Today in the MHSAA: 5/16/19

May 16, 2019

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Some slim upsets in golf and soccer led to major championships Wednesday, while a number of other teams made school history by clinching titles.

1. Boys Golf: Lower Peninsula Division 1 No. 8 Lake Orion shot a 303 to edge top-ranked Clarkston by two strokes and win the Oakland County championship – Oakland Press

2. Girls Soccer: Division 1 No. 5 Grand Blanc downed No. 4 Midland 2-1 to claim the Saginaw Valley League championship – State Champs Sports Network

3. Girls Soccer: Armada locked up the Blue Water Area Conference title with a 5-1 win over Division 3 No. 13 Richmond – Macomb Daily

4. Softball: Livonia Stevenson clinched its first league title in softball since 2006, downing Westland John Glenn to claim the Kensington Lakes Activities Association East championship – Observer & Eccentric

5. Boys Golf: LPD3 No. 7 Shepherd ran its Tri-Valley Conference West title streak to three with another jamboree win – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun

6. Girls Soccer: Brownstown Woodhaven got past Trenton to claim the Downriver League title outright – Southgate News-Herald

7. Baseball: Division 1 No. 8 Brighton clinched the KLAA West title with a win over Hartland – Livingston Daily Press & Argus

8. Baseball: Berkley clinched the Oakland Activities Association Blue championship – Oakland Press

9. Baseball: Division 2 No. 5 Chelsea finished a sweep of Ypsilanti as the Southeastern Conference White champion – Chelsea Sun Times News

10. Girls Soccer: Division 1 No. 8 New Baltimore Anchor Bay won a key Macomb Area Conference Red matchup with No. 6 Macomb Dakota, 2-1 – Macomb Daily

Also of note …

Softball/Basketball: Rochester Adams coach Fran Scislowicz went over 1,000 combined wins in the two sports with a softball victory April 25 – C&G Newspapers

Track & Field: From Friday, Greenville’s boys claimed the Ottawa-Kent Conference White meet title to repeat as league champions – Greenville Daily 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.

Akron-Fairgrove and Owendale-Gagetown eager for long-awaited playoff games in first season of eight-man football bracket (Bay City Times)

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.