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