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Thumb Rivals Honor Connor 'One Last Time'
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
February 28, 2017
Jay Burton said one of his biggest fears after his son Connor passed away in 2009 was that he would be forgotten.
But eight years after his death, the memory of Connor Burton is as strong as ever in Marlette and Brown City, the two communities he managed to make a big impact on during his 10 years on Earth.
“Any parent that’s lost a child, one of the biggest fears is that your child will be forgotten,” Jay Burton said. “They never are, but that’s any parent’s fear. But he’ll be a part of this community for the rest of our lives.”
This past Friday, the two schools met in Marlette for the eighth and final Team Connor Classic, a game that has celebrated Connor’s life since the year after it ended. On this night, Marlette came away with a 49-40 victory, winning the game for the eighth straight time in what would have been Connor’s senior year.
“It’s a good time to call it quits,” Jay Burton said.
Connor’s life
On Thursday, April 16, 2009, Connor went to his gymnastics and baseball practices before shooting baskets outside his house until the sun set and he could no longer see the hoop.
It was a typical day for the energetic 10-year-old, who was described by many as a gym rat and a lover of all sports.
“Whatever sport was in season, he would be ready to play,” said Connor’s uncle Tony Burton, Brown City’s athletic director and former boys basketball coach. “During the winter, basketball was something that was a high priority with him. Obviously, he got taken from us too soon, but he sure loved sports.”
He was good at them, too. His friend Hunter Kelly, now a senior on Marlette’s boys basketball team, said Connor was a better basketball player than most of their friends when they were young.
In the Thumb, Burtons and basketball are synonymous, and Connor seemed poised to be the next in that line – even if he was coming through the Marlette program and not the Brown City one his uncle was leading and for which his cousins had starred. Connor was even a manager, along with his cousin Caleb Muxlow (who is a senior on this year’s Brown City team), for his uncle’s team.
On Friday, April 17, 2009, Connor, who it would be found suffered from Long QT – a heart rhythm disorder – passed away less than 24 hours after shooting his last shot.
“Basically the electrical system in the heart, which tells it to beat, his wasn’t running correctly,” Jay Burton said. “The thing about it was, you would have never known. … I went (into Connor’s room that morning) and the only weird thing he said to me was, ‘Dad, why did you open the door so fast?’
“I didn’t think anything of it, I flicked his light on, and when I came back he hadn’t made it out of bed. He had cardiac arrest.”
A tradition is born
The following basketball season, the Team Connor Classic was born, and the two communities that Connor loved showed their love for him. There were tributes and tears, and a great basketball rivalry was all of a sudden elevated to another level.
“It’s always been a good game between Brown City and Marlette,” Tony Burton said. “We border each other, we’re in the same county, so it’s usually a pretty good game when we play, regardless of records. It means a lot, and for both teams when we play each other, we want to win. But when the game’s over we still have our friendships and our associations with each other.”
While they compete for bragging rights, and often for Greater Thumb Conference East championships, Marlette and Brown City actually have a long history of coming together for good causes.
“Us and Marlette, we have a great relationship,” Brown City High School principal Neil Kohler said. “We do the pink out game in football every other year at our place, we do the Team Connor game. We did a basketball game last year where both teams gathered water for the Flint crisis. So, it’s probably our biggest rival, but also our biggest partnership. When they came to our place about three weeks ago our local rotary did a pancake dinner and had about 400 people come in from Marlette hospice to raise money. The two communities really come together.”
The Team Connor game has a different feeling than most tribute games because of its unique connection of the family to two tight-knit communities.
That was apparent in the latest edition, as Connor’s family – his father, his mother Sue, and his sisters Lindsey and Annie – were given a signed basketball from the Brown City community, and a bouquet of flowers and a blanket tiled with memories from all eight Team Connor Classics from the Marlette community. After the game, the family handed out medals to each player on both teams, receiving from them many long, heartfelt hugs.
It’s not easy for the family, especially in a year when Connor would have been the one on the court with his classmates enjoying a season that has seen the Red Raiders go 18-1 and clinch the GTC East title.
“This is only the second game I’ve watched the Marlette boys play (this season),” Jay Burton said. “I can’t watch them. I see Hunter Kelly; the kid stands a foot taller than me. What would Connor have been? He’s the 10-year-old in front of me and all of his friends are 18 getting ready to graduate high school.
“Caleb Muxlow, his cousin who plays for Brown City, I can go watch simply because he’s family. But this is only the second time I’ve seen (Marlette) play. It just hurts too much.”
Each team came out for warm-ups in the same Team Connor shirts, which combined the green of Brown City and the red of Marlette, and read “One Last Time.” They sat on the court before the game to watch the presentations and a slideshow of photos from Connor’s life and Team Connor Classics past, and stood with one another during the national anthem.
“I think this one was a special night mainly because these were his classmates,” Marlette coach Chris Storm said. “The rivalry has gotten stronger and stronger between us. It was there because of the league before, but it adds a lot of pressure to both teams and you could see that in the game.
“But it means a lot to see how many people come out for the event. The pastor comes back; he’s been out of the area for three years. It’s a great environment for kids to play high school basketball. It’s a District or a Regional feel almost on a regular-season night.”
As the game tipped off, Marlette took the court with four players. It’s a newer, but impactful tradition that was added in the years Connor would have been playing in the game.
“It was quite a surprise (the first year),” Jay Burton said.
It’s a sign that Connor is certainly not forgotten, and while the Team Connor Classic may be going away, anyone who played in one, coached one or simply attended one, will never forget it.
“It means that we’re remembering a great kid that would have given a lot more to his community if he had more time,” Kelly said. “It shows that us as a senior class, the way we represent ourselves as a team and a community, is reflecting who he was. It means a lot because he would have been a senior this year, he probably would have been playing with us. He was better than me, he was better than a lot of these kids, so he probably would have been starting, too.
“So it means a lot to play in remembrance of him, because he’s missing out on all these memories.”
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) Annie Burton, Connor Burton’s younger sister, presents Marlette boys basketball coach Chris Storm with the “Team Connor Classic” trophy after Friday’s game. (Middle) Hunter Kelly hugs Connor’s father Jay Burton as the family welcomes both teams' players. (Below) The game program from the night celebrated Connor Burton’s life and legacy. (Photos by Paul Costanzo.)
![Traverse City Central’s Anthony Ribel, left, gets to the basket during his first game this season, against Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern on Jan. 2.](/sites/default/files/2024-01/240119_TCC_2H.jpg)
Ribel's Return Sets Up TC Central for 2nd-Half Rebound, Postseason Push
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
January 19, 2024
Best of three.
That’s the perspective Traverse City Central’s varsity basketball team has as the Trojans travel to play undefeated Cadillac tonight. And really, they have the same vision for most of their Big North Conference opponents as they reach midseason.
Central has hopes of getting in two or more wins against those rivals with a third meeting likely coming during the postseason. Central also is hopeful of getting to play those conference and postseason games with their leading scorer Anthony Ribel healthy and in the line-up.
Ribel missed the first seven games this season with a foot injury, including an opening day 68-33 route by the Vikings on the Trojans’ court. He will be in the line-up this time – and the Trojans are a much more confident and experienced team than they were in the first meeting.
Cadillac is entering tonight 10-0 overall and 5-0 in the Big North. Central, 2-8 but coming off its highest-scoring game in 15 years (a 94-50 victory over Alpena), owns a 2-3 league record. But the Trojans haven’t given up winning the conference title just yet. Ribel’s injury occurred at practice just three days before the season opener, and since returning he has averaged 30 points per game.
“Cadillac beat us pretty bad,” second-year coach Ben Fischer acknowledged. “The guys are very motivated to show them how we play Trojans basketball.
“Anthony is a big addition – it goes without saying,” he continued. “We’re a much different team offensively and defensively than we were before.”
Last year, the 6-foot-3 Ribel broke the junior-season scoring record at Traverse City Central previously owned by Dan Majerle, who played 14 seasons in the NBA, made three all-star teams and helped the U.S. Olympic team to a bronze medal in 1988. Ribel scored more than 600 points and also eclipsed the 1,000-point career mark during his junior campaign.
Despite missing the first third of this season, Ribel has a shot at Majerle’s career scoring record of 1,388 points. He started this winter with 1,133 career points after joining the varsity as a freshman.
Ribel recalled how he struggled through Cadillac’s lopsided win in the season opener while sitting the bench. Cadillac dominated the inside game, and Ribel is confident that will change tonight.
“When you lose at home by that much, it is embarrassing,” Ribel noted. “We have a lot of extra motivation.
“We’re less worried about what they can get from outside — we’re more worried about what they can do inside,” he continued. “We just have to take over the paint the best we can.”
Ribel led the way with 25 points in the Alpena win. The Trojans also got contributions from Owen Ribel (20 points), Brendan Slack (12 points), EJ Maitland (10 points), Jaden Clark (10 points, five assists), Jack Potgieter (nine points, eight rebounds) and Ethan Rademacher (five assists).
“We’re starting to find our stride.” Fischer pointed out. “Guys are getting a lot more dialed into their roles. We have relied on a lot of guys who didn’t have much experience coming into the season. Now they know they can go out there and compete having played some really good teams already.”
Slack is averaging 11.2 points per game and Maitland is contributing 10.1. Potgieter and Anthony Ribel are collecting six rebounds per game. Maitland and Potgieter kick in more than two assists.
Owen Ribel, only a sophomore, is also making a big mark for the Trojans. He’s thrown down a few dunks and had the 20-point effort against Alpena.
Owen and Anthony are the sons of past Trojans standout Ryan Ribel, a key team member of the last Central team to win a Regional, back in 1996. As a junior that year, Ryan Ribel averaged 17.5 points per game.
This season’s potential District opener opponents include the Big North’s Gaylord, Alpena, Petoskey and Traverse City West. Marquette also is in the District. The Trojans have wins over Alpena and Petoskey and lost to Gaylord and West the first time around. Anthony Ribel’s second game back was against West. He scored 19 points, but the Titans prevailed 64-59 with some strong free throw shooting down the stretch. Cadillac is a possible Regional opponent.
Regardless of tonight’s outcome, the Trojans will look forward to every rematch that comes their way as they hope to win all of their best-of-three series – of even sweep them.
“We’ve got a really good group of young men who are hungry to compete,” Fischer said. “Our biggest goal is to win Districts and hopefully Regionals. We’re getting a little bit better every single day.”
Anthony Ribel agreed.
“My teammates were put in some uncomfortable positions to start the year,” he said. “I think it will benefit us for the rest of the season.
“Getting the chemistry back with each other is going to be important,” he continued. “We need to string some big games together with all of us healthy, and make a good run.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Traverse City Central’s Anthony Ribel, left, gets to the basket during his first game this season, against Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern on Jan. 2. (Middle) Ribel elevates for a jumper. (Photos by Rick Sack, TC Rick Photo.)