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: 10/7/21

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

October 7, 2021

1. BOYS TENNIS No. 5 Holland West Ottawa won a loaded Lower Peninsula Division 1 Regional ahead of additional qualifiers No. 7 Hudsonville and No. 6 Rockford – Holland Sentinel

2. BOYS SOCCER Division 2 No. 7 Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood downed Warren De La Salle Collegiate 4-1 in the Detroit Catholic League Bishop championship game – Macomb Daily

3. BOYS SOCCER Division 3 No. 3 Hudsonville Unity Christian edged top-ranked Holland Christian 1-0 in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Blue semifinals – Holland Sentinel

4. BOYS TENNIS Top-ranked Okemos won seven of eight flights to clinch an LPD2 Regional title, and Mason in LPD3 won its first Regional championship since 1995 just ahead of No. 10 Haslett – Lansing State Journal

5. BOYS SOCCER Buckley downed Kingsley 6-0 to clinch the Northwest Conference title outright, with the league championship its first since 1999 – Traverse City Record-Eagle

6. BOYS SOCCER Walled Lake Northern scored the game’s lone goal late in the second half to defeat South Lyon 1-0 in the Lakes Valley Conference Tournament final – Oakland Press

7. BOYS TENNIS LPD2 No. 8 Midland Dow won its 13th-straight Regional title, in LPD2 – Midland Daily News

8. BOYS TENNIS Top-ranked Traverse City St. Francis claimed another LPD4 Regional championship, continuing a run more than a decade long – Up North Live

9. GIRLS GOLF Midland Dow was first and Petoskey second at their LPD2 Regional – Midland Daily News

10. BOYS SOCCER Brownstown Woodhaven clinched its fourth-straight Downriver League title with a 3-1 win over Dearborn Edsel Ford – Southgate News-Herald

Also of note …

BOYS SOCCER Niles Brandywine clinched the outright Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph Conference Red championship with a 4-2 win over Buchanan – Niles Daily Star

CROSS COUNTRY The Munising girls and Stephenson boys claimed Skyline Central Conference championships – Iron Mountain Daily News

BOYS SOCCER Division 4 No. 7 McBain Northern Michigan Christian finished its Northern Michigan Soccer League title run with a 6-0 win over LeRoy Pine River – Cadillac News