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: 9/22/15
September 22, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Check out these close calls in golf and soccer and milestone finishes in tennis that highlighted Monday’s action from across the state.
Girls Golf
Bay City Western won the closest Bay County Girls Golf Championship in the event's 20-year history, scoring 423 to edge reigning champion Bay City Central by a stroke – Bay City Times
Boys Soccer
Two of the top teams in Division 1 faced off in Macomb Area Conference Red play, with No. 4 Utica Eisenhower downing No. 8 Fraser – Macomb Daily
Lapeer’s Eric McGeary scored the winning goal on his team’s Senior Night for the second straight year, this time to down Saginaw Heritage – Flint Journal
Division 2 No. 2 Holland Christian and reigning Division 3 champion Hudsonville Unity Christian tied 1-1 in a meeting of Ottawa-Kent Conference Green contenders; they play each other again Oct. 7 – Grand Rapids Press
Boys Tennis
Parma Western, No. 10 in Lower Peninsula Division 3, downed Jackson Lumen Christi for the first time in nearly a decade – Jackson Citizen-Patriot
Top-ranked LP Division 2 Portage Central (see today’s 2H feature) won all eight flights to sweep the Greater Kalamazoo Tournament, and didn’t give up a set – Kalamazoo Gazette
Whitehall, No. 5 in LP Division 4, moved to 4-0 in the Coastal Conference with a shutout of Fruitport – Muskegon Chronicle
Division 2 No. 7 Birmingham Groves stayed a step ahead of rival and No. 8 Seaholm in Oakland Activities Association Red action – Observer & Eccentric
Volleyball
Cadillac, No. 3 in Class B, took a step toward unseating Class A honorable mention Traverse City West atop the Big North Conference standings with a three-set win Monday – Cadillac News
From Saturday, Class D honorable mention Crystal Falls Forest Park downed also-honorable mention Stephenson in the final of the Trojans’ tournament – Iron Mountain Daily News