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.
Edwardsburg 'Family' Dreaming Big Again Building On History-Making Run
By
Scott Hassinger
Special for MHSAA.com
September 9, 2026
EDWARDSBURG – “Family” was Edwardsburg boys soccer's mantra last fall as the Eddies enjoyed a historic season.
Sean Jesse's team compiled the best record in school history at 17-2-1, while claiming an outright Wolverine Conference championship and raising a Division 2 District trophy before losing 4-1 in a Regional championship match to Hudsonville Unity Christian, the eventual Finals runner-up.
Even though a few key pieces are now gone who made last year's success possible, the bar still remains high at Edwardsburg.
Jesse's involvement with school’s soccer program goes back a long time. This autumn he’s begun his 15th year leading the boys and will serve his 16th campaign next spring as varsity girls coach.
The boys team has picked right back up where it left off last season with a 5-1-0 record so far this fall. Senior Brayden Fischer returns as the top scorer after totaling 22 goals and four assists last season.
"We lost some great players from last season, but we have lots of returners who can step up and fill those vacant positions and really help the team out," said Fischer, who has played soccer for 14 years and hopes to play baseball and study engineering at the college level. "Our goals this season are to become even closer as a team and to play better than we did the day before. Of course, we'd like to make it further than last year. Right now, we're just focused on growing as a group. I feel like my vision and physicality make me strong at the striker position. You have to be strong and be able to hold the team up. Last year's experience brought more of a family culture in soccer here."
Building a strong soccer culture hasn't happened overnight at Edwardsburg. It's been many years in the process.
"We've been kind of building towards this kind of family culture and atmosphere here at Edwardsburg for a while now. It's the result of having guys who are willing to put in a great deal of time outside of the regular season to become better players," Jesse said.
When he arrived at Edwardsburg, the program had at most five players who played club soccer during the offseason. Now he has 15 who are involved in the sport year-round.
"That makes a huge difference. When you have the fundamentals down, we can work more on the strategy of the game during the high school season," Jesse said.
Edwardsburg graduated a few key seniors in the spring, including star center back Austin Leak, but a majority of the roster a year ago was comprised of younger talent. Eight of the Eddies' 11 starters are back this fall.
"If we can replace Austin, we feel we could be every bit as dangerous as we were last year or even better," Jesse said.
Sophomore Conner Fischer, Brayden's younger brother, has stepped up big so far to fill that spot. The Eddies also lost standout wings from last year in Maverick Gates (10 goals) and Logan Stubblefield, but Jesse has found capable replacements.
"Maverick and Logan were our captains and great leaders for us. They were kids who could just go continually," Jesse said.
Staying humble will be a key ingredient this season.
"This group knows they are a good team. Right now, we are trying to find that balance between confidence and arrogance. I don't like to lose, but the early loss to St. Joseph might've been a good thing to happen to us this early," Jesse said. "It gives us motivation to keep working hard and get better."
With another year of experience under his players' belts, Jesse expects the Eddies to have a much stronger attack on the offensive end of the field. "We actually struggled to score at times last year. Brayden was our only player who was able to finish consistently," Jesse said.
Junior wing/forward Collin Tefft returns to the Eddies' 30-man roster after playing club soccer last fall.
"Collin is that dynamic and dangerous that every team we face is going to be afraid of him. Finding his way in our system is going to take a few games, but he'll get there," Jesse said.
Tefft has played soccer for 13 years, starting at age 3.
"Our guys want to pick up the intensity and work on getting better and not look back on any losses and learn from them. Our goal is to push forward and be better soccer players every day," said Tefft. "We have good chemistry and are always picking one another up. Those are big positives."
Senior Landon Goetz returns at holding midfielder and likes being able to control the tempo of the game and getting the ball to the playmakers up top. "Landon is our vocal leader. When he's on the pitch, we are a very stable group," Jesse said.
"I was an outside back for quite a few years. Once I got to high school, Coach Jesse converted me to my current position,” said Goetz, who plans to attend Michigan State University next year and study finance or marketing. “Two years ago as a freshman, I feel our team was a bit cocky. I think last year's success brought more of a humble atmosphere. That really helped push us to that District championship and to the Regional Finals.
"We're trying to remain close like a family again this season, but I think we're also more of a technical team ability-wise this time. That could help us go even further in this year's tournament. It's so early in the season. We have to just push one another each day in practice and build that connection. We're still trying to find that rhythm."
Returning for his third season as Edwardsburg's starting goalkeeper is junior Law Gates. He finished his sophomore season in goal with a 0.65 goals-against average and has made several saves already this fall, Jesse said.
Junior Aleck Rodriguez is a standout attacking midfielder and had four goals and 12 assists for the Eddies as a sophomore. "When Aleck is playing well, our whole team is doing well. A great deal of our attack goes through him," Jesse said.
Big contributions are also expected from senior outside back Chance Jacobs and junior Riley Szalai, who contributed six assists as a sophomore. "Chance is probably the most reliable player I've ever had here. He can play anywhere on the field and just doesn't make mistakes," Jesse said.
Jesse – previously a prep standout at Buchanan and a math instructor at Edwardsburg – understands how difficult it will be to duplicate the accomplishments of last year's squad. His team is the favorite on paper to win the Wolverine Conference, and Jesse expects the Eddies to battle St. Joseph for a District crown as well.
"It's always so tough because soccer is about different matchups. You might honestly be the better team in the state, and you come up against someone else who just matches up better against you,” he said. “Our goal is to win a state title, and I think we're good enough to do that. Obviously, things are going to have to fall into the right pattern for that to happen."
"Our Regional is a bit more manageable this year with some of the powers on the other side of the bracket. This is our year to attain some of these goals, but we will need a lot to fall in our favor too.”
Scott Hassinger is a contributing sportswriter for Leader Publications and previously served as the sports editor for the Three Rivers Commercial-News from 1994-2022. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph and Branch counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Edwardsburg soccer players warm up during a yoga and calisthenics session. (Middle) Senior Law Gates works on his ball control during a recent practice. (Below) Eddies boys soccer coach Sean Jesse, far right, poses for a photo with key returnees, from far left, Brayden Fischer, Landon Goetz and Collin Tefft. (Photos by Scott Hassinger.)