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
Today in the MHSAA: 11/10/15
November 10, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
This is a transition week for many schools in Michigan, as some winter sports either started practice or started their second week, while volleyball teams and divers are prepping for MHSAA Regionals. Check out some of the headlines we uncovered during our daily drive around statewide media sites.
Cross Country
Farmington’s Maddy Trevisan and Rockford’s Isaac Harding were named Miss Cross Country and Mr. Cross Country, respectively, by the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association – MITCA.org
Girls Swimming and Diving
Bay City John Glenn continued its reign in the Independent Swim Conference over the weekend as four seniors finished their league careers with four championships – Bay City Times
Volleyball
The last two seasons, Holland Christian has won District titles after beating teams that had beaten them twice earlier those seasons – and will follow setter Kenedy Schoonveld into its Regional Semifinal against another team it lost to earlier this fall – Holland Sentinel
The coaches at Utica and Utica Eisenhower high schools are rivals by virtue of the programs they lead. They’re also married to each other, which obviously makes the fall interesting at the LaPratt home – Macomb Daily
Girls Basketball
Practice started Monday – and here’s the first story we’ve run across. Port Huron Northern is starting out with a little less experience after graduating three key seniors from a year ago – Port Huron Times-Herald