Lacrosse Finals Live on MHSAA.TV

June 5, 2013

The Finals of the MHSAA Girls and Boys Lacrosse Tournaments will be available on the Internet Saturday as the MHSAA Network will have live dedicated video and audio streams of the championship games at East Grand Rapids and Rockford.

It’s the second straight weekend of live video online championship coverage on MHSAA.tv, and the first of two weekends of audio coverage on MHSAANetwork.com.

The Girls Lacrosse Finals at Rockford High School will have the Division 2 game start things off at 2 p.m., with the winners of Wednesday’s Semifinal games pitting East Grand Rapids vs. Okemos, and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood against Livonia Ladywood.  The Division 1 game follows at 4:30 p.m., where the winners of Semis between Rockford and Hartland, and Bloomfield Hills Lahser and Ann Arbor Pioneer will play.

Action in the Boys Lacrosse Finals at East Grand Rapids High School also begins at 2 p.m.  The first game will be the Division 1 finale between the winners of Wednesday’s Semifinal games – Birmingham Brother Rice vs. Clarkston, and Grand Rapids Forest Hills Eastern/Northern vs. South Lyon.  The second game at 4:30 p.m. is in Division 2, where Semifinal winners from the Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central vs. Detroit Country Day, and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood against East Grand Rapids will square off.

All of the live video streams are free and will be archived on the MHSAA.tv Website.  DVDs will also be available at MHSAA.tv.

Next weekend, MHSAA.tv will carry live video of the Baseball-Softball Finals on June 15, beginning at 9:30 a.m.; and the Girls Soccer Finals on June 15, beginning at Noon. 

MHSAANetwork.com will feature expanded coverage of the Baseball-Softball at Battle Creek, with live audio broadcasts of the Semifinals on June 14; in addition to the Finals the following day and the Girls Soccer Finals.

The Track & Field action continues on the MHSAA.tv website this week, as the running event finals will be added to the site as individual events for on demand viewing.

Wounded Warrior Project: DeWitt vs Portland

December 16, 2011

DEWITT -- The meeting of two state-ranked teams always will ratchet up a typical football night. Both communities, naturally, want to see which is better on the field.

But during the hour before the opening kickoff Oct. 14 of DeWitt’s game against Portland, those teams and their supporters together recognized a grander cause. The night was dedicated to the Wounded Warrior Project, which aids U.S. soldiers (and their families) who have suffered service-related injuries and illnesses.

Rain washed out some planned attractions, but the evening certainly was memorable. Both teams wore camouflage jerseys and each sent its captains to the pre-game coin toss with an honorary captain representing the military. A number of other service personnel were involved – including a local color guard that presented a 30-foot flag for the national anthem.

It’s understandable if people’s visions of wars and our military are focused an ocean away. But connections hit close to home. DeWitt’s honorary captain, Lansing’s U.S. Army Spc. Jacob Shumway, recently returned from a deployment and has been in the service for two and a half years. He’s a 2003 Lansing Everett graduate, and his mother Susan Land is the principal at Lansing Eastern. His cousins Ethan and Collin Rennaker start for DeWitt, and he walked alongside them for the pregame flip. Shumway plans to attend Lansing Community College and study digital graphic design.

Both teams are considered contenders for their respective state titles next month; DeWitt is ranked No. 7 in Division 3, while Portland is No. 4 in Division 5. And they played like it – Portland prevailed 22-20 in overtime.

A great game, no question. But similarly significant was a preliminary figure of more than $11,000 raised for the WWP.

For more about the Wounded Warrior Project visit http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org.