Today in the MHSAA: 3/3/17
March 3, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
As the boys basketball regular season came to a close Thursday, the Individual Wrestling Finals got started and Hockey Regionals continued on – all with celebrations of note.
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.
Boys Basketball
Central State Activities Association division champs Morley Stanwood and Big Rapids faced off, with Morley Stanwood closing the regular season with a 59-56 win – Big Rapids News
Breckenridge clinched its first league title since 1988 with a big win over Coleman in the Mid-State Activities Conference – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun
Wayne Memorial rode a strong fourth quarter to a 47-44 win over Walled Lake Central in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association championship game – Oakland Press
Quincy downed Homer 61-41 to claim a share of the Big 8 Conference title – Coldwater Daily Reporter
Dollar Bay downed Painesdale Jeffers 54-46 in the Copper Mountain Conference to earn a first league title since 1994 – Houghton Daily Mining Gazette
Calumet earned a share of the West Peninsula Athletic Conference title with a 66-54 win over Hancock – Houghton Daily Mining Gazette
Grand Rapids Christian finished its first perfect regular season with a 53-51 win over Kalamazoo Central – Grand Rapids Press
Michigan Center also completed its first perfect regular season with an 81-49 win over Vandercook Lake – Jackson Citizen Patriot
Hockey
Division 1 No. 8 Utica Eisenhower powered to a 7-4 win over No. 6 Rochester United in a Pre-Regional Final – Macomb Daily
Division 2 No. 6 Trenton came back from trailing 3-0, but No. 5 Livonia Churchill still prevailed 4-3 in overtime – Southgate News Herald
Unranked Alpena upset No. 7 Sault Ste. Marie in Division 3 – Sault Ste. Marie Evening News
Wrestling
Gaylord advanced all five of its MHSAA Individual Finals competitors to the second round in Division 2 on Thursday, with wrestling continuing today – Traverse City Record-Eagle
Hartland senior Reece Hughes, a reigning Division 1 champion, returned to the mat after a shoulder injury kept him out of last week’s Team Finals and won his first match – Livingston Daily Press & Argus
Good Read
Amazingly, Dave Mann is coaching three varsity girls basketball teams this season – at Harper Woods Chandler Park, which schedules separately for two teams, and also at Detroit Cornerstone – Detroit News
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.