Find Team Wrestling, Cheer on MHSAA TV
February 24, 2016
By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director
The first of two weekends of Wrestling Finals action headlines the live content available on a subscription basis on MHSAA.tv in the coming week.
Thirty-two schools from across the state will take part in the Team Dual Wrestling Finals at McGuirk Arena in Mt. Pleasant on Friday and Saturday, and all 32 matches will be streamed live. On Saturday, the Division 3 Regionals in the Girls Competitive Cheer Tournament will be broadcast.
On Monday (Feb. 29), the first-ever live coverage of skiing will take place when the Student Broadcast Program at Marquette High School streams the Division 1 Boys & Girls Skiing Finals at Marquette Mountain. Later that day, Girls Basketball Tournament action grabs the spotlight with two games from a Class C District at Laingsburg High School, with an SBP crew from Montrose High School providing the coverage.
All sporting events – Live or On-Demand – are available on a subscription basis only for their first 72 hours online. The best deal is to purchase the Month Pass for $14.95, which allows live viewing of all MHSAA Tournament action to be covered over the next five weekends – including Individual Wrestling, Girls Competitive Cheer, Ice Hockey, Girls Gymnastics, Lower Peninsula Boys Swimming & Diving, and Girls and Boys Basketball. A Day Pass also is available for $9.95. All events become available for free, on-demand viewing approximately 72 hours following their completion.
Here is the schedule for the coming week of winter MHSAA Tournaments on MHSAA.tv (as of Feb. 22, subject to change):
Friday, February 26
Team Dual Wrestling at Mt. Pleasant – With seed numbers
• Division 4 Quarterfinals @ Noon
#1 New Lothrop (21-5) vs. #8 Munising (19-5)
#4 Hesperia (36-6) vs. #5 Springport (28-6)
#3 Hudson (16-14) vs. #6 Manchester (23-6)
#2 Decatur (27-3) vs. #7 Leroy Pine River (25-4)
• Division 1 Quarterfinals @ 2 p.m.
#1 Hartland (31-1) vs. #8 Temperance Bedford (21-4)
#4 Oxford (23-8) vs. #5 Hudsonville (26-5)
#3 Detroit Catholic Central (15-5) vs. #6 Macomb Dakota (27-11)
#2 Davison (22-4) vs. #7 Grand Ledge (19-7)
• Division 3 Quarterfinals @ 4 p.m.
#1 Dundee (18-0) vs. #8 Delton Kellogg (18-3)
#4 Richmond (24-10) vs. #5 Whitehall (25-1)
#3 Lake Fenton (38-3) vs. #6 Birch Run (26-4)
#2 Remus Chippewa Hills (39-1) vs. #7 Gladstone (16-1)
• Division 2 Quarterfinals @ 6 p.m.
#1 Lowell (19-3) vs. #8 Sturgis (27-7)
#4 Goodrich (33-4) vs. #5 Allegan (29-5)
#3 Gaylord (41-1) vs. #6 Warren Woods-Tower (26-6)
#2 St. Johns (26-4) vs. #7 Dearborn Heights Annapolis (38-3)
Saturday, February 27
Team Dual Wrestling at Mt. Pleasant
• Division 1 Semifinals @ 10 a.m.
Hartland/Temperance Bedford winner vs. Oxford/Hudsonville winner
Detroit Catholic Central/Macomb Dakota winner vs. Davison/Grand Ledge winner
• Division 4 Semifinals @ 10 a.m.
New Lothrop/Munising winner vs. Hesperia/Springport winner
Hudson/Manchester winner vs. Decatur/Leroy Pine River winner
• Division 2 Semifinals @ Noon
Lowell/Sturgis winner vs. Goodrich/Allegan winner
Gaylord/Warren Woods-Tower winner vs. St. Johns/Dearborn Heights Annapolis winner
• Division 3 Semifinals @ Noon
Dundee/Delton Kellogg winner vs. Richmond/Whitehall winner
Lake Fenton/Birch Run winner vs. Remus Chippewa Hills/Gladstone winner
• Finals – All Divisions – 3:30 p.m.
Competitive Cheer Division 3 Regionals at Rockford - 6 p.m.
Competitive Cheer Division 3 Regionals at Flint Kearsley - 6 p.m.
Monday, February 29
Division 1 Skiing Finals at Marquette – 10 a.m.
Class C Girls Basketball District First Round at Laingsburg
Byron v. Saranac – 5:30 p.m.
Laingsburg v. Carson City-Crystal – 7 p.m.
In its seventh year, the School Broadcast Program gives members an opportunity to showcase excellence in their schools by creating video programming of athletic and non-athletic events with students gaining skills in announcing, camera operation, directing/producing and graphics.
The program also gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions.
Here is the schedule for winter MHSAA Tournaments on MHSAA.TV (As of Feb. 22, subject to change):
Wednesday, February 24
- Oxford at Lake Orion – Boys Basketball – 7 p.m. – LIVE
- Gaylord St. Mary’s at Onaway – Boys Basketball – 7 p.m. – On-Demand
- Vicksburg at Dowagiac – Boys Basketball – 67 p.m. – LIVE
Thursday, February 25
- Grand Rapids West Catholic at Comstock Park – Freshman Boys Basketball – 4 p.m.
- Grand Rapids West Catholic at Comstock Park – JV Boys Basketball – 5:30 p.m.
- Romeo at Lake Orion – Ice Hockey – 7:45 p.m.
Friday, February 26
- Grand Rapids West Catholic at Comstock Park – Girls Basketball – 6 p.m.
- Lansing Waverly at Haslett – Girls Basketball – 6 p.m. - LIVE
- Fairview at Rogers City – JV Boys Basketball – 6 p.m. – On-Demand
- Gaylord at Alpena – Ice Hockey – 7 p.m. – LIVE
- Lapeer at Lake Orion – Boys Basketball – 7 p.m. – LIVE
- Trenton at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood – 7:15 p.m. – LIVE
- Lake Linden-Hubbell at Calumet – Boys Basketball – 7:20 p.m. – LIVE
- Grand Rapids West Catholic at Comstock Park – Boys Basketball – 7:30 p.m. – LIVE
- Lansing Waverly at Haslett – Boys Basketball – 7:30 p.m. – LIVE
- Fairview at Rogers City – Boys Basketball – 7:30 p.m. – LIVE
Monday, February 29
- Posen vs. Hillman @ Rogers City – Class D Girls Basketball District – 7:30 p.m. – LIVE
Tuesday, March 1
- Traverse City West at Alpena – JV Boys Basketball – 5:30 p.m. – LIVE
- Traverse City West at Alpena – Boys Basketball – 7p.m. – LIVE
- Eaton Rapids at Haslett – Boys Basketball – 7 p.m. – LIVE
- Comstock at Plainwell – Boys Basketball – 7:15 p.m. – LIVE
Wednesday, March 2
- Onaway at Rogers City – Class D Girls Basketball District – 6 p.m. – LIVE
- Waterford Mott/Oxford winner at Lake Orion – Class A Girls Basketball District – 7 p.m. - LIVE
Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.
1975 Class D Football Film Finds Way Back to MHSAA for All to Enjoy Again
By
John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director emeritus
April 11, 2023
Chasing history was one of the most enjoyable parts of serving at the MHSAA for nearly 34 years. Researching information, but especially what I considered for a long time to be talking to the “old guys” (now I’m one of them) and soaking up their verbal histories of our games.
It also involved chasing down old photos, broadcasts and game films – especially those which preceded our more modern video era beginning in the 1990s.
When I arrived at the MHSAA in 1987, there was a shelf of old 16mm film canisters of an assortment of Boys Basketball Finals from the 1950s to the 70s – certainly not a complete set. The Association would shoot some game action from each quarter and the trophy presentations. They’d be sent out to the participating schools to show to the students (I remember watching a Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart game in 1967 when I was in fifth grade). Some would find their way back to the office – most would not.
Will Robinson, the legendary Detroit Public School League coach who led Pershing High School to the league’s first MHSAA titles (in 1967 and 1970) after a district-imposed hiatus from 1931-61 from statewide tournaments, would pull my chain every time we saw each other about those games featuring Spencer Haywood and Ralph Simpson, among others. We never found them.
So it became a project to try and track down as many old game films of state championships as we could.
Any conversation with someone with a history tone always included a question about the whereabouts of a game film or video. One of those recently bore fruit.
When Crystal Falls Forest Park played in the 8-Player Football Finals at the Superior Dome in Marquette back in 2017, I spent a lot of time talking with living legend Bill Santilli, who led the Trojans to the Class D crown in the very first year of the tournament in 1975, and who would later coach the school to a second state title (2007) and serve as athletic director. He said he had a box on his desk collecting dust that he didn’t know what to do with – that box contained an old video tape from that game.
I uttered four little words – “Send It To Me.”
After a while the tape arrived in East Lansing, and I got our video production friends at When We Were Young Productions/Rush Media in Wisconsin on it. This winter, they found someone who could convert it and sent me a file that was recently posted to the MHSAASPORTS Channel on YouTube. You can watch the Trojans play Flint Holy Rosary by Clicking Here or watching above.
There are all kinds of old game films/videos and artifacts in attics, closets, garages, etc., in every town. Two of our Muskegon historians – Ron Pesch, the MHSAA’s history guy; and the old broadcaster, Jim Moyes, who called games on the radio for years in the Port City – can tell stories of their own about discoveries they have made. Moyes found all kinds of mementos while working on his book on the history of high school track & field in Michigan, and sitting with Ron at this year’s Girls Basketball Finals, he told a story of finding the mother lode of photographs from one of his other historical passions – silent film star Buster Keaton – who spent ten summers in the Actor’s Colony in Muskegon.
Pesch found a listing for Eleanor Keaton, Buster’s widow, using a telephone book (remember those?), made a phone call and shortly thereafter, on a vacation to California, was in her living room where he was loaned a photo album and family scrapbook containing all kinds of images from their time in Muskegon. Many of those images appear in a soon-to-be-released documentary, while the album and scrapbook now reside in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences library in Beverly Hills, Calif. You can preview the film by Clicking Here.
So if you think you have something of a state championship that could be utilized on a bigger platform and enjoyed by everyone, drop a note to [email protected]. If something needs to be converted to a more modern format, you’ll get a copy back, and the footage will be eventually viewable on the MHSAA’s YouTube channel.
To help guide your search, think in the following terms:
► Just about anything before 1990. But there are gaps during the 90s that need to be filled as well.
► Only Championship games and Semifinal games, unless something momentous occurred (like Richie Jordan’s 60-point game for Fennville against Bridgman in a Regional Semifinal in 1965, which is still an all-time tournament single-game record for boys basketball).
► For a list of what’s in the MHSAA archives prior to 2000 – Click Here. A long-term project is to get all of the games on the list and up to about 2010 uploaded to the YouTube channel. Most games from 2013-14 on can be viewed on the NFHS Network, and some games between 2010 and 2013 are available for purchase as DVDs from PrepFilms.com.
PHOTO Posing with the championship trophy after the 1975 Class D Football Final are (left to right): Forest Park tight end Bryan LaChapelle, quarterback Richard Mettlach, head coach Dick Mettlach and running back Bill Santilli.