Today in the MHSAA: 8/30/17
August 30, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Each weekday of the school year, we break down the top headlines courtesy of Michigan’s sports media.
Today's Top 10
1. Girls Swimming & Diving: Holland West Ottawa, ranked No. 5 in Lower Peninsula Division 1, got past honorable mention Zeeland 108-78 – Holland Sentinel
2. Cross Country: The Fremont boys and Allendale girls won races at the Don Anderson Trail Run at Grand Haven, with the host finishing runner-up in both meets – Grand Haven Tribune
3. Volleyball: Bay City Western became the first two-time champion of the fifth-year Bay County Volleyball Championship, downing Essexville Garber in the final – Bay City Times
4. Volleyball: Freeland went 5-0-2 overall in winning its invitational, downing Birch Run in the championship match after splitting with the Panthers earlier – Midland Daily News
5. Volleyball: Pellston is up to No. 7 in the Class D poll and continued to impress with a sweep of Harbor Springs to improve to 7-3-4 – Petoskey News-Review
6. Girls Golf: Midland Dow opened its match season with three wins and a score of 171, led by Alexis Carras’ 39 – Midland Daily News
7. Boys Soccer: Plymouth shut out Grand Blanc, a Division 1 Regional finalist last season, 3-0 – Detroit News
8. Boys Soccer: Buckley, a Division 4 District champ last year, improved to 5-0 with a 3-0 win over Kalkaska – Cadillac News
9. Boys Soccer: Lincoln Alcona, another reigning Division 4 District champ, earned a 5-2 win over Saginaw Nouvel as record-setting keeper Conner McCoy had 25 saves – Alpena News
10. Football: Jack Schugars remains the 20th-winningest coach in MHSAA football history after building a 262-78 record at Muskegon Oakridge from 1979-2010, and he’s back on the sidelines assisting his son Eric at Traverse City Central – Muskegon Chronicle
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.