The Wrong Kind of History

Walkerville's Darrell Brown (right) and
Mason Co. Eastern's Michael Matzen in
rebounding position Tuesday night.
Walkerville's current losing streak of
over four seasons is due to end soon.
(Photo by Andy Roberts)

With some help from colleague David Bossick at the Ludington Daily News, I recently discovered that Walkerville's boys basketball team is currently in the midst of the longest losing streak in the recorded history of Michigan high school boys basketball.

Walkerville's last win was a 2009 district tournament win over a now defunct school called Greenville Grattan. The Wildcats have lost every game they have played since then, a streak that spans the entire 2009-10 through 2012-13 seasons and the six games they have lost so far this year, the most recent a 55-50 heartbreaker against Mason County Eastern. As far as I've been able to tell from looking through the Oceana's Herald-Journal archives, the streak is at 88 games.

The longest streak on the MHSAA record books is 75, a mark held by Farwell from 2000-03 and — as luck would have it — Walkerville from 1961-67.

It seems likely to me that the streak will end at some point this year. The Wildcats didn't play particularly well against MCE, shooting 5 of 18 from the free throw line and missing multiple breakaway layups, and still had chances to win. Hopefully for their sake, the streak will end soon. If it doesn't end this year, it should end next year — the Walkerville JVs have won several times already this season.

Obviously, Wildcats' fans have to feel for Sam Sweet, who is practically carrying the team on his back. Sweet, who at barely six feet (if that) is one of the tallest players on the team, is a double-double machine who routinely posts point totals near the 30s, and he dropped 32 with 11 rebounds Tuesday night. He was a second-team all-conference pick last year and probably should have been first team but for the fact that his team didn't win a game. Sweet, a senior, played five (five!!) varsity sports in 2012-13 (basketball, cross-country, baseball, track and soccer) before dropping soccer this year to focus on CC, probably his best sport. I've never heard of a player even trying to play five varsity sports before (most schools don't even permit you to play more than one sport per season). If there's such a thing as sports karma, the hardworking Sweet will be rewarded with at least one victory this year.