Today in the MHSAA: 10/18/18
October 18, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Each weekday of the school year, we break down the top headlines courtesy of Michigan’s sports media.
1. Boys Soccer: Division 4 top-ranked Muskegon Western Michigan Christian earned a trip to the District Finals with a 3-0 win over No. 7 North Muskegon – Muskegon Chronicle
2. Boys Soccer: Unbeaten White Lake Lakeland outlasted Hartland in a shootout to move on in Division 1 – Observer & Eccentric
3. Boys Soccer: Benzie Central won its second shootout this week, this time against Boyne City, to move on to a Division 3 District Final – WPBN
4. Boys Soccer: Harbor Springs lost twice to Charlevoix during the regular season, but came back with a 3-1 District win in Division 4 – Petoskey News-Review
5. Boys Soccer: Charlie Parker scored both of his team’s goals over the final seven minutes to lead Spring Lake past Muskegon Reeths-Puffer 2-1 in Division 2 – Grand Haven Tribune
6. Cross Country: The Zeeland West boys (Lower Peninsula Division 2 No. 10) and Holland Christian girls (LPD2 No. 7) locked up Ottawa-Kent Conference Green titles – Holland Sentinel boys | girls
7. Cross Country: Bloomingdale swept the Southwest 10 Conference championship races – Sturgis Journal
8. Boys Soccer: Birmingham Brother Rice scored the game’s only goal during the second half to defeat Auburn Hills Avondale 1-0 in Division 2 – Oakland Press
9. Volleyball: Division 1 No. 3 Mattawan swept Richland Gull Lake in a matchup of Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference division champs – JoeInsider.com
10. Volleyball: Houghton Lake defeated Division 3 honorable mention Beaverton for the second time this season, handing the Beavers just their third loss overall – Midland Daily News
Also of note …
Football: We are thankful for special moments like Friday’s at Mason, where Muskegon Orchard View and the host Bulldogs cheered Cardinals’ senior Fletcher Payne Jr. into the end zone – Muskegon Chronicle
Cross Country: From Tuesday, the Houghton girls (UPD1 No. 3) and Ishpeming boys (UPD2 No. 1) won Western Peninsula Athletic Conference meet titles – Houghton Daily Mining Gazette
Volleyball: From Tuesday, unbeaten Carney-Nadeau swept Norway to clinch the Skyline Central Conference small-school championship – Escanaba Daily Press
Cross Country: From Tuesday, Jonesville swept Big 8 Conference championship races – Hillsdale Daily News
Cross Country: From Tuesday, Holland Black River’s girls won the Alliance League title – Holland Sentinel
Linked Up: 10/28/11
December 13, 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.