Shelby Tigers Hope to Flip 2012 Script This Week in Semis

Here's the preview story I wrote for this weekend's semifinal football game between #9 Shelby and #4 Clinton. The winner will play the winner of #1 Ithaca and #3 Montrose next week for the Division 6 state championship.

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The field hadn’t even been cleared from Shelby’s state semifinal loss to Ithaca last November when Tigers’ coach Lorenzo Rodriguez intoned that his team planned on returning the following season and changing the outcome.

That moment has now arrived for the Shelby Tigers, courtesy of a dominating 33-7 win over Schoolcraft Saturday afternoon in the regional finals. Shelby will go up against its toughest opponent yet, the Clinton Redskins, Saturday afternoon, with a 1 p.m. kickoff lined up at Thornapple-Kellogg High School in Middleville.

Clinton, making its first semifinal appearance since 1990, will enter the game undefeated, out of the Tri-County Conference. The Redskins have won every game by double digits, 10 of them by 20 or more points, and are coming off an impressive 47-28 win last week over Constantine, the state runner-up the last two seasons.

However, apart from studying the teams’ formations on film, Rodriguez and the Tigers aren’t too concerned with what Clinton has done leading up to the game — only what it will do Saturday.

“We try not to look into that too much,” Rodriguez said of Clinton’s season. “We can only control what we can control. We just have to take advantage of every opportunity we get and limit their opportunities.”

Shelby’s biggest advantage might be that semifinal game it played last season. Clinton’s team hasn’t even been out of the pre-district round since 2009, so the edge in playoff experience is clearly in the Tigers’ favor. “You’ve been there before,” Rodriguez said of the experience the Tigers banked a year ago. “You experienced the difference in atmosphere. This week we’ll be on a high school field, and not a college field. That will help both teams to soothe the nerves. We’ve told the kids it’s just another high school facility like ours.” 

Clinton boasts a potent offensive attack that’s scored 39 points or more in each of its last nine games. Like the Tigers, the Redskins have several players that can provide the fireworks at any time. All-purpose threat Matt Sexton scored five touchdowns for Clinton against Constantine, while Collin Poore has amassed 400 yards rushing over his team’s last two games. 

T.J. Baker is the Clinton quarterback, and he is more than capable throwing or running. While the Redskins generally don’t throw much — Baker’s season high in pass attempts is 16 — the senior is efficient when he does, with over 14 yards per attempt. He’s also amassed 641 yards rushing this season on over nine yards per carry. 

“They throw the ball really well,” Rodriguez said of Clinton. “They have some great athletes, the quarterback and (Sexton), and they all have great speed.” 

Sexton is also Clinton’s leading tackler, with 73 total takedowns this year, nine of them for loss. Baker, meanwhile, is the big-play man in the secondary, with four interceptions on the year. 

Shelby will counter that speed with its power. The Tigers have built their identity on their success on the offensive line over the last two seasons, and it was rarely more evident than last week, when Devin Mussell and David Guerra combined for nearly 300 rushing yards behind the front five. 

Should the game come down to a pass, the Tigers will need to be more successful than they have been. Andy Fortier completed three of 12 passes last week, overshooting some open receivers. If the senior can find his targets, like tight end Brody Lee and the all-purpose dynamos Mussell and Guerra, Shelby could put up some big plays. Then again, if the Tigers can rip off long runs as they did so consistently last week, passing might not be necessary. 

The biggest key for the Tigers, Rodriguez said, will be matching their strong start from the regional game. Shelby came out with purpose Saturday and surged into an early 20-0 lead behind defense, special teams and big-time runs. If the Tigers’ energy level leading up to the game is any indication, they should be able to do it again versus Clinton. 

“The town is buzzing,” Rodriguez said. “The kids are energetic. We have a new boost of confidence and energy. That’s a great thing for us at this point.”

Oakridge vs. Shelby: How Big Is It?

The answer: Real freaking big.

Shelby's Devin Mussell (in green) tackles Hart's Brandon
Amstutz during last week's Pink and Green game.
Mussell and his Tigers play at Oakridge tonight.
(Photo by Andrew Skinner)

The two teams battle tonight in what is essentially a West Michigan Conference title game. The only way the winner of this one doesn't end up as WMC champion is if Shelby wins AND loses to North Muskegon next week, which would create a three-way tie.

Oakridge enters as the favorite, of course, having gone unbeaten in the league last year. The Eagles haven't lost more than once in WMC play since 2009. They are also ranked #1 in the state in Division 5 and avenged a 2012 playoff loss to Grand Rapids West Catholic in this year's season opener. I saw them thoroughly dominate a good Montague offense in Week 2, and I can vouch for their legitimacy.

Senior QB Austin Wright and senior RB Dan Shoop are the straws that stir the drink for Oakridge offensively. The pair combined for 553 yards of total offense last week, 440 on the ground and 113 on Wright passes. Shelby will counter with some seniors of their own in QB Andy Fortier, RBs Devin Mussell, David Guerra and Forrest Courtright and TE Brody Lee.

Defensively, the Eagles had looked immortal until last week, when they struggled to dispatch Ravenna, 31-27. The best chance Shelby has is to pick up where the Bulldogs left off and score some points. It shouldn't take too many — Shelby's only given up more than a touchdown once in four conference games so far. I think if the Tigers can score three TDs, they should have a good chance. It won't be easy, though. Shelby's D needs a huge game from Courtright at the Mike LB spot, and the Tigers' secondary, led by Mussell and Dylan Unger, will have to have their best games of the season, because Oakridge is not afraid to go vertical.

I wish I could go cover the game, but as it's not a White Lake Beacon-area contest, I can't. Oceana's Herald-Journal editor Andrew Skinner will be on site, though, taking photos for next week's paper. I will be at the Whitehall/Hart game watching one of those teams pick up their first win. However, my ear will definitely be to the ground for updates from the big one in Muskegon.

Bassmaster Elite All-Star Event next week

Below is the first few paragraphs of our front-page story for this week — the Bassmaster Elite Series is bringing its All-Star event to the Muskegon and White Lake areas next weekend.

This weekend, the nationally-known Bassmaster Elite Series will stage its All-Star event locally, with 14 of the top anglers in the country competing over two days of fishing on Muskegon Lake Sept. 27-28, and culminating with the top four placers after two days gunning for the Evan Williams Bourbon Championship on White Lake Sunday, Sept. 29.

It will be the second time in a month that the Elite Series has brought a competition to Michigan after the Plano Championship Chase was held on Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River in late August. Prior to that, the series had never ventured into the state, said Eric Lopez, director of operations for the B.A.S.S. organization.

“We have lots of members in the Michigan area at the B.A.S.S. Nation level,” Lopez said, referring to the organization that certifies fishermen nationwide. “We have lots of people in Michigan who were asking when we were going to do an event here. It’s not that we’ve been ignoring Michigan, but there are lots of great lakes out there. It was time.”

Ultimately it was worth the wait, as Muskegon Lake and White Lake will play host to one of the most prestigious weeks on the tour, Toyota All-Star Week.

“We’re very excited to bring the best of the best to Muskegon,” Lopez said. “We’re bringing in 14 of the best for this three-day tournament.”

Why did the Bassmaster Elite Series choose the Muskegon and White Lake areas to host the All-Star event? Lopez said it came down to the area’s support of fishing.

“There are lots of awesome fisheries in Michigan, but looking at the communities, we wanted to go to an area that believes in and supports bass fishing and has the infrastructure,” Lopez said. “That area meets those criteria.”

Next week, it appears I'll be joining Mike Iacconelli, one of the anglers competing in the All-Star event, for his practice session on the water. This should be enlightening, to say the very least.

In any case, for anyone interested in fishing, this is a big event, probably the biggest sporting event to be held here in recent history. (The event will air in multiple parts on ESPN2 Oct. 13.)

What to Make of the Football Season So Far?

Montague's Chris Carroll breaks up
a pass last week against Ravenna. Montague
might be back on track after a slow start.
(Photo by Andy Roberts)

We're already a third of the way done with most teams' football seasons, and tonight we'll be 44% finished. That's depressing, folks.

What to make of what we've gotten so far? Here's a team-by-team look at our area's 6 football teams' seasons through 3 games:

Hart — Poor Hart. They're just too small a school to be playing in the West Michigan Conference. There are only about 20 kids on the entire squad this year, so the Pirates don't even have the luxury of a JV team. The results have borne that out — Hart got blitzed in Week 1 by an Onekama team it destroyed last year, and has since taken lopsided defeats against two of the better teams in the WMC in Oakridge and North Muskegon. Hart's never even played in the state football playoffs, which go back to the 1970s. There's been rumblings of late that Hart wants to leave the WMC, but they haven't made that move yet, mostly because of teams like soccer, competitive cheer, and others that might be without a home if they pulled the trigger.

Hesperia — Hesperia's story is probably the most interesting one so far. The Panthers are 3-0 for the first time since 1992. They've been helped by a relatively soft early schedule, but still, Hesperia is halfway to the magical six-win mark that would get them into the playoffs (they haven't been since 2007), and still has six games to collect the three remaining wins. They face winless Holton tonight, a win that Hesperia should be able to get. From there the road map is clear for the Panthers: they would just have to defeat Central Montcalm again in the season finale, as they did last year, and would have to flip the result of one of the four remaining games, all of which were losses last year (Lakeview, Newaygo, Reed City and Chippewa Hills). A couple of those games were close a year ago, and this Panthers team appears, at least early, to be far better than it was in 2012, so there's hope. It should be interesting to see how that progresses.

Montague — Montague might have figured something out at halftime of last week's Ravenna game. The Wildcats went into the locker room that day trailing 20-14 and on the precipice of a loss that would've severely damaged their chances of locking in their 13th straight playoff berth. But Montague exploded for five unanswered touchdowns in the second half, went to 2-1, and if coach Pat Collins' assertion that the team is going to look like that the rest of the year comes true, they'll be right on track. Sophomore quarterback Jacob Buchberger appeared to grow up very quickly in that game, and he has plenty of weapons with which to work. This week's game against Shelby will say a lot about whether the Wildcats really are on the uptick or whether last Friday was just a case of a better team imposing their will on a lesser one when the game was on the line. Last season, the Cats won a classic in OT in that matchup. Another one would, with layups against Hart, Mason County Central and (probably) Whitehall still remaining on the schedule, pretty much lock in the team's playoff bid.

Reeths-Puffer — The Rockets are tough to read so far, mainly because I haven't seen them yet. The vagaries of the schedule have disallowed me from seeing them in action until their homecoming game in two weeks. But what I've gathered from the stats is if R-P is in the lead, you're in trouble. Julian Munday and Dereko Riley have proven to be an extremely potent one-two punch at running back. The trouble for the Rockets will come if they fall behind, because quarterback Garrett Blanshine is not built for comebacks. R-P is 2-1 this year, but has very tough contests left with Muskegon, Mona Shores and Zeeland East in league play, not to mention tonight's game with East Kentwood, a lopsided loss for the Rockets a year ago. The Rockets will need to win at least two of those games to get to the playoffs in all likelihood, a tall task for a still-growing team.

Shelby — The train just keeps rolling for the Tigers. I've been as impressed with the job Lorenzo Rodriguez does as Shelby coach as I am with any sports team in the area, and it's because his team just wins with what it's got. Last year, the Tigers got to the Division 6 state semifinals on line play, defense and guts despite not really having game-breaking talent at any skill position, with the possible exception of linebacker Ben Schroeder. They're doing it again this year, with Forrest Courtright now playing the role of Schroeder. Shelby's 3-0 heading into tonight's big game with Montague. It's especially big for the Tigers because probably no team in the WMC has a tougher remaining schedule than Shelby. Hart and Ravenna should provide W's, but there's no other sure win on the slate, with Oakridge and North Muskegon looking like the class of the league so far. (Those two face off tonight, which should be interesting.)

Whitehall — The only area football team with a new coach, the Vikings were always going to face an uphill climb this year after graduating a talented crop of seniors and installing a new veer-based attack under Tony Sigmon. I don't think anyone thought it would be this rough, though, as the Vikings have just flat-out not been able to move the football. The team still doesn't really know who its QB is — Connor Rake has the job right now by default over fellow sophomore Zarren Aylor because the latter was tossed out of last week's game and by rule will sit this week as well — and by staying on the field so long, its defense is being left out to dry. In the Vikings' defense, they've faced an extremely tough conference slate so far, and tonight's game offers a chance to get healthy against Mason County Central, whose team is just as small as Hart's. But if the Vikes can't get this one, it'll be tough to see a win anywhere on the schedule except for perhaps that Hart game.

Golf and Tennis Results - Week of 9/13

Since a long fishing column and a bunch of soccer action has caused there to be a lack of room this week in the paper, here are the results for this week's girls golf and boys tennis action.

GIRLS GOLF

Whitehall 8th at Chip Hills Invite

REMUS — Whitehall placed eighth in an eight-team field Wednesday at the Chippewa Hills Invitational, shooting a 557 as a team. Seventh-place Alma had a 505. Farwell and Central Montcalm tied for first place at the even, each shooting a 390.

Individual results were not reported for the Vikings.

Vikes drop dual to Manistee

WHITEHALL — The Whitehall Vikings dropped a dual meet at home Tuesday to Manistee, shooting a 276 to the visiting Chippewas’ 244.

Whitehall’s Taylor Mikkelson led her team in scoring Tuesday, shooting a 62, while Taylor Boyd added a 64.

Brooke Borgman shot a 72 for the Vikes, and Randi Mikkelson contributed a 78.

Manistee’s Fallon Gates led all scorers with a 46.

Rockets 2nd at conference jamboree

MUSKEGON — Reeths-Puffer’s girls golf team took advantage of playing on its home turf Monday afternoon, placing second in the O-K Black Conference jamboree at Lincoln Golf Club, up from fourth the previous week.

The Rockets’ team score of 209 was just 21 shots behind Mona Shores, which once again took first place.

R-P got top performances from Hannah Moss and Mikaela VanDuinen. Moss placed second individually at the meet with a 44, while VanDuinen’s 48 placed her in fourth.

BOYS TENNIS

Whitehall 3rd at Mona Shores Quad

MUSKEGON — Whitehall’s Tell Sutton led his team with a championship at first singles to help the Vikings place third at Tuesday’s Mona Shores Quad.

Sutton’s victory in the finals, 3-6, 7-5, 10-7 over Sam Kling of the Sailors, provided most of Whitehall’s scoring in the quad.

Connor Briegel won a match at fourth singles over Muskegon Catholic’s Mike Valachovic, 6-1, 6-0, and Andy Esh and Erik Butzer both won the consolation brackets at second and third singles respectively.

Jack Dillivan and Tim Hiemstra won their first-round match at first doubles over North Muskegon’s Brock Dobb and Levi Hardman, 6-4, 6-4, and Matt McCollom and Jack Zwemer took the consolation bracket at fourth doubles.

Vikes roll by Grant

GRANT — The Whitehall Vikings had to battle for a couple of flight victories, but as a team had little trouble taking out Grant Monday afternoon, 7-1.

The Vikings won five of their six matches in straight sets, with Erik Butzer being pushed to three sets by Grant’s Noah Meuwenburg at third singles before Butzer took the match, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

At first singles, Tell Sutton easily dispatched Roman Aguilar, 6-0, 6-1. Andy Esh took down Simon Carlson at second singles, 6-2, 6-3.

Whitehall swept the doubles matches, all in straight sets. Picking up victories were Jack Dillivan and Tim Hiemstra at first doubles; Drew Bolles and Judd VanBergen at second doubles; Jacob Herbert and Alec Milliron at third doubles; and Matt McCollom and Jack Zwemer at fourth doubles.

Rockets down Muskegon Catholic

MUSKEGON — Reeths-Puffer easily dispatched Muskegon Catholic Monday in a non-conference match, 7-1.

The Rockets won three matches — fourth singles, third doubles and fourth doubles — by default, as the host Crusaders did not field players in those flights.

All the three Rockets’ players to win their matches did so in straight sets. At first singles, Zack Strong defeated Christian Stone, 6-2, 6-1. Second singles saw Luke Sessink dispatch Adam Lewis, 6-3, 6-0. Nate Grinwis defeated Jack Farrell at third singles, 6-0, 6-3.

At second doubles, Chandler Adame and Jesse Miller knocked off Connor Inglat and Mike Valechare, 6-1, 6-4.

Whitehall 4th at Grand Haven Invite

GRAND HAVEN — Whitehall took fourth place in the Buccaneer Fall Classic last Saturday behind first singles player Tell Sutton, who won all three of his matches.

Sutton defeated Grand Haven’s Korey Searle 7-5, 7-5, beat Zeeland East’s Nate Weeldreyer 6-4, 6-3, and received a forfeit victory against Grand Rapids Catholic’s Joey Ellis when Ellis had to retire due to injury. Ellis was ahead 6-0, 6-5 at the time of his forfeit.

The Doug Baird Controversy at Hesperia

And here I was thinking my second summer in West Michigan would be a quiet one.

Hesperia Community Schools has blown that idea out of the water after the controversial removal (or as the coach's camp is putting it, firing - tomato, to-mah-to, I guess) of its most successful team's coach — wrestling's Doug Baird.

Baird, who coached wrestling at Hesperia for 19 seasons, most of them as head coach, had guided the Panthers to the 2008 state title and overall had led the team to five of the previous eight Division 4 state-finals matches, most recently this February, a match the Panthers narrowly lost to five-time champion Hudson. So his removal was an extreme surprise.

As we dug more into the case, including attending a loud June 11 school board meeting at which the removal was addressed and making a Freedom of Information Act request to find out what was going on, it became obvious this was a big issue to many of the folks in Hesperia.

Baird's removal came as the result of two formal reprimands he received in the spring relating to separate incidents. The first incident, in February at the individual wrestling regional tournament in Rogers City, involved a wrestler bringing marijuana to the hotel at which the team stayed, an incident blamed on Baird because the wrestler in question, along with a couple of teammates, were left at the hotel unsupervised while the rest of the team and staff went to McDonald's (one speaker at the June 11 meeting intimated that the boys weren't taken to McD's because they needed to make weight, which seems sensible).

The second one, the more serious one and the one under the most scrutiny in this case, alleged that Baird did not report evidence of child abuse that was supposedly reported to him during a P.E. class in March. The coach had allegedly been informed by a student that he was inappropriately touched off-campus by a former student whose care he may or may not have been in at the time. The people on Baird's side in that case counter the reprimand with questions as to whether he was truly legally obligated to report what he heard, with some suggesting he was trying to get more information before bringing the matter to the school board.

Whatever happened, the board deemed it enough to remove the coach, and it has already begun the process of hiring a new one, with classified ads in our papers the last couple of weeks. However, Baird's supporters haven't gone quietly, petitioning to recall three of the school board members who voted Baird out (the only three that they can legally recall at this time). His supporters, who've formed a group called Concerned Citizens for Total Education, have also said they will petition to recall board president Todd Jacobs once they can do so at the beginning of 2014. The issue has divided the wrestling program and placed just about everyone in the Hesperia district on opposing sides.

The most curious thing to me, and something that hasn't been fully addressed, mostly due to the firestorm surrounding the removal and the recalls, is that Baird hasn't been removed as a teacher, nor has he been removed from his post as the cross-country coach, coincidentally Hesperia's second-most successful sports program, boasting consecutive state championships in 2010 and 2011. It seems unlikely that any answers on that topic are forthcoming, as the board has stated publicly that they will offer no further comment on anything relating to Baird - and true to their word have not responded to phone messages left in the interim. Baird's supporters have pointed out several times that he can't be that deserving of a firing if they only took away 1 of his 2 coaching jobs and left him installed as a teacher. If the accusations leveled against him are true, it seems that they would be fireable offenses all the way around, and not just at the wrestling level.

It's unclear what will happen from here — the board members under recall are appealing the county's acceptance of the petitions, which will almost certainly delay any potential recall election for months. The recall could not proceed in November unless a minimum amount of signatures are collected by Aug. 2, and signatures can't be collected if the petition is under appeal. This makes it pretty much impossible for a recall to take place before next May, so as far as Baird is concerned he is more or less in a holding pattern. He has filed grievances with the teachers' union in regards to both reprimands, grievances that are still in the process of being sorted out. He's maintained he wants to coach wrestling, and he wants to do it at Hesperia - though it seems that if he were offered the ability to coach wrestling elsewhere it would be hard for him to turn it down given the situation in which he finds himself.

There is much to be determined, but one thing's for sure — this is an unfortunate situation for all involved and one that appears ready to drag on for a while.

Spring Sports Roll On

Whitehall's baseball team, shown here mobbing pitcher
Zach Zweigle after winning the district title last Saturday,
will look for a regional championship this weekend.
(Photo by Andy Roberts)

This year, spring sports in West Michigan are going on beyond their usual end. We have three area teams — Whitehall, Montague and Pentwater — competing in this weekend's regional tournaments. Pentwater hasn't been this far since 1998 and Montague hasn't since 2001, while Whitehall is making their third straight trip to the regionals. Will any of them make it to the quarterfinals?

Montague is probably the team with the best shot — they went 14-0 in West Michigan Conference play this year, although they had to battle to extra innings to beat Mason County Central in the district title game last Saturday. But you can't overlook Whitehall's battle-tested group or Pentwater's veteran team.

Each team would play a quarterfinal game on a college campus if it reached that point. Pentwater's would be at Hope College, Whitehall's would be at Central Michigan and Montague's would be at Michigan State. Selfishly, it'd be pretty cool for me to get to cover a game at MSU, obviously a major school and a school from which I had a cousin graduate. But I'd be thrilled to cover any of the three quarterfinals, each of which are on Tuesday, June 11.

Pentwater golf won their first-ever regional title
Thursday afternoon in St. John's. They'll play in the
state finals next weekend at Michigan State.
(Photo courtesy of Michael DeRuiter)

We also had a golf team — Pentwater — reach the state finals and actually win a regional title Thursday. That was the Falcons' first such title ever, fueled by a 78 from Sam Wagner and an 80 from Chance Helms. Helms' score was especially impressive, as he shot in the mid to high 80s most of the year, and since Pentwater won the regional by two shots, it's safe to say Helms pretty much won it himself with his performance.

We're approaching that depressing two-month stretch where there will be no sports, so I am soaking it all in and enjoying every step of these runs. Hopefully, there will be more to come as we approach the summer.

It's a Big Week

In the prep sports coverage business, most weeks during the school year are the same. You pore through the week's schedule of events and find events to cover that are a) the most newsworthy; b) the most convenient (i.e. it's at a local school); and/or c) contains a local team you haven't given enough coverage to yet. (At our particular papers, I do my best to get a picture of each local team in action into the paper during their season if at all possible, while still trying to make sure the most newsworthy sporting events get coverage.)

This is not a complaint, by the way - it adds a layer of simplicity to a decidedly not-simple job to be able to find the schedule and pick the events to cover.

But the first week of playoff action is not the same. It's not even close.

This is especially the case in the springtime. In the fall and winter, the district rounds of playoff action are generally spread out. Football's playoffs start later than volleyball's, boys basketball playoffs start later than girls, and on and on. But in the spring, girls soccer, baseball and softball all play postseason games in the same week, most of them on the same days. So this means simplicity is out the window.

That day has arrived, as of next Tuesday at least, for me. Our eight schools will begin playoff action Tuesday with the pre-district rounds of baseball, softball and soccer. Thursday will be the girls soccer semifinal games, and Saturday will have the finals of all the events.

I'll utilize this blog to provide some extra updates. My coverage schedule so far is as follows:

Tuesday: I'll be at Hesperia vs. Oakridge baseball/softball pre-districts, while Andrew Skinner, the OHJ editor, will be at Walkerville vs. Pentwater baseball/softball. Greg Means, the Beacon editor, will be covering Mason Co. Eastern vs. Montague soccer.

Wednesday, I will most likely head down to Reeths-Puffer to cover their baseball game against Whitehall. The two teams added that game after both drew pre-district byes as a tune-up.

Thursday will have no local events, but Friday will have the MCE baseball district semifinals and finals, which David Bossick, the LDN sports editor, will cover. Saturday, I will be at the Orchard View district baseball/softball tournament to catch Whitehall, while Andrew Skinner will be at the Manistee district and the Hart soccer district final.

It's going to be fun, guys. Stay tuned.

More Leftovers!

I should really publicize this thing to Beacon readers, because this week I have to put THREE different sports' results in here due to lack of space. We had a bunch more ads this week (yay ads!), and on top of that Cy Berg, our weekly fishing writer, wrote his longest column of my tenure here at the Beacon. So since I had to ax tennis last week, this week I cut golf, lacrosse and track. The results for those are as follows. Sorry to all who wanted them in the hard copy...

GOLF

Rockets 2nd, Whitehall 3rd at GMAA

MUSKEGON — Reeths-Puffer was tops among area teams at the GMAA golf meet Wednesday, at Chase Hammond Golf Course in Muskegon.

The Rockets came in second with a score of 326, while Whitehall placed third with a score of 355. Montague came in ninth place with a total score of 390.

Mona Shores easily won the city title with a score of 289.

Reeths-Puffer’s best score, and the area’s top mark, was an 80 by Ryan Kooiman. Collin Kolbe shot an 81, Noah Carter had an 82 and Trevor Fowler shot an 83 for the Rockets.

Whitehall’s Logan Irey led the Vikings with a score of 82 and Tyler Carr added an 84. Tell Sutton’s 94 and Chris Lopez’s 95 rounded out the Whitehall scoresheet.

Montague had a rough afternoon compared to its strong performance throughout the season. Dylan Lohman’s 92 led the Wildcats and Tracy Lawrence shot a 96. Three Montague golfers — Riley Lohman, Nate VanGeison and Matt Visger — each fired a 101 for the team.

Vikes 2nd, Montague 4th at WMC Jamboree

WHITEHALL — The Whitehall Vikings placed second Tuesday at the third West Michigan Conference jamboree of the season, held at the White Lake Golf Course. Montague placed fourth.

The Vikings and Wildcats are now second and third respectively in the league standings overall.

Whitehall shot a total of 354, 13 shots behind North Muskegon, which has won all the jamborees so far. Chris Lopez’s 87 led Whitehall, while Logan Irey shot an 88 and Tell Sutton added an 89. Tyler Carr shot a 90, giving the Vikes four scores of 90 or better. Lopez’s mark of 87 ranked seventh in the league individually for the week.

Montague’s best score came from Dylan Lohman, who shot an 89. Tracy Lawrence and Riley Lohman each added a 90, and Nate VanGeison was the Wildcats’ fourth scorer, with a 96.

Through three weeks, Irey is the area’s top scorer, third overall in the conference, with a score of 265. He is two shots behind North Muskegon’s Jacob Chovaz and 20 behind WMC leader Paul Johnson.

Lawrence ranks second in the area and tied for fourth in the league with a cumulative score of 268.

LACROSSE

Rockets upset Zeeland
MUSKEGON — Reeths-Puffer scored an upset win, its second straight victory, knocking off O-K Conference leader Zeeland at Rocket Stadium Wednesday, 12-11 in double overtime.

The Rockets erased a 9-5 fourth-quarter deficit to force the sudden-death overtime, and it took until the second OT for Curtis Pek to find the back of the net and give the Rockets the win. It was Pek’s third goal of the night to go with three assists.

“Curtis Pek was a major factor in the game,” Reeths-Puffer coach Paul Pek said.

Dean Griffin had four goals and an assist for R-P and Alex Dinger added two goals and three assists. Casey Trautner notched two goals and an assist.

R-P concluded the conference season with a 2-3 league record. The Rockets are 4-6 overall.

R-P beats G.R. South Christian

GRAND RAPIDS — The Reeths-Puffer lacrosse team picked up a O-K Conference win Monday night at Grand Rapids South Christian, riding good defense to an 11-2 win.

The game was originally scheduled for Apr. 11, but was moved to Monday due to weather, replacing a previously-scheduled game with Forest Hills Northern.

The Rockets (3-6, 1-3 O-K) took control of the game in the second quarter, scoring seven goals to the Eagles’ one to take a 10-1 halftime lead.

Alex Dinger had a big night for the Rockets, scoring three goals and assisting on three others. Casey Trautner had three goals and two assists, and Kyle Kolbe had a goal and an assist.

Rockets fall to Holland

MUSKEGON — Reeths-Puffer dropped an O-K Conference contest Saturday afternoon against Holland, as the Dutch rolled to a 15-8 win.

The Rockets held an 8-4 lead at the halftime break but were shut out in the second half of the defeat.

Casey Trautner led the R-P offense with three goals and an assist, while Curtis Pek added two goals and two assists. Kyle Kolbe had two goals.

The Rockets dropped to 2-6, 0-3 in league play, with the loss.

TRACK

Whitehall track beats Montague

WHITEHALL — Both Whitehall track teams completed an undefeated dual-meet season Tuesday with victories over Montague at a meet in Whitehall.

The Whitehall girls took first place in each event except for three in their 91-35 win — the long jump, won by Montague’s Abby Christmas, the high jump, which Liz Moak won, and the 400-meter relay.

Wins for Whitehall came from Autumn Sherman in the discus; Autumn Christenson in the 100 and 300-meter hurdles; Angela White in the 100-meter dash; Elise Shaffer in the shot put; Jessica Harris in the 1,600 and 3,200-meter run; Leah Deuling in the 400-meter dash; Kallan Sawyer in the 800-meter run; and Star Woods in the 200-meter dash.  The Vikings also won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200-meter relays.

The Whitehall boys recorded an 82-50 win over Montague.

Wildcats’ winners were Max Martin in the 800-meter run; Wyatt Ford in the 200-meter run; and Brennan Zuniga in the 3,200-meter run. The Wildcats also took first in the 400 and 800-meter relay.

The victorious Vikings won the other events. Winners were Isaac Love in the high jump; Tyler Goerbig in the shot put; Devin Schweigert in the pole vault; Matt Russell in the 110-meter hurdles; Antwan Burcks in the 100-meter dash and the discus; Alex Dennis in the 1,600-meter run; Tyler Grove in the 400-meter dash; Sky Christenson in the 300-meter hurdles; and Nick DeCouto in the long jump. The Vikings also recorded wins in the 1,600 and 3,200-meter relay.

Montague's Veronica Charles takes
off on the long jump during last Friday's
Optimist Invitational at Mason Co.
Central. (Photo by David Bossick)

“Both teams lost, but not without a fight,” Montague coach Terry Fick said.

“There was finally some nice weather to compete in,” Whitehall boys’ coach Kirk Mikkelson said. “The kids responded with some great performances.

“First year coaches Isaac Kopec and Leti Longoria-Rudolph have done a fantastic job leading the Lady Vikes to a great season.”

Vikes and ‘Cats compete at Optimist Invite

SCOTTVILLE — A loaded field of 13 track teams competed last Friday at Mason County Central’s Optimist Invitational, including Whitehall and Montague.

Whitehall’s boys team had the best finish of area teams at the meet, placing second to Ludington.

Individual winners for the Vikings included Isaac Love in the high jump and Antwan Burks in the 100 and 200-meter dash. Whitehall also got second-place finishes from Nick DeCouto in the long jump and Tyler Goerbig in the shot put. The Vikings were able to place in most of the events to help provide a team finish of second.

The Montague boys placed 10th, less than a point behind ninth-place Fruitport. Their best finish came in the 400-meter relay, where the team of Luis Aguilar, Brandon Moore, Joe Peterson and Wyatt Ford came in second.

Moore and Ford were third and fourth, respectively, in the 100-meter dash, and Ford placed fourth in the 200.

In the girls’ meet, Whitehall came in eighth place, just behind Hart. Autumn Christenson provided Whitehall’s top finish, placing second in the 100-meter hurdles. The Vikings placed fourth in the 400 and 800-meter relays, and Allison Donahue was fourth in the high jump.

Montague was tied for ninth along with Fruitport in the girls’ meet.

Robbie Berg contributed to both of Montague’s top finishes, placing third in the 100-meter hurdles and also as a member of the Wildcats’ 400-meter relay team that came in third. Sierra Armstrong, Liz Moak and Alex Hennrick were Montague’s other runners in the 400 relay.

This Week's Tennis Results

Ahh, so NOW we get into the meat of what this blog was made for: putting stuff here that won't fit in the paper.

Well, thanks to a spate of scheduled events as well as rescheduled make-up dates occurring this week, we simply didn't have room to put this week's tennis events into the paper. So I am putting them here, for the readers intrepid enough to find it. Enjoy!!

Rockets roll past Fruitport

FRUITPORT — Reeths-Puffer was impressive Thursday in dispatching nonconference foe Fruitport, 7-1.

Reeths-Puffer took wins in every flight except for first singles at the dual.

Collecting those wins for the Rockets in the singles flights were Anika Sasinski at second singles, who defeated Liz Taylor 6-4, 6-4; Erin Crummel at third singles, who dominated Ashleigh Visscher 6-1, 6-0; and Gwen Swanson at fourth singles, who routed Bailey Umstead 6-1, 6-0.

R-P also took wins in the four doubles flights. At first doubles, Rachel DeMuro and Jessy Dick defeated Claire McWilliams and MacKenzie Portenga, 6-1, 7-5. Second doubles saw Sierra Boyd and Audrey Fox defeat Kayla Kowitz and Amanda Thornton 6-0, 6-0. Lindsey Meyers and Courtney Primm won at third singles over Julia Newmyer and Meghan Newmyer, 6-1, 6-2. And at fourth singles, Kelsey Crampton and Brooke Vanderstelt beat Madison Hurtubise and Brooke Wilde 6-1, 6-0.

Reeths-Puffer improved to 2-1 this season with the win.

Whitehall shuts out Grant

WHITEHALL — Whitehall posted a dominant performance Wednesday against Grant, winning five matches in straight sets en route to an 8-0 win over the Tigers.

Julia Rogers had the most overwhelming performance, blanking Grant’s Alicia Jaimes at third singles, 6-0, 6-0. Hannah Potter domianted Gabby Honisberger at first singles with a 6-0, 6-2 performance, and Katelyn Jelinek defeated Salena Ledezma at second singles, 6-1, 6-3.

In the doubles flights, Carlie Bishop and Jamie Westrate rolled to a first doubles victory, 6-2, 6-2 over McKinlay Lawyer and Hannah DeWindt, and Elise Shaffer and Taylor Boyd won 6-0, 6-1 at second doubles over Makayla Duflo and Tiffany Riveria.

The Vikings dropped the first set at fourth singles and third and fourth doubles but rebounded to win the final two sets of all three of those matches.

Whitehall moved to 2-2 on the season with the win. The Vikings competed at the Hamilton Invitational Saturday after the Beacon went to press.

R-P loses to Zeeland East

ZEELAND — Reeths-Puffer’s girls tennis team dropped a 6-2 decision on the road Wednesday at Zeeland East.

The Rockets dropped to 1-1 this season with the loss.

Vikes fall at Spring Lake

SPRING LAKE — Whitehall dropped a 7-1 decision Monday against Spring Lake, with all eight matches ending in straight sets.

Several Vikings made their matches close but were unable to make a dent against the powerful Lakers’ squad. Katelyn Jelinek, though, came up with a win at second singles, topping Roxanne Stroebel 6-3, 6-1.

The best Whitehall performance in defeat came from the fourth doubles team of Emily Christensen and Ashley Dore, who fell 7-6, 6-3 to Rachel Briegel and Megan Oostindie.

All four Vikings’ doubles teams put forth solid efforts, including Taylor Boyd and Elise Shaffer at second doubles, who went down 7-5, 6-2 to Jori Henderson and Stephanie Sabo. Whitehall took five games each in two-set losses at first and third doubles as well.

Rockets blank Muskegon Catholic in opener

MUSKEGON — Reeths-Puffer finally opened its tennis season Monday with a dominant showing against Muskegon Catholic, blanking the visiting Crusaders, 8-0.

Seven of the Rockets’ eight wins came in straight sets as they controlled all aspects of the match.

The Rockets’ singles players all earned two-set victories. Angela Clarke rolled by Maddie Sessleman at first singles, 6-1, 6-4; Anika Sasinski defeated McKenzie Doriot at second singles, 6-1, 6-1; Erin Crummel dominated Rose Maniates at third singles, 6-0, 6-1; and Gwen Swanson beat Hannah O’Toole at fourth singles, 6-1, 6-1.

The duo of Jessy Dick and Rachel DeMuro had the toughest time of any Rockets’ players at first doubles, as they were forced to battle away a spirited challenge from Stephanie DeVoursney and Rosie Jacobson. The Rockets’ pair managed to pull it off, though, winning the match 7-6, 6-7, 6-2.

Audrey Fox and Sierra Boyd defeated Anna Garzelloni and Kaley Knop at second doubles, 6-0, 6-3, and Brooke Vanderstelt and Kelsey Crampton routed Jessica Serene and Haley Wiewiora at fourth doubles, 6-0, 6-1. The Rockets’ third doubles team of Lindsey Meyers and Renee Hosler won by forfeit.

Whitehall falls to Calvin Christian

NORTON SHORES — Whitehall’s home tournament was canceled last Saturday, but on short notice the Vikings arranged a dual meet at Norton Pines Athletic Club against Calvin Christian.

Whitehall dropped a tight match to the Lady Squires, 5-3.

Rainouts Causing Headaches in Oceana Co. Sports

It’s a virtually unprecedented spring in Oceana County sports. Baseball and softball fields sit unused due to lousy weather. Long-jump pits are full of water. It’s mid-April, and with the exceptions of Pentwater and Hart, no county team has played a baseball or softball game, and no county team has had a track meet. The Oceana County baseball and softball tournament, scheduled for Saturday, was the most recent victim, with rain keeping the Hesperia fields from being suitable to host the event.

“It’s definitely been an unusual spring,” Shelby athletic director Chuck Persenaire said. “I’ve been coaching at Shelby for 25 years. I haven’t seen a spring like this. We went from last year, where basically we got on the fields right away, to this year, we’re taking fly balls in the parking lot. Track hasn’t been outside, really at all.”

Even the events schools have been able to get in have been affected by weather. Pentwater’s season-opening soccer game was played on brown grass that had only recently gotten out from under snow, and the baseball doubleheader against Hart on the same day saw piles of snow sitting just beyond each baseline fence.

Shelby managed to play a soccer game Thursday afternoon against Newaygo, a 2-1 loss, but “it was miserable,” Persenaire said. “Rain was coming down sideways. Anytime the ball was going in the air it was going sideways and carrying out of bounds. It was not well-attended. We had a faithful fan show up and put up a pop-up deer blind and watched the game.”

While soccer games have somewhat been spared from the spate of weather-induced cancellations this month — several of them have been washed out, but at least a few have been played — the other spring sports have seen their schedules get shredded. Not only have baseball and softball games and track meets been canceled or postponed, for the most part the teams haven’t even been able to practice outside. Hurdlers have had to train in a hallway with makeshift starting blocks while baseball players have to settle for taking indoor batting practice.

Even when the weather clears up and allows games to be played, Persenaire expects the inability to practice in the usual way to affect the level of play when the seasons get rolling, saying times will likely be higher in the running events and the jumping events will produce lower-than-usual results.

“If you can’t get outside to do that, there’s no way you will be in the correct form,” Persenaire said. “That’s all stuff you work on at practice. You can’t simulate what’s going to happen on a track in a hallway. Until you have someone on a mound throwing at you, you can’t simulate that in a gym with a roof.”

Golf is also an issue, Persenaire added, as the school teams have to work around the available schedule of their home courses. Persenaire said that Shelby’s home course, Oceana Golf Club, has been very good to the Tigers, but some courses may not permit golfers to play due to poor conditions.

While the athletes struggle to get into game shape practicing indoors, area athletic directors are running into trouble rescheduling all the canceled contests.

While nonconference games are not a huge problem to lose, several conference events have fallen by the wayside, and it’s vital to the leagues to get those games in so a conference champion can be crowned and all-league teams can be determined.

“The one track meet we had to reschedule, we have a date in our calendar for a rain date for that, but do you use it on the first conference meet of the year?” Persenaire said. “It worked out where Whitehall, Mason Co. and I had a date later in the season (Apr. 24) where we were all open.”

In sports like baseball, softball and soccer, where make-up dates are less readily available and can be more complicated to schedule, more drastic steps may be necessary to get all the necessary conference games on the slate.

“There is a possibility we can play on some Saturdays, those kind of things,” Persenaire said. “Some non-conference stuff will have to get canceled and league stuff put into those spots if this keeps happening. (Hesperia A.D.) Mike (Fosburg) was having this same discussion.

“Everyone’s going to look at every open date they have. With baseball you have to take arms into consideration, because pitchers can only throw so many innings in a week.”

Another factor that affects some schools is that some athletes in the county play multiple sports in the spring. While Shelby’s athletic policy doesn’t allow for dual-sport same-season athletes and neither Hart nor Hesperia have any such students, Pentwater and Walkerville have several athletes that play multiple spring sports, which creates further complications. Falcons’ athletic director Dan Nugent said that with just 13 soccer players on his team roster, with several of those also playing softball or running track, any make-up date needs to line up with the other sports in order for the Falcons to have a full roster.

So much of the spring sports schedule has been wiped out that quiet talk has begun among fans on whether state playoff events might be pushed back to allow for those events to be made up. However, since the rainouts haven’t affected everyone in the state, such a move seems unlikely.

“Whether the MHSAA moves stuff back, I doubt it,” Persenaire said. “It’s hard for them to move it because of the places that are hosting these events. For the state meets, for golf and track, are already scheduled. It would be difficult from that standpoint for them to move.”

Even as bad as it’s been weather-wise in terms of sporting events in Oceana County, things could be worse.

“I’m glad I’m not up north talking to people in the Petoskey area,” Persenaire said. “They got three to four inches of snow (last week) on top of the foot they still had on the ground. If we get some wind and dry that (rain) up, we’re good to go.”

Postwinter Blahs

I haven't posted in two weeks. Apart from Shelby's basketball teams being eliminated in 24 hours, there hasn't been a lot to talk about.

Yep, we're in the postwinter blahs.

In West Michigan, the "post" feels superfluous this year, as the weather has stubbornly refused to cooperate with the fact that it's supposed to be spring. There's still snow on the ground, and highs are supposed to dip back into the high 30s next week, when games are supposed to be played.

Of course, games should have been being played for the last week and that hasn't stopped Mother Nature. Our first area game was slated to be Shelby/Pentwater girls soccer on Mar. 21, but that was snowed out. The Shelby game this last Tuesday was knocked out too and so were all the Whitehall, Montague and Reeths-Puffer baseball that should have happened this week. It's a stark contrast, I'm told, to the weather we had here last year, which figures since I wasn't here to enjoy it.

Hart and Pentwater are supposed to play baseball, softball and soccer next Tuesday, but I assume those games won't happen either. I know I would be in no mood to play baseball if I were a high-school kid on a day where the high started with a 3.

The good news for our readers is that the cupboard hasn't been bare. I've been able to have a couple of solid feature story topics, between the superhuman Zeerip family at Hesperia (three state-champion wrestlers and a girls' basketball star, who are also three valedictorians and one in the making), Shelby's Emily Tjapkes, now a volleyball player at UM-Dearborn, and a profile of former Whitehaller Chip Will, now the coach of the defending NJCAA volleyball champions at Grand Rapids Community College. And this week in the White Lake Beacon, we blow out spring preview coverage with baseball, softball and boys golf. Next week, I'm aiming to preview track, girls soccer and girls tennis.

It's not the same, though, as recapping actual games, which I hope to start doing next week. All three Beacon-area teams are off for spring break, though, so we'll be dry at least until Apr. 9, a frustrating delay. It's exhausting working the long hours and making the drives to shoot games, but I strangely enjoy it much more than your more or less generic 40-hour work week where I'm home every night. I'm clearly insane.

A few random notes:

- I'm working on the OHJ free-throw champion feature we generally do towards the end of basketball season, though it wasn't done last year due to Shelby's state semifinal run and the fact that the OHJ was shorthanded that March. I'm only waiting on one coach's free-throw stats and we'll hopefully have that in next week's issue.

- Shelby's Sydney Czurak was named Class C all-state a couple of weeks ago in girls basketball, the only player from the entire region to receive the honor (everyone else came from the greater Detroit area or from the north). Pretty wild, and deserved as she was the prime reason the Lady Tigers managed to get as far as they did.

- Walkerville won't field a varsity softball team this year and Pentwater will, reversing last year's circumstances. I can't imagine attending a Class D school where there are so few students you're in danger of not having a varsity team in a given year. Pentwater A.D. Dan Nugent told me this week that every student in the school is playing at least one sport this year, which is really an impressive feat, actually. Of course, he also mentioned that it creates a scheduling nightmare for make-up dates, specifically for his girls soccer team, which only has 13 members, several of whom also run track or play softball - which means any make-up date for that sport has to be an open date for the other two as well. Oy.

- The OHJ Spring Sports Scene preview section will run in next Thursday's issue, the first one written entirely by me. Shred it accordingly. Meanwhile, the Beacon Spring Sports Salute, where we run team photos of all area teams, won't be for a couple of weeks yet because Whitehall's spring photos aren't until the week after next.

Shelby's At It Again

High-flying Shelby point guard Jason Beckman (left) is
just one of many Tigers peaking at the right time
 as they look to make another run at the state title.
(Photo by Andy Roberts)

What a ridiculous year for the Shelby athletics program.

The Tigers' football team advanced to the Division 6 state semifinals last fall, their first berth ever in that game. Only the juggernaut from Ithaca kept the Tigers from Ford Field.

The Shelby girls' basketball team heads into tonight's game with Houghton with a shot at advancing to the state semifinals for the first time since third-year coach Sarah Wolting was a member of the team, in 1997.

And now the Tigers' boys, who advanced to the semifinals last year, are at it again.

Shelby, which replaced all 5 starters from the team that fell to Traverse City St. Francis in the semifinal game last March, is on its way to the regional title game after blitzing Pine River last night, 79-57, at Traverse City West High School. The Tigers draw Glen Lake in Wednesday's title game, and if they win that one, it'll be (most likely) third-ranked Negaunee coming out of the Upper Peninsula for next Tuesday's quarterfinal game at Gaylord.

What impressed me most about the Tigers Monday night was their composure. Pine River got into the double bonus in the first quarter, putting Shelby behind the eight-ball. But the Tigers weren't rattled. They simply buckled down defensively, turned to their deep bench and took control of the game. After the game was tied at 20 after a quarter, the Tigers pretty much dominated the rest of the way.

I suppose it shouldn't be surprising anymore. Coach Rick Zoulek, in his 28th season, has a clear knack for getting the most out of his players. The Tigers finished just third in the West Michigan Conference this year, but defeated WMC champion Montague, a team with significantly more talent, in this writer's humble opinion, rather easily in the district tournament, 83-71. It's a horrible, horrible sportswriter cliche, but in Shelby's case it's true: They just know how to win.

They win with terrific depth. Shelby has a slew of guys capable of knocking down the three-point shot — Jason Beckman, Spencer Peters, Devin Mussell, Shane Kajtazi, just to name a few — and at least one of them consistently comes out hot in the early stages of the game. Monday night, it was Mussell scoring 11 points in the first quarter, with three triples. Those points kept Shelby in the game when they were otherwise being outplayed by the bigger Bucks.

Despite the size disadvantage, though, Andrew Beckman, the Tigers' top big guy and Jason's cousin, outplayed Pine River's Lincoln Erickson, a monster of a dude. The last three quarters, it wasn't even close — Beckman handled Erickson, on both sides of the ball. Beckman scored 16 points, a team-high, while Erickson had just 10, most of them in the first quarter. Beckman's not the biggest or strongest — he pretty much looks like a taller version of his spindly cousin pictured above — but he's quick, has a soft shooting touch, and is tough as nails.

But it all starts with Zoulek. The man can coach.

"We’re not the type of team that any one player can do it all," Zoulek said after Monday's game. "We have a lot of scrappy guys. We’ve got to have it from everybody."

I don't know how he does it, but he's assembled a team where anyone can dominate on any given night. Jason Beckman had 26 points in the Tigers' semifinal upset of Montague. 14 different players (14!!!) scored in Shelby's easy district title win over Hart. Monday it was Andrew Beckman with 16. Wednesday night, it could be Peters, Mussell, a Beckman again...who knows?

This Shelby squad was supposed to be a year away. The only players who have played big minutes all season that will graduate are Peters and Kajtazi, so the Tigers will have four starters back in '13-'14. It could be a special season.

Of course, for these Shelby players, this one doesn't look so bad either.

Here Comes Shelby Girls' Basketball

Shelby's Sydney Czurak has the Tigers poised
to return to the Breslin Center. (Photo by Andy Roberts)

The Shelby Tigers' girls basketball team was somewhat lightly regarded headed into the postseason this year. They weren't ranked in the state AP poll after splitting the West Michigan Conference title with Oakridge and came into the regionals as heavy underdog to #5 Pine River in the semis. The Bucks had only lost once going into the tournament, and Shelby had had to edge out Holton before winning a Montague district that was pretty light on top-notch talent.

However, Shelby is showing that when your best player is an athletic girl who's also taller than everybody, the sky is the limit.

That title belongs to Sydney Czurak, a 6'1" senior forward and all-state candidate headed to D-II Wayne State University this fall to play basketball and, I believe, volleyball. She will major in double-doubles at the school.

Ok, that last part was a wisecrack, but she might as well take it to heart because points and rebounds — and lots of them — are what she provides to the Tigers, who upset Pine River 58-56 on Tuesday and clobbered #7 Traverse City St. Francis 55-35 last night. They move on to the state quarterfinals in Petoskey, where they'll have a date with Houghton, also ranked #7. The Gremlins came out of the Marquette/Inconveniently Located Upper Peninsula Schools regional by smearing Ishpeming.

Czurak had 17 points and 18 boards, not to mention four blocked shots and four assists, in a virtuoso performance against the Gladiators Friday night. Fellow senior Abby Rodriguez, a brilliantly efficient point guard, had 17 points and seven assists.

The Tigers are coached by Sarah Wolting, daughter of longtime boys' coach Rick Zoulek. (Zoulek also coached the girls until the state of Michigan did the sensible thing and stopped playing girls' basketball in the fall.) Like her dad, Wolting looks to have built a consistent program that almost always exceeds their talent level on the court. It remains to be seen what the future holds for Shelby after winning their first district title since '04 this year, but that's not a concern of the Tigers' right now. Their concern is returning to the Breslin Center for the final four.

"It's been 15 years since I went to the semis as a player at Shelby. We’re striving to get back to Breslin." - Wolting

Shelby is a strong, confident bunch that just might do it. Wolting marveled at how loose her team was heading into Thursday's regional final contest. The Tigers didn't look it in the first quarter, when the score was 2-2 through six minutes, but they completely took over the remainder of the game. There's little that can be said to sugarcoat it — Shelby made St. Francis look very, very bad at times. Czurak was simply larger and better than everyone else on the court. The Tigers dispatched St. Francis as if they were a low-level WMC opponent and not a top-10 ranked regional finalist.

Wolting sounded like she knew going in that her team was going to control the Gladiators too, saying, "I didn’t necessarily think we’d win by 20, but I felt very confident after Tuesday. I knew my girls were ready to play."

I don't know much of anything about Houghton, Shelby's next opponent — the U.P. is a mysterious land of wonderment to me, something that perhaps wouldn't be the case if I hadn't had to miss Shelby football's quarterfinal game at Negaunee last November because of a wedding — but their competition this year was entirely U.P. teams, and the level of play up there, by all accounts, is not nearly as high as in the West Michigan region. Houghton has only 2 losses, but they were to L'Anse and Marquette, defeats that the Gremlins avenged but still don't look good. I'd expect Shelby to beat Houghton and go to the Breslin Center for the semifinals, where either Delton Kellogg or Saginaw Nouvel Catholic, both very formidable opponents, would be waiting.

If so, the Tigers will have put two sports teams into the state semis this year along with the boys' basketball run that is to be determined. Heck of a year for Shelby's athletic program.

Whitehall Wrestling Goes Out in Style

Whitehall's Steven Sika was one of three Vikings to
win individual state titles last weekend. (Photo by Marta Sandee)

Sorry for the late post, but holy mother of chicken soup has this last week been busy. The following list of cities represents an actually conceivable travel schedule for me on consecutive non-Sundays from Mar. 2-13: Muskegon (hockey regionals), Holton (pre-district boys b-ball), McBain (regional girls b-ball), Holton again (district semis), McBain again (regional finals), Holton or Muskegon again (district finals), Plymouth (if Reeths-Puffer advances to the state hockey finals), Traverse City (boys' regional semifinals), Petoskey (girls' state quarterfinals, should Shelby get there), Traverse City (boys' regional finals, if the Holton district winner gets there).

Anyway...

The team finals didn't go the way Whitehall wanted them to, but it's hard to imagine a better individual finals for the Vikings than the ones they enjoyed last weekend.

Three Whitehall wrestlers won state titles last weekend, led by the two Sika twins, Steve and Joe, at 160 and 171, respectively. Neither of the final matches were particularly close.

Steve won by technical fall over Caro's Skylar Ley, basically toying with him the entire time. If you wouldn't have known better you would've thought Sika outweighed him by 20 pounds. It was ridiculous to watch him make mincemeat of a state finalist. Todd Olson of Dundee had pushed Sika to the limit in the semis, with a 7-6 decision advancing Sika on to the finals. My favorite moment of the finals had to be Ley semi-taunting Sika late in the match by urging Sika to come at him, while the MHSAA.TV broadcasters incredulously wondered why Ley was poking a bear that was destroying him so thoroughly.

Joe followed with a tighter match, but he too was handily in control throughout against Caro's Trevor Jaster, winning by a 4-1 decision. Joe didn't watch his brother's match, according to the MHSAA's Second Half coverage, due to a superstition he has in which he believes he loses if he watches his brother lose. After hearing that Steve had won, Joe went out and won, too.

A cool moment after those two matches was when Vikings' coach Cliff Sandee jumped into both the boys' arms after their victories. It was clear when I talked to Sandee after his team's loss to eventual runner-up Richmond at the Division 3 team semifinals last week that he has a very close relationship with the Sikas, who both also played for him on the football team the last two seasons. I can only imagine the emotions running through all three after the matches, the Sikas' last at Whitehall before they graduate this spring. Sandee has made mention several times during the postseason that the Sikas are even better kids than they are athletes.

Whitehall's Zack Cooper also rolled to a state title at 125, where he's been ranked #1 for most of the year. He was never really in any danger of losing — his closest decision was by 7 points, his 7-0 win in the finals. Cooper's only loss this year came in the state semifinals against Richmond, a truly stunning defeat that seemed to turn the tide of that match in favor of the Blue Devils, though Sandee was quick to point out after that one that two other highly-rated wrestlers on the team, Logan Morningstar and Reiley Brown, also were surprisingly pinned too. That just wasn't Whitehall's day.

However, thanks to Cooper and the Sikas, Saturday was.

Andy Roberts

Notes from Hesperia Wrestling State Finals

The nice thing about working at two weeklies is that there are only two publish days. This is usually a good thing because it means I don't have to write a postgame wrap story under pressure of deadlines except for a couple of days a week (unless I'm sending it up to the Ludington Daily News). In this case it means I only have two days during which we have a dead period while awaiting the results of our pages being proofread — some dead time I'll use to go a little more in-depth on Hesperia's state wrestling tournament run.

Hesperia was at the finals Saturday at Battle Creek (Whitehall was, too), which means I was there. It made for a 14-hour day from departure (7:15 a.m. after a deadline night for a 2-hour drive...brutal) to return (9 p.m. after having to carefully navigate a snowy route home). Why I know I am in the right profession - there's no other thing I could enjoy doing for 14 hours with the expectation of being paid for it.

It helped that the last two matches (I'll get to Whitehall later in the week) were pretty exciting. Full disclosure: I wasn't crazy about high school wrestling prior to this season. But watching it at Kellogg Arena Saturday, in a wacky environment of fans cheering, made it fun.

Hesperia's win over New Lothrop in the semifinals was as exciting as a wrestling match gets. Going into the 14th and last bout, the score was tied at 26.

(For those of you who may not know, each wrestling match is worth 3-6 points to the team. You get 3 for winning by 1-7 points [a decision], 4 for winning by 8-14 points [a major decision], 5 if you go up by 15 at any point [technical fall], or 6 if you pin the opponent, the opponent gets injured and can't continue, or the other team doesn't have an opponent at your weight.)

David Jacobs was the last to go, at 130 pounds. All he had to do was beat Gabe Bennett for New Lothrop, ranked #7 in the state at 125 (and wrestling up a weight, obviously). No pressure.

This was the scene as time ran out on the final
match of the semis last Saturday and Hesperia earned a trip to
the finals. Coach Doug Baird is the gentleman at center and
assistant Craig Zeerip has his arms raised. (Photo by Kim Smith)

The two battled to a near-stalemate through the first 5:20 or so of the six-minute match. With the score tied at 6-6, Jacobs finally executed a takedown of Bennett and managed to stave off Bennett's efforts to get the two points back as the Panthers' coaches, wrestlers and fans went insane.

Alas, Hesperia drew four-time defending state champ Hudson in the state finals. You can check out the full story of that one in this week's Oceana Herald-Journal, but the gist of it is Hesperia let two matches get away in the final minute (6-point swings on each) and lost by 8. Ouch.

Still, it was a great year for the Panthers, who lost in district finals in 2012 after Shelby somehow became a Division 4 school for a year (they were back in D-3 this year and lost to Whitehall in the district finals). Only two seniors started for Hesperia over the weekend, so they'll be locked and loaded — and judging by their demeanor afterwards, they know it.

"We’re going to bring a lot of experience back. Hopefully we come out on top next year." — Coach Doug Baird

Baird said something else interesting that I didn't have room for in the recap story — his assistant, Craig Zeerip, who's been there almost 20 years (longer than Baird, I believe), may be leaving. I'm not sure why (I'm going to ask him later this week when I get in touch with him for a feature we're going to do on his Univ. of Michigan-wrestler sons, though I suspect I may know the answer), but he would be a big loss to that team.

On a side note, Hesperia didn't have even close to the most brutal loss at the state finals. That dubious honor goes to Davison, who dropped the Division 1 final to Detroit Catholic when the Cardinals' final wrestler, Derek Humphrey, with his team up by three and himself up 9-2 in the final match, somehow got pinned by Evan Toth, and the Shamrocks almost literally stole the championship. It was an incredible scene to witness — the Detroit Catholic crowd losing its collective mind as the pin became closer and closer to reality, followed by Humphrey bursting into tears right there on the mat as he immediately realized he'd just lost the title. Above all else, that's what I'll take from Saturday's action.

I'll have some extra notes from Whitehall's semifinal loss to Richmond later in the week, folks. Let me know how I'm doing in the comments!

Andy Roberts

Ladies and Gentlemen...Welcome

Hi, folks. This is Andy Roberts here, your intrepid sports reporter at the White Lake Beacon and Oceana's Herald-Journal.

I've decided to launch a blog in this here space, because with all the coverage we do, there simply is not enough room in my six pages per week (three pages at two papers each) to fill you in on everything there is to know about sports here in West Michigan. I want to serve you guys better, so I'm starting this. The timing is pretty good, since district basketball tournaments start tonight and baseball and softball seasons will begin next month.

Tonight, Ludington Daily News sports editor Dave Bossick will be covering the Pentwater/Walkerville girls' basketball pre-district game at Mason County Eastern, while I will be at the Hart/Montague pre-district showdown at Montague. Both games will appear in this week's OHJ.

I don't know how often I will post in here, though I'm sure I will have some items on a thrilling weekend at state wrestling down at Battle Creek over the next couple of days. Hopefully I can build a small following as we continue to try to find ways to get our readers the best sports coverage in the area.

Thanks in advance for reading, and I hope you enjoy.

Andy Roberts