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: 1/23/20
January 23, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Two of the three No. 1-ranked hockey teams in Michigan faced off Thursday in league play to take today’s No. 1 spot, followed by one of the state’s annual wrestling powers claiming a conference championship.
1. Hockey: Division 2 top-ranked Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice edged Division 1 No. 1 Detroit Catholic Central 2-1 – Oakland Press
2. Wrestling: Division 3 No. 2 Richmond clinched the Blue Water Area Conference championship with a sweep of Croswell-Lexington and Imlay City – Macomb Daily
3. Hockey: Division 1 No. 4 Brighton avenged an earlier loss to No. 3 Salem with a 3-0 win in the rematch – Observer & Eccentric
4. Bowling: Bay City Central’s girls and Essexville Garber’s boys won Bay County championships – Bay City Times
5. Girls Basketball: Michigan Center avenged last season’s Regional Final loss to Springport, 61-49 – Jackson Citizen Patriot
6. Hockey: Division 2 No. 2 Livonia Stevenson continued its recent success against No. 4 Hartland, 7-0 – Observer & Eccentric
7. Girls Basketball: Bellaire remained undefeated and ended Gaylord St. Mary’s 59-game Ski Valley Conference winning streak with a 49-36 victory – Up North Live
8. Boys Basketball: Carrollton moved to 8-0 with a 77-70 win over Reese – Saginaw News
9. Hockey: Grand Haven came back from a one-goal deficit with four minutes to play to get past Hudsonville 5-3 – Local Sports Journal
10. Hockey: Will Dawson scored a natural hat trick during the first period to lead Division 2 No. 6 Traverse City Central past Petoskey 6-0 – Traverse City Record-Eagle
Also of note …
Football: Gwinn is mourning the unexpected death of football coach Dion Brown, who took over the program in 2014 and led it to multiple playoff appearances – WLUC
Football: Hudson coach Chris Luma has stepped down with a 180-70 record over the last 23 seasons – Adrian Daily Telegram
Football: Continuing Rockford’s streak of 25 straight winning seasons will rest with former assistant Brent Cummings, who was promoted to head coach – Grand Rapids Press