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.
Spartan Success Suggests Plenty of Possibilities as Karg Seeks Finals Redemption
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
September 18, 2025
Brody Karg doesn’t know how fast he can run anymore, and he’s OK with that.
In fact, it excites him.
After the pull of competition helped him to a personal best time of 15 minutes, 47.2 seconds on a tough Forest Akers East cross country course at the Spartan Invitational this past Friday, the Harbor Beach senior is adjusting his goals.
“After MSU, it seems like the sky is the limit,” Karg said. “I figured, before the season, that I’d be able to run like 15:35 by the end, but honestly, I feel like that State time, that might have been worth 15:30 if it was on a fast course in good conditions. I beat some guys that have already run 15:30 this year. I don’t know what I’m capable of. I’m trying to keep that open mind, like you really don’t know how good you are until you go out and test yourself. I think that mid 15:20s could be possible. But we’ll see.”
Karg placed sixth at MSU in the Spartan Elite division. The five runners who finished ahead of him – Brandon Cloud of Northville, Luke Hammond of Grand Haven, Jack MacGregor of Howell, Ian Morgan of Okemos and Aiden Pengelly of Canton – all earned all-state honors at the 2024 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final, with four of them finishing among the top 10. And of those five, only Cloud (15:34.3) and Hammond (15:38.7) were more than three seconds ahead of Karg.
It was an improvement of 26 places and nearly 50 seconds from his Spartan Invitational performance a year ago. And that was during a year when Karg won eight of his 10 regular-season races, his Division 4 Regional and placed 16th at the MHSAA Finals at Michigan International Speedway.
“I mean, I don’t get a lot of chances like that to really show what I’ve got,” he said. “So those ones always feel a little bigger. Those bigger races always feel a little bigger for me than maybe they would for someone who (regularly sees tougher competition).
“The competition helped push me there, but I’ve also made a big jump from last year to this fitness-wise. I’ve been doing a lot of stuff in training that I haven’t been able to do in previous builds, so I knew that I was ready to make a big jump. It was just a matter of when.”
The Spartan Invitational was one of the few chances Karg has had to prove himself on one of the state’s biggest stages since that 16th-place finish a year ago, joining, most notably, the Division 4 Track & Field Finals, where he placed third in the 3,200 meters.
Third is about where he thought he could have finished at last year’s cross country Finals, too, but a near total-body shutdown as he approached the finish line thwarted that.
With about 400 meters remaining in the race, Karg said he went to make his finishing kick, but his legs wouldn’t let him.
“I was right next to another kid, ready to make my move, and I felt strong enough to make that move, so I was like, ‘OK, we’re moving,’” he said. “I went to make the move, and all of the sudden, my legs had nothing. He starts pulling away from me. I get passed by one guy, by two guys, and I’m wobbling. I can’t stay up. I went down, and then I just got back up and scrambled to the line. It took me like a half hour to get back to the tent. I did puke a couple times. It was horrible.”
To this day, Karg doesn’t know what happened. It could have been a bit of sickness or dehydration, but he said he thought he had hydrated well, and that he felt good running right up until he didn’t.
He’s taken extra precautions in how he prepares now, making sure his eating and sleeping habits are in line, along with his electrolyte intake.
“I was obviously disappointed,” he said. “I felt like I really could have gotten third. But things happen. It gave me some motivation, I guess. I came back and had a successful track season. I’m doing well this cross country season. I’m just hoping to go back to MIS and prove what I can really do.”
Meets like the one at MSU are part of Karg’s schedule to help prepare him for this year’s Finals. He’ll also run at the Portage Invitational and the DXC and Vintage 03 meet at Shepherd, which are sure to feature some of the top competitors in Division 4. Those will also give him a chance to run down the school record of 15:41, which was set in 2015 by Luke Anderson.
Karg will be heading to Portage and Shepherd on his own, but he went to MSU with his teammates. Having them compete on that stage, and getting a chance to watch Karg excel, was important for Harbor Beach coach Debbie Anderson.
“People said, ‘It’s a big venue for you, Deb. Are you sure you want to take the kids?’” Anderson said. “Absolutely I do. Where else are they going to see this during high school? Let’s take them to these big places where they can see kids do amazing things, and on Friday, it was one of our very own kids that did an amazing thing. I want them to see that. One of us shined on Friday, and it was really cool to see one of us in the elite race. We’re so proud of him.”
Anderson is on the same page as Karg in thinking the sky is the limit for him moving forward. He’s dialed in, she said, and even with high-level runners like reigning champion Mark Butkiewicz of Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep in the field, she’s not putting anything past Karg.
“Can he (win the Division 4 Final)? Yes,” Anderson said. “I always say yes. My mantra is, there are no places taken. Don’t act like this guy has first place. No, it depends on how you run. You can change all the places if you want.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Harbor Beach’s Brody Karg (1219) paces with Three Oaks River Valley’s Landon Rogers during last season’s Division 4 Final at MIS. (Middle) Karg charges toward the finish line. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)