Today in the MHSAA: 5/16/18
May 16, 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. Softball: Muskegon Mona Shores’ Taylor Dew hit her 49th career home run against Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills to tie the MHSAA record, while her team earned a share of the Ottawa-Kent Conference Black title – Muskegon Chronicle
2. Softball: Division 1 No. 2 Caledonia and honorable mention Hudsonville remain tied for first in the O-K Red after splitting a doubleheader – FOX 17
3. Girls Soccer: Traverse City West clinched the Big North Conference championship with a 3-1 win over Traverse City Central – MI Sports Now
4. Softball: Quincy locked up the Big 8 Conference championship for the second straight season, with a sweep of Concord this time – Coldwater Daily Reporter
5. Softball: Division 2 No. 8 Muskegon Oakridge locked up a share of the West Michigan Conference title with a sweep of Ravenna – Local Sports Journal
6. Baseball: The Division 2 No. 19 Oakridge baseball team did the same, sweeping Ravenna for a share of the league championship – Local Sports Journal
7. Boys Golf: Charlevoix won the Lake Michigan Conference Invitational led by freshman Jake Beaudoin – Petoskey News-Review
8. Softball: Maddie Meredith drove in all four runs as Grand Ledge edged Fowlerville 4-3 in eight innings in the Greater Lansing Hall of Fame Softball Classic – Lansing State Journal
9. Softball: Taylor Carey starred in relief as Stockbridge got past Fowler 11-10 also in the Softball Classic – Lansing State Journal
10. Boys Lacrosse: Grand Rapids South Christian opened Regional play with a 13-5 win over Comstock Park, its first MHSAA postseason victory – SouthChristianSports.com
Also of note …
Softball: From Monday, Division 3 No. 10 Byron secured its eighth straight league championship with a sweep of New Lothrop – Owosso Argus-Press
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.
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.