![Berrien Springs Boys Track & Field](/sites/default/files/2022-06/220629_BerrienSpringsBTF_2H.png)
Team of the Month: Berrien Springs Boys Track & Field
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
June 29, 2022
With two elite standouts comparable to the best pairs on any team statewide, and a deep group of sprinters capable of scoring major points, Berrien Springs track & field coach Johnathan Rodriguez had a feeling this could be a special spring for his boys team.
He scheduled tougher for that possibility, and planned everything pointing toward the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final on June 4.
But Rodriguez didn’t breathe easily until that morning at Ada Forest Hills Eastern.
“I think the whole month, I think I was on pins and needles thinking of everything that could go wrong or wondering if we were ill-prepared or if we didn’t run them enough,” Rodriguez said. “And then we got to the meet that day, and they were just fresh and jumping around and happy, and we’re loose. They did very well.”
Berrien Springs – the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” for June – capped its season that day with its first MHSAA Finals boys track & field championship.
The title also was the first for the school in any sport since 2006, when the Shamrocks’ baseball team won the Division 3 title.
“We weren’t big on trying to win every meet. We were just thinking, all right, let’s try to be healthy for that state meet. So we were kind of smart in how we handled things and just scheduled things out so we can peek at the right moment,” Rodriquez said. “And I think it’s kind of a gamble that made us all uneasy, but they were just on fire that day.”
The boys track & field team had finished LP Division 3 runner-up in 2018, its highest Finals finish since coming in second in 1953. But with enrollment lines driving downward the last many years, Berrien Springs found itself it a much different spot beginning in 2021. The Shamrocks went from one of the largest schools in Division 3 to one of the smallest – the 11th-smallest of 155 teams this season – in Division 2.
Still, Berrien Springs received a strong indication it could compete with anybody this season when it ran at an invitational April 29 in Warsaw, Ind., against a number of larger Indiana schools include state power Carmel. Senior Jamal Hailey won the 100 and 200 meters, the 400 relay finished second, and senior James York was third in high jump as the Shamrocks hung with competition similar to the best they’d see in Michigan this spring.
Berrien Springs also possessed the right strengths to succeed in a championship format. The Shamrocks won their Regional by 37.5 points May 20 in part because the sprint group took nine top-eight places in the 100, 200 and 400 and won the 400 and 800 relays. The same formula worked as they won the Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph Conference championship meet the next week.
At the Finals at Forest Hills Eastern, Hailey won the 100 (10.77) and 200 (22.11) and York won the long jump (22-10). The 400 relay of senior Junyoung Chung, York, sophomore Jake Machiniak and Bailey won the 400 relay (42-44), and senior CJ Porter, Young, freshman Zander White and York placed eighth in the 800 relay (1:31.11). Freshman Noah Jarvis just missed scoring with a ninth place in the 400 (50.99).
With points spread out across several contenders, Berrien Springs’ 41 won the meet by eight.
Hailey finished the season undefeated in the 200 and with only one non-win in the 100, a runner-up finish at an early-season invitational. The 400 relay also was undefeated except for that second place in Indiana. York was undefeated in long jump except for finishing second in the Regional and league before coming back to win at the Finals. The 400 relay won every time he was a part.
Berrien Springs has had some recent success in other sports, particularly with Hailey leading a football team that went 10-1 last fall. This spring’s championship could be a catalyst for more Finals-level success in the near future across other sports.
“I hope so. I think that every kid that we had qualify (for the Finals) was a multi-sport athlete kid, and I think our 4x1(00) team, everybody on there was a three-sport athlete guy,” Rodriguez said. “Our athletic department works well, like our football guys lift with football two days a week and then come after track practice, so we have that nice working partnership with all the athletes.
“Now that we’ve shown that we can get there, I think it’s (shown) the kids at our school that hey, we can beat the bigger schools. We can hang. Track did it. Maybe we can do it next.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2021-22
May: Houghton boys golf - Read
April: Plainwell girls soccer - Read
March: West Bloomfield girls basketball - Read
February: Cadillac girls skiing - Read
January: Hartland hockey - Read
December: Midland Dow girls basketball - Read
November: Reese girls volleyball - Read
October: Birmingham Groves boys tennis - Read
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No Track, No Problem for Champion Dux
June 9, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Phil Hoover is looking forward to returning to Zeeland’s renovated stadium for the 2015 track and field season.
But his Zeeland West boys team – which shares the stadium each spring with neighboring Zeeland East and one of the district’s middle schools – might be hesitant to switch things up.
It’s tough to question the methods that led the Dux to win their first MHSAA championship June 7 – despite having no track or field to practice on and no home meets during the regular season.
In fact, West finished this season perfect, winning its league, Regional and the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final and all 16 of its events this spring – despite traveling for every single one.
The track surface showed signs it needed replacing during last fall’s football season, but the football team was on its way to winning the MHSAA Division 3 championship. Demolition was put off until after football season ended, and reconstruction continued through last week.
“We as coaches agreed that we didn't want to make a big deal out of it,” Hoover said. “We went with the status quo. I don’t think they were stressed about it. The kids were great; they were never like, ‘Why don’t we have a track?’ They adapted quickly.”
And who needs a track when you've got a gym and hallways?
Coaches split with groups of athletes (the team had 65 total) to practice throughout the school – high jump in the gym, sprinters on the carpeted hallways, more events in other areas of the building.
Hoover, who has coached the team since the school opened in fall 2005, spent 3-4 hours every Sunday mapping where and what his athletes would practice over the following week.
Of course there were challenges. Tracks are curved and school hallways generally are not – so runners took off down a hall and had to make two 90-degree turns to run back.
And there had to be some break from tradition, like the usual Monday meeting spot at the track where the team would hash out its training schedule.
The Dux were able to use three lanes to the side of the track to work on hurdles and getting out of starting blocks, and also traveled to Hope College for a few practices.
There wasn't any kind of “us against the world” mentality Hoover could've conjured up as extra motivation for his team without a track. But he did say the all-road show might’ve benefited his athletes at the end of the season when they traveled for the spring’s most important meets.
It also surely helped to have a skilled and knowledgeable senior class that had been part of two MHSAA football championships and won the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association team state title in 2013 (the Dux ended up winning that event this spring as well). “We came into this year pretty focused to accomplish some things,” Hoover said. “We laid out the possibility of winning the state meet and focused on that.”
Zeeland West placed in seven events at the LP Division 2 Final at Houseman Stadium, with senior Jason Tran in the 300 hurdles its only individual champion. But the mix of points coming from sprints, hurdles and middle distance helped the Dux outpace runner-up Auburn Hills Avondale by 10.
Hoover said he missed this spring the daily scene at Zeeland’s staditum, where practices usually included 400 athletes mixing together from all three schools. But his Dux proved practice can make perfect – even if that practice comes in an unconventional setting.
“It’s strange here. The kids come to practice, and they really trust us,” Hoover said. “We feel we put out good training for them, and there’s not ever a question."
Good news for MHSAA hockey
A revised schedule coming this fall from the Michigan Amateur Hockey Association should provide a big boost to high school hockey in this state – and open up opportunities for athletes to play fall high school sports as well.
MAHA will this fall add an early season for its Midget A and AA teams – made up of high school-age players – allowing those players the opportunity to play both travel hockey in the fall and then high school hockey in the winter after that “early” travel season ends Nov. 8. MAHA also will play a "late" travel season – beginning Dec. 1 – which will allow travel hockey players the opportunity to play fall high school sports before hockey season in the winter.
Previously, the travel season began at the start of fall and concluded at the end of winter with MAHA’s state tournament. MAHA teams will still be able to play that traditional full season – but the MAHA state championship tournament in March will feature the top teams from the “early” and “late” seasons facing off after the MHSAA tournament is complete.
“The current system creates a lot of uncertainty and stress on the players who want to play high school hockey,” said Don Wright, MAHA high school hockey director, in a press release. “They have to gamble on which team they might make and hope they gamble correctly so they have a place to play come November. These expanded opportunities will also allow for increased skill development of these players prior to the start of the MHSAA season.”
The MAHA “late” season teams will hold tryouts after MHSAA hockey season practice has begun, allowing athletes who did not make their high school teams an opportunity to return to travel hockey for the winter.
Linked Up
Check out this Saginaw News story we came across leading up to the MHSAA Track and Field Finals on May 31.
Hugh Bernreuter tells of Saginaw Nouvel parent Celia Sullivan, who did not expect to see her son graduate as she suffered liver failure two years ago – but got that opportunity this spring thanks to another football mom, Sue Joynt, who donated 60 percent of her liver to Sullivan.
One of Sullivan’s thoughts that stuck most:
"I'm a bit of a control freak. I didn't need a transplant. I can go on. I thought I could beat it, but finally the doctors got through to me. This is something you don't beat. You cannot wait. You will die."
Click to read the entire piece.
PHOTO: Zeeland West's Jason Tran runs the 300 hurdles at this season's Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals at Houseman Stadium.