Today in the MHSAA: 12/9/15
December 9, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Falling school records and a perfect bowling game highlight today's headlines covering a variety of sports across the state.
Girls Basketball
Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart senior center Averi Gamble scored a school-record 40 points, breaking the previous mark of 34 set in 1980, in the Irish’s 67-23 win over Beal City – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun
Despite 25 points by South Lyon East’s Peyton Jones, Saline hung on for a 47-42 win after leading by only one point with 20 seconds to play – Ann Arbor News
Boys Basketball
Spencer Littleson scored 42 points in arguably the night’s most exciting opener, sinking 18 of 20 free-throw attempts as Rochester Adams outlasted Auburn Hills Avondale 77-69 in overtime – Oakland Press
East Jordan’s Jordan Weber broke his school’s career scoring record of 1,170 points, set in 1986, by upping his total to 1,193 with 24 in a 66-20 win over Mancelona – Traverse City Record-Eagle
Midland trailed Bay City Western by 19 with 11 minutes to play, but knocked down five 3-pointers to climb back for a 53-43 win – Midland Daily News
Battle Creek Central won its first game under new coach Durant Crum in dramatic fashion, on a putback with five seconds to play to beat Jackson 59-58 – Battle Creek Enquirer
Boys Bowling
Wayland senior Cameron Heintzelman rolled his first 300 in a match Monday against Zeeland East, topping his previous high of 289 – Grand Rapids Press
Girls Swimming & Diving
Girls and boys swimming and diving seasons are both in the winter in the Upper Peninsula, and Kingsford’s Peyton Johnson broker her own school record in the 200 individual medley to highlight performances in the Flivvers’ meet with Marquette – Iron Mountain Daily News
Montrose's Skinner Center Built to Continue Beloved Mentor's Work
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 19, 2022
For more than a decade, Montrose High School has provided aspiring students one of the strongest and most lauded high school broadcast journalism programs in Michigan.
And moving forward, those students will have the opportunity to learn the craft at the newly-unveiled studio named in honor of the mentor who poured so much into those efforts.
On Thursday, MDM-TV (Montrose Digital Media – Television) opened the doors to its Thomas E. Skinner Broadcast Center, a newly-created video and audio lab, studio and production space named for Tom Skinner, a well-known Flint-area sports broadcasting voice for four decades who played a starring role in building the school’s program over his final 12 years until his death in October.
The goal was to create a fully functioning place where students can learn to create top-notch sports and news products. The network’s new home includes a podcasting lab, video and audio editing lab, studio, and control room/soundproof room for recording voiceovers. The space, formerly a distance learning lab in the middle school used most recently for storage, replaced the former studio housed in a high school classroom. MDM-TV began making the move and transformation after COVID-19 shut down the program during the spring of 2020.
Longtime teacher Jamie Kitts, who retired from fulltime classroom instruction in 2019 after 33 years in the district and remains the school’s digital media instructor and MDM-TV advisor, played a leading role in the creation of the Skinner Center – and said, frankly, the facility couldn’t have been named after anyone else. Skinner worked with the program’s on-air talent all though his dozen years, and also coordinated the summer camp for seven years.
“Tom is responsible for so much of the great work our kids have done,” Kitts said. “We could not have accomplished what we did without him. Plus, he really enjoyed working with the kids.”
Montrose’s program was named “Program of the Year” five straight from 2014-18 as part of the MHSAA’s School Broadcast Program Excellence Awards. In 2017, then-junior Eric Vandefifer was named the nation’s Best Student Broadcaster by the NFHS Network as part of its School Broadcast Program Awards. Kitts has been a finalist for the NFHS Network’s national Teacher of the Year award multiple times. Current students and Skinner proteges Danny Sackrider and Owen Leitelt recently were named the Best Sports Announcing Team in the high school division by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters – the third time Montrose has produced a winning pair.
The Skinner Center was financed through advertising sales, grants, career and technical education funding and donations, with plenty of volunteer labor and significant support from the district’s administration helping bring it to life.
Students past and present did much of the work, with local “do-everything guy” Joe Crimi playing a major role, and Kitts also gave substantial credit to the network’s sponsors Thumb Audio/Video’s Kevin Strieter.
“My wife, another retired teacher, asked me the other day, ‘What have you learned from building this broadcast center?’” Kitts said. “Typical teacher question! I have learned that even through tough times, you just can't let your dreams die. And that if you need help, just ask for it. People want to help. They just need to be asked.”