Today in the MHSAA: 11/6/15

November 6, 2015

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Volleyball teams hoisted MHSAA District title trophies all over Michigan on Thursday. Here are 10 championship stories that stuck out a little from the rest we came across.

Volleyball

Class A top-ranked Novi swept honorable mention Northville to move on to next week’s Regional – Oakland Press

Honorable mention Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central won its Class A District in four sets over Grand Rapids Northview, the Ottawa-Kent Conference Bronze champion – Grand Rapids Press

No. 8 North Branch swept No. 2 Mount Morris to claim an 11th straight Class B District championship – Flint Journal

Class B honorable mention Saginaw Swan Valley pushed its school-record win total to 57 with a District Final sweep of Freeland – Saginaw News

Another Class B honorable mention, Grant, won its fifth straight District title with a sweep of Fremont – Muskegon Chronicle

Class C No. 8 Brown City won its fourth straight District title with a sweep of Sandusky – Port Huron Times-Herald

Montague, No. 3 in Class C, won its first District title since 1997 with a sweep of Shelby – Muskegon Chronicle

Unranked Hemlock won the final two sets to claim a 3-2 win over honorable mention St. Louis in Class C – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun

Honorable mention Marcellus took No. 8 Mendon to five sets before the Hornets prevailed in a Class D District Final – Sturgis Journal

Unionville-Sebewaing needed five sets and an extra point in the final to down Cass City for a fifth straight Class D District title – Huron Daily Tribune

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.

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.