Today in the MHSAA: 2/28/19

February 28, 2019

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Wednesday was filled with upsets galore as we kick off the headlines with a pair of Hockey Regional surprises and move into Boys Basketball Districts and a big night for Byron’s girls hoops team.

1. Hockey: Big Rapids upset its second straight ranked opponent this week, downing No. 8 Flint Powers Catholic 8-4 in a Division 3 Regional Semifinal – Big Rapids News

2. Hockey: No. 6 Detroit Country Day downed No. 3 Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood 3-1 in another Division 3 Regional Semifinal – Oakland Press

3. Boys Basketball: Grand Rapids Catholic Central came back from a 15-point deficit to defeat Grand Rapids Christin 71-63 in a Division 2 District Semifinal – Grand Rapids Press

4. Hockey: Division 3 No. 11 East Grand Rapids scored the game winner with 16 seconds to play in a 5-4 victory over No. 14 Grand Rapids Catholic Central – WOOD TV

5. Boys Basketball: Unionville-Sebewaing won a Division 3 District matchup of champions from the Greater Thumb Conference, downing Harbor Beach 70-51 – Huron Daily Tribune

6. Boys Basketball: Saline stunned Ann Arbor Pioneer, 63-52 in a Division 1 District Semifinal – Detroit News

7. Boys Basketball: Last place Gaylord upset Big North Conference co-champion Petoskey 49-38 in Division 1 – Gaylord Herald Times

8. Boys Basketball: Canton downed Westland John Glenn 67-61 in a Division 1 matchup showcasing two Mr. Basketball Award finalists – State Champs!

9. Girls Basketball: Byron clinched a share of the Mid-Michigan Activities Conference title, and Maylee Hatt went over 1,000 career points against Durand – Flint Journal

10. Boys Basketball: Schoolcraft avenged its two regular-season losses to Kalamazoo Hackett with a 60-58 win in Division 3 – JoeInsider.com

Also of note …

Girls Basketball: Detroit Edison’s Rickea Jackson, Grosse Pointe North’s Julia Ayrault, Saginaw Heritage’s Moira Joiner and Muskegon’s Alyza Winston were named finalists for the Miss Basketball Award – State Champs!

Boys Basketball: Mason Bakker went over 1,000 career points although Zeeland West fell to Hudsonville in Division 1 – Holland Sentinel

Officiating: Dowagiac’s Randy Melvin will retire from officiating after this week and 46 years serving high school sports – Niles Daily Star

Girls Basketball: From Tuesday, Pittsford claimed its sixth straight Southern Central Athletic Association East title with a 53-45 win over Camden-Frontier – Hillsdale Daily News

In Memoriam: Chip Mundy (1955-2023)

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

August 16, 2023

When the MHSAA took a significant step in telling the stories of school sports with the introduction of the Second Half website in 2012, Chip Mundy was a natural to lend his expertise after a career doing the same in the Jackson area.

He always took special care in searching out the human interest side of our “stories behind the scores” – and today we remember that dedication as we mourn his death Monday. He was 68.

Chip MundyMundy was a graduate of Jackson Parkside and then served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86. He then became a fixture in high school sports coverage as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen Patriot from 1986-2011.

Mundy was one of the original correspondents when Second Half took on a regional component beginning with the 2015-16 school year, thoughtfully providing biweekly features from the “Southeast & Border” area that includes Jackson, Ann Arbor, Monroe and the host of smaller communities north of the Michigan/Ohio line. Before the beginning of 2H’s “Region Reports,” Mundy also was among the first to begin producing coverage of MHSAA Finals for the site as Second Half started in part with a mission of covering all MHSAA championship events.

He admittedly ended up reporting on some sports he’d rarely or never covered before, and admittedly often wrote a little longer than he’d intended – but in his own words, because “there were so many stories” or “the story was so good.”

Click to read many of his features for the Second Half website.