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.)
Consistently Strong in Every Event, Ruffing Proves Best All-Around
By
Tim Robinson
Special for MHSAA.com
March 12, 2022
WHITE LAKE TOWNSHIP — Talk about a surprise.
Morgan Ruffing of the Livonia Red co-op team knew her all-around score, and sat patiently during the awards ceremony at Saturday’s individual gymnastics championship meet at Lakeland High School.
“I was like, ‘They haven’t gotten to my score yet,’” she said. “And then they called the second-place score, and I was like, ‘There’s no way.’”
As it turned out, that was the way. Ruffing had won the Division 1 all-around title.
“I was in disbelief the whole time,” she said of her standing atop the medal stand. “I couldn’t believe this was happening.
Ruffing didn’t win an event, but finished among the top five in each of the four events to total a score of 37.525, a half-point ahead of Grand Ledge’s Alaina Yaney, who was second.
Yaney won the vault but slipped to second with a tie for eighth in the floor exercise.
Lacey Scheid of Rockford, last year’s runner-up, won the floor exercise and the balance beam, but finished well out of the top 10 in the parallel bars, which sent her to third all-around.
It was the beam where Ruffing was able to come back from a disappointing performance in Friday’s team meet when she fell attempting a wolf three-quarter turn.
“The pressure got to her,” Livonia Red coach Mandy Brown said. “It was her last event (Friday) and it came down to her routine. (Saturday), I switched it up and had her starting toward the beginning of the beam lineup so she didn’t feel as much pressure.”
A little intentional amnesia didn’t hurt, either.
“Yeah,” Ruffing said, chuckling at the use of “amnesia.” “I just wanted to focus on one event at a time. If I mess up one event, then just forget about it and go on with my next event.”
Ruffing hit the wolf three-quarter in Saturday’s individual meet. She was fourth in the vault (9.425), fifth on the bars (9.150), fourth on the beam (9.3) and second on the floor (9.65).
Consistency won the day, even if it came as a surprise to the winner.
“My goal, coming in, was top three,” Ruffing said. “I didn’t know (winning) was going to happen. I was totally caught off guard.”
Instead, she moved from third last year to a title that was a most pleasant surprise.
Yaney, who went in expecting to contend for the title, also finished fourth on bars and third on beam on the way to her runner-up all-around score.
“I was hoping for first,” she said. “But second is OK.”
All three top finishers are juniors, which could make the 2023 Finals very interesting, indeed.
Ruffing’s teammate, Avery Boyk, was the other individual event winner, taking first in the parallel bars.
In Division 2, Rockford’s Anna Tracey won the all-around with a 36.325 score while taking first on beam and second on bars.
Lydia Beaton of Grand Ledge (36.150) was second all-around, taking first on vault and floor. Howell’s Maria Petru won the Division 2 bars.
PHOTOS (Top) Livonia Red’s Morgan Ruffing performs here beam routine during Saturday’s Individual Finals at White Lake Lakeland. (Middle) Rockford’s Anna Tracey completes her floor routine. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)