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: 9/22/17

September 22, 2017

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Each weekday of the school year, we break down the top headlines courtesy of Michigan’s sports media.

Today's Top 10

1. Cross Country: The Manton boys, an honorable mention in Lower Peninsula Division 3, and No. 4-ranked Traverse City St. Francis girls claimed championships at the Kingsley Invitational – Cadillac News | Traverse City Record-Eagle

2. Cross Country: The Chassell girls (UPD3 No. 1) and Houghton boys (UPD1 No. 1) continued their front-running ways with wins at the Dollar Bay Invitational – Houghton Daily Mining Gazette

3. Girls Golf: Traverse City West – No. 2 in LPD1 – continued to shine with a win at Wequetonsing Golf Club, and Harbor Springs continued to come in just behind the Titans as the top Division 3-4 team at the tournament – Petoskey News-Review

4. Volleyball: Sault Ste. Marie edged reigning Straits Area Conference champion and Class D No. 10 Rudyard, 2-1 – Sault Ste. Marie Evening News

5. Boys Soccer: Unranked Troy won its sixth straight game, 3-0 over Division 2 No. 19 Pontiac Notre Dame Prep – Oakland Press

6. Cross Country: The unranked Boyne City teams swept the Indian River Inland Lakes Invitational races – Gaylord Herald Times

7. Boys Soccer: Saginaw Heritage improved to 10-2-2 in handing Midland Dow its first Saginaw Valley League loss, 2-1 – Midland Daily News

8. Boys Soccer: Reigning Division 3 champion and current No. 6 Grand Rapids Catholic Central pulled away from Spring Lake, 2-0 – Grand Haven Tribune

9. Girls Swimming & Diving: Trenton swimmers this school year are for the first time competing in a building now named after longtime coach Jim Lawrence, who was co-coach on the 1995 girls LP Class B championship team – Southgate News Herald

10. Football: The MHSAA record for longest field goal is 59 yards; Northville’s Jake Moody, already with a 57-yarder, could rise to the top of the list – Detroit Free Press