Get Prepped for a Fantastic Finale
May 24, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
We love this time of year. And not just because school is nearly out for summer.
There’s little argument that the week ahead is the most exciting of each MHSAA school year. And you’ll want to set your bookmarks for MHSAA.com and Second Half for updated results and coverage not just next week – but through the rest of this spring season.
The MHSAA.com Score Center is our home for scores from all District softball, baseball and soccer games, which begin Tuesday. You also can view real-time brackets for every District by going to the “Sports” page for each, and updated brackets for lacrosse by visiting our girls and boys pages for that sport as well.
In the Lower Peninsula, we’ll have same day or next morning results as golf Districts are played, and first-day results from next weekend’s Girls Tennis Finals on May 31 – followed by final results at the conclusion of play June 1. We’ll post Finals results for Upper Peninsula golf and tennis as we receive them Wednesday and Thursday, and then results for all seven Lower and Upper Peninsula Track and Field Finals as they come in June 1.
But results are only the start. As we have during the fall and winter, Second Half will provide coverage including photos from every MHSAA Final – beginning with Wednesday’s Upper Peninsula Girls and Boys Golf and Boys Tennis Finals. Keep an eye on Second Half throughout the week, or follow the Second Half feed on the cover page of MHSAA.com.
Transfer rule clarification
We released Monday the actions our Representative Council took earlier this month at its Spring Meeting, including an addition to the athletics-related portion of our transfer rule. Based on some questions we’ve received and read, here’s some further explanation of what will be installed for 2014-15:
The longer period of ineligibility for athletes who transfer because of athletics is not new. This has previously existed for cases in which a school could prove that it lost a student to another school purely for sports-related reasons.
What’s new is what must be proven and by whom for the longer ineligibility period to take effect. Now, a school that lost a student does not have to file a report with the MHSAA for the case to be considered. As long as one of a set of offending activities can be verified – including practicing, competing or training with a member of the new school’s coaching staff during summer or non-school sports activities or seasons – that student will have to sit 180 days instead of the usual period of roughly a semester. The 15 exemptions that allow a student to be eligible immediately – like making a full move to a new district or a student’s school closing – may still apply.
So, to conclude: The longer athletics-related ineligibility period is not new, just how athletics-related transfers are considered and reported. Click to read the full release.
Kickoff is coming
And that means we’re collecting varsity football schedules.
In fact, we have most of them thanks to our athletic directors, their secretaries, coaches and many others who chip in to help us keep complete and accurate information throughout the season.
But there are still plenty of steps in getting ready for August – and a huge one is locking down correct leagues for our teams this season, especially as schools continue to switch things up.
Check out your school’s schedule page by click on the “Schools” button in the menu bar at the top of MHSAA.com and searching for your school. Once on the school page, click the blue “Boys” button next to football. The schedule will appear in the middle of the page, with standings to the left.
See an error in a schedule or the standings? Email me at [email protected]. I thank you in advance.
Kramer’s words of wisdom
Long before Roy Kramer served as athletic director at Vanderbilt University, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference and creator of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) for Division I college football, he coached multiple sports at East Lansing High School.
He recently was named winner of this year’s Duffy Daugherty Award, given in honor of the former Michigan State University coach to a valued coach or contributor to college football. The award, presented in East Lansing, is among those recognized by the College Football Hall of Fame.
Kramer finished his acceptance speech with a stirring endorsement of the sport that brought the crowd of more than 300 to its feet. If you’re a fan, former or current player or coach, see below.
PHOTO: Athletes race toward the finish of a relay during this spring's Alma College Invitational. (Click to see more at HighSchoolsSportsScene.com.)
Future Has Arrived as Port Huron United Continues Impressive Climb
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
May 8, 2024
Brad McDougal knew when he returned to the Port Huron United lacrosse program in 2019 that in order to grow it to what he thought it could be, he’d have to build for the future.
His plan was simple and time-tested: Start a youth program that would get players within the school system playing together more frequently and against better competition, preparing them to one day be varsity players.
It didn’t take long to see that it could work, and perhaps better and faster than he had hoped.
“We’ve known for a while (this was the year),” McDougal said. “Basically, when I started with that youth team, my ambition was if I can get four or five kids that have been coached, then build around them for the varsity program, that would be great. It turned out to be 15 of them.”
Behind 15 seniors, the majority of whom were part of McDougal’s original youth team, Port Huron United is competing at a level it never has before. United is ranked No. 9 in the Division 1 MPR following a 10-3 start, and won the Macomb Area Conference Red title for the first time in program history.
It’s a history that McDougal is plenty familiar with, having been a high school junior when the program began in 2006. McDougals have been part of the program ever since, whether it was him as a coach fresh out of high school and now, his brother Ben as a player, or his father Brian as a coach at various levels throughout all of it.
“Being around it as long as I have, that has sunk in,” he said. “The amount of teams that are reaching out to us now that never would have before – teams reaching out for film, ‘How were you able to defend this?’ Teams reaching out for scheduling that I think would have just ignored the email a couple years back. It’s definitely not lost on me.”
It’s also not lost on the players, who have heard McDougal talk about the program’s beginnings and have also seen first-hand a quick ascent.
As freshmen, this current group of seniors were a major part of a varsity team that played in the MAC Blue – the MAC’s divisions are based on performance, with Red being the highest – dominating it and earning promotion to the MAC White the following season. Another unbeaten league season put United into the MAC Red in 2023, and while there were some growing pains in going 2-3 against higher-level competition, there were signs of better things to come.
“The second my class joined, we just dominated our leagues,” senior goalie Danny Moore said. “We went from Blue to White to Red in three years. Last year in the Red, we went 2-3, but it wasn’t without close games. I think (the rise) definitely stunned us a little bit. Not a week goes by that I don’t think about the giant leap we took. It’s like a world record long jump.”
Moore said the team started this season “like a cannonball out of the cannon with too much gun powder” as this group of seniors knew it was their last opportunity to play with one another.
United was dominant in its MAC Red season, going 5-0 and out-scoring opponents 61-12, not allowing more than three goals in any single game.
On the season, it has outscored opponents 136-50, led by senior goal-scoring threats Silas Klink, Jacob O’Hare, Nate DeLand, Matt Graham and Tim Monaghan. Moore is stopping more than 80 percent of the shots he’s faced, behind the defense of seniors Jack Bennett and Max Williams, and junior Parker Quinn, among others.
That’s despite a beefed-up nonconference schedule, which McDougal put together to better prepare his team for the upcoming postseason.
“We have a way harder schedule this year,” Klink said. “We haven’t ever made it to the Regional Final in all the program’s history, so that’s a big goal. I think scheduling all these teams, Coach McDougal knew what he was doing to get us battle-tested.”
Boys Lacrosse Regionals open May 16, and Lake Orion – which defeated Port Huron 11-4 in the season opener – is the host of United’s bracket.
Winning a Regional is the next goal for Port Huron, and McDougal repeatedly tells his team he wants a Michigan trophy. They’re ready to do all they can to make that happen, but also aren’t shying away from the possibility of blowing away his expectations once again.
“State champs,” said Bennett, who has committed to play lacrosse at Albion College along with Moore. “We want to go all the way. It would just be like – I don’t even know how to describe it. For the program, it would further push lacrosse at my high school and Port Huron. Twenty years ago, we didn’t even have a lacrosse team, so I think it would really push lacrosse in Port Huron.”
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) Port Huron United’s Silas Klink (1) makes a run at the goal against Macomb Dakota. (Middle) Matt Graham (12) maintains possession against the Cougars. (Photos by Margaret Quinn.)