South Lyon Soccer Standout Dives Back In for Big Pool Finish

By Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half

March 10, 2022

Never mind that swimming isn't Josh Mason's best sport. Forget the fact that he left the sport after his freshman year to concentrate on his first love – soccer.

Well, Mason is back in the pool and he's making waves.

This weekend Mason and his South Lyon teammates will head to the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Swimming & Diving Finals at the Holland Aquatic Center.

The prelims begin at noon Friday with the championship races starting at noon Saturday.

Mason, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound senior all-state center-back on the soccer team, qualified in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles, but he and coach John Burch have decided to forego his entry into the 100 in an attempt to enhance South Lyon's chances in the team competition. In addition to the 50, Mason will compete in all three relays – the 200 medley and two freestyle relays (200 and 400).

Opting out of the 100 suits Mason just fine. His best event is the 50, and he said “the last 25 (yards) of the 100 is a struggle for me. It takes everything I have to get through it.”

Whether it's in the pool, on the pitch or in the classroom, Mason never gives anything less than 100 percent. His drive to excel, he quickly admits, comes from his parents, Caroline and Chuck Mason.

Both competed in athletics; Caroline was a collegiate track athlete, and Chuck played soccer in high school.

South Lyon soccer“I started swimming when I was 3 or 4,” Mason said. “It was just one of those things where my parents wanted me to learn how to swim. I just really enjoyed it, and I kept coming back.”

His start in soccer also came before the age of 5 and Mason found a balance by competing in both, though soccer gradually became priority one.

“With my dad having played soccer, he's enjoyed being around and being a part of it,” Mason said.

“I always loved soccer. I have a love-hate relationship with swimming. It gets you into shape. (Swim) practices are hard. I use it for conditioning. It translates well to soccer.”

Mason competed in swimming because it was fun at an early age. When he entered high school, he realized he was pretty good at it – and so, that being the case, why not try out for the swim team?

Burch was there to welcome him with open arms.

“Josh? He's just an elite athlete,” Burch said. “He wants to succeed. He wants to excel. He's worked hard to get where he's at.”

Like Burch, South Lyon soccer coach Brian Elliott, who just completed his 10th season as the boys head coach, knew he had an outstanding player when Mason entered high school.

“He was a man among boys, even when he was a freshman,” Elliott said. “We knew he was something special. He was a three-year captain. That doesn't happen. He's our first for the boys program. He was one of our tallest players even when he was a freshman. He was thin then, but he's filled out since. As a center-back, the best ones are tall. And he has the agility of someone who's 5-8 or 5-9. Josh is somehow this physical phenom. The last two years he was able to physically dominate.

“He's a once-in-a-lifetime student-athlete for a coach.”   

But as a swimmer his freshman year, was Mason in over his head competing for one of the top, if not best, swim programs in the Lakes Valley Conference? He was eager to find out. 

Was he inexperienced? Absolutely. Did he show promise? No question.

South Lyon swimmingThere was one snag. His commitment to soccer.

“His mother and I had a conversation before the season,” Burch said. “She told me that he wouldn't be able to compete at the Finals because there was a big soccer tournament., When it came time for the Finals), I thought, I could really use Josh. I'm sure he wished he could have competed at the states. But soccer was his sport. I understand that.”

As Mason's involvement with soccer increased, his time for other outside activities shrunk. This led to his decision not to compete in swimming his sophomore and junior years. But a promise was made, behind closed doors.

Burch said Mason's teammates continued to recruit him to return. Mason had one stipulation – once his soccer season was over, and his verbal commitment was made to a university, he would be free to rejoin the swim team. In October, Mason committed to Michigan State – opening the door for his return.

“I always thought he'd come back,” Burch said.

It took Mason a few weeks to get back into shape in the pool, and when he did, he took off. At the conference meet he won both of his individual events and was part of two winning relay teams (200 and 400 freestyles) as South Lyon took home the title.

“I knew what kind of kid he is,” Burch said. “I had him in class in the eighth grade. When he came back this year, I didn't know what I'd get. I didn't know what to expect. Heck, he'd been away for two years. Maybe he'd go through the motions. But he's not that type. If he's going to do something, you know he's going to do it well. I knew I was getting a good kid, someone who will add to the team.

“Sure, he's accomplished a lot. At the same time, when he was a freshman, if you would have said he would accomplish all of this, I would say, yes.”

Regardless of how races finish this weekend, there's a happy ending. Mason, a remarkable student as well sporting a 4.1 GPA, has his scholarship. The South Lyon swim team welcomed a teammate back.  And Burch is sending another competitive team to the MHSAA Finals.

Tom Markowski primarily covered high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. He also is a former correspondent and web content director for State Champs! Sports Network. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.

PHOTOS (Top) South Lyon’s Josh Mason shows his medal after winning the 50 freestyle at the Lakes Valley Conference championship meet. (Middle) Mason sends a shot toward the net during a game last fall. (Below) Mason launches at the start of the 100 freestyle league final. (Photos courtesy of the Mason family.)

WO Last-Second Win Will Live Forever

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

March 29, 2019

They’re going to be talking about the final second of this swimming & diving season for a long time at Holland West Ottawa.

By sixth hundredths of that second, the Panthers edged Detroit Catholic Central to finish first in the 400-yard freestyle relay at the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals at Holland Aquatic Center. West Ottawa led DCC by only two points heading into that final race, and the 40 additional points for the win – compared to 34 for DCC as runner-up – clinched for the Panthers’ first MHSAA championship in this sport since 1971.

That would be plenty to earn West Ottawa the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” honor for March. But it’s just the finish of the story.

The Panthers also had come in runners-up last season and in 2015. They’ve won 47 straight dual meets, stretching back more than five seasons, and six straight league titles. West Ottawa also won all of its invitationals this winter.

But claiming the ultimate championship brought an even greater amount of significance to those achievements.

“This year, this was the expectation,” Panthers coach Steve Bowyer said. “Going into that last relay, there was a lot of pressure because this was a culmination of everything these seniors had been through the last four years. Obviously, as a coach, you’re just sitting there hoping it’s going to go your way, because of what the expectation has been.

“For this group of boys, even if they’d gone in and swam the way they did and gotten beat, it’s still a successful season. But this was the one meet these guys had been working for because we’ve gotten the previous conference championships and invite wins, and after finishing runner-up twice the last 4-5 years, this was the goal for this group.”

The Panthers secured the team win in part with first places in the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley from senior Derek Maas, the 200 medley swam by Maas, senior Khadin Soto, junior Gavin Temple and freshman Kevin Maas and the 400 with junior Jamahl Hogan and senior Sam Smith leading off for Maas and then Soto.

The medley relay’s time of 1:31.01 was the third-fastest in MHSAA Finals history, all classes and divisions included. Maas’ IM time of 1:46.70 also ranked third in that event, and Soto’s runner-up time in the breaststroke of 55.33 ranked eighth on the all class/division list for that race. Maas won the butterfly in 48.02 and holds the West Ottawa school records that race and the IM, as does Soto in the breaststroke. The 200 medley relay also set a school mark this season, topping a record board that surely ranks as one of the most impressive in the state – consider that during this decade alone, West Ottawa had 11 individual and five relay Finals champions.

But the team title was another level of accomplishment.

The feeling on this run was different than when Bowyer led the West Ottawa girls team to the LPD1 title in Division 1, because of the great expectations. That girls team was looking for a third or fourth-place Finals finish but pushed into contention with a big first day.

This boys team was ranked No. 1, and as noted, finished first in every dual and invite – made all the more impressive considering West Ottawa’s Ottawa-Kent Conference Red also included LPD1 third-place Hudsonville, 13th-place Rockford, 18th-place Grand Haven and 31st-place East Kentwood.

Keep in mind as well that West Ottawa isn’t the only swimming power, much less MHSAA champion, in its community. Holland Christian won its second straight LPD3 title last month, and West Ottawa won by 35 points when those two met in December. West Ottawa also took a 46-point dual win over neighbor Zeeland, which went on to finish 12th in LPD1, and a 56-point dual win over Holland High, which finished 16th in LPD2.

All set the stage for the Panthers’ Finals run, and last-second win, which has been replayed during post-meet get-togethers, a school assembly, and when Bowyer has had some moments to himself as he’s watched it, said jokingly, “probably more than I should.”

“Being the number one-ranked team all year long, and to have some of the early success we had and put up the times we did, going into that meet, I felt pretty confident,” Bowyer said. “We felt it was going to be our year. We’d had good teams in the past. But a few years ago we ran into Brother Rice which was phenomenal, and Ann Arbor Skyline last year had a great year. This year, we felt it was our year.

“Detroit Catholic Central, I felt, had a phenomenal meet, made things closer than a lot of people expected, and I definitely tipped my hat to them. We feel fortunate to be on the winning end on that touch.”

Past Teams of the Month, 2018-19

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) Holland West Ottawa celebrates its first MHSAA Finals championship in boys swimming & diving since 1971. (Middle) Khadin Soto was among the team’s stars during the LPD1 meet. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)