said the recruiting effort has a 60 percent success rate so far. (This June’s legacy camp will be the third.)
“By next season, all (eight) will be official MHSAA registered officials,” he said, noting most currently are registered. “It’s great to have these schools support this program. We all benefit from added, good officiating.”
Passing it forward
Our Battle of the Fans trip to Charlotte on Friday included a conversation about a Feb. 2 game between the Orioles and Mason, which has a pair of athletes fighting cancer. The Charlotte student section dressed in blue that night in support of junior Storm Miller, and during halftime passed buckets to raise money for Miller’s GoFundMe account set up to help pay for his care.
Mason, in turn, provided support Friday to an Owosso alum, 2012 graduate Cody Greger, who remains hospitalized at University of Michigan’s hospital with injuries sustained during a house fire in November. Fans and students collected donations to assist Greger’s family with his care.
“This event was yet another example of the values that school sports teach young people,” Owosso athletic director Dallas Lintner wrote on the school’s website. “And it stands as a testament of the integrity of the young adults that represent our schools and the (Capital Area Activities Conference.)."
100 years of hoops
A decade before the formation of the Michigan High School Athletic Association, Eastern Michigan University – then known as Michigan State Normal College – hosted what is believed to be the first organized high school basketball tournament in state history.
EMU will celebrate this anniversary Saturday in conjunction with the Eagles men’s basketball game against Toledo. Game time is noon at EMU’s Convocation Center, and during a break in play the athletic department will recognize the 12 schools that took part in that 1916 tournament – Marine City, Dundee, Milan, Mancelona, Farmington, Elkton, Royal Oak, Middleville, Lansing, Mount Clemens, Wayne and Saline.
More history, courtesy of EMU:
The game of basketball was developed by James Naismith in 1891 at Springfield College in Massachusetts. As a means of promoting the game throughout the country, physical education professor and EMU's first athletic director Wilber Bowen asked his good friend Naismith to bring the game to the Michigan State Normal College (now known as Eastern Michigan University).
The first basketball game west of the Allegheny Mountains was played at Michigan Normal in 1894 to recognize the new physical education program and to dedicate the new gymnasium on campus.
Then in 1916, Bowen, along with instructors Elmer Mitchell and Lloyd Olds (who was also credited with the introduction of the striped referee jersey), organized the first high school basketball tournament in Michigan. A total of 300 invitations were sent out to all Class B schools in the state. Twelve schools responded, and the first high school boys tournament was held on the Ypsilanti-based campus on March 23-25, 1916.
Entrance to the tournament was free and (the event was) played at the Michigan State Normal School Gymnasium. However, expenses related to transportation, room, and board had to be provided by the participating schools. The MSNC's Physical Education Department made it easier for schools to participate by making arrangements with local residents to provide food at 20 to 25 cents a meal and lodging at 25 cents a night for each player.
That first tournament saw Marine City defeat Dundee in the championship game, 23-22.
The winning team was awarded a silver shield mounted on an oak base. Second prize was a silver cup, and the third place team received a banner. Individual participation awards to all players were also provided. The Ypsilanti Press at the time felt the Normal School "went first class with the awards."
For tickets to Saturday’s game and event, which will be followed by the EMU women’s team taking on Northern Illinois, call the EMU Ticket Office at (734) 487-2282 or visit EMUEagles.com/tickets.
Following up
• Second Half’s Chip Mundy this fall wrote a story on the emergence of Ida’s football team on the way to making the Division 5 Semifinals and finishing its best season ever. A theme of that story was Ida’s philosophy of building “brick by brick,” coined by defensive line coach Gary Deland, who himself was building back after emergency triple-bypass heart surgery.
“From that very first practice in the summer to the last game as a senior, everything is built brick by brick,” Deland said for that story. “I can draw a correlation between that and my recovery, what I’ve gone through. It’s the same thing. It’s brick by brick.”
Kim Farver sent along this photo of Deland holding up a brick after the team’s 43-20 Regional Final win over Buchanan.
• We released the last batch of this year’s MHSAA-Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award winners today, and one of the highlights during the 27 years of the contest came two years ago when we caught up with some of our winners from the first 25 years – including Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood’s Abby Cohen, who has gone on to co-found a company and help develop a smartphone application, Wing, to help asthma patients monitor their lung function.
Here’s a look at a video describing the technology she’s helped create:
Marine City Makes More History, St. Francis Outlasts Historic Opponent
By
Drew Ellis
Special for MHSAA.com
June 12, 2025
EAST LANSING – Winning its first Regional championship in program history was a big accomplishment for the 2025 Marine City baseball team.
Now, the Mariners find themselves one win away from their first Finals championship.
Utilizing aggressive base running and timely hits, Marine City defeated Olivet, 8-5, in a Division 3 Semifinal on Thursday at McLane Stadium.
“It means everything to us,” Marine City coach Ryan Felax said of his team’s first Finals appearance. “Marine City hasn’t won a Regional up until this year, so we’re three games beyond the first time ever. For us to be able to come out here and do what we have done, feeling like we were the underdog since the District Finals, is a special feeling. I can’t even express what it means to the program, what it means for our city, and what it means for the seniors, especially.”
Marine City (26-10) will face Traverse City St. Francis in Saturday’s championship game at 9 a.m. The Mariners believe they are going into the title-deciding contest with nothing to lose.
“We don’t have any pressure on us,” said Marine City senior Daniel VandeVyver, who got the win on the mound Thursday. “We’ve been looked down this whole tournament. There’s no pressure, so we’ve all just been coming out here, playing the game, and having a blast while doing it. We’re coming out with the (wins), so it’s great.”
VandeVyver threw 6.1 innings to earn his eighth win of the season for Marine City. After giving up a pair of runs in the first, the senior would go on to pitch five straight scoreless innings, allowing only three hits during the stretch.
“I came into that second inning with a lot more confidence,” VandeVyver said. “I was working more off-speed pitches and not using as many fastballs. It was working for me.”
The senior was also a key piece to the offense, finishing with three hits and three RBI.
“Danny VandeVyver is a special player,” Felax said of his senior. “He’s been doing this for me for four years. He’s a special pitcher. He’s a special kid. When he stays out of his own head, he can do pretty much anything.”
Olivet (22-7) got out to the 2-0 start in the first inning thanks to five singles in six batters, but the Eagles would strand the bases loaded as they looked to establish a larger advantage.
“We had bases loaded in the first inning and should have gotten more out of that,” Olivet coach Mike Whitley said. “We didn’t get as many as we should.”
Marine City answered in the top of the second, utilizing stolen bases and bunts to set up a sacrifice fly from freshman Tucker Volkman. VandeVyver than had an RBI single to even up the score at 2-2.
In the fifth inning, the Mariners broke the game open with four runs. The go-ahead run came when junior Dakota Droptiny was unable to get a bunt down, so he had to take a swing with two strikes. Droptiny proceeded to hit an RBI double to put Marine City up 3-2.
“Hey, I’ll take it,” Felax said. “He’s just a kid that doesn’t rattle.”
Lukus DeSmyther followed with an RBI single, then VandeVyver had a two-run double to make it 6-2 for Marine City.
The Mariners tacked on two more runs in the top of the eighth inning thanks to an error by Olivet and a double steal. All together, Marine City had 10 stolen bases in the win.
“You have to give (Marine City) credit. They are a heck of a team,” Whitley said. “They played a little small ball on us, which you don’t see in this area a whole lot. We just didn’t take care of business when we had the opportunity.”
Olivet made a late push in the bottom of the seventh inning, scoring three runs thanks to an RBI double from freshman Andrew Rigelman and a two-run single from senior Lucas LaPaugh.
The tying run reached the plate before the Mariners recorded the final out.
“They just battled every day for me, and I think that showed in the seventh inning,” Whitley said. “Who knows, one more hit, it might have been a different ball game.”
Lalo Aguirre finished with four hits and two runs for Olivet, while Trip Burkett had two hits and an RBI.
Droptiny finished with two hits, two runs and an RBI, while Paul Muscat stole three bases for the Mariners.
Traverse City St. Francis 4, Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett 3
In order to play for its first Finals championship since 1990, Traverse City St. Francis had to overcome the one baseball program with more championship game appearances than anyone else.
The Gladiators took advantage of some early Liggett errors to establish a 4-1 lead. From there, they held on behind the pitching of junior Sam Wildfong for a 4-3 victory in the first Division 3 Semifinal on Thursday.
“It was a great, great high school baseball game. Ligget is a great, great program. We felt like we had to knock the giant off to get to the Finals,” Traverse City St. Francis coach Tom Passinault said. “It feels great, because we have a lot of respect for their program. Our guys really battled today.”
Liggett, which has appeared in 10 Finals, defeated St. Francis 12-0 in the 2021 Division 3 championship game, the last Finals appearance for the Gladiators.
St. Francis (30-8-1) struck first, taking advantage of a few Knights miscues. An error put runners on the corners for the Gladiators, and then Wildfong scored on a wild pitch to make it 1-0.
A two-run single from junior Tyler Thompson in the second inning extended the St. Francis lead to 3-1.
Junior Matthew Kane opened the bottom of the fourth inning with a double to left field. He then scored two batters later when freshman Colton Peterson laid down a squeeze bunt to put the Gladiators up 4-1.
“We had our best bunter at the plate. Colton Peterson is so calm and cool, and Matt is a great base runner, so it was just a perfect combination for us,” Passinault said of the play.
With the three-run lead, Passinault believed that Wildfong would be able to pitch his team to victory.
“In games where we got up a few runs and we had Sam pitching, we felt pretty good about our chances,” Passinault said. “Sam is a gym rat in the baseball sense. He’s 365 baseball. He is always ready. He’s the guy you want in that moment.”
Liggett was able to get the Gladiators’ lead down to one as it manufactured one run each in the fourth and fifth innings. However, the Knights stranded a pair in the sixth inning who could have changed the game.
“We put the ball in play all game; that wasn’t the issue. We just couldn’t get them around,” Liggett coach Jay Ricci said. “We started to make that happen later in the game, but we just couldn’t get that last run across the plate.”
Wildfong found another gear in the seventh inning, striking out the first two batters before getting a ground out to end the game. The junior finished with three strikeouts for the contest, allowing one earned run over seven innings.
“I treated it like any other inning. I was just having fun with my friends out there,” Wildfong said of the seventh. “The fastball was really working that last inning, and it was really fun to dial in and locate it well.”
Thompson finished with a pair of hits to go with his two RBI. Liggett was led by Ravi Hines, who had a single and an RBI. Reliever Joey Harris pitched three scoreless innings to keep the Knights in the game when down 4-1.
“He did great, and we were real confident he would come in and shut the door,” Ricci said of Harris. “That was expected. Joey Harris has done a great job all year for us.”
PHOTOS (Top) Marine City's Michael Blunden signals "safe" during his team's Semifinal win over Olivet. (Middle) St. Francis pitcher Sam Wildfong makes his move toward the plate.