Today In The MHSAA: 4/20/21

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

April 20, 2021

Soccer, softball and baseball provided the stars as teams across the state braved cooler temperatures of an April spring sports Monday.

1. Girls Soccer: Boyne City ran its shutout streak to three with a 3-0 win over Traverse City St. Francis – Petoskey News-Review

2. Softball: Bailey Belinger hit a home run and threw a five-inning no-hitter during a sweep of Mason County Central – Local Sports Journal

3. Baseball: Division 1 No. 17 Grand Blanc swept Bay City Western in a matchup of Saginaw Valley League contenders – WJRT

4. Softball: Rapid River improved to 14-2 with a sweep of Bark River-Harris – Escanaba Daily Press

5. Baseball: Division 4 No. 4 Beal City improved to 7-0 with a sweep of Fowler – MI Sports Now

6. Baseball: Reed City launched three home runs in an 8-2 win over Cadillac – Big Rapids News

7. Girls Soccer: Utica’s first goal came 19 seconds into an eventual 5-1 win over Clinton Township Chippewa Valley – Macomb Daily

8. Baseball: Bear Lake pitchers dominated in a win and tie against Mesick – Manistee News Advocate

9. Softball: Bloomfield Hills earned its first wins of the spring with a sweep of Birmingham Seaholm – Oakland Press

10. Track & Field: Ludington swept Muskegon Orchard View in girls and boys duals – Ludington Daily News

Also of note …

Baseball: Flat Rock was scheduled to close its schools today in honor of teacher and coach Chris Elliott, who died Monday and in 2001 led the baseball team to the Division 3 title – Southgate News-Herald

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.