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.
Today in the MHSAA: 10/21/19
October 21, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Fourteen more MHSAA Finals celebrated champions this weekend, and you’ll find coverage of all 10 events all over Second Half. Also making headlines across the state were District Finals in boys soccer, and league finals and notable invitationals in cross country and volleyball.
1. Boys Soccer: Division 2 No. 15 Gaylord downed Alpena 2-1 to claim its first District title in this sport – Gaylord Herald Times
2. Boys Soccer: Clarkston Everest Collegiate also claimed its first District title with a 2-0 win over Auburn Hills Oakland Christian in Division 4 – Oakland Press
3. Cross Country: Coldwater’s girls clinched the Interstate 8 Athletic Conference title, their first league title since 1987. Marshall and Battle Creek Harper Creek shared the boys championship – Coldwater Daily Reporter
4. Cross Country: The Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart boys – No. 6 in Lower Peninsula Division 4 – and No. 4 Hillsdale Academy girls won the “Class D State Meet” hosted annually by the Irish, Hillsdale Academy upsetting the LPD4 top-ranked Sacred Heart girls – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun
5. Boys soccer: Ann Arbor Pioneer won a Division 1 District title in a shootout against No. 13 Saline – We Love Ann Arbor
6. Boys Soccer: Muskegon Reeths-Puffer upset No. 13 Spring Lake in a shootout win to claim a Division 2 District title – Local Sports Journal
7. Volleyball: Division 3 No. 6 Centreville came back to defeat Division 4 No. 3 Mendon in three sets in the final of the Southwest 10 Conference Tournament to add that championship to its regular-season title – Sturgis Journal
8. Volleyball: Fruitport downed Montague in five sets to claim the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association championship – Local Sports Journal
9. Cross Country: Saginaw Heritage swept the Saginaw County Championships – Athletic.net
10. Boys Soccer: Traverse City West downed rival Central for the third time this season, 3-0 in a Division 1 District Final – Traverse City Record-Eagle