Bowie, 'Clamp Nation' Lock Down D1 Win
November 7, 2015
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
BRIGHTON – Moments after the end of the MHSAA Division 1 boys soccer championship game at Brighton High School late Saturday afternoon, students and fans from Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central were chanting in unison, “MIS-TER SOC-CER.”
The object of the chant was senior Anthony Bowie, who scored the first goal of the game as Forest Hills Central captured its first MHSAA championship since winning the Division 2 title in 2004 with a 2-0 victory over defending Division 1 champion Canton.
Bowie did not seem too concerned about the chant or the upcoming announcement of the award.
“I tried not to pay attention to that,” he said. “I was just focused on the team.”
Bowie tied the school record for goals in a season with number 42 in the seventh minute of the game on an assist from Max Postlewait. Bowie was right in front of the goal when he booted it past the goalkeeper.
“Max put a ball over the top, and it was falling down and I was all by myself, and I was just looking to frame it one time, and I put it on frame,” he said.
It was a key goal. The previous four Division 1 championship games ended 1-0, so goals are sometimes at a premium.
“It was huge,” Forest Hills Central coach Blair Lincoln said. “We talked about not chasing the match and getting out in front and having them react and chase us.
“Anytime you can get a goal and go up 1-0, that just puts them on their heels and they start reacting to our game plan a little bit. To get a goal and go up 1-0 into the wind in the first half was a positive for us. We talked about being defensive in the second half, and good things happened.”
Canton coach Mark Zemanski had to look only one game back for hope facing a 1-0 deficit.
“We were down 1-0 in the semis, so I knew we could come back, or I hoped we could come back,” he said. “It didn’t happen.
“They were a very good team. Bowie was the best forward we’ve faced all year by far. He was good.”
Bowie, who is headed to Western Michigan University, also assisted on Forest Hills Central’s second goal of the game, and Lincoln said that part of his game is often overlooked.
“Anthony is a special player,” Lincoln said. “He had 42 goals this year, but what is even more impressive is his ability to generate almost 25 assists. He was a part of almost 70 goals this year.
“I really like his opportunity to be Mr. Soccer. He’s just a special player. He’s physical, he’s big, he’s explosive and he can change a match. If you focus on him, it will go to someone else. If you focus on someone else, it’s coming in to him.
“He’s very dynamic and one of the best players I’ve ever coached.”
With the 1-0 lead, the Rangers became a little more defensive-orientated and relied on sophomore goalkeeper Jared Ireland and the unit that has become known as “Clamp Nation.”
“It’s fantastic,” Ireland said. “I have to give a good round of applause to my defense. They stayed tight throughout the game. There were a couple of good chances, but we pulled through at the end and clamped it down for Clamp Nation.”
Ireland faced his greatest challenge with four minutes left in the second half. He had to dive to his right to stop the ball from hitting the back of the net and tying the game.
“It was a very high-reaction save and very difficult,” Ireland said. “I was very nervous in the last 10 minutes of the game. Those last 10 minutes seemed like they lasted as long as the whole season.”
A few minutes later, junior Mohamed Haji scored with an assist from Bowie, and the Rangers had a 2-0 lead with just a few minutes to play.
“Our goal was not to be content getting here,” Lincoln said. “You’re playing the defending state champs and a very good squad, and they fought hard all the way to the end.”
Three years ago, this probably did not seem possible for the Rangers, who won just five games in 2012, the first season under Lincoln.
“Our first year, we had a young team, and we all grew together,” Bowie said. “We had a core group of guys throughout the whole time, and we just grew up together. We just stayed together.
“There were three of us as freshman, then seven as sophomores and then 12 as juniors. It feels awesome, and hopefully these guys carry it on for the next few years and learn from the seniors.”
Zemanski was obviously disappointed that Canton did not become the first team to repeat as Division 1 champion since East Kentwood in 2007-08 but pointed out that his team lost to another good team.
“The boys knew they had their backs to the wall,” he said. “They knew this team wasn’t going to give up, and they had to work together to generate some opportunities, and we generated some but couldn’t find the back of the net. Hats off to them. That’s a very good team.”
The Rangers, who started the season with dreams of an undefeated season and an MHSAA championship, had three ties, and Bowie pointed out that one of them might have served as a springboard into the playoffs.
“The last game of the regular season (against East Grand Rapids), we were up 3-0, and in 10 minutes they scored to make it 3-3,” Bowie said. “It was a reality check, like they can beat us, and that’s when we really came together and said we have to stay focused, and we were able to do that throughout the playoffs.”
PHOTOS: Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, including Marshall Brummel (20), celebrate Saturday. (Middle) Rangers surround Canton’s Ryen O’Meara, including Noah Saleh (3) and Jake Ireland (9).
Soccer, Hoops Next to Seed Using MPR
August 6, 2019
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
As the topic of seeding for MHSAA Tournaments continues to swirl in the air of numerous committee meetings on an annual basis, one of the primary concerns continues to focus on the simple question: “How?”
The MHSAA for years has been working behind the scenes on potential formulas which could best be used as a standardized tool to assist in measuring strengths of teams in a given sport.
This spring, the MHSAA introduced the Michigan Power Rating in the sport of Boys Lacrosse. The Representative Council approved limited seeding beginning in 2019-20 for girls and boys soccer and girls and boys basketball, and MPR will be the metric to determine which two teams must be seeded on opposite sides of District brackets in those sports.
“The boys lacrosse tournament has been seeded since it was added as an MHSAA-sponsored sport in 2005. The seeding is done by committee based on several criteria, one of which was statewide power rankings generated by a third-party website. In the Fall of 2018, that website ceased operation – it was the perfect opportunity for the MHSAA to develop its own data-driven, purely objective ratings system and incorporate that data into the seeding criteria,” said Cole Malatinsky, administrative assistant for the sport.
“The benefits of the new MPR system have been already mentioned – it is MHSAA controlled, simple, objective, and transparent, and it can be used by other MHSAA sports in the future.”
MPR is a computer rating formula similar to the popular RPI rating. MPR provides a way to measure a team’s strength relative to other teams, based on games played against other MHSAA tournament teams, largely on the strength of their opponents’ schedules. MPR is purely objective using only the game results listed on MHSAA.com – there is no subjective human element.
What is the basic MPR formula?
MPR is calculated using wins, losses and ties for games played between teams entered into the MHSAA tournament. The final MPR number is 25% of the team's winning percentage, plus 50% of its opponent's winning percentage, plus 25% of its opponent's opponent's winning percentage.
MPR = (.25 x W%) + (.50 x OW%) + (.25 x OOW%)
The MPR formula can be applied easily to other MHSAA team sports.
What game data is included in the formula? What game data is not?
MPR looks only at results between opponents entered into the MHSAA postseason tournament. Wins, losses and ties in multi-team shortened game tournaments (lacrosse, soccer) also count. Forfeits also are counted as wins and losses.
MPR does not use the specific scores of a game or the margin of victory in a game. The location of a game is not included in the MPR formula, and the formula weighs results at the beginning of the season the same as results at the end of the season. Scrimmages are not included.
Why use the MPR formula?
Different rating systems have been used in the past or have been recommended to the MHSAA. We wanted to have a rating system where the data was controlled and stored in house and could be used for any sport featuring head-to-head competitions.
With its own rating system the MHSAA also can control the different components of the formula, thus keeping the tenets of scholastic competition at the forefront (like not including margin of victory in the formula). Finally, by listing all scores and team schedules online, as well as showing the MPR calculator on each team schedule page, the ratings are transparent and can be replicated easily.
CALCULATING MPR
What are the detailed components of the MPR formula?
You need three numbers to calculate your MPR: winning percentage (W%), opponent’s winning percentage (OW%) and opponent’s opponent’s winning percentage (OOW%).
How do you calculate winning percentage (W%)?
Divide the number of wins by the number of total games played. A tie is worth half a win. For MPR purposes, find the winning percentage against all teams that will play in the MHSAA tournament (MPR W%). Games played against out-of-state teams, varsity “B” teams, junior varsity teams, non-school club teams, and any other non-MHSAA tournament participants should not be included when calculating winning percentage. W% should be an easy number to calculate.
How do you calculate opponent’s winning percentage (OW%)?
Average the winning percentages of a team's opponents. When calculating the winning percentage of a specific opponent, use the opponents "Adjusted Winning Percentage" (ADJ W%). Adjusted winning percentage eliminates all games the team played against that opponent (as well as its games against non-MHSAA opponents).
For instance, if the team beat an opponent with an overall record of 4-1, use a record of 4-0 (1.000) for that opponent. If the team lost to an opponent, use a record of 3-1 (.750). Find the ADJ W% for all opponents, and then take the average. If a team plays an opponent team twice, that opponent’s ADJ W% will be counted twice.
OW% is not calculated via the combined record of the opponents; instead take the average of all opponent’s winning percentages.
How do you calculate opponent’s opponent’s winning percentage (OOW%)?
Use the same process described above, except calculated for the opponents of a team's opponents. This number is much harder to manually calculate, so the OW% for every team is listed on the MPR page of the MHSAA website.
Again, simply take the average of all opponent’s OW%.
How often is MPR calculated?
MPR is calculated about every five minutes. Enter a score and a minutes later the team MPR and the MPR of all the team's opponents will update.
How much will my MPR change throughout the season?
You will see wild MPR swings in the beginning of the season, but after about 10 games played your MPR will start to level out. At 20 games played you will see very little movement with each additional game played.
My score is missing. How can it be added?
This is a crowd-sourced system. Any registered user of MHSAA.com can add a missing score. ADs, coaches, parents, students and fans all can login and enter a score for any game.
What are some common errors when calculating MPR?
When calculating your team’s winning percentage, only include games against MHSAA-tournament teams. When calculating your opponent’s winning percentage, don’t include the games they played against you. When calculating ties, count the game as a half-win and half-loss.
What happens if a game is cancelled?
Because the MPR system works off of averages, it will not make a difference in the final MPR if a game cannot be rescheduled. It would not penalize, nor benefit, any team involved in that scenario.
USING THE WEBSITE
Where can I find game scores?
A list of statewide scores for all sports can be found in the MHSAA Score Center. To find a schedule for any team click on “Schools & Schedules” in the top navigation bar, search for the school, then once on the school page click the sport. You can also see a list of all schools (with links to schedules), on the statewide MPR list.
“We continue to have great success in score reporting for varsity boys lacrosse contests. While we state that schedule submission and score reporting to MHSAA.com are required, athletic directors and coaches understand that in order for MPR data to be accurate, we need consistent and accurate score reporting,” said Malatinsky. “MHSAA.com is now the primary site for high school boys lacrosse schedules, results and ratings in the state.”
How should I use the statewide list of teams and MPR?
Linked to the boys soccer page (and eventually to be added for both basketball pages and girls soccer) is a statewide listing of all Michigan Power Ratings (MPR) for teams entered into the MHSAA postseason tournament for that sport. Linked on the MPR page is an explanation of the District draw formula, describing when and how teams will be placed on the bracket.
The MPR data updates every five minutes. Click on the column headings to sort the data. You also can use the drop-down menu to show teams in one Division, or type a District number in the box to filter teams for that District (Region for boys lacrosse).
You also can click on any school name to go to its schedule page.
How do I read the school schedule page?
The schedule at the top of the page shows the date and opponent for all scheduled games, and results for games already played. If results are missing, click “Submit Score” to add a game score.
Below the game schedule is the MPR Calculator. The calculator is split into three sections. The first section shows the three MPR component scores for the team, as well as the team’s current MPR score. The second section shows the MPR information for the team’s opponents – specifically, for the opponents the team already has played (actually, for games where scores have been submitted). Only these games are included in the MPR calculation.
The third section highlights future opponents. The MPR data for future opponents are not used in the MPR calculation for the team.
PHOTO: East Kentwood and Ann Arbor Skyline play for last season’s Division 1 boys soccer championship.