Thank You from Second Half
January 25, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Next week will mark the one-year birthday of Second Half, our place to tell your high school sports stories.
And I thank you for helping us to such a great start.
We knew what we hoped to accomplish starting this site a year ago, but we've learned quite a bit during a relatively short time. Although we continue to pursue the mission of being home of the state’s best high school stories and a daily stop for fans, we’ll continue to experiment to figure out what you'd most like to see and how best we can continue to pass along the great things happening in MHSAA athletics.
A few things to call to your attention as we move ahead:
- First and foremost, we strive to tell your stories – hoping to hit every sport and all regions of our state – and have some intriguing ones coming up as we get into the second half of the winter season. Stay tuned.
- Second Half is the home for the “Battle of the Fans II.” We have visits to Buchanan and Vandercook Lake next week, followed by Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard and Zeeland East the week after. We’ll announce the winner Feb. 22. All will be found here first.
- We've revamped our video page (see menu across the top of this screen) and will be adding more videos more regularly in the year to come.
- After a brief hiatus, we’ll next week bring back “High 5s” featuring two athletes and a team that have done great things this season.
- What you’re reading now is the first of a weekly “First Pitch” blog that will allow us to post more of the quick hits we run across in our regular travels. Make sure to continue checking out the twice-weekly blog by Executive Director Jack Roberts, as well as the Viewpoints and SAC Sound-Offs supplied regularly by our friends from the Michigan State University Institute for the Study of Youth Sports and the members of our Student Advisory Council, respectively.
- We began providing in-depth statewide coverage – both previewing and then postgame reporting – of our Finals in every sport this fall, and hope to become your first and fastest source for the stories behind our championships.
We’re always looking for ideas both for stories or any other features you’d like to see – and feel free to send them directly to me at [email protected].
And again, thank you again for coming to our site today. We look forward to seeing you more in the year to come.
LakeVille's Hammond Not Seeking Spotlight, but Thriving Amid Pressure as Reigning Champ
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
February 4, 2026
Fred Hammond remembers what a thrill it was to have Otisville-LakeVille Memorial varsity wrestlers at his club practices when he was younger.
So now that Hammond – the reigning Division 4 Individual Finals champion at 165 pounds and school record holder for wins – is doing the same, there’s no doubt the current LakeVille youth team is experiencing that same thrill.
At the same time, Hammond is finding it just as exciting to be on the other side.
“One of my coaches is our club coach and talks about how his son, when he goes home, he’ll talk about me being there,” Hammond said. “But I just like seeing their smiles. I like being in the room, playing dodgeball with them and teaching them moves. That was a real cool experience for me (as a kid), and I imagine that’s how those guys look at me now.”
Hammond is giving back to the program that has given him so much, all while still helping to elevate the Falcons to new heights.
This past weekend, he picked up his 200th career victory, which tied LakeVille great Stan Marshall for most in school history. Hammond then surpassed that mark to take the record for himself.
He’s now 41-0 on the season with 23 wins by pin fall and seven by technical fall. In his LakeVille career, Hammond is 202-10 and has placed three times at the Individual Finals, taking sixth at 150 pounds as a freshman and third at 165 as a sophomore, both in Division 3. As a junior, he became LakeVille’s first champ since 1999 when he pinned his first three opponents and won by tech in the championship match to claim the 165-pound crown in Division 4.
“Stan Marshall was a three-time state champ, four-time placer, and Stan held every record we had,” LakeVille coach Dan Huggler said. “Ever since Freddy was a middle schooler, he wanted to break all those records. He’s trained hard, and he’s pretty much broke them all. He has the career takedown, pins and wins records. He’s only allowed five takedowns in the past three seasons. He wrestles a lot of tough matches – we’ll wrestle Dundee, (Detroit Catholic Central), as much as we can. His sophomore year, he gave up three takedowns. Last year, he gave up two. This year, he hasn’t given up any. It’s pretty amazing.”
While Huggler had plenty to say about his star wrestler’s exploits on the mat, his voice raised in excitement when talking about the type of person that sits on top of his program’s record books.
“He’s a National Honor Society student, student council member, has over a 3.8 GPA,” Huggler said. “He’s the kindest kid you could imagine – just friendly, smiles at everyone, part of everybody’s group and gets along with everybody. He relates to the people in the Chess Club. He can relate with everyone. He never makes it about himself.”
To that point, Hammond’s milestone victory was achieved while his team won the Tamonta Hill Team Tournament and helped Huggler reach a milestone of his own: his 300th career dual coaching victory.
“I’ve been through LakeVille’s program for a long time, and having these guys coaching me and around all the way through my career, it’s been great,” Hammond said. “It’s pretty cool that on the same day I hit 200, he hit 300. It was cool to do that in front of our home crowd.”
LakeVille is back in Division 3 this season and No. 8 in Michigan Grappler’s latest team rankings. The Falcons won the Mid-Michigan Activities Conference for the third straight season, and three other wrestlers – Adam Hoch, Jake Hascall and George Gavan – have collected career victory No. 100 this season.
As Hammond has been looking at new goals following his individual title a year ago, all of that team success has him thinking big.
“Honestly, I’ve been thinking about college a lot and what I could do there, and obviously helping my teammates,” he said. “Now I’m thinking about team state titles and all of that. That would be real cool to win a team state championship.”
He’s also chasing another individual title, and along the way has accomplished quite a bit outside of the career milestone, having won the Detroit Catholic Central Invitational and Genesee County titles.
As a returning Finals champion, Hammond is well aware that he’ll have a target on his back, but he’s not only prepared for that – he welcomes it.
“I feel like even over the summer, I kind of took a little break just to relax and I hadn’t taken a break from wrestling in a while. But every day since I got back, I always try to get a little better, and I feel like I’m wrestling well going into the postseason,” Hammond said. “I like that feeling of being tracked down. I like being the guy to beat.”
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 (Top) Otisville-LakeVille Memorial’s Fred Hammond (in yellow) works toward a win during last season’s MHSAA Individual Finals. (Middle) Hammond celebrates his championship at Ford Field. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)