Linked Up: 10/28/11
December 13, 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.
Today in the MHSAA: 9/15/25
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 15, 2025
1. CROSS COUNTRY The Ann Arbor Pioneer girls and Northville boys – ranked No. 1 on their respective Lower Peninsula Division 1 lists – won the Elite races at the Spartan Invitational which also awarded championships to the LPD1 No. 15 Novi, Holland and LPD3 No. 7 Jackson Lumen Christi girls and LPD1 No. 6 Grand Ledge and LPD3 No. 3 Jackson Lumen Christi boys among several – Athletic.net
2. CROSS COUNTRY Holly’s Duane Raffin Festival of Races crowned 10 champions across five divisions: LPD1 No. 7 Ann Arbor Skyline, Midland Dow, LPD2 No. 11 Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard, Bronson and LPD4 No. 1 Whitmore Lake’s girls; and LPD1 No. 15 Ann Arbor Skyline, LPD2 No. 11 Richland Gull Lake, Flint Powers Catholic, Ann Arbor Greenhills and LPD4 No. 5 Whitmore Lake’s boys – Midland Daily News | Athletic.net
3. BOYS TENNIS LPD2 No. 2 Midland Dow defeated No. 3 Byron Center, No. 6 Portage Central and Grosse Pointe North at the Sunsational Invitational, which included Chargers’ coach Terry Schwartzkopf’s 400th match – Saginaw News
4. VOLLEYBALL Division 4 No. 7 Crystal Falls Forest Park downed honorable mention Hancock to win its first championship at The Rock Tournament in Gladstone – Escanaba Daily Press
5. GIRLS GOLF LPD4 No. 2 Montague carded a 357 to win its Wildcat Invitational by 10 strokes – Local Sports Journal
6. VOLLEYBALL Division 1 No. 6 Grand Haven went undefeated and downed Zeeland East in the deciding match to win its invitational – Grand Haven Tribune
7. BOYS TENNIS Bay City Western was first and St. Clair second at the Fenton Invitational – Bay City Times
8. CROSS COUNTRY The LPD3 No. 2 Pewamo-Westphalia girls and No. 12 boys swept Don Baese Invitational championships – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun | Athletic.net
9. GIRLS TENNIS Norway won three flights on the way to the Kingsford Invitational title – Escanaba Daily News
10. GIRLS SWIIMMING & DIVING Flint Kearsley finished first among seven contenders at the Ogemaw Heights Falcon Invitational – Flint Journal