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.
Longterm Investment Paying Off as Kingston Racers Pace Among State's D4 Elite
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
August 16, 2023
When dozens of Kingston elementary students made the decision during the mid-2010s to run cross country, they didn’t realize what they were building.
But their coach, Melinda Freeland, knew that for the program she was building to have a chance at success, it needed a foundation – even if it was more about simply getting involved with something positive at the time.
“It was always a fun thing,” she said. “There was never any pressure. It was just, ‘Do this race, have some snacks, and have a good time.’”
Fast forward to 2022, and the Kingston girls, all of whom had started running in third, fourth or fifth grades, found themselves finishing among the top four as a team at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final.
“I had high aspirations and high goals all the way through,” Freeland said. “I knew it was a good group when I started coaching them. Eight years ago, I had these kids as elementary kids. On both sides (boys and girls), I’ve been coaching them for a long time.”
The 2022 season wasn’t a culmination, however. It feels more like the beginning of the next step for the Cardinals, who have their top six runners back.
While the division’s top teams were filled with underclassmen – Johannesburg-Lewiston, Hillsdale Academy and Whitmore Lake, which finished ahead of Kingston, graduated a combined five runners from their top 7s – Kingston’s strong group of returners has the team excited as well about what’s ahead.
“We think it would be awesome to get top three, that’s something that we’re keeping in the back of our heads,” senior Gracy Walker said. “We want to start out strong this year. We started summer workouts in June, and it’s been pretty consistent since June. We’re definitely going to be more in shape this year. Our workouts have been a lot more intense.”
Spending significant offseason time on a sport can be tough in Kingston, where the best athletes are needed for multiple sports throughout the year, or sometimes during a single season.
Walker, for example, is part of the Cardinals’ highly-successful basketball program, which also demands quite a bit of a player’s time during the summer months.
“You just kind of have to find a way to make all of it work,” she said. “I have cross country in the morning and basketball at night. You try to make it work and do the best you can.”
Walker is one of two seniors, along with Zoe Van Rijn, on a still-young Kingston team. Meegan Flikkie is the lone junior, while three sophomores – Lilah Kiley, Molly Walker and Hailey McGuire – are back for their second seasons. Freshman Violet Tetil joins the group, which does feature just seven runners.
“I think we’re all so close together in our times, if one person can’t go 100 percent that day, the other person makes up for it,” Van Rijn said. “But we push each other more at practice. We all push each other to go better, and that really helps us. It’s so much fun going to practice every day. We’re more than just teammates – these are some of my closest friends.”
While Gracy Walker had the highest finish (24th) at the Final last fall, it’s Kiley that spent the majority of the season as the Cardinals’ No. 1 runner. Her personal best of 19 minutes, 45.6 seconds, which was good for second at the Regional meet, was the team’s best time of the season.
She started running in third grade, and she credits that extra time running competitively with having her ready to compete as a freshman – even if she wasn’t 100 percent sure what she was getting into at first.
“I always liked watching the Olympics, and honestly, when I thought about cross country, I automatically thought about track,” Kiley said. “I didn’t think I was going to be running around the yard and stuff. My first cross country meet, I was very surprised. I just liked running. I think it was sixth grade at North Branch, I came in first and I was surprised. I didn’t know my body could do that. That was the turning point for me.”
Gracy Walker was close behind Kiley with a PR (personal record) of 20:03, while Molly Walker and Flikkie both have PRs within a minute of Kiley, and Van Rijn has run 21:50.
“I think there’s a lot of motivation, with it being a small group, they all realize the role they have to play,” Freeland said. “It’s not a situation of, ‘If I run bad, somebody else will take my spot on the team.’ I was involved in the restart of Kingston cross country. Back in the 80s (1983), our girls program won a state championship for Class D. We’ve been told the story, they had five girls and there was a tie, so that fifth girl won it. Everybody has to contribute if we want to be a success.”
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) Kingston's Gracy Walker (2057) pushes down the stretch during last season's LP Division 4 Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Lilah Kiley (2053) paces a pack at MIS last fall. (Below) Meegan Flikkie (2052) charges toward the finish. (Click for more from Carter Sherline/Run Michigan.)