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Highlight Reel: Soccer, Baseball/Softball Finals
June 18, 2016
By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director
The 2015-16 high school sports year concluded early Saturday evening at Old College Field on the Michigan State University campus, as the last champions of MHSAA Tournaments were crowned in Baseball, Softball and Girls Soccer.
Below are links to video highlights from Saturday’s games. Click on the final scores to watch them in their entirety and purchase DVDs.
Baseball
Division 1
O’Keefe Goes Yard - The first home run hit in baseball at McLane Stadium since the MHSAA Finals returned to East Lansing two years ago came off the bat of Saline's Sean O'Keefe in the fifth inning against Warren DeLaSalle; it tied the game at the time.
Bush Drives In Two - Warren DeLaSalle took the lead in the sixth inning on a one-out single by Bryce Bush, which drove in two runs.
Game-Ending Double Play - With the bases loaded and one out, Warren DeLaSalle ends the Division 1 Final with a double play.
Division 2
No Missing Link Here - Linden scored five times in the fourth inning to take the lead. Catcher Jamon Link delivers a bases-loaded single to drive in the first run.
The Big Hit For The Maroons - Holland Christian scored three times in the bottom of the sixth inning against Linden, the last two runs on this drive down the left field line by pitcher Mike Mokma, who also threw a complete game, striking out 14.
Division 3
Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett 12, New Lothrop 0 (5 innings)
Two-Run Single For Fannon - The third inning saw Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett score four times, with two of those runs coming in on this single by Sean Fannon.
Division 4
Sterling Heights Parkway Christian 10, Portland St. Patrick 3
Riley Hits A Rope - Parkway Christian starting pitcher Riley McManus helped his own cause in the second inning with this two-run single, which was part of a five-run at-bat.
Shamrocks Score In Seventh - Portland St. Patrick got some offense in the final inning, resulting in this RBI single by Travis Moyer.
Softball
Division 1
Farmington Hills Mercy 4, Macomb Dakota 0
Around The Horn Double Play - Here's a defensive gem by Macomb Dakota - a double play in the sixth inning against Farmington Hills Mercy. Mercy broke the Division 1 Final open in the next inning to win, 4-0.
Belans’ Blast - Nicole Belans took the first pitch in the top of the seventh inning over the left field fence for Farmington Hills Mercy to ignite a three-run uprising against Macomb Dakota.
Division 2
Kudary Makes The Catch - A great defensive play in the Richmond-Vicksburg game came in the fifth inning when Vicksburg's Carlie Kudary ran down a Amy Thueme fly ball.
Caught At Third - An alert defensive play by Vicksburg catches two Richmond runners at third base to thwart a seventh inning threat.
Division 3
Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central 6, Grandville Calvin Christian 0
Grace Drives Two Home - Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central added to its lead against Grandville Calvin Christian with three runs in the fifth inning, two coming on this two-out single by Grace Mikesell.
Preserving The Perfect Game - It took a great defensive play by Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central second baseman Peyton Bollenberg in the seventh inning to preserve the perfect game for pitcher Meghan Beaubien.
Division 4
Unionville-Sebewaing 1, Indian River Inland Lakes 0
Patriots Successfully Squeeze It - The only run of the Division 4 Final came in the sixth inning when Unionville Sebewaing's Marisa Morton bunted Kayla Gremel home.
Soccer
Division 2
Pontiac Notre Dame Prep 2, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern 1 (OT-Shootout)
Huskies Go Long Ball - Forest Hills Northern used this goal by Natalie Belsito off a long free kick to take a 1-0 lead.
Irish Tie It Up - With time winding down in regulation, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep scored on a free kick by Payton Williams to force overtime.
There’s Your Game Winner - Things went to the eighth round of penalty kicks before Rosella LoChirco came through to give Pontiac Notre Dame the Division 2 title.
Division 3
Hudsonville Unity Christian 2, Flint Powers Catholic 0
VanZalen Scores - Hudsonville Unity Christian took a 1-0 lead on Flint Powers Catholic in the first half when Alaina VanZalen goes to the near side for the goal.
One-V-One Insurance - Alexis Ponstein goes on a long run and ends up one on one with the goalkeeper to get an insurance goal for Hudsonville Unity Christian in the second half.
PHOTO: A Holland Christian batter connects with a pitch during the Division 2 Baseball Final.
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.