Let's Play 2 (or 3, or 4)
February 16, 2012
A few conversations I had at last week's Women In Sports Leadership conference further affirmed a point I've been making for years -- high school athletes, if they'd like, shouldn't hesitate to play multiple sports.
Doing so does not hurt, but might just help their chances at landing that prized college scholarship -- on top of adding another layer to the high school sports experience.
Reaffirming this for me last week was Michigan State softball coach Jacquie Joseph, who spoke on that subject at the WISL conference. She's heading into her 24th season as a head coach at the Division I college level -- so she's been around for some of the evolution of both high school sports specialization and college recruiting. Plus, she coaches a sport that sees its share of athletes playing just that one.
Later, I spoke with a high school coach who leads teams in three sports and also played one at the Division I college level. She's a believer in this as well.
Some of the things I've been told over the years about playing more than one sport:
- It allows an athlete to learn more skills and hone more parts of his or her athleticism.
- Using another range of movement further helps condition an athlete's body and make it more resistant to injury.
- It's hardly rare to see a college football coach watching a prospect's basketball game -- coaches like to see how athleticism transfers across sports, and sometimes will see something from an athlete playing basketball that he didn't show on the football field. (Football and basketball are used in this example, but the same applies to a number of similar situations.)
- Athletes get an opportunity to play whatever they'd like only this once (unless they turn out to be that rare college athlete who takes on more than one sport at that level).
These are hardly new arguments. But they are always worth repeating -- especially when the people frequently making them (college coaches) are the ones single-sport athletes often are trying to impress.
Moment: Goggins, Scott Go Distance
November 26, 2020
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
A few weeks back, we highlighted one of two of the “longest play” records in the MHSAA Football Finals where there’s a tie for the top spot – longest rushing play. Today, we feature the longest kickoff returns in the history of the games.
The longest kickoff return you can record in high school football is 99 yards, and that’s what Caden Goggins of Edwardsburg did in the 2017 Division 4 11-Player Football Final against Grand Rapids Catholic Central to tie a Finals game record with Tommy Scott of Muskegon Catholic Central, who accomplished the same against Munising in the 2014 Division 8 title game.
Goggins’ runback came in a game where he said “top that” to the other mammoth scoring plays – runs of 54, 55, 64, 79 and a Finals-record 90 yards.
Grand Rapids Catholic Central had just scored on its first possession of the second half to take a 28-13 lead. Goggins found daylight on the ensuing kickoff and was off to the races. “I saw the hole and just took off,” he told the South Bend Tribune after the game.
The pesky Eddies kept nipping at the heels of the Cougars all night long, getting within four points at 35-31 midway through the final period. But in the end, the Grand Rapids team prevailed, 42-31. Goggins would bring Edwardsburg back to Ford Field the next year, rushing for 125 yards and two touchdowns in a 28-7 win over Chelsea.
As for Scott, his 99-yard streak sent a second shock wave through the crowd after Munising had torched the Crusaders secondary for a 79-yard touchdown pass just 13 seconds earlier.
"It was huge to get the momentum right back after they took the momentum in the first three plays," Scott told the MHSAA Second Half after the game. "Making a big play like that can change a game."
Scott wasn’t finished. After being held to 14 yards rushing in the first half, he scored three second half touchdowns as MCC broke things open and won, 31-6. Scott finished the game with 92 yards on the ground.
Scott’s TD return broke the previous record of 97 yards by Brad Mesbergen of Zeeland West in the 2011 Division 4 Final.