Rivaling for a Cause
January 25, 2013
It’s impossible to include all the perspective we gain from every “Battle of the Fans” visit.
But this anecdote, although it didn't make Tuesday’s story about our Frankenmuth trip, tells of another great example for what student cheering sections can accomplish.
Frankenmuth and Millington are heated rivals, to say the least, separated by 13 miles and made more competitive by plenty of championship-deciding matchups over the years.
But for their boys basketball game Jan. 10 at Frankenmuth, student section leaders from both schools almost completely on their own set up the game as a cancer awareness night, complete with Frankenmuth students in black shirts and Millington’s wearing pink.
The idea was the brainchild of a of Frankenmuth section leader, who then received help from a local bank and contacted Millington to get the ball rolling.
Battle of the Fans has shown us the obvious – these student sections need strong leaders – but also the special things they can accomplish with additional initiative.
“Never Forgotten”
Two more rivals, Fennville and Saugatuck, met late last month for their second “Never Forgotten” boys and girls basketball games with proceeds going to the Wes Leonard Heart Team for the purchase of AEDs.
Players wore jerseys with names on the backs of friends and family members who had died, and those jerseys were then given to family members after the games. Officials Ace Cover, Chris Dennie and Kyle Bowen also donated their game checks to the Heart Team, as did the winner of that night’s 50-50 raffle.
Leonard died from sudden cardiac arrest after making the game-winning shot in a basketball game March 3, 2011. The two schools played their first “Never Forgotten” games last season.
More support for less specialization
I’m asked once a year at least about sport specialization – that is, athletes focusing on just one sport, often from an early age, and if it pays off some way down the road.
Most of my evidence to support my belief in the well-rounded athlete has been anecdotal, based on conversations with people at the high school and college levels over the years. But a British study published this fall in the Journal of Sport Sciences by University of Birmingham researchers provides some interesting empirical findings.
The study of 1,006 people from the United Kingdom showed that those who participated in three sports at ages 11, 13 and 15 were “significantly more likely to compete at a national rather than club standard” between ages 16-18 than those who had practiced only one sport.
In other words, the study found that those who played more sports at earlier ages played at a higher level during their high school-age years, which seems to contradict the one-sport focus philosophy.
Click for more perspective on the study from Chris Kennedy, the Superintendent of Schools in West Vancouver, British Columbia.
PHOTO: The boys and girls teams for Fennville and Saugatuck pose together after their "Never Forgotten" games Dec. 21 at Fennville High. (Photo courtesy of Al LaShell.)
Owner of State's All-Time Farthest Shot Put Aiming for National Record, Olympics
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
March 25, 2026
From the first time Montrose's Addyson Stiverson picked up the shot put at a sixth-grade track & field practice, it was clear there was something there.
Even if she wasn’t quite clear on the name.
“I ran at the first couple practices, and was like, this wasn’t for me,” she said. “They said, ‘You’re strong, try the heavy ball thing.’ I honestly never threw it like a baseball. It wasn’t impeccable, but I kind of knew the basics. I definitely had some sore elbows and shoulders.”
Five years later, Stiverson sits atop the record books as she’s thrown that heavy ball thing farther than any female in Michigan high school history.
Her personal best of 53 feet, 7½ inches, which she threw Dec. 13 at an indoor meet at Grand Valley State University, is nearly two feet farther than the previous record of 51-11 held by Byron great Sarah Marvin, according to MichTrack.org, which tracks records from all meets. (The MHSAA record book is for Finals meets only.)
And as she enters her junior outdoor season having already won the shot put twice and discus once at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Track & Field Finals, Stiverson’s goals go well beyond the state’s borders.
“(Competing in the Olympics) is the goal,” Stiverson said. “Throwing in 2028 would be nice, but I think a good goal is to be a good contender in (2032). Even going to trials in 2028 and getting close to making the team would be a big win for me.”
It’s a huge goal, but not at all outlandish for Stiverson, who is already fielding scholarship offers from between 20 and 30 major Division I programs and is part of the Nike Elite Team, which includes 40 of the country’s top high school track & field athletes.
She also trains with Dane Miller at Throws University in Reading, Pa. Miller has trained two national champions and 12 World Team members.
“When he texted me like a month or two after we went out there and he was like, ‘I want to coach you,’ I was like, holy crap. I was kind of fan-girling for a moment,” Stiverson said. “He’s like one of the only reasons I throw as far as I do. When he first started coaching me, he was like, you’re not doing this anymore, we’re doing this. He cut out all the bad stuff.”
Stiverson’s 53-7½ would rank seventh all-time on the National Federation of State High School Associations list. The listed record there is 57-1¼, by Alyssa Wilson of New Jersey. But Wilson threw 58-1 during the summer after her senior year, and that’s the record Stiverson is chasing.
Plus a little more.
“She always has that goal in the back of her mind of breaking that 58-1,” said Adam Stiverson, Addyson’s father and Montrose’s girls track coach. “She kind of has a little future goal that no one really talks about it: Could a high school female thrower ever hit 60 feet?
“She wants to compete in college no matter what, and she wants to get better. There’s always room for improvement. If she can fix some things, get a little bigger, a little stronger, 60 feet could be possible. But let’s get 55 feet out of the way, 56 feet out of the way, 57 feet out of the way. If we can get to 57, then we can talk about that 60, because then we’d know that 58-1 is coming.”
While chasing down national goals, Stiverson has been dominating locally.
She’s never been beaten in the shot put during the high school season, and she’s never finished lower than third in the discus, despite it being much less of a focus for her, as she doesn’t want it to affect her form in the shot.
“I’m not going to lie, I don’t touch a disc that much,” Stiverson said. “I give it maybe 75-25, maybe 70-30 during the season. I feel like if I give it too much attention, it could mess up my shot.”
While throwing is her main focus now, Stiverson did play varsity basketball as a freshman and sophomore at Montrose. She also played football all the way through freshman year.
At 5-foot-9, her all-around athletic ability and explosiveness are a great base for her throwing ability, and while she hasn’t shown it off in a while, she can run, too.
On the day she set the Montrose school record for the shot put as a freshman, she also won the 100 meters at a Mid-Michigan Activities Conference quad meet.
“That was for team points,” Stiverson said with a laugh. “Our coach said, ‘One of the girls didn’t show up, we need you to run.’ And I had my spikes with me, so I did.”
Stiverson was the Division 3 Finals champion in the shot put both of the past two years, and won the discus in 2025 as well. She was runner-up in the discus as a freshman.
There are still two full seasons to go, but she’s on pace to become the first female thrower in the Lower Peninsula to win four Finals titles in the shot put.
“I think that was my biggest goal when I came into high school; I wanted to be a four-time shot put state champ,” she said. “When it does happen, that would be one of the coolest things. That was a dream.”
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 Montrose's Addyson Stiverson competes in the shot put at last season’s LPD3 Finals. (Photos by Mary Wilson/RunMichigan.com.)