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: 5/15/17

May 15, 2017

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

The last weekend of the track & field regular season featured league and invitational titles galore, and we've highlighted some of the most intriguing as well as the best from the rest of competition including a league title game between the top-ranked boys teams in Division 1.

Each weekday during the school year, we’ll gather and post media links covering the most significant and intriguing high school events from all over the state.

Baseball

Battle Creek Harper Creek downed Division 1 No. 12 Lakeview 3-1 to win the Battle Creek All-City championship – Battle Creek Enquirer

A bases-loaded walk in the seventh inning gave Division 2 No. 9 Fowlerville a 6-5 win over Lansing Catholic as the Gladiators clinched the Capital Area Activities Conference White title – Livingston Daily Press & Argus

Division 1 No. 8 Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett downed Division 3 No. 2 Schoolcraft 3-2 to win its invitational – Detroit News

Boys Golf

James Staab won medalist for the second straight season to lead Lakeview to its 14th straight Battle Creek All-City title – Battle Creek Enquirer

Lower Peninsula Division 2 No. 10 Grosse Ile shot a 295 to win the Marauder Invitational by 13 strokes, led by medalist Mitch Daly’s 69 – Southgate News Herald

Girls Lacrosse

Okemos, No. 4 in Division 2, won its 10th straight Capital Area Activities Conference title with a 17-9 win over Haslett/Williamston in the tournament final – Lansing State Journal

Boys Lacrosse

Division 1 top-ranked Birmingham Brother Rice locked down the Detroit Catholic League title with a 15-10 win over No. 2 Detroit Catholic Central – Oakland Press

Softball

Battle Creek Pennfield hung on to down Harper Creek in the Battle Creek All-City softball final – Battle Creek Enquirer

Warren Regina split with Farmington Hills Mercy, getting the one necessary win to clinch the Detroit Catholic League Central title – Macomb Daily

Girls Tennis

Niles Brandywine won its fifth straight league title and 10th over the last 13 seasons, this time by only a point over Comstock – Niles Daily Star

Track & Field

Bay City Western swept the Bay County titles, the boys for the ninth straight season; the girls are ranked No. 7 in Lower Peninsula Division 1 and the boys are No. 10 – Bay City Times

The Houghton boys and Lake Linden-Hubbell girls won Houghton County Invitational titles, the boys led by a record-setting performance by Clayton Sayen as he bested a school mark from 1991 and a meet record from 1995 – Houghton Daily Mining Gazette

Manton swept the titles at its invitational, defending the girls' No. 1 ranking and boys' No. 3 in LP Division 4 – Cadillac News

Unranked Novi finished 23.5 points ahead of LP Division 1 No. 3 Salem to claim the boys Kensington Lakes Activities Association Kensington title – Observer & Eccentric

Good Read

Comstock Park retired its first girls soccer number last week – the No. 3 of Kristin Stowie, who died in a snowmobile crash in 2010 – Grand Rapids Press