Rockford's Lewis Aims to Finish On Top
October 16, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Dewey Lewis received two rare opportunities as a freshman at Rockford High School that helped set him up for a long and successful high school soccer career.
He was promoted to the varsity soccer team – something that usually doesn’t happen at a school as big as Rockford, or in a program as successful.
And he got the opportunity to play with his brother Sean, a senior at the time who now plays goalkeeper at Western Michigan University.
But Dewey had plenty of learning to do before setting himself apart as possibly the state’s top high school player this fall with the Rams heading into their Division 1 District opener tonight at Okemos.
“When I was a freshman, I didn’t want to put in the extra work. I was willing to do the minimum I needed to do to get by,” Lewis said. “But the past couple years I’ve become more mature. My effort has gotten better, and that’s allowed me to make the team better.
“You can be extremely skilled and everything, but if you don’t put in the effort, there’s not a good chance you’re going to succeed. A big part of that is having both the skill and effort, but you’ve got to be willing to put the team before yourself.”
And frequently, Lewis has put Rockford’s team on his shoulders as well.
The senior forward, a Second Half High 5 honoree, entered this week’s postseason play with 52 goals and 46 assists for his career. Last season he broke the team’s single-season scoring record with 20 goals and made the Division 1 all-state third team. Although the career assists just make the bottom of the MHSAA record book list, his body of work from a statistical standpoint doesn’t necessarily jump out compared to some of the ridiculous numbers put up by others over the years.
But context is important. Few players above him on those lists played four years for an MHSAA power, surrounded by similarly-skilled teammates and against competition to match.
This season, bouncing all over the front line and midfield in order to avoid increased defensive attention, Lewis has 17 goals and 12 assists, and Rockford was ranked No. 2 in Division 1 heading into Monday’s games.
“This year his performance has been more dynamic because there’s been so much added pressure. Teams are trying to take him out of the game, but he has nearly the same stats,” Rockford coach Steve Thomas said.
“But that’s what’s great about Dew. He’s a pass-first guy. He’s so willing to give the ball up, to put the ball into a more dangerous situation. I would categorize him as one of the most unselfish kids I've been around.”
The two butted heads at times early in Lewis’ career. Partly, it was because of some of that immaturity that Lewis admits. He also came to the Rams playing at a high club level, but had to adjust to the more physical style of the high school game.
His first two seasons, Lewis was “just fitting in” to those teams, Thomas said. He’d talk with Lewis after practices and express his expectations for his young but talented forward. Sean also kept tabs on his brother, refusing to let him slack off.
At the end of his sophomore season, everything started to click. That next summer, Dewey played a significant role on a Grand Rapids Crew club team that won a U-17 national championship. Last fall, Lewis became the first junior Thomas knows of at Rockford to be named a captain.
He was selected for the same this fall, but not after making a major decision. For the first time, Michigan high school players were forced to pick between high school soccer and playing for U.S. Soccer Development Academy teams that also play during the fall. Lewis was among the elite with the option to do both.
Many from his grade, especially from the Detroit area, chose academy teams. But Lewis – who has committed to play at Michigan State University next fall – decided to stick with the Rams.
Part of his reasoning came down to the high school atmosphere – Rockford played East Kentwood in front of 2,000 fans last season. Part was influenced by the opportunity to play with his hometown friends one more time. And the biggest part likely came down to style of play – he considered the higher-skilled competition he’d see at the academy level, but thought he might benefit more from the harder work and effort he’d have to put in to succeed at the high school game.
And getting one last chance to succeed at this level is the biggest reason he’s back in orange and black this fall. Hailing from any other region of the state, Rockford could have made deep runs in the MHSAA tournaments his first three seasons. But the Rams fell to East Kentwood during the District tournament to end each one, and East Kentwood went on to win the Division 1 championship in 2010.
The Falcons are the only team ranked ahead of Rockford this week, and would be the District Semifinal opponent Thursday if the Rams can get past No. 7 Okemos tonight.
“I think I learned a lot from this season, and going forward it made me a better player in different areas that I wasn’t improving on before,” Lewis said. “There was a lot of pressure to be one of the stars on a high school team, and it helped me learn about dealing with the pressure.
“I don’t like leaving things half done. It was nice to come back and be able to finish things off."
PHOTOS: (Top) Rockford's Dewey Lewis works between two defenders during a game earlier this season. (Middle) Lewis works to pass an East Kentwood player. Rockford could play East Kentwood in a District Semifinal on Wednesday.
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.