Powerful Voice for High School Sports
December 19, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Paul Carey was home from the U.S. Army only a few months and just shy of 25 years old when Beal City embarked on its first trip deep into the MHSAA boys basketball tournament.
On the call for local radio station WCEN from gyms at Saginaw Arthur Hill and Lansing Sexton, Carey served as the voice of the previously “laughable” Aggies as they reached the Class D Semifinals before falling just six points short of playing for the title.
“All of Beal City emptied out. They’d never had anything before,” Carey recalled during his annual Thanksgiving weekend visit to the MHSAA Football Finals at Ford Field. “When I got home, within the next two weeks I got a letter from every citizen of Beal City thanking me for broadcasting their games. That’s the kind of appreciation that meant so much.”
During 42 years on the airwaves, Carey was best known as a voice of the Detroit Tigers bounding out of transistor radios all over Michigan, thanks to WJR’s powerful signal.
But for the state’s high school sports community, his legacy is similarly memorable as the voice of the longtime football and basketball scoreboard show and a voter for various all-state teams and wire polls over the decades.
Now 86 and retired since 1991, Carey remains a regular during the first day of the Football Finals, taking in games he broadcast for the MHSAA during the late 1970s and that continue to hold his eye as they have for more than a half-century.
“It was a passion of mine. High school sports always has been,” Carey said. “I think because my dad was a high school coach, and teacher initially, and my brother was a high school coach and teacher, I just grew up in families that appreciated coaching and athletics. I was not a great athlete, but it kept my hand in following sports that way.”
Now, the scores
Carey partnered with Ernie Harwell for Tigers radio broadcasts from 1973-91, including during the march to the 1984 World Series championship. He was named Michigan Sportscaster of the Year six times and to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.
But Carey’s early career included sitting on top of a car, plugged into a phone pole, for a Sacred Heart football game at old Fancher Field just a few blocks from his family’s Mount Pleasant home. Among many more accolades are a Distinguished Service Award from the Michigan High School Coaches Association and a place in the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan Hall of Fame.
In fact, the start of his weekly announcing of statewide football and basketball scores preceded his baseball career by 16 years and ended two months after he announced his final professional out.
The Michigan High School Scoreboard show was a staple of WJR’s late Friday nights from 1957-91. Carey would read every score he could collect from a variety of sources, often organized by league and with state rankings and context mixed in.
His idea came from something similar read by Len Colby for Kalamazoo’s WKZO. Carey’s brother Terry was coaching at Niles during the second half of the 1950s, and he and other coaches would get together to listen to the Friday night scores from the southwestern part of the state.
Carey, who left WKNX in Saginaw for WJR in 1956, explained to then-sports director Bob Reynolds that the station’s strong signal could provide for a truly statewide scoreboard experience.
Carey then connected with Edgar Hayes of the former Detroit Times, who gave the OK for Carey to call the paper on Friday nights to get scores from the Detroit metro area. For the rest, Carey relied on wire services – there were three at the time – who relied on newspapers from all over Michigan to call in scores over the course of an evening.
Before every Friday during high school football season – and later Tuesdays and Fridays during boys basketball season – Carey typed up lists of games based on schedules in the newspaper, with spaces to add scores. More than a few times, Carey raced down a back ramp at Tiger Stadium after a Friday night game, back to the WJR studio, with 15 minutes to prep for the show’s 11:30 p.m. start.
“If the Flint Journal, the Grand Rapids Press, the Traverse City paper didn’t call in scores to the AP, then I was out of luck too. And that happened all the time,” Carey said. “I would call back occasionally, say, ‘Did you get anything more?’ It was a rat race.”
The show originally was set for 10 minutes and then extended to 15. American Airlines sponsored a record show that followed, and Carey’s scoreboard show had a sponsor only once in 35 years. Finishing up on time was expected, even with more than 200 scores to read.
But Carey said he always went 20 minutes, sometimes 25.
“Because I wasn’t done. I just kept right on going,” Carey said. “Jay Roberts did the all-night show most of the time, and he was patient with me. He didn’t say too much on the air about ‘that guy ahead of me took all of my time.’”
Carey continued the “rat race” until his final scoreboard show, Dec. 20, 1991. He retired from WJR at the end of that calendar year. And it's important to note: Carey was never paid a dime extra for doing the program. .
“I think Paul is really just a sports fan, and that came across to the listener on his broadcasts,” MHSAA historian Ron Pesch said. “Paul would gather as much as possible off the wire. He'd interject if scores were missing from sections of the state. Press polls from the Free Press, News, AP and UPI were big, so he could point out close calls and upsets.
“He provided immediacy, or the closest thing to it in the days before cable TV and the Internet, and because of his scoreboard show, you could get the results before the morning paper. For listeners, he brought life to something as simple as game scores.”
First team all the way
Carey, who resides in Rochester, also served as the engineer on Tigers broadcasts for 16 years, through 1990. He broadcast Pistons games on the radio for six seasons and did the first broadcast of a Central Michigan University football game, in 1949.
Harry Atkins, covering Detroit’s teams while with The Associated Press for 29 years including the last 21 as its sports editor for Detroit, took note of his colleague's hard work – and especially that Carey was one of few broadcasters who was a journalist in addition to a voice.
That made Carey's other major role in high school sports a natural fit.
Atkins split The Associated Press all-state selection panels for football and basketball into 11 regions, and Carey represented the Detroit area for a number of years. He also was a longtime voter in those sports' weekly polls.
“Paul is just that kind of guy. He thought it was important and he made time in his busy schedule to do it,” Atkins said “And it had an impact on the other 10 voters on the All-State panels, too.
“Some of them were from small out-state newspapers or radio or TV stations. Yet every one of them knew who Paul Carey was. And when he spoke, of course, with what often is called "The Voice of God," those voters paid attention.”
And he still does, as well.
At the end of each fall, Carey still puts together a compilation of the three high school all-state football teams – Associated Press, Detroit Free Press and Detroit News – and files them with years of research and results.
“It’s important to me. Nobody sees it but me, but I get a certain kick,” Carey said. “Once in a while I’ll see a kid playing at Central, Western or (Michigan) State or Michigan, and they’ll say he came from Clawson. I’ll go into my all-state collections, say that would’ve been 2009 he played, and I find a name.”
In addition to the Football Finals on WJR, Carey was part of the Baseball Finals broadcasts into the early 1990s, continuing to contribute even after his retirement from his fulltime gig.
He spent high school games over the years sitting next to legends like the Free Press’ Hal Schram and remembers when current Free Press longtime scribe Mick McCabe was just a rookie. One of Carey's final broadcasts was a 1992 Baseball Final with his nephew Mike Carey, who continues to broadcast MHSAA championship games to this day.
“I am eternally grateful to Paul Carey. His contribution to high school sports in Michigan has been great and significant,” Atkins said.
“We are lucky to have him.”
PHOTO: Paul Carey (left) and nephew Mike Carey broadcast the MHSAA 1992 Class D Baseball Final between Hillman and Athens for PASS.
Preview: Finalists Travel New Title Path
October 14, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The format for this weekend’s Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals will be different – but many of the teams we’re used to seeing raise championship trophies could be doing so again by Friday evening.
Due to COVID-19 precautions, this season’s MHSAA Tournament was switched to a head-to-head team format that will see a total of 64 teams spread out Thursday across four divisions and 16 sites to begin the conclusion of this season’s title march.
First-round and Quarterfinal matches are Thursday, with the semifinalists then converging on four sites for the final two rounds Friday. Action both days begins at 11 a.m., with Finals on Friday expected to begin by 4 p.m.
Visit the MHSAA.com “Tournament Home” for brackets and tournament information for all four divisions, and see below for contenders to watch in each.
Division 1
First round and Quarterfinals: Novi High School, Novi Middle School, Farmington High School, Northville High School
Semifinals and Finals: Novi High School
2019 top three: T-1. Ann Arbor Huron & Ann Arbor Pioneer, 3. Troy.
First-round matches:
No. 1 Okemos vs. No. 16 Grand Blanc
No. 2 Ann Arbor Huron vs. No. 15 Canton
No. 3 Ann Arbor Pioneer vs. No. 14 Utica Eisenhower
No. 4 Northville vs. No. 13 Holland West Ottawa
No. 5 Troy vs. No. 12 Rochester Hills Stoney Creek
No. 6 Bloomfield Hills vs. No. 11 Rockford
No. 7 Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice vs. No. 10 Troy Athens
No. 8 Novi vs. No. 9 Grosse Pointe South
Okemos: The Chiefs, after winning back-to-back Division 2 championships in 2017 and 2018, came in fourth last season in Division 1. This fall they are 25-0 with wins over nine of the other 15 teams playing in this event including the rest of the top eight. Druv Talluri and Siddharth Nagisetty were the No. 1 doubles champion pair last season, but have split up – Talluri and Shrey Patel at No. 1 and Nagisetty and Ethan Portnoy at No. 2 are both undefeated together this fall. Top singles player Josh Portnoy is 21-1, No. 2 Rohan Shah is 22-1, No. 3 Colson Wells is 16-1 and No. 4 George Fan is 19-0 in singles play.
Huron: The River Rats are 16-2, their only losses to Okemos and Ann Arbor Greenhills. Doubles played a big part in last year’s shared team title, and Nick Grosh and TJ Bai are 13-2 partnered again, this time at No. 1 after winning the No. 2 doubles flight in 2019. Vincent Tremonti was part of the No. 4 doubles champion last season and is playing No. 2 with Aidan Storey; together they are 14-2.
Pioneer: The Pioneers are 18-3-1, with losses to Okemos one and Huron twice, and a tie against Troy. Juniors Isaac Herrenkohl (26-3) and Noah Vogel (25-4) were the flight champions at Nos. 3 and 4 singles, respectively, last season and have both moved up one flight. No. 1 singles Stanley Rhodes and No. 4 Corin Tang both have at least 21 wins as well. Evan Roopas was part of last year’s No. 4 doubles champ and Aditya Abbaraju was part of the No. 2 runner-up, and together they are 21-4 and playing No. 2 this weekend.
Other notes: Troy Athens senior Gabe Brown is 22-0 at No. 1 singles. … Utica Eisenhower should provide an intriguing challenge to Pioneer in singles with Ben Saunders (28-6) and Luke Suchyta (27-7) at Nos. 3 and 4. … Rockford’s Sam Danner has put together a 24-5 season playing Nos. 3 and 4 singles.
Division 2
First round and Quarterfinals: Greater Midland Tennis Center, Midland Bullock Creek High School, Bay City’s Richard Shaw Park, Midland Dow
Semifinals and Finals: Greater Midland Tennis Center
2019 top three: 1. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, 2. Detroit U-D Jesuit, 3. Birmingham Groves.
First-round matches:
No. 1 Forest Hills Northern vs. No. 16 Wyandotte Roosevelt
No. 2 Mattawan vs. No. 15 South Lyon East
No. 3 Forest Hills Central vs. No. 14 Gibraltar Carlson
No. 4 Birmingham Groves vs. No. 13 Grosse Pointe North
No. 5 Birmingham Seaholm vs. No. 12 Warren De La Salle Collegiate
No. 6 Midland Dow vs. No. 11 North Farmington
No. 7 Portage Central vs. No. 10 East Lansing
No. 8 Traverse City Central vs. No. 9 Walled Lake Central
Forest Hills Northern: The 26-0 Huskies regained a Finals championship last season for the first time since 1998, and are favored to repeat. Three of six players who were part of doubles flight titles in 2019 return this weekend; Justin Lee and Cole Rynbrandt are 29-0 together and playing No. 1 after winning No. 2 last year, and Jack Sparhawk is 27-2 with No. 2 partner Aaryan Singh after Sparhawk was part of the No. 3 champ last fall. All four singles players have at least 20 wins as well: junior Owen Goodrich is the reigning runner-up at No. 4 and 27-1 at that flight, while sophomore Ryan Lee (No. 3) is 26-2, senior Sid Varma (No. 2) is 25-3 and senior Peter Renucci (No. 1) is 20-5.
Mattawan: The Wildcats enter 18-3 and seeking their first top-two Finals finish, with losses this season only to Forest Hills Northern, Forest Hills Central and Division 1 ranked Hudsonville. Mattawan tied for seventh a year ago and boasts a powerful singles lineup led by senior Nathaniel Webster, who won No. 1 singles, was runner-up in 2018 and is 18-0 this fall. Junior Luke Hodgman (21-2) and freshman Jacob Hodgman (23-0) fill in strongly at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively.
Forest Hills Central: The Rangers have lost only to Northern twice, Groves and Greenhills, and the first defeat to Northern was only 5-3. Forest Hills Central was sixth last season and also tied Dow twice and Portage Central this fall. Sophomore Sammy Yin (21-5), senior Jeremy James (25-1) and sophomore Chris Shang (21-6) are another impressive singles group.
Other notes: Midland Dow would see the Rangers again in the quarterfinals if both win their first match. Dow also tied Groves. Freshman Aaron Li (23-3) at No. 4 singles has been among standouts. … South Lyon East has a tough draw, but senior Adi Chottera should be a nice challenge at No. 2 singles entering the weekend at 23-2. … Roosevelt is in a similar spot, but junior Sammy Oswald will have a chance to build another impressive win into his 22-2 record mostly at No. 4 singles.
Division 3
First round and Quarterfinals: Holland Christian High School, Zeeland East High School, Holland’s Harbor Lights Middle School, Holland High School
Semifinals and Finals: Holland Christian High School
2019 top three: 1. Ann Arbor Greenhills, T-2 Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, T-2. Detroit Country Day.
First-round matches:
No. 1 Ann Arbor Greenhills vs. No. 16 Goodrich
No. 2 Cranbrook Kingswood vs. No. 15 Parma Western
No. 3 Detroit Country Day vs. No. 14 St. Joseph
No. 4 St. Clair vs. No. 13 St. Johns
No. 5 Chelsea vs. No. 12 Sturgis
No. 6 Grand Rapids Christian vs. No. 11 Petoskey
No. 7 East Grand Rapids vs. No. 10 Ada Forest Hills Eastern
No. 8 Haslett vs. No. 9 Allegan
Greenhills: The reigning champion Gryphons are 13-6, the defeats either to Division 1 teams, or Cranbrook twice decided by tie-breakers (Greenhills also defeated Cranbrook once on a tie-breaker). Junior Mert Oral (21-1) and sophomore Rishi Verma (22-0) are the reigning champions at No. 1 and No. 3 singles, respectively, while Joey Formicola and Thomas Zeng are 15-8 at No. 1 doubles this fall after being part of flight champs last year at Nos. 2 and 4, respectively. Sophomore Chakor Rajendra also is 22-0, playing No. 2 singles.
Cranbrook Kingswood: The Cranes tied for second last season after winning four straight Division 3 titles, and they’re back in the mix with a freshman and two sophomores making up the majority of the singles lineup. Sophomore Dimitri Moriarty is 16-3 at No. 2 and freshman Devyn Gans is 17-2 at No. 3 – while senior Geoffrey Qin is undefeated at No. 4.
Country Day: Last year’s tie was Country Day’s fifth straight runner-up finish after it opened the last decade with four Division 3 championships. Boasting ties this season against Cranbrook and Division 1 Bloomfield Hills, the Yellowjackets are no doubt going to be back in the chase this weekend. Clay Hartje and Aidan Khaghany were No. 3 doubles champs last season and are 10-3 together at No. 2.
Other notes: St. Clair took Division 2 Groves and Seaholm both to 5-3 in losses, and three of four singles players who were Finals runners-up in 2019 are back in the lineup. Junior Derek Distelrath is back at No. 1 and 25-3, while sophomore Ian Pinnoo has moved from No. 4 to No. 2 and is 23-5. Sophomore Michael Mascarin was No. 3 runner-up last season and is 14-2 at No. 2 doubles with Joey Fajardo. … Chelsea’s two head-to-head losses were to Division 1 contenders Huron and Pioneer, and all of its singles starters – junior Hunter Napieralski, sophomore Peter Mourad, junior Lucas Hopkins and freshman Mason Strach – have at least 30 wins. … Allegan shared the Division 4 championship a year ago and enters 14-2-3. Sophomore Eli Festerling is 21-3 mostly at No. 2 singles after winning the Division 4 title at No. 4 in 2019. ... Sophomore Sreejay Ramakrishnan is having an excellent season at No. 1 singles for Forest Hills Eastern, posting a 25-4 record.
Division 4
First round and Quarterfinals: Portage Central High School, Portage Northern High School, Kalamazoo Loy Norrix High School, Portage West Middle School
Semifinals and Finals: Portage Central High School
2019 top three: T-1. Allegan, T-1. Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep, 3. Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett.
First-round matches:
No. 1 Traverse City St. Francis vs. No. 16 Niles Brandywine
No. 2 Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep vs. No. 15 Grosse Ile
No. 3 Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett vs. No. 14 Chesaning
No. 4 Hudsonville Unity Christian vs. No. 13 Frankenmuth
No. 5 Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian vs. No. 12 Berrien Springs
No. 6 Grand Rapids Catholic Central vs. No. 11 Lansing Catholic
No. 7 Jackson Lumen Christi vs. No. 10 Big Rapids
No. 8 Williamston vs. No. 9 Pontiac Notre Dame Prep
St. Francis: The Gladiators are seeking their first MHSAA Finals championship in this sport, but finished runner-up in 2018 and tied for fourth last season. They’re tested against the best, with most of their competition against larger schools and also a 4-4 tie with Hackett. Junior Ben Schmude is back as half of the reigning No. 1 doubles champion and 29-3 with new partner Cody Richards – last year’s No. 3 singles champion as a sophomore. Senior Charlie Schmude leads singles at 30-9 at No. 1, with three freshmen filling out the lineup led by Tristan Bonanni (30-4) at No. 2.
Hackett: The Irish are coming off their first championship since 2005 and sit 11-0-2 this fall with the ties to St. Francis and Portage Central. Senior Jack Ford was the runner-up at No. 2 singles last season and is 15-1 back at that flight, while sophomore Tommy Kling is 15-1 at No. 3 and sophomore Niklas Johansson is 14-2 at No. 4. Johansson was part of the No. 4 doubles runner-up last season with Jack Gordon, now 12-3 at No. 3 with Marcus Alcaraz. Senior Anthony Toweson was part of the No. 2 doubles runner-up in 2019, and he’s 11-3 at No. 2 with new partner Sam Magnell.
Liggett: The Knights missed causing a three-way tie for the championship last year by a point, and they’re seeking to regain the top spot for the first time since winning back-to-back in 2016 and 2017. They finished just a point behind St. Francis at a quad in August and went on to face mostly larger opponents. Senior William Cooksey is the three-time reigning champ at No. 1 singles and 19-1 this fall. Sophomore Gerry Sherer was the runner-up last season at No. 4 singles and he’s 20-7 this fall playing at that flight and 10 matches at No. 2.
Other notes: Unity Christian’s only head-to-head loss this season was to Division 3 Holland Christian, and NorthPointe’s only head-to-head defeats were to Division 1 Hudsonville, and Hackett. NorthPointe’s Chase Berends and Sam Bradley were the No. 3 doubles champion last season and are 21-2 at No. 1 this fall … Grand Rapids Catholic Central also is intriguing with power in singles including senior Andrew Frost (23-6) at No. 1 and junior Ben English (23-6) at No. 3. English was part of last season’s No. 4 doubles champion.
PHOTO: Okemos' Druv Talluri returns a volley during last season's Division 1 championship match at No. 1 singles. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)