MHSAA Historian Picks 10 to Remember
August 9, 2016
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
It sounded simple and fun, the theme for the MHSAA's spring issue of benchmarks: a history of MHSAA tournaments.
It certainly was the latter, but simple? Not so much.
There’s no way to do justice to nearly a century’s worth of history in some sports. Complicating matters was the abundance of information and photographs for some, and the scant amount of detailed data and images for others.
MHSAA historian Ron Pesch was given an equally challenging task: recount a “Top 10” list from his days covering various MHSAA Finals. He shares them here and, he adds, they are in no order of favorites.
The Shot: 1986 Class B Boys Basketball Final at Crisler Arena – Saginaw Buena Vista’s Chris Coles’ desperation shot, launched at the buzzer from well beyond half court, dropped through the hoop to give the Knights a 33-32 win over defending champion Flint Beecher in a rematch of the 1985 Class B title game. The shot was Coles’ first of the second half and his only points in the contest.
The Smurfs: 1986 Class A Football Final at the Pontiac Silverdome – The "Smurfs" – Muskegon Coach Dave Taylor's nickname for his small, quick swarming defensive linemen – limited heavily favored Sterling Heights Stevenson to four yards rushing and 73 yards of total offense in a 10-0 win. As a 1979 graduate of Muskegon High School, I was elated.
The Drive: 1989 Class B Football Final at the Pontiac Silverdome – I slid down from the press box into the stands at the Silverdome for the end of this one. With 2:20 remaining, the atmosphere was simply electric, as Farmington Hills Harrison’s lauded quarterback Mill Coleman took the reins with his team down 27-21 to DeWitt. The senior executed a flawless two-minute drill, guiding his team to the DeWitt 9 before scampering into the end zone for the tying points. Steve Hill added his fourth PAT for the lead, then secured the victory with an interception on the next series.
King Kool: 2005 Class B Boys Basketball Final, Breslin Center, East Lansing – David Kool was a flawless 20 for 20 from the free-throw line and scored 43 points as Grand Rapids South Christian downed Muskegon Heights 67-60.
The Parade: 2004 Individual Wrestling Finals, The Palace of Auburn Hills – In 2004, I traveled to Auburn Hills to watch the MHSAA Individual Wrestling Finals for the first time. The pageantry of the Grand March, the skills on display, the roar of the massive crowd, and the ensuing beauty and chaos of a wrestling extravaganza of this scale is truly a sight to see.
A Marathon: 2007 Division 3 Football Final, Ford Field, Detroit – East Grand Rapids and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s ended regulation tied 14-14, and this would turn into a five overtime battle that required an extra hour of play. No previous football playoff game, from Districts up, had ever gone beyond four overtimes. After exchanging field goals, touchdowns, extra points and two-point conversions, East Grand Rapids emerged with a 46-39 victory.
Tawana Towers: 1994 Class A Girls Basketball Final at Kellogg Arena, Battle Creek – Flint Northern, coached by Leteia Hughley and led by 6-4 freshman Tawana McDonald, defeated 1993 runner-up Detroit Martin Luther King, 46-32, for the Class A championship. McDonald batted down an MHSAA-record 10 shots, pulled down 13 rebounds and added five points and seven assists in a stellar performance.
Never Quit: 2008 Division 2 Football Semifinal, Spartan Stadium, East Lansing – Unbeaten, No. 1-ranked and heavily favored Muskegon trailed Davison by 22 late in the third quarter and 16 with less than five minutes to play. In perhaps the greatest comeback in playoff history, Muskegon recovered two onside kicks and scored 19 points in the final 4:31 to escape with a 38-35 victory and its third trip in five years to an MHSAA Final.
MHSAA Legends: 1998-2008 – For 10 years, the MHSAA showcased great teams from the past with their Legends of the Game series. From a historian’s perspective it was a chance to meet and learn more about folks I had often known only from the pages of microfilm. It was quite the treat to see years fall away as coaches, team managers and players reunited, in many cases for the first time after decades apart.
The MHSAA Record Books: Online, 1994 – One of my first efforts as state historian was to expand the record books beyond their primary focus on football, basketball, track & field and swimming & diving. With the arrival of the internet, an enhanced version of the record books was brought online. Coaches and fans were quick to respond with letters and e-mails, happily listing entries that had been “missed.” Soon, five category headings in a sport grew to 20, then to 50 and beyond.
Kids: 2004 Football Finals, Pontiac Silverdome – (OK, this is No. 11 ... consider it an extra point). For the first time, my sons joined me for my annual excursion to Metro Detroit for a Thanksgiving Day football weekend. They got to see the Silverdome before the move of the MHSAA Football Finals to beautiful Ford Field. Future Big Reds, they also got to see their future alma mater win another title.
PHOTOS: (Top) An MHSAA boys basketball tournament game is played at Olympia Stadium in Detroit. (Middle) Flint Northern's Tawana McDonald blocks a shot during the 1994 Class A Final.
Farmington United's Hodge Combines Mental Edge with Superior Skills
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
March 7, 2025
Leah Hodge is the first to admit she might not be in the hunt to repeat as an MHSAA Finals champion without snatching up her headphones and locating a cozy corner of a frantic gymnasium.
It's there that the North Farmington senior gymnast said she finds the peace of mind to fend off the pressures of a demanding sport where state championships are often decided by fractions of a point. It's a place of serenity which Hodge routinely uses to mentally regroup, focus on the next event and shrug off any disappointments of previous ones.
In fact, Hodge said if she was a gymnastics coach, her first piece of advice to a team would be to find a way of remaining calm in a sport packed with the pressure to perform.
"It definitely becomes mental because you're watching the other girls and seeing their scores and know they're doing well, but I'm very confident knowing what I'm capable of," she said. "You just have to keep calm. Even if you fall once, you know you can make that up somewhere else. Mentally, you can't let it ruin your meet. You know you have one skill that you do once."
Hodge knows what she's talking about. She will compete in Friday's MHSAA team championship meet with Farmington United and Saturday's Individual Finals at Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills. A year ago, Hodge placed in the top six on all four apparatuses to win the Division 1 all-around competition. She won the bars, took second on vault, fourth on beam and sixth on floor.
It's a tough act to follow, but Hodge, a gymnast since she was 6 years old, is on pace to mirror those finishes. She recently took first at her Regional in all-around while winning every event except floor, where she was runner-up.
Farmington United coach Jeff Dwyer said Hodge is entirely correct in tracing her success to the ability to shut out outside noises during a meet.
"She's tough," Dwyer said. "She has a high mental ability to focus in a high-level meet. Leah just gets in this zone; she's really good mentally. She'll get back on her feet and say, 'What's next?' She's so talented, but she's also a gamer."
In gymnastics, championships can be decided by one-tenth of a point. Hodge said when a slip does happen, it's critical for the competitor to push it to the back of the mind and soldier on. Mistakes can linger and will only lead to disaster, she said.
"In gymnastics if you fall once you can't make it your mindset," Hodge said. "It's not like you can think, 'Well, I might as well throw it in.' You have to learn to overcome."
Statistically, Hodge is in the mix to capture virtually any event this weekend. She figures a 38.6 could win all-around, and that’s her season-best score. Hodge thinks the winner of the beam and vault will be around 9.7 and 9.9, and she's matched those scores. The winner of the floor will be around 9.7, Hodge believes, and her season-best in that event is a 9.75.
But there is a belief that this year's meet could be overall stronger than a year ago, so Hodge recognizes repeating will take a herculean effort, not to mention a break or two along the way.
"(Scores) can be so subjective, especially on the beam," she said. "You just want a confident day."
Whether or not Hodge wins a championship, it won't be through a lack of work. Success in gymnastics requires a year-long commitment, and Hodge said her season actually begins weeks after the MHSAA Finals. She figures she put in 30-40 hours of work from last March to June along with summer workouts three days a week for 2½ hours a day.
She balances that work with hobbies such as hanging out with friends, drawing, painting, listening to music and going to the beach. The Hodge family made a trek to South Africa last December to see cousins.
"You can only take so much gymnastics; you need to relax and try not to stress out," she said. "Because if you don't, then you feel like you didn't get a break."
Dwyer echoed those sentiments.
"It's a grind. You have to learn the necessary skills along the way, but a lot of it is getting to the state meet," he said. "Leah has worked hard for the last 10 months to get to that day."
PHOTOS (Top) Farmington United's Leah Hodge, center, stands atop the podium during last season's MHSAA Individual Finals. (Middle) Hodge readies for a tumbling pass during her floor exercise routine. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)