Marine City Rising Under Familiar Leader
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
January 30, 2019
Championship celebrations aren’t unfamiliar in Marine City. It’s just that they typically don’t happen after a boys basketball game.
The town most known for its football prowess is experiencing some extra excitement this winter, as the basketball program – now led by the same man who leads the football program, coach Ron Glodich – is seeing success it hasn’t seen in decades.
On Jan. 22, the Mariners boys basketball team clinched its first conference title since 1985, and three nights later, after another Macomb Area Conference Bronze win, they cut down the nets in their home gym.
“It was a great feeling, because I’m going to keep that net for the rest of my life,” Marine City junior Angelo Patsalis said. “When I look back at it, I’ll know this team was special.”
The Mariners were 10-2 overall and 7-0 in the MAC Bronze through January, and are changing the way people feel about their program. Now big, raucous crowds aren’t limited to just fall Fridays at East China Stadium.
“It’s definitely starting to change,” senior point guard Jack Kretzschmar said. “We didn’t really used to get a lot of people at home games because people just assumed we were going to lose. Now everyone is starting to show up, and the atmosphere they’re bringing to basketball is crazy.”
It’s no coincidence that Glodich, who has had multiple roles in Marine City athletics since taking a job at the school in 1987, is a common thread between the programs.
Most of his success has come on the football field, where he’s been head coach since 2012, and was the offensive coordinator prior to that, as the team won Division 4 championships in 2007 and 2013 and made several other deep playoff runs. He’s also coached volleyball and baseball and had a previous stint as the boys basketball coach during the early 2000s.
For the football players who also play basketball at Marine City, they knew exactly what to expect when Glodich took over.
“It’s the same guy,” Patsalis said. “If we’re in halftime and down by a couple points and not playing well, he still gets pretty fired up. The intensity kind of helps, because it fires you up to be better and pushes you to get to your potential.”
While each sport has its own quirks, Glodich has been able to apply many of his same coaching philosophies no matter which ball is in play.
“One of the things that stays consistent (from sport to sport) is the way we practice,” Glodich said. “We believe in high tempo, fast-paced practices. We break things down to bits and pieces and work on them, and that stays consistent. Getting into a good stance, that’s a commonality in all sports.”
A commonality between Glodich’s football and basketball methods is movement on offense, and just like it has done for decades on the gridiron, it’s having success now on the court.
“We know how to score and how to get kids moving, which makes us difficult to defend,” Glodich said. “We have one base offense, but we have some wrinkles going on. This group has some very good team speed, and we’re trying to put pressure on defenses, not letting them get settled.”
That speed also allows the Mariners to run, making up for a lack of size as the Mariners’ tallest player stands at just 6 feet, 4 inches.
“Even the drills we do in practice, basically we’re always running, and that correlates to the games,” Kretzschmar said. “Everyone on our team has such a high basketball IQ and we have a lot of chemistry built in over the last few years, so we know that we’re best when we’re running.”
That strategy helped make it a bit easier to transition from a football season that ended in the Division 5 Semifinals to the opening night of hoops in less than two weeks.
“Football got us conditioned, so we were already conditioned when we started the season,” Patsalis said. “When we got against that first team, we were ready to go.”
Glodich’s strong supporting staff also played a large role.
“Thankfully, I have a wonderful JV coach in Scott Hand,” Glodich said. “Not only did we go deep into the season with football, but basketball started a week early. In November, I had shoulder surgery, so it’s been a blessing to have such a wonderful JV coach who could handle things.”
The strong start never really stopped, as even the Mariners’ two losses came in double overtime against rival St. Clair, and to a 13-1 Richmond team. Winning the conference title was just the start, as there’s plenty more to play for the rest of the season.
“After Tuesday of next week, we get into the MAC tournament, so the Bronze and the Silver have four teams from each cross over in a three-game tournament,” Glodich said. “We would like to show that the Bronze, even though we’re the bottom level of the MAC, have a level of play that’s as competitive as the next league. Then, obviously, we move on to the District.”
There’s a long way to go, but the Mariners hope to at least continue building Marine City’s reputation as more than a football school.
“We kind of have a chip on our shoulder, because we’ve been known as a ‘football’ school for so long; we’re looking to bring that to basketball,” Kretzschmar said. “I think it’s just a special group of kids that we have, and everyone is trying to kind of change the culture to being an ‘athletic’ school.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Marine City’s Reese Adamczyk (40) pulls up for a jumper during last week’s win over Center Line. (Middle) Mariners coach Ron Glodich. (Below) Tanner Mason (33) muscles for a shot in the post. (Action photos by Ally Swantek.)
We Will Always Remember Trojans, Lumberjacks as 114-Year-Old Rivalry Nears End
By
Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
February 9, 2024
The MHSAA basketball record book still lacks a rivalries category. The state’s football record book offers clues to likely candidates, but without deep research, the participants and sequencing of such lists will remain unknown.
Certainly, among the candidates would be the annual boys basketball battles between Saginaw’s east side and west side – Saginaw High vs. Saginaw Arthur Hill. Come Friday, Feb. 16th, 2024, twilight falls on one of Michigan’s most intense. Because of its significance, the game will be hosted outside of a high school gymnasium.
Saginaw’s Dow Event Center will stage the final regular-season showdown between the Trojans and Lumberjacks. Titled the ‘Game of Legends,’ all 5,000 tickets for the celebration were snapped up in 20 minutes. After years of discussions, at the end of the school year, Saginaw High and Arthur Hill will combine to finalize the formation of Saginaw United High School.
Based on the research of Dave Slaggert, the series between schools began during the 1910-11 season at the Saginaw Manual Training School gymnasium. Head varsity boys basketball coach at Arthur Hill from 1996 through 2001, Slaggert spent five years compiling a book documenting the rivalry. Much of the manuscript has already been committed to paper. That includes a chapter penned by Michigan State University coaching legend Tom Izzo, who highlights the uniqueness of the crosstown rivalry, the crazy fans, and the talent that brought him regularly to town. Titled “Remember the Trojans & the Lumberjacks,” the concluding chapter awaits the results of the 2024 season.
The Beginnings
In 1889, Michigan’s State Legislature consolidated the cities of East Saginaw and Saginaw City into what we know today as Saginaw.
East Side High School opened in 1865. In 1901, West Side High School was renamed Arthur Hill, in honor of a former school board president and mayor of Saginaw City.
Football teams from Saginaw High (sometimes called Saginaw Eastern) and Arthur Hill High first met on the gridiron in 1894. In 1904, both joined Flint (Central) and two schools from Bay City to form the Saginaw Valley League. During the 1910-11 season, the boys squads from the Saginaw schools squared off on the basketball court for the first time.
“Saginaw High easily defeated the Arthur Hill High school basketball players … in the first game of the interscholastic series,” stated the Saginaw Daily News, “the final score standing 60 to 17. … (Bill) Steckert contributed 12 field baskets for the winners. … (Leo) Vondette starred for the losers.”
Perhaps it was a typo – it’s impossible to know – but the final score differed in the 1911 Saginaw yearbook – “The Aurora” – when published in the spring. “Before a large crowd of enthusiastic fans, Arthur Hill was decisively defeated in the local gym, the final count being 69 to 17, with the East Siders on the heavy end.”
The author concluded with flair and flourish: “Steckert starred for Saginaw, getting 24 points to his credit, while Vondette was the celestial light for the vanquished quintet. Dancing was enjoyed after the game.”
A week later, the Saginaw girls basketball team opened its season against the west siders. According to the yearbook, “Saginaw out-played Arthur Hill and defeated them by the score of 41-4.” The newspaper credited Leona Buck as the leading scorer, with a phenomenal 29 points.
The Inevitable Finale
The doors open at 3 p.m. for the 2024 festivities at The Dow next Friday. Fittingly, the Saginaw girls team will tip off the action on the court at 5 o’clock. The girls programs already have consolidated, and the Phoenix of Saginaw United will face Flint Carman-Ainsworth – a school that consolidated in 1986. The Hill and High contest is scheduled for 7 p.m.
“It’s really going to be a big deal,” said Slaggert, thrilled by the prospect. “Saginaw’s going all out for this. They’re trying to do it up in style.”
The wrap-up comes a decade after what, initially, looked like the end.
On Feb. 15, 2014, Detroit Free Press sportswriter Mick McCabe wrote about the expected unification.
“Saginaw and Saginaw Arthur Hill likely met for the last time ever in the regular season Friday,” he wrote. Saginaw had just knocked off the Lumberjacks, the No. 2 team in McCabe’s weekly ranking of the state’s top teams.
“The Saginaw-Arthur Hill basketball rivalry is the best in the state, so you shouldn’t be surprised when the underdog wins. But Saginaw (11-6) was coming off consecutive losses to Midland and Midland Dow for maybe the first time ever.”
The school district was expected to announce the closure of Saginaw High that following Monday, merging its students into Arthur Hill. The move would mean a new school name, new school colors, and a new nickname.
Like many urban centers across the country, outbound migration of both jobs and people, combined with plunging birth rates, had altered the demographics of cities, and the education landscape.
“In just five decades, the city's population dropped from nearly 100,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 52,000 by the 2010 census,” stated the Saginaw News in 2014. “To say it another way, Saginaw lost 48 percent of its residents during the last 50 years.”
McCabe cut to what that meant to enrollment numbers at the two schools: “In 1987, Saginaw High had over 1,800 students; it is now down to about 600. Arthur Hill had 2,395 students in ’85; it now has 973.”
Despite the defeat, McCabe predicted Arthur Hill to be among the final four Class A teams still standing that season when the annual MHSAA Tournament shifted to Michigan State’s Breslin Center. But in the craziness of March, the Trojans again took down Arthur Hill in the Districts, 53-51.
Adding to the madness, the expected consolidation didn’t happen. A recommendation by a Saginaw interim superintendent to close Saginaw High found no school board support.
With the potential consolidation still hovering, one year later sportswriter Bill Khan recalled other recent departures from Michigan’s classic basketball landscape in an article for the StateChamps! Sports Network:
“The Saginaw-Arthur Hill rivalry is at risk of going the way of other great urban rivalries – such as Flint Central-Flint Northern, Pontiac Central-Pontiac Northern, Lapeer East-Lapeer West, Detroit Cooley-Detroit Southwestern, Detroit Mackenzie-Detroit Redford, Detroit Kettering-Detroit Northeastern, Detroit Miller-Detroit Northern and Detroit Southeastern-Detroit Eastern, that have ended in years past due to school closures and consolidations.”
Arthur Hill downed the Trojans twice during the 2014-15 regular season league action, and again in postseason District play, before finishing the year as Class A runner-up, and the holding pattern of the planned school merger continued.
Enrollment numbers continued to drop at both schools and after much community and school board debate, construction on a brand-new five-story Saginaw United High School began in 2022.
A Celebration of Statistics
The state basketball tournament kicked off in 1917. Over 107 years, on only two occasions – in 1943 during World War II, and in 2020, due to COVID-19 – the tournament was not completed.
Slaggert breaks down the City of Saginaw School District’s incredible basketball history in a quick series of numbers.
“47-36-18-8,” said Slaggert, stressing a bullet point of a well-rehearsed pitch, breaking out the incredible success of the two schools come tournament time.
“During those 105 tournaments, 47 times, Saginaw High (starting in 1919) or Arthur Hill (beginning in 1930) made it into the state Quarterfinals – the final eight.
“That’s almost half of the 105 possible years. And in most cases throughout that rivalry, they would have played each other in the Districts. So how many more times would they have made it if they were coming in different brackets or different directions? “
To take that further, he noted, 36 times one of those teams made it into the final four. On 18 occasions, one of the two schools reached the state title game, and on eight occasions, they emerged as MHSAA state champions.
Six of those titles were won by Saginaw High (1942, 1962, 1996, 2007,2008, 2012). Arthur Hill’s championships were won in 1944 and 2006.
“That's a pretty incredible stat for two schools in the same town, don’t you think?” Slaggert asked.
That history also points out another Slaggert challenge. As illustrated, come March the schools could, in theory, bump into each other one more time come the postseason. This year, the teams are in different Districts, and could potentially cross paths in an MHSAA Regional.
A Parade of All-Staters
Between 1938 and 2023, a combined total of 106 players from the two schools – 10 or more in each decade from the 1940s to the 2010s – have earned all-state basketball honors from The Associated Press and/or one or more of the Detroit newspapers: the Free Press, News or Times.
Since the introduction of Michigan’s Mr. Basketball award in 1981, honoring the best-of-the-best from the state’s top high school seniors, 10 players from the two schools have landed among the top five in voting: Eric Davis (AH –‘15), Maurice Jones (AH –‘10), Draymond Green (S –‘08), Dar Tucker (AH –‘07), Anthony Roberson (S –‘02), Eugene Seals (S –’00, and head coach of the United girls basketball team), Jason Richardson (AH-‘99), Jessie Drain (S –‘91) and Daryl Reed (S –‘87). Richardson won the award. Davis, Green, Tucker, Roberson, and Seals all finished second in the annual voting.
Tony Smith (S -‘74), Craig Dill (AH -‘63), Ernie Thompson (S -‘62), Webster Kirksey (S -‘51), Dick Rifenburg (AH -‘44), and Larry Savage (S -‘42) were all honored by the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan with their Retro Mr. Basketball Award when the organization sought to honor the great seniors in Michigan high school basketball from the years 1920 through 1980. Seven others – James Koger (S -‘79), Lovell Humes (S – ’63), Bill Agre (AH -‘47), Gene Glick (AH -’46), Jack Mott (AH -’45), Eddie Johnson (S – ’43) and Stanley Paskiewicz (S -’38) – were among the candidates for that award.
Based on research by Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Robin Goddard, Saginaw High is likely the state’s winningest basketball program, trailed by Benton Harbor, Kalamazoo Central and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s.
Initially, Saginaw dominated the crosstown series with the Lumberjacks. But by the 1920s Arthur Hill overcame the deficit, and by the mid-1950s the Hill had opened a wide 25-game lead in wins versus losses. But by 1975, the gap had narrowed with the Trojans just six games back in the series. And yet, the exact status of the rivalry is still unknown, as the capture of game scores is spotty going forward.
The digging to capture those missing scores continues, as does the race to game day.
Slaggert has committed to printing 1,000 copies of his book. His challenge to date has been selling copies of something that does not yet, physically, exist. As it stands, currently there are 772 pages in the book. It includes a mind-blowing 800+ photos dating as far back as 1905. The sale price is fixed at $40. That currently means the production cost per copy exceeds the retail price, so Slaggert continues to chase sponsorships to defray the printing expense.
“It’s a non-profit effort,” he noted. “If there are any profits, they go to scholarships for the new high school. All money is run through the Saginaw Community Foundation,” which makes sponsorships tax-deductible.
His favorite memory from the series is his last victory as an Arthur Hill coach. It comes from 2001.
“Saginaw High defeated us 90-37 in the second game of that season and finished with a 17-5 season record that year,” he retold. “We had a modest 10-10 season record heading into the Districts but showed lots of improvement through the season. We met again in the District Finals. Saginaw High was led by Anthony Roberson, LaMarr Woodley, Michael Thomas and Tanoris Shepard and was ranked seventh in the state. In front of a sold-out Heritage High School crowd, our kids played their hearts out and, led by Devaundre Whitson, Omar Linder, and Freddy Jackson, pulled out a 68-66 overtime win! (It’s) my greatest thrill in coaching, and most of the old-timers say it’s the greatest upset in the rivalry.”
Slaggert retired from coaching after that season, and in the years to follow, found a desire to record the history of the series.
“I have nine living coaches from Saginaw and Arthur Hill that have written a chapter for me. I have eight others that I've written on Larry Laeding, Chuck Fowler, and different coaches that are deceased,” he said. “My intent is to give something back to my community. I didn’t do this for money. I wanted this story to be passed down to future generations – people 100 years from now about Jason Richardson, Draymond Green, Ernie Thompson, Craig Dill, and all the great ones.
“It’s a labor of love for me, I’ve really enjoyed it.”
To order Slaggert's book, click for the Facebook link or visit the Saginaw Community Foundation website, click "Give Now" and select the book title as Fund. Cost is $40 with an option including shipping for $52.
PHOTOS (Top) Saginaw Eugene Seals drives against Arthur Hill’s Jason Richardson – with coach Marshall Thomas in the background – during a sold-out 1999 game at the Saginaw Civic Center. (2) Arthur Hill’s Ernie Thompson and coach Larry Laeding accept the 1962 Class A championship trophy. (3) Saginaw High’s Webster Kirksey (30) puts up a shot; he graduated in 1951. (4) Richard dunks at the final buzzer as Arthur Hill downs top-ranked Flint Northwestern in a 1999 Class A Regional matchup. (Photos collected by Dave Slaggert. Top photo courtesy of Saginaw News/MLive.)