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.

Akron-Fairgrove and Owendale-Gagetown eager for long-awaited playoff games in first season of eight-man football bracket (Bay City Times)

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: 9/11/19

September 11, 2019

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Power-packed matchups took place all over the state Tuesday in a variety of sports, perhaps nowhere more than on cross country courses on both peninsulas that witnessed the closest of finishes.

1. Cross Country: Top-ranked Brighton downed reigning Lower Peninsula Division 1 champion Plymouth in the boys race, and the No. 10 Bulldogs girls edged No. 7 Plymouth by three points – Livingston Daily Press & Argus

2. Cross Country: LPD1 No. 4 Ann Arbor Pioneer outpaced No. 3 Saline in the girls race of the Southeastern Conference Jamboree 1, while the No. 8 Saline boys were victorious ahead of No. 2 Dexter – We Love Ann Arbor Girls | Boys

3. Volleyball: Division 1 No. 5 Bloomfield Hills Marian downed Division 2 No. 6 Pontiac Notre Dame Prep in four sets – Oakland Press

4. Boys Soccer: Division 2 No. 12 Gaylord downed No. 13 Alpena 2-0 in a key Big North Conference matchup – Petoskey News-Review

5. Cross Country: The UPD1 top-ranked Marquette girls and boys teams swept Kingsford Invitational titles, the boys by just a point ahead of No. 3 Houghton – Escanaba Daily Press

6. Cross Country: Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart swept the Beal City Invitational championships; the Shamrocks girls are ranked No. 1 in LPD4 and the boys are No. 3 – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun Girls | Boys

7. Boys Soccer: Grand Haven got past Division 2 No. 9 Spring Lake 2-0 – Grand Haven Tribune

8. Boys Tennis: Traverse City West earned its second win this season over rival Central (No. 10 in LPD2) after entering this fall without a victory in the series in more than 15 years – Traverse City Record-Eagle

9. Boys Soccer: Temperance Bedford earned its first win this season by handing Monroe its first defeat, 3-2 – Monroe Evening News

10. Boys Soccer: Ludington and Division 4 top-ranked Muskegon Western Michigan Christian played to a 1-1 draw – Ludington Daily News