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.)
Troy Athens Comes Back Again, This Time to Claim Program's 6th Finals Win
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
November 4, 2023
GRAND LEDGE — Usually if a soccer teams falls behind late in a state championship game, there’s a big “uh-oh” and sense of dejection.
But falling behind late against Brighton in the 2023 MHSAA Division 1 Final put Troy Athens in a comfort zone.
“We were behind in the District Final, we were behind in the Regional Semifinal, we were behind in the Regional Final, we took the lead in the Semifinal but then fell behind, and we were behind again tonight,” Athens head coach Todd Heugh said. “Certainly, there’s a lot of resolve and resiliency in our group.”
As it turned out, it was championship resolve and resiliency for Athens.
Thanks to a goal late in regulation that tied the game and one more 2:59 into overtime, Athens is once again a Finals champion in boys soccer following a 2-1 win over Brighton.
The title was the sixth in program history for Athens (20-3-2).
The winning goal with 7:01 left in the first portion of overtime came from senior Manny Aigbedo, who put home a loose ball in the Brighton box after a mad scramble following an Athens corner kick.
“I just kneed it,” Aigbedo said. “I got anything I could on it. Just a little bit and went in. I didn’t even know I scored at that moment because there was so many people trying to get it.”
The game was scoreless until 9:02 remained in regulation, when Brighton took a 1-0 lead on a goal from senior Colin Robertson.
The goal came after a flurry of shots on Athens goalkeeper Adam Ethridge, who initially stopped Brighton leading scorer Devlin McGinnis on a point-blank shot in the box. A rebound caromed to Brighton junior Owen Buckley, but he was stopped by Ethridge.
But with Ethridge out of the net, another rebound came to the left side of the box to Robertson, who fired a shot into essentially an empty net just past multiple Athens defenders who tried to scramble back to the goal line.
From there, Athens pressured to get the equalizer, and finally did.
With 1:56 remaining in the second half, senior Brody Fahnestock stepped into a fast-paced shot from roughly 30 yards out that went past Brighton’s keeper and into the goal to tie the game at 1-1.
The tying goal seemed to deflate Brighton (19-4-2), which was less than two minutes from winning a first Finals championship in school history.
Athens dominated the overtime period, outshooting Brighton 10-1 overall and 8-0 on goal.
“When they got that tying goal, it kind of took the wind out of our sails there at the end,” Brighton head coach Mark Howell said. “We knew overtime was going to be an uphill battle trying to climb back in it momentum-wise. We knew they had a lot of experience returning on the big stage. It just didn’t fall the way we wanted it to.”
Athens got off to a slow start this season, but got rolling in September and never looked back, showing once again there’s no substitute for experience as the team had 16 seniors.
“We don’t always play the prettiest brand,” Heugh said. “But we’re usually organized, and we usually are going to fight to the end.”
Click for the box score.
PHOTOS (Top) Troy Athens celebrates its overtime win in Saturday's Division 1 Final at Grand Ledge. (Middle) The Red Hawks' Daniel Kadiu (23) races upfield with a Brighton defender chasing.