Diamond Inspiration (Oakland Press)
April 30, 2012
Kate Rendi's biggest contributions to the Walled Lake Central baseball team formerly came with a pencil and scorebook.
But the Oakland Press' Keith Dunlap tells us about the inspiration Rendi is providing this spring as she battles Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
Dunlap sums it up:
Yes, her teammates no doubt appreciate her chronicling things such as doubles, stolen bases or strikeouts, but these days they appreciate even more something Rendi provides that can’t simply be written down on a scoresheet.
Instead, Rendi’s big contributions have been how she’s touched the hearts and minds of the players and been an inspiration, providing a life example that the baseball players will likely never forget.
Click below to read the entire piece:
Walled Lake Central's Rendi inspiring baseball team (Oakland Press)
Linked Up: 10/28/11
October 28, 2011
Each week I'll post links to stories that interest me most during my travels in online sports land. I was going to wait for next week for this first installment, but these seemed worthy of telling you about now.
See something high school sports-related that you think others would find valuable? Send me a link.
These two teams provide multiple reasons why 8-player football has been such a strong addition -- most notably, it is providing our smallest schools with an opportunity to still play football despite fewer players, and succeed. The sport took off in this state in 2009, and this weekend mark the start of the first MHSAA 8-player Tournament. Akron-Fairgrove will play its first postseason game since 1992, while Owendale-Gagetown will play its first since 1979.
Olivet's Peters coaching his heart out (Battle Creek Enquirer)
I covered Olivet and coach Dean Peters for more than a decade, including during last season's first-ever Eagles run to the MHSAA football finals. One of the great people in high school coaching, he needed emergency double-bypass surgery earlier this month but is back in the coaching booth. Olivet faces Lansing Catholic in a Pre-District game.
Megan Hubbard a standout for Hanover-Horton cross country (Jackson Citizen-Patriot)
This is a neat story about a runner who is second-best on her team and has never won a race -- but also is likely the second-best to ever run at her school. Usually, we hear only about who finishes first.
Standley Lake football player Rhett Gutierrez overcomes eye disease (The Denver Post)
Almost always, links I post will be Michigan-related. But this story is just incredible. We've seen athletes with different degrees of vision impairment do incredible things in high school athletics. But this is the first time I've heard of someone overcoming that obstacle to play quarterback for his football team.