Linked Up: 10/28/11

December 13, 2011

Each week I'll post links to stories that interest me most during my travels in online sports land. I was going to wait for next week for this first installment, but these seemed worthy of telling you about now.

See something high school sports-related that you think others would find valuable? Send me a link.

Akron-Fairgrove and Owendale-Gagetown eager for long-awaited playoff games in first season of eight-man football bracket (Bay City Times)

These two teams provide multiple reasons why 8-player football has been such a strong addition -- most notably, it is providing our smallest schools with an opportunity to still play football despite fewer players, and succeed. The sport took off in this state in 2009, and this weekend mark the start of the first MHSAA 8-player Tournament. Akron-Fairgrove will play its first postseason game since 1992, while Owendale-Gagetown will play its first since 1979.

Olivet's Peters coaching his heart out (Battle Creek Enquirer)

I covered Olivet and coach Dean Peters for more than a decade, including during last season's first-ever Eagles run to the MHSAA football finals. One of the great people in high school coaching, he needed emergency double-bypass surgery earlier this month but is back in the coaching booth. Olivet faces Lansing Catholic in a Pre-District game.

Megan Hubbard a standout for Hanover-Horton cross country (Jackson Citizen-Patriot)

This is a neat story about a runner who is second-best on her team and has never won a race -- but also is likely the second-best to ever run at her school. Usually, we hear only about who finishes first.

Standley Lake football player Rhett Gutierrez overcomes eye disease (The Denver Post)
 
Almost always, links I post will be Michigan-related. But this story is just incredible. We've seen athletes with different degrees of vision impairment do incredible things in high school athletics. But this is the first time I've heard of someone overcoming that obstacle to play quarterback for his football team.

Today in the MHSAA: 4/17/24

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

April 17, 2024

1. SOFTBALL Division 3 honorable mention Millington swept Division 4 top-ranked Unionville-Sebewaing 7-2 and 3-1 – WJRT

2. SOFTBALL Division 3 No. 4 Laingsburg swept Division 4 No. 3 Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart 13-0 and 6-2 – Lansing State Journal

3. BASEBALL Division 2 No. 10 Richland Gull Lake and No. 3 Stevensville Lakeshore split – St. Joseph Herald-Palladium

4. GIRLS SOCCER Zeeland East edged Division 2 No. 12 Zeeland West 3-2 – Holland Sentinel

5. SOFTBALL Pinconning’s Geena Gauthier threw her second-straight no-hitter as part of a sweep of Reese – Bay City Times

6. SOFTBALL Division 2 honorable mentions Freeland and Saginaw Swan Valley settled their games late, 15-14 in eight innings for the Falcons and 11-6 for Swan Valley after being tied in the seventh – Saginaw News

7. SOFTBALL Alpena earned a split with Division 2 honorable mention Cheboygan – Cheboygan Daily Tribune

8. TRACK & FIELD The Johannesburg-Lewiston girls and Cheboygan boys won in close tri meets – Traverse City Record-Eagle

9. SOFTBALL Division 3 honorable mention Evart swept Clare 3-2 and 7-1 – Cadillac News

10. BASEBALL Camden-Frontier rallied late for a 7-6 win over Pittsford – Hillsdale Daily News