By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

As fans of competition, we can give thanks for early-season matchups of top-ranked teams like we saw in hockey Wednesday. But check out our “Good Reads” today for a wider perspective of why else we should be grateful.

Each weekday during the school year, we’ll gather and post media links covering the most significant and intriguing high school events from all over the state.

Girls Basketball

Michigan Center survived a Jonesville comeback to win its season opener 43-40 in overtime – Jackson Citizen-Patriot

Class D power Athens got off to the right start with a 32-20 win over Battle Creek St. Philip – Battle Creek Enquirer

Mackinaw City pulled out an overtime win over rival Pellston, 36-33 – Petoskey News Review

From Tuesday, Canton downed Bloomfield Hills Marian 43-40 in an early-season meeting of regular contenders in Class A – Observer & Eccentric

Hockey

Hartland – ranked No. 1 in Division 2 – came back from a two-goal deficit to beat Division 1 top-ranked Brighton 3-2 in overtime – Livingston Daily Press & Argus

Cadillac led 4-0 but had to hold on for a 5-4 win over Cheboygan – Cadillac News

On his team’s 56^th shot of the night, Mario Steffin netted the game-winner as Wyandotte Roosevelt downed Southgate Anderson 4-3 in overtime – Southgate News Herald

Good Reads

We missed this one a few days ago, but the Port Huron Times Herald provided some awesome perspective by printing what many of its most notable local sports figures – coaches, high school stars and champions past – were thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend – Port Huron Times Herald

We’ve been following the story of longtime northern Michigan and current Traverse City St. Francis basketball coach Keith Haske (Second Half, 3/3/16), who has been fighting cancer but finished up a round of chemotherapy this week – Traverse City Record-Eagle