Did You See That? (April 15-21)
April 30, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
A rough survey of Michigan newspapers over the last week found at least 13 reported on how this spring's rainy (snowy?) weather has affected spring high school sports.
But a few more teams finally made it outside – although all-weather sports like soccer again dominated play during the middle week of April.
Here's a look at some of the highlights, with links to local coverage:
Girls Soccer
Fraser rolls to Ladywood title: After upsetting Division 2 No. 2 and tournament host Livonia Ladywood in a semifinal Saturday, unranked Fraser won the Ladywood Invitational by defeating Division 2 honorable mention Haslett 3-2 in the championship game at Madonna University. (Mlive.com)
Rockford shuts down, shuts out: The Rams shut out all three of its opponents to win Saturday’s Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern Invitational, capping the day with a win over Division 2 No. 3 Forest Hills Northern. Rockford is No. 7 in Division 1. (Grand Rapids Press)
Hawks soar: Unranked Saginaw Heritage, a Division 1 team, edged Division 3 No. 3 Flint Powers Catholic 2-1 on Saturday. (Saginaw News)
Softball
Lakeshore beats Indiana No. 1: Stevensville-Lakeshore, ranked No. 1 in Division 2, beat Indiana Class 3A top-ranked Mishawaka 11-4 on Friday. (St. Joseph Herald-Palladium)
Girls Tennis
FHN takes First: Forest Hills Northern – ranked No. 2 in Division 2 – welcomed co-No. 10s Petoskey and Bloomfield Hills Lahser, plus Mason, on Saturday, and won all four doubles flights to earn the quad championship. (Grand Rapids Press)
Girls Track and Field
Marquette girls Superior: There still was snow in the Upper Peninsula last week, but not inside the Superior Dome as Marquette’s girls won the top division of Tuesday’s Superior Dome Invitational by finishing first in six races at Northern Michigan University. (Marquette Mining Journal)
Boys Track and Field
Raymond keeps running: MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 cross country champion Nick Raymond of Erie Mason won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 to earn Athlete of the Meet honors at Saturday’s Monroe Jefferson Invitational. (Monroe Evening News)
Baseball
Eskymos open with title: Escanaba traveled south and won the Remus Chippewa Hills Invitational, a run that included beating this week's Division 2 No. 10 Chippewa Hills, 12-3, in the championship game. (Escanaba Daily Press)
Football
Waterford Our Lady waves bye to Boyd: Mike Boyd won more than 1,000 varsity games over three sports, and his 361 football wins are third-most for a coach in MHSAA history. He announced his retirement earlier this month. (Oakland Press)
Wrestling
Bronson’s Sosinski retires: Longtime Bronson wrestling coach Al Sosinski has retired after 30 seasons. He coached five MHSAA individual champions and two teams that finished runner-up in MHSAA Team Finals. (Sturgis Journal)
Today in the MHSAA: 8/24/15
August 24, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
All MHSAA fall sports but football kicked off competition last week, with cross country, boys soccer, girls swimming and diving and volleyball starting Saturday.
Below are some notable headlines from the first weekend of this season, plus links to coverage.
Cross Country
St. Johns hosted its second “Under the Lights” meets Friday; Ithaca’s girls and Saugatuck’s boys bested fields loaded with much larger opponents – Lansing State Journal
The St. Joseph girls and Bridgman boys won championships at the Niles Stampede – the St. Joseph girls, who finished fourth in Lower Peninsula Division 2 last season, by a large margin – St. Joseph Herald-Palladium
Girls Golf
Maple City Glen Lake’s Nichole Cox, last season’s LP Division 4 individual champion, came back to defeat Brighton freshman Annie Pietila at the two-day Lober Invitational at Grand Traverse Resort – Traverse City Record-Eagle
Boys Soccer
Two of the state’s powers met in the championship game of the Detroit Country Day Tournament on Saturday – with 2013 Division 1 runner-up Bloomfield Hills downing the host Yellowjackets 1-0 in a shootout – Oakland Press
Girls Swimming & Diving
Howell won its Kenzie Klassic, which honors swimmer Mackenize Watts, who died in 2005 at age 15. The school also raised enough money to award three scholarships and begin funding cardiac-related causes – Livingston Daily
Volleyball
Novi won the Lakeshore Classic by coming back after losing the first two games to beat Grand Haven 3-2 in a rematch of a 2014 Class A Semifinal – Muskegon Chronicle
Battle Creek Harper Creek, for the first time, won the gold championship at the long-running Carrie Adams Memorial Tournament hosted by reigning Class D champion Battle Creek St. Philip – Battle Creek Enquirer
Good Read
Mike Steele, a Midland Dow grad and now pitching coach at Long Beach State in California, argues that parents need to raise their athletes to compete instead of providing specific training in one sport – Midland Daily News