Friday Night Kickoff

The Lady Tigers completed a 26-2 season with a 60-46 victory over Livonia Franklin at Eastern Michigan University to win Benton Harbor's first state championship in any sport since 1984.

Obviously the Class A Player of the Year Destiny Williams led the Tigers with 31 points in the championship game, Deborah Meeks added 15 points for the Tigers.  The win came at the conclusion of the 20th season of coaching for Benton Harbor. Harvey's career coaching record is now a 322-146 (.688), and I'll tell you what, Lou would be a perfect 468-0 if they went by best dressed coaches.  Lou makes winning look good.

The win started celebrations around Southwest Michigan, not just in Benton Harbor, but all over the country.  Being honored at the Michigan Capital, the US Capital, and honored in the Blossom Parade.  Southwest Michigan fell head over heels for the team.  Destiny Williams will be moving on to the University of Illinois.

As for the rest of the season, I guess we'll start out when the season started back in August.  The two big stories prior to the 2008 football season was the St. Joseph Bears coming off of a trip to the MHSAA Semifinals, and the addition of field turf to Al Stockman Stadium in Lakeshore.  As it turns out the new turf at Lakeshore would be the site of one of the top high school football games in recent history.

Both St. Joe and Lakeshore came into the week 6 game with perfect 5-0 records, the first time in the history of the St. Joe Lakeshore rivalry that both teams have met with both teams undefeated that late into the season.  The game exceed all the pre game hype, Lakeshore wanted to show up St. Joe on their new turf after losing twice to St. Joe the year before, The Bears wanted to show the Lancers that the Bears were still kings of the mountain in the Big 16. 

Lakeshore jumped out to a 10-0 lead midway through the 2nd quarter on a Zane Metz 3 yard touchdown run and a 30 yard Kai Peng field goal.  St. Joe would start their comeback in the final minute of the first half as Sean Guinane threw a 13 yard touchdown pass to Matt Jewell to close the gap at halftime to 10-7.

The Bears special teams provided one of the plays of the game as Josh Weaver blocked a punt midway through the 3rd quarter.  St. Joe would find the endzone 5 plays later when Drake Smith scored on a 6 yard run.  Smith would add another touchdown early in the fourth quarter to give the Bears a 21-10 lead.

Lakeshore would start their comeback efforts when Coco Johnson scored on a 19 yard run, and Lakeshore would add the two point conversion to pull withing 21-18 with still 7 minutes to go. The Bears would be forced to punt on their next drive giving Lakeshore plenty of time to try to tie the game or take the lead.   Lakeshore drove down to the St. Joe 12 yard line before the only turnover of the game sealed the win for the Bears as Zane Metz couldn't handle the exchange from Quarterback Zak Wasserman.  The Bears recovered the fumble and ran out the last 47 seconds for the 21-18 win.  The Bears remain the only visiting team to win on the turf of Al Stockman Stadium.  All was not lost for Lakeshore, the Bears and Lakeshore would meet again in the playoffs (we'll get to that in a bit).

Elsewhere Coloma and Watervliet met for the 99th time at McDaniels Field in Coloma with Coloma escaping with an 8-6 win.  The 100th meeting will be this fall at Panther Stadium in Watervliet.

Berrien Springs went from almost dead and buried after losing their first three games of the season with the heart of the Lakeland Conference schedule still to come.  Berrien Springs won their next six games including a 35-19 win over Coloma, to earn a playoff berth and a shared Lakeland Conference title.  Berrien Springs would beat Coloma again 35-0 before falling to Hopkins in the district finals.

Now since we're talking about the playoffs, it's time for round 2 of St. Joe/Lakeshore.  The Lancers came into Dickinson Stadium along with a cold and stiff wind and rain and with the help of two late touchdown runs by Coco Johnson, Lakeshore would end the Bears three game winning streak with a 33-13 win.

Lakeshore would beat East Lansing to win the regional championship before falling to East Grand Rapids in the state semifinals.

The season didn't fare too well for River Valley or Benton Harbor, both teams going 0-9 for the second consecutive season.  Benton Harbor's Maurice Burton stepped down after the season.  Another St. Joseph assistant coach Larry Jackson was hired as the Tigers next head coach.  As for River Valley, it marked the last year as a member of the Lakeland Conference for football.  They will be playing as an independent team for this season but they still will be playing against most of the Lakeland Schools.

One last thing about the football season, we normally wouldn't worry about a JV team, but Michigan Lutheran embarked on the first leg of playing varsity football for the first time since 1984.  Michigan Lutheran's return to the football field is under the direction of former St. Joe assistant Tony Balbo.  Balbo's Titans will be playing a varsity schedule this season before joining the Red Arrow conference for football full time in 2010.

Now volleyball I can't really get that in depth.. After all... I only worked about 4 or 5 St. Joe matches, but Berrien Springs won the B district, over Lakeshore and St. Joe who've been some of the better teams in the Big 16.  But the Shamrocks run ended in the first round of the regionals against Sturgis.  Watervliet Grace Christian won the D district...But they ended up losing to eventual State Champion Battle Creek St. Phillip.

WINTER

December brought the start of the Basketball seasons for both boys and girls.  I've already talked about the Benton Harbor Tigers girls championship, just look at the top of this post.  The Tigers boys team is an interesting story in and of itself.  The Tigers went 5-16 a year ago under Marcus Mohammed.  A very unfamiliar position for the Tigers to be in.  Not only did the Tigers finish last in the Big 16 West but they also didn't win a divisional game.  It's hard to find out the last time the Tigers finished in last place in the conference in basketball... It's almost impossible...  But there they were coming into a season where they were considered underdogs.  The Tigers won their first three games, but struggled with Class C Bridgman in the opening round of their Holiday Tournament, but then they lost by two points to Ann Arbor Huron in the Holiday Tournament Championship game.  A highly anticipated showdown with Kalamazoo Central was snowed out a few times but the Tigers and Maroon Giants played a Classic in Kalamazoo that saw the Giants come out on top 55-48.  The Tigers were upset just two days later when Mattawan held off the Tigers for a 59-57 win in Mattawan.  

After the loss to Mattawan the Tigers went on to win their next 11 games, nine of them by double digits.  After winning the district title against Holland West Ottawa, Benton Harbor lost in the regionals against Grand Haven 52-41.  Benton Harbor's final record was 17-4, a complete turnaround from the 5-16 disappointment of the 2007-2008 Tigers.

Lakeshore also had to fight off some stretches of tough games. Lakeshore won their first 4 games but then lost 3 of their next four games, and then having to comeback from a 14 point deficit to defeat St. Joe in double overtime.   Lakeshore wasn't really blowing anybody out but they were playing good basketball until the last week of the season when losing at St. Joe and then being upset at home by Portage Northern to finish the season at 13-7.  The Lancers had the advantage as the districts started, the tournament was being held on the Lancers home floor.  Something that Lakeshore took advantage of in their opening round game against Buchanan.  The Lancers beat Lakeland Co-Champs Buchanan 71-51, but then the rubber match with arch rival St. Joe...

None of the Twin Cities' area teams struggled as much as St. Joe did during the season.  The Bears struggled to score points during the season, forward Matt Jewell who suffered a serious head injury during football season, didn't play with the usual energy as he did in previous seasons. In all the Bears struggled  during the midpoint of the season.  St. Joe had a 14 point lead at arch rival Lakeshore but ended up losing in double overtime.  Following that loss to Lakeshore the Bears would drop their next 6 games including a loss at Benton Harbor where the Bears only scored 3 points in the firs half.  The Bears started to turn thing around late in the year defeating Portage Northern, but then pulling off the 73-65 upset of Lakeshore at the Bear Den.  The Bears entered the Districts at 7-13, and weren't expected to do much. But the Bears had a reason to want to win districts, the Regionals would be on the Bears home floor, the Bears Would get the winner of Buchanan and Lakeshore.  After Lakeshore knocked off Buchanan to set up the "three-match".  The Bears after falling behind early took the lead and never trailed again as the Bears upset the Lancers on the Lancers floor 62-57. 

Entering the regionals the Bears were the underdogs once again as the Bears would face second ranked Zeeland East in the regional semifinals but the Chix, who would go on to finish as runner up, defeated the Bears 68-47.  Shortly after the season ended St. Joseph head coach Gregg Schaffer announced his resignation as the Head Coach of the Bears, a position he's held for 11 seasons. 

St. Joseph's Girls Basketball team saved their best for the tournament as well.  The Lady Bears finished the regular season at 5-15 and weren't expected to do much in the tournament, even though the Bear Den would be the site of the District Tournament.  St. Joe opened with Buchanan, a team they lost to early in the season, but the Bears pulled the upset of the Lakeland Conference Co-Champs 38-32.  St. Joe would defeat Edwardsburg 65-40 and faced arch rival Lakeshore in the finals.  The Bears lost to the Lancers twice during the season, the last of which came two weeks before the tournament started.  St. Joe blitzed Lakeshore early and never trailed as Four Lady Bears led the charge scoring in double figures.  Freshman Lindsay Peirce who missed the Bears last game with Lakeshore had 20 points, Sophomore Katie Mavis had 19.  Mavis provided the early fireworks that gave St. Joe a 26-12 lead at the half.  Mavis played all 32 minutes of the game for St. Joe. Junior Sami Sukupchak added 16 points and St. Joe's lone senior Kayla Mahler had 11 points.  The Lady Bears won their first district Title since 1994, which was the last one with Kim Knuth who is now an assistant coach for the Lady Bears.  The Bears would be defeated in the regionals by Holland Christian 49-22 at Otsego.

As for wrestling, Lakeshore and Niles were battling it out in the Big 16 West.  Lakeshore's Tyler Daniels won an individual state championship at 103 pounds.  His teammate Nick Humes was the runner up at 140 pounds. Lakeshore's wrestling team lost in the State Semifinals to Oxford 31-29.

SPRING

Now forgive me if the spring stuff is going to be a little short,  After football and basketball, I just need to get away from the high school sports for a bit as track is the only thing I really see.

The coldness of winter seemed to stick around well into the spring season,  St. Joe's girls soccer team won the Big 16 West Division, won the district title.

St. Joe's Baseball team pulled off the upset of Lakeshore and then really pulled off the upset of Niles in the District Finals.  The Bears would go and win the regionals with easy wins over Otsego and South Haven.  But fell to eventual State Champion East Grand Rapids 1-0 in 8 innings.  A couple of area baseball players were drafted in the Major League Baseball draft, Lakeshore's Zak Wasserman was taken in the 21st round by the San Francisco Giants, and Asaad Ali who of course is the son of Muhammad Ali was taken in the 40th round by the Los Angeles Angeles.  Evan Sharpley who has spent the last four years at the University of Notre Dame played his high school ball at Marshall was taken in the 50th round by the Seattle Mariners.

Now the area spring highlight in Berrien County was the state championship of the Niles Vikings softball team.  The Vikings came into the district tournament ranked 10th in the state, but on their way to the title, the Vikings beat top ranked Lakeshore, second ranked Wayland, as well as two more ranked teams.  Much of the success of the Vikings softball team can be attributed to the arm of pitcher Jenna Ignowski who was named Miss Softball in the state on the date of the state championship game.  Ignowski allowed just 1 earned run in the Vikings run to the title.  The Vikings beat Livonia-Ladywood 4-0 in the championship game at Bailey Park in Battle Creek.  It was the first state championship for Niles high school since 1964 when the Boys Golf team won the title.

Now I'm taking the summer off... maybe I'll post occasionally but see you in the fall...

I hate Penguins

So I will leave you with a line from the song that's been ringing through my head the last few days

Genesis - "Fading Lights"

Like the story that we wish was never ending
We know sometime we must reach the final page
still we carry on just pretending
that there'll always be one more day to go