Today in the MHSAA: 2/25/19
February 25, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
A busy weekend across Michigan included Team Wrestling Finals (see coverage under “Latest Posts”), plus Bowling Regionals, Competitive Cheer Regionals, league swimming & diving meets and much more.
1. Bowling: The No. 4 Napoleon boys finished ahead of runner-up and top-ranked Bronson to win a Division 4 Regional, while the top-ranked Vandercook Lake girls claimed their Regional title – Coldwater Daily Reporter
2. Competitive Cheer: Annual powers Allen Park and Gibraltar Carlson finished first and second, respectively, separated by less than a point at their Division 2 Regional – Southgate News-Herald
3. Boys Swimming & Diving: Holland West Ottawa, top-ranked in Lower Peninsula Division 1, finished a sixth straight championship run in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Red, winning the league meet ahead of No. 7 Hudsonville – Holland Sentinel
4. Competitive Cheer: Rochester Hills Stoney Creek won one of the strongest Regionals regardless of division, finishing ahead of qualifiers Adams, Utica Eisenhower and Sterling Heights Stevenson in Division 1 – Southgate News-Herald
5. Girls Basketball: Coldwater clinched its first league title since 1992 with a big win over Jackson Lumen Christi in the Interstate 8 Athletic Conference – Coldwater Daily Reporter
6. Boys Swimming & Diving: LPD1 No. 2 Ann Arbor Pioneer got past runner-up and No. 4-ranked Ann Arbor Skyline to win the Southeastern Conference Red meet – We Love Ann Arbor
7. Bowling: The top-ranked Sturgis boys repeated as Division 2 Regional champs, ahead of No. 4 Coldwater and No. 7 Battle Creek Pennfield, while Pennfield’s No. 2-ranked girls won ahead of No. 5 Coldwater – Sturgis Journal
8. Boys Swimming & Diving: LPD1 honorable mention Zeeland clinched the outright O-K Green championship after sharing it with current LPD3 No. 1 Holland Christian a year ago – Holland Sentinel
9. Boys Swimming & Diving: LPD2 honorable mention Gibraltar Carlson edged LPD3 No. 10 Trenton to win the Downriver League meet – Southgate News-Herald
10. Bowling: Cheboygan’s girls finished ahead of runner-up and No. 6 Gladwin to repeat as Division 3 Regional champions, while Gladwin’s No. 5 boys finished first ahead of Cheboygan’s – Cheboygan News
Also of note …
Girls Basketball: East Kentwood claimed a share of the O-K Red title with a 58-42 win over Grand Haven – FOX 17
Boys Swimming & Diving: Ludington dominated in claiming its third straight Coastal Conference championship with a win at the league meet – Ludington Daily News
Boys Swimming & Diving: Corunna won the Independent Swim Conference meet to repeat as league champion – Owosso Argus-Press
Girls Basketball: Gobles claimed the Southwestern Athletic Conference Lakeshore championship with a 45-26 win over Martin – FOX 17
Hockey: Division 1 No. 12 Utica Eisenhower locked up the Macomb Area Conference Red title with an 8-3 win over New Baltimore Anchor Bay – Macomb Daily
Girls Basketball: Scout Nelson scored 21 points against Blanchard Montabella to become Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart’s all-time leading scorer – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun
Girls Basketball: Three Rivers’ Hadley Miller went over 1,000 career points in a 57-42 win over Vicksburg – Sturgis Journal
Boys Basketball: Alma clinched a share of the Tri-Valley Conference Central title with Freeland and Saginaw Swan Valley – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun
Girls Basketball: Bear Lake clinched a share of the West Michigan D League title with a big win over Big Rapids Crossroads – Manistee News Advocate
Girls Basketball: Charlevoix clinched a share of the Lake Michigan Conference title with a 53-31 win over Grayling – Petoskey News-Review
Girls Basketball: Mackinaw City claimed the Northern Lakes Conference title outright with a big win over Alba – Cheboygan News
Boys Swimming & Diving: New Baltimore Anchor Bay won the MAC White meet – Macomb Daily
Boys Swimming & Diving: LPD2 honorable mention St. Clair Shores Lakeview was the champ at the MAC Blue meet – Macomb Daily
Boys Basketball: Kingston earned a share of the North Central Thumb League Stars title, with Flint International Academy, thanks to a one-point win over Dryden – WNEM
Boys Swimming & Diving: LPD3 No. 7 Marshall repeated as champion at the Southwestern & Central Conference meet – Battle Creek Enquirer
Montrose's Skinner Center Built to Continue Beloved Mentor's Work
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 19, 2022
For more than a decade, Montrose High School has provided aspiring students one of the strongest and most lauded high school broadcast journalism programs in Michigan.
And moving forward, those students will have the opportunity to learn the craft at the newly-unveiled studio named in honor of the mentor who poured so much into those efforts.
On Thursday, MDM-TV (Montrose Digital Media – Television) opened the doors to its Thomas E. Skinner Broadcast Center, a newly-created video and audio lab, studio and production space named for Tom Skinner, a well-known Flint-area sports broadcasting voice for four decades who played a starring role in building the school’s program over his final 12 years until his death in October.
The goal was to create a fully functioning place where students can learn to create top-notch sports and news products. The network’s new home includes a podcasting lab, video and audio editing lab, studio, and control room/soundproof room for recording voiceovers. The space, formerly a distance learning lab in the middle school used most recently for storage, replaced the former studio housed in a high school classroom. MDM-TV began making the move and transformation after COVID-19 shut down the program during the spring of 2020.
Longtime teacher Jamie Kitts, who retired from fulltime classroom instruction in 2019 after 33 years in the district and remains the school’s digital media instructor and MDM-TV advisor, played a leading role in the creation of the Skinner Center – and said, frankly, the facility couldn’t have been named after anyone else. Skinner worked with the program’s on-air talent all though his dozen years, and also coordinated the summer camp for seven years.
“Tom is responsible for so much of the great work our kids have done,” Kitts said. “We could not have accomplished what we did without him. Plus, he really enjoyed working with the kids.”
Montrose’s program was named “Program of the Year” five straight from 2014-18 as part of the MHSAA’s School Broadcast Program Excellence Awards. In 2017, then-junior Eric Vandefifer was named the nation’s Best Student Broadcaster by the NFHS Network as part of its School Broadcast Program Awards. Kitts has been a finalist for the NFHS Network’s national Teacher of the Year award multiple times. Current students and Skinner proteges Danny Sackrider and Owen Leitelt recently were named the Best Sports Announcing Team in the high school division by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters – the third time Montrose has produced a winning pair.
The Skinner Center was financed through advertising sales, grants, career and technical education funding and donations, with plenty of volunteer labor and significant support from the district’s administration helping bring it to life.
Students past and present did much of the work, with local “do-everything guy” Joe Crimi playing a major role, and Kitts also gave substantial credit to the network’s sponsors Thumb Audio/Video’s Kevin Strieter.
“My wife, another retired teacher, asked me the other day, ‘What have you learned from building this broadcast center?’” Kitts said. “Typical teacher question! I have learned that even through tough times, you just can't let your dreams die. And that if you need help, just ask for it. People want to help. They just need to be asked.”
