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:
Century of School Sports: State's Storytellers Share Spring Memories
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 8, 2025
With the start of spring sports, the MHSAA’s “Century of School Sports” celebration has begun its final lap.
Every week we’ve told at least a few stories from these last 100 years – and today, we present our third and final installment of favorite sports memories from statewide media, our historian and MHSAA staff.
Below are their most unforgettable moments from spring.
Homer Sets Standard with 56-Game Baseball Winning Streak
Ron Pesch, MHSAA historian
Recognizing the contrasting challenges that face teams in various eras to set or break records, it was great fun to track Homer's successful attempt to match, then exceed Grand Haven's 43-year-old record, then chase a national record for consecutive baseball victories.
There's something about the small-town excitement knitted into such a chase. Grand Haven set the mark back before an MHSAA-sponsored state tournament commenced in 1971. Inherently built into such an accomplishment is an evolving roster that spans multiple seasons, when a single season featured only 20 to 30 or so games. (Only one Buccaneer player was part of all the Buccaneers' 56-straight victories.)
Because of the postseason, Homer's annual slate featured more games, but came with the additional challenge of squaring off against more talented teams as the playoffs progressed. Homer's record-setting win came during a homefield doubleheader against Reading during the 2005 regular season – ironically against the school which gave the Trojans their last loss in the 2003 Regional Semifinal. Victorious in both games that day against Reading, Homer extended the run through 75-consecutive contests – a national record, since topped – that ended in June with a 7-6 loss to Saginaw Nouvel in the MHSAA Division 3 Final.
Truly an Unforgettable Classic
Tim Staudt, WILX (Lansing), in 54th year of broadcasting
The one memory from the spring season that immediately jumps to mind is the 2006 Diamond Classic final between Homer and Grand Ledge. Grand Ledge would come back to win the game 7-6 with players from the Lansing Lugnuts in the dugout watching to see how the game was going to end.
This was one more remarkable Grand Ledge baseball achievement under coach Pat O’Keefe. It would be Homer’s only loss of the 2006 season, as they went 38-1 and won the Division 4 championship, a year after winning a then-national record 75 straight games.
Career Crosses Paths with State’s 2 Winningest on Baseball Diamond
Brian Calloway, Lansing State Journal
In two media markets I have worked in in the state, I’ve had the privilege to cover two of the state’s most decorated baseball coaches in Blissfield’s Larry Tuttle and Grand Ledge’s Pat O’Keefe, who are both members of the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame.
I worked in Adrian when Larry Tuttle joined the 1,000-win club in June of 2008. After moving to the Lansing market, I got to document the final portion of O’Keefe’s special career that he ended as the all-time wins leader before eventually being passed by Tuttle.
Legendary Softball Team Ends Legendary Run
Geoff Kimmerly, MHSAA Communications Director and formerly of Lansing State Journal
I stepped into the Lansing State Journal fulltime lineup in January 2000 amid the senior years of two of the greatest athletes in local and statewide high school sports history – Lansing Waverly’s Marcus Taylor, who led his team to the Class A basketball title that March, and Okemos’ Jessica Beech, who had pitched her softball team to the Division 1 championship in 1999 and remains the most accomplished three-sport athlete in mid-Michigan history.
Dating back to that title run, Beech had earned an MHSAA-record 57 straight pitching victories heading into a Division 1 Regional Semifinal on June 10, 2000, at Lansing Everett. Up next was undefeated Portage Northern. Beech struck out 11 hitters against the team Okemos coach Dan Stolz called “the best his team has faced the past two seasons.” But Northern prevailed 2-0, with sophomore Anna Ollgaard throwing a one-hitter, and went on to finish the season 41-0 and Division 1 champion for the first of three consecutive seasons. The Huskies’ 52-game winning streak started that spring remains the second-longest in MHSAA softball history.
Lectka Becomes Unstoppable in Leaving Livonia Franklin Legacy
Brad Emons, Detroit Free Press (formerly of Observer & Eccentric newspapers)
After falling to Mount Clemens L’Anse Creuse North in the 1985 championship game, 5-0, Livonia Franklin redeemed itself by beating Waterford Kettering, 1-0, in the 1986 Class A Softball Final for its first state title as senior pitcher Tracy Lectka’s threw a no-hitter at Lansing’s Ranney Park.
Lectka tossed back-to-back shutouts, including a 2-0 Semifinal win over South Lyon in a two-day continuation game halted by darkness where Lectka pitched all 20 innings to secure the victory.
Glen Lake’s Superwoman Finishes with Another Historic Run
Mick McCabe, Detroit Free Press since 1970
Heading into the 1992 Class D track & field state championships at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, Maple City Glen Lake’s Marnie Peplinski had to balance the emotions of being confident without being overconfident.
She looked at the performances of the other girls in the Finals and compared them to her efforts. “I knew they were not going to make up two or three seconds in that one day unless they were Superwoman.”
Well, Superwoman did show up at the Finals that day, but she was wearing a Glen Lake uniform.
That day, her final day of being a Michigan high school athlete, Peplinski became the first girl in state history to win four state titles in consecutive years, helping Glen Lake to its second-straight team title. She set Finals records when she won the 100 hurdles (15.06 seconds) and 300 hurdles (44.80). She also won the long jump (17 feet, 5 inches) and was part of the winning 1,600 relay team (4:03.90). She also had won all of those events as a junior, and as a sophomore she won the 300 hurdles, the long jump and the 1,600 relay, which she was a part of as a freshman as well.
The day capped a brilliant high school career for Peplinski, who also earned first-team all-state honors in basketball and volleyball. She went on to compete in track & field and basketball at Central Michigan University.
Brother Rice Sets Standard in Boys Lacrosse
Perry Farrell, MHSAA.com and formerly of Detroit Free Press
Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice's run in lacrosse was a showcase of dominance as they started a stretch that saw them win 13 of the first 14 Division 1 championships starting in 2005.
Watch the 2017 Division 1 Final, which Brother Rice won over Detroit Catholic Central 8-7, on the NFHS Network, and see highlights below from that game from State Champs! Sports Network.
Beal City Provides Celebration to Remember
Greg Miller, formerly of 9&10 News (Cadillac)
The 2023 season for Beal City baseball was a special one that ended with a Division 4 championship celebration on the field at McLane Stadium in East Lansing. A year prior, the Aggies, who had been top-ranked nearly the entire season, fell short in the championship game, and they were back seeking redemption.
In a tightly-fought battle in the title game against Plymouth Christian Academy, Beal City answered after surrendering the game's first run in the fourth inning, tying the game in the bottom half of the frame. They then took the lead in the bottom of the sixth.
Star pitcher Cayden Smith, after hitting his pitch limit with one out in the seventh, moved to shortstop and was able to catch the final out of the game, performing a celebratory backflip on the infield grass before being mobbed by his teammates in one of the coolest celebration moments I ever witnessed.
Watch the 2023 Division 4 Final on the NFHS Network.
Previous "Century of School Sports" Spotlights
April 2: Sharp Leadership Synonymous with MHSAA Success - Read
March 25: Athletic Directors Indispensable to Mission of School Sports - Read
March 18: 2025 Finals Begin Next Half-Century of Girls Hoops Championships - Read
March 11: Boys Basketball's Best 1st to Earn MHSAA Finals Titles - Read
March 5: Everything We Do Begins with Participation - Read
Feb. 25: Slogans & Logos Remain Unforgettable Parts of MHSAA History - Read
Feb. 19: MHSAA Tickets Continue to Provide Fan-Friendly Value - Read
Feb. 11: We Recognize Those Who Make Our Games Go - Read
Feb. 4: WISL Conference Continues to Inspire Aspiring Leaders - Read
Jan. 28: Michigan's National Impact Begins at NFHS' Start - Read
Jan. 21: Awards Celebrate Well-Rounded Educational Experience - Read
Jan. 14: Predecessors Laid Foundation for MHSAA's Formation - Read
Jan. 9: MHSAA Blazes Trail Into Cyberspace - Read
Dec. 31: State's Storytellers Share Winter Memories - Read
Dec. 17: MHSAA Over Time - Read
Dec. 10: On This Day, December 13, We Will Celebrate - Read
Dec. 3: MHSAA Work Guided by Representative Council - Read
Nov. 26: Finals Provide Future Pros Early Ford Field Glory - Read
Nov. 19: Connection at Heart of Coaches Advancement Program - Read
Nov. 12: Good Sports are Winners Then, Now & Always - Read
Nov. 5: MHSAA's Home Sweet Home - Read
Oct. 29: MHSAA Summits Draw Thousands to Promote Sportsmanship - Read
Oct. 23: Cross Country Finals Among MHSAA's Longest Running - Read
Oct. 15: State's Storytellers Share Fall Memories - Read
Oct. 8: Guided by 4 S's of Educational Athletics - Read
Oct. 1: Michigan Sends 10 to National Hall of Fame - Read
Sept. 25: MHSAA Record Books Filled with 1000s of Achievements - Read
Sept. 18: Why Does the MHSAA Have These Rules? - Read
Sept. 10: Special Medals, Patches to Commemorate Special Year - Read
Sept. 4: Fall to Finish with 50th Football Championships - Read
Aug. 28: Let the Celebration Begin - Read
PHOTOS (Top) From left: Homer's Josh Collmenter throws a pitch during the 2004 Finals, Maple City Glen Lake's Marnie Peplinski long jumps in 1992, the Brother Rice boys lacrosse team celebrates its 2019 championship, and the Portage Northern softball team takes a photo after finishing an undefeated 2000 season. (2) The Lansing State Journal sports section details Grand Ledge's comeback to defeat Homer at the Diamond Classic in Lansing. (3) Livonia Franklin's softball team takes a team photo after finishing its 1986 Class A title run. (4) Cayden Smith's backflip kicks off Beal City's 2023 championship celebration. (MHSAA file photos.)