Today in the MHSAA: 4/12/18

April 12, 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. Baseball: Orchard Lake St. Mary’s impressed in its Detroit Catholic League opener, sweeping Division 2 No. 5 Dearborn Divine Child – Detroit News

2. Girls Soccer: Muskegon Mona Shores earned an impressive early-season win, 1-0 over Division 2 No. 19 Spring Lake – Local Sports Journal

3. Girls Soccer: Traverse City Central connected on a late penalty kick to get past Petoskey in a Big North Conference matchup – MI Sports Now

4. Baseball: Division 1 top-ranked Saline won a pair of one-run games against Fenton to open the season – Saline Post

5. Softball: Midland Bullock Creek scored a combined 25 runs in a sweep of Saginaw Valley Lutheran – Midland Daily News

6. Girls Soccer: Division 1 No. 5 Portage Central moved to 4-0 with a 4-0 win over Plainwell – JoeInsider.com

7. Girls Soccer: Allen Park and Gibraltar Carlson both remained undefeated in Downriver League play with a 1-1 draw – Southgate News Herald

8. Baseball: Birmingham Groves improved to 3-0 with a 7-2 win over previously undefeated Troy – Oakland Press

9. Boys Soccer: East Lansing coach Nick Archer, who began that program in 1977 and led it to five MHSAA Finals championships, has retired after pioneering the sport locally and statewide – Lansing State Journal

10. Girls Basketball: The Upper Peninsula basketball community is mourning the late Harvey Filppula, who built Dollar Bay’s girls program – Houghton Daily Mining Gazette

Today in the MHSAA: 8/24/15

August 24, 2015

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

All MHSAA fall sports but football kicked off competition last week, with cross country, boys soccer, girls swimming and diving and volleyball starting Saturday.

Below are some notable headlines from the first weekend of this season, plus links to coverage.

Cross Country

St. Johns hosted its second “Under the Lights” meets Friday; Ithaca’s girls and Saugatuck’s boys bested fields loaded with much larger opponents – Lansing State Journal

The St. Joseph girls and Bridgman boys won championships at the Niles Stampede – the St. Joseph girls, who finished fourth in Lower Peninsula Division 2 last season, by a large margin – St. Joseph Herald-Palladium

Girls Golf

Maple City Glen Lake’s Nichole Cox, last season’s LP Division 4 individual champion, came back to defeat Brighton freshman Annie Pietila at the two-day Lober Invitational at Grand Traverse Resort – Traverse City Record-Eagle

Boys Soccer

Two of the state’s powers met in the championship game of the Detroit Country Day Tournament on Saturday – with 2013 Division 1 runner-up Bloomfield Hills downing the host Yellowjackets 1-0 in a shootout – Oakland Press

Girls Swimming & Diving

Howell won its Kenzie Klassic, which honors swimmer Mackenize Watts, who died in 2005 at age 15. The school also raised enough money to award three scholarships and begin funding cardiac-related causes – Livingston Daily

Volleyball

Novi won the Lakeshore Classic by coming back after losing the first two games to beat Grand Haven 3-2 in a rematch of a 2014 Class A Semifinal – Muskegon Chronicle

Battle Creek Harper Creek, for the first time, won the gold championship at the long-running Carrie Adams Memorial Tournament hosted by reigning Class D champion Battle Creek St. Philip – Battle Creek Enquirer

Good Read

Mike Steele, a Midland Dow grad and now pitching coach at Long Beach State in California, argues that parents need to raise their athletes to compete instead of providing specific training in one sport – Midland Daily News