![The Carrow family stands together in front of the welcome sign to Carrow Field – including daughter Tiffany (front left), Mark and Mary (second from left, front and back) and son Chris (far right).](/sites/default/files/2023-05/230504_Brighton_2H.jpg)
Brighton Names Baseball Field for Program Builder, Longtime Leader
By
Tim Robinson
Special for MHSAA.com
May 4, 2023
BRIGHTON — Mark Carrow didn’t know what to expect April 22 when he arrived at Brighton High School’s baseball field, where he was the guest of honor for a ceremony officially naming it Carrow Field.
“I remember back in October, when they announced this would happen, I told my wife, Mary, that there will be probably 60-70 people here, because there are 18 players on each team and their parents,” he recalled. “We pulled up here and there were all these people, and these young men who look older now.”
Dozens of Brighton alumni, some of whom Carrow hadn’t seen since their high school days nearly a half-century ago, were in attendance for the ceremony held before a doubleheader with Ypsilanti Lincoln.
Carrow retired in 2006 after 34 seasons as Brighton’s baseball coach, recording 823 wins, now eighth on the state’s all-time list. He also was an assistant football coach and coached both boys and girls middle school basketball.
He came to Brighton a year after graduating from the University of Michigan, where he played baseball for the Wolverines, starring at third base.
“My dream was to coach baseball at Ann Arbor High,” Carrow said of his high school alma mater, now Ann Arbor Pioneer. “That was my dream.”
But he had applied to Brighton Area Schools as well, and after a year teaching in Grand Rapids, he and Mary both were offered teaching positions.
“Wouldn’t you know it? We were in school for two days and Ann Arbor calls me up,” Carrow said. “They had a phys ed job open. I’d have been the JV football coach, and I knew the baseball coach was on his way out. It was everything I wanted, and I went to (administrator) Bob Scranton and said, ‘Here’s what’s happening.’ He told me to think about it over the weekend and come back Monday.
“My wife and I talked it over, and we were so grateful to Brighton for giving us a chance to be near our hometown that we felt we owed them a year,” Carrow said. “In November, we bought a house that we lived in for 22 years.”
Brighton’s sports teams weren’t the dominant squads of today. The football team had had two winning seasons in 20 years, and the year Carrow arrived went 0-9.
“We played in six homecoming games, including our own,” he said. “Everyone wanted to play us.”
The baseball team wasn’t much better, having gone decades without a winning season.
But the Bulldogs were 12-12 that first spring under Carrow’s leadership, and never finished below .500 during the rest of his tenure.
The Bulldogs joined the Southeastern Conference the next year and got off to a 7-0 start before losing at Lincoln.
“The kids were crying on the bus ride home,” Carrow said, “and I knew right then that Brighton had turned a corner, that it meant something to win and losing wasn’t acceptable anymore.”
Brighton took off, winning 20 games or more in all of his last 23 years as a coach, and a total of 13 league titles, 12 District titles, three Regional crowns and while making two trips to the Semifinals.
The talent was there, too, including 16 all-state players and two Mr. Baseball Award winners in Ron Hollis and Drew Henson.
Carrow earned national and Michigan Coach of the Year honors three times apiece and was inducted into the Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1992.
The field was renamed in his honor after the Brighton school board changed its policy to allow the renaming of facilities to honor living persons less than two years ago.
But Carrow is quick to cite the reasons for his success.
“The players are the ones who made this possible,” he said. “I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I never threw a pitch or hit the baseball. I got 800 wins, but it was because of them.
Carrow has a photographic memory, which came in handy while chatting with former players.
“It was funny, because with each kid I remembered an incident about them,” he said. “Jeff Bogos, who I hadn’t seen since he graduated in 1979, came out and I said, ‘Do you remember when we were at Milan and your knee went out (of place) in the middle of the field?’ It happened twice. He said, ‘How do you remember that?’ And I said, ‘How could I not?’”
Carrow moved to Florida after his retirement, where he and his longtime assistant, George Reck, meet up a couple of times a week. He makes frequent trips north to watch U-M football and to visit his son, Chris, who lives in Chicago.
Baseball is firmly in his past.
“I think I’ve been to one high school game since I went down there,” Carrow said. “I hated the way the coach was coaching, and Mary did, too. She said, ‘We don’t have to watch any more high school baseball,’ and I said, ‘You’re right.’”
When he retired, Carrow said he would likely be forgotten in a few years.
Seventeen years later, his legacy is assured and his memory will be invoked any time one looks at the scoreboard in left-center field that has a “Carrow Field” sign on top of it.
Not bad for a coach who was in the right place at the right time.
“My dream was fulfilled, and rightly so,” Carrow said. “And, believe me, I made the right decision. I couldn't have had better kids to teach or lived in a better community. It couldn't have worked out any better.”
PHOTOS (Top) The Carrow family stands together in front of the welcome sign to Carrow Field – including daughter Tiffany (front left), Mark and Mary (second from left, front and back) and son Chris (far right). (Middle) The Carrow name stands tall atop the scoreboard at the field named for the longtime coach. (Family photo by Daniel Collins.)
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Garden City Tackles Turnaround Together
May 17, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Few would argue that the formula for a successful high school baseball team usually includes hard throwers, slick fielders and a lineup stacked with guys who can move runs across the plate.
But team chemistry is an often-overlooked part of that formula that this spring has meant everything to Garden City, one of the best turnaround stories in the state this season and the MHSAA/Applebee’s Team of the Month for April.
A year ago, the Cougars were on their way to an 8-20 finish. This spring, Garden City is 22-3 with a share of the Western Wayne Athletic Conference title and a No. 12 ranking in this week’s Division 1 state coaches poll.
“It sounds like something simple and an easy thing (to say), but team chemistry wasn’t there – it truly was an issue the last few years,” first-year varsity coach Jon Evans said. “They’d start out hot, and just out of nowhere the team would fall off the cliff. … They’d have tight ballgames, but they couldn’t win a one-run game.
“This year, it seems like the team is a lot closer. They play for each other. That’s helping us. When we’re in close games, we’re winning them now. Every day in practice, every day on the field, the kids are playing for each other.”
It’s impossible to argue with the results. Garden City equaled last season’s win total by April 8 and earned one of its best victories of the season by just a run, 1-0 over preseason Division 2 No. 1 Detroit Country Day.
Chemistry on the field no doubt has been cultivated in part from familiarity with the coach. Evans graduated from Garden City when his seniors were in junior high, in 2014, and after a year playing at Defiance College in Ohio coached the Cougars’ junior varsity the last three seasons while finishing his studies at Eastern Michigan University.
“It's nice because they know when I can say I can relate to them, they know that's true,” Evans said. “I was just in their shoes five years ago, even in the classroom, with things they go through inside the school. I had all the teachers. They have assignments, and I look at the assignment and say I remember doing this. It’s easy for me to help them, and it’s good for players building trust with their coach to know their coach just went through this.”
He took over the varsity in February and previously coached 15 of 18 players on this spring’s roster. Evans’ JV went 15-7 a year ago – a nice sign for this season and the next few to come.
He also had paid attention to behind-the-scenes workings of running a varsity program over the last few years, and all of that familiarity made for a smooth transition when he took over.
“(The success) is not because of me, but having the same coach, I saw them every game they played freshman and sophomore year and I know what their tendencies are, what’s going through their minds,” he said. “It’s tougher competition, but I know how the kids are going respond. It didn’t take a few weeks for me – I knew right away what they were going to do, and the kids knew my coaching style and knew me stepping up to varsity was not going to change who I was.”
A trio of seniors has led the way offensively. First baseman Kevin Widner is hitting .457 with a .636 on-base percentage and 15 RBI, while catcher Trevor McCorry comes in at .438 with six doubles and Jacob Grant is hitting .426 with seven extra-base hits, 17 RBI, 28 runs scored and a .614 on-base percentage. Junior second and third baseman and pitcher Jacob May is adding a .379 average, 29 runs scored and 19 RBI to the offensive output.
Grant is the ace on the mound with a 6-0 record and 1.04 ERA over 34 innings. A number of other pitchers fill out a deep staff of contributors – Widner again stands out with a perfect ERA and 19 strikeouts over 10 innings pitched.
The program had postseason success as recently as 2016, when it won a District title. There is reason to be excited with this spring’s District less than two weeks away, but the Cougars are being cautious – the District opener is against Livonia Franklin, one of just two teams to beat Garden City this season (they split; the other losses came in a sweep by Trenton), and the bracket is competitive throughout.
Evans had a feeling this group would do the little things that, combined with their talent, have sparked a memorable run. Regardless of how this spring finishes up, it’s fair to say it’s been unforgettable so far.
“I had a feeling we’d have a good year this year – it’s a talented group, and when they play hard, when they do the little things right, they succeed,” Evans said. “I saw it on JV – when they played good defense, ran the bases well, put the ball in play, those teams did well.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2018-19
March: Holland West Ottawa boys swimming & diving – Read
February: Lowell wrestling – Read
January: Farmington United gymnastics – Read
December: Warren Woods-Tower wrestling – Read
November: Rochester Adams girls swimming & diving – Read
October: Leland boys soccer – Read
September: Pickford football – Read
August: Northville girls golf – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Garden City celebrates during a win over Detroit Country Day last month. (Middle) Senior Jacob Grant fires a pitch – he’s 6-0 this spring. (Photos courtesy of State Champs Sports Network.)