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: 11/11/20
November 11, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The MHSAA Volleyball Tournament took its next step Tuesday playing Regional Semifinals statewide, with a number of results making waves throughout the brackets.
1. Volleyball: No. 5 Beaverton swept No. 7 Traverse City St. Francis in a Division 3 Regional Semifinal – Midland Daily News
2. Volleyball: No. 2 Lake Odessa Lakewood lost a set – one of few this fall – before emerging with a four-set win over honorable mention Marshall in Division 2 – Lansing State Journal
3. Volleyball: Unranked Grandville Calvin Christian upset No. 4 North Muskegon to advance in Division 3 – Grand Rapids Press
4. Volleyball: Honorable mention Battle Creek St. Philip upset No. 7 New Buffalo 3-1 in a Division 4 Regional Semifinal – WWMT
5. Volleyball: Unranked Edwardsburg swept No. 8 Hamilton to advance in Division 2 – Niles Daily Star
6. Volleyball: Brooklyn Columbia Central continued its program-record run with a 3-1 Regional Semifinal win over Bath in Division 3 – Jackson Citizen-Patriot
7. Volleyball: Honorable mention Traverse City West came back after losing the first set to win the next three over Mount Pleasant – Up North Live
8. Volleyball: DeWitt came back from a late fifth-set deficit to edge Richland Gull Lake in Division 1 – Lansing State Journal
9. Volleyball: No. 6 Ann Arbor Skyline continued its undefeated run this fall with a Division 1 sweep of Trenton – We Love Ann Arbor
10. Volleyball: Grand Blanc will move on in Division 1 after avenging a 2019 Regional loss to Flushing – WJRT
Also of note …
Boys Soccer: Longtime coach Kirt Brown retired after 15 years apiece at Parchment and then Mattawan, having led the latter to the 2016 Division 2 championship – Kalamazoo Gazette
Cross Country/Track & Field: P.J. Pruett is retiring after leading dominant girls and boys programs at Ishpeming in both sports – Upper Michigan’s Source