MHSAA Historian Picks 10 to Remember
August 9, 2016
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
It sounded simple and fun, the theme for the MHSAA's spring issue of benchmarks: a history of MHSAA tournaments.
It certainly was the latter, but simple? Not so much.
There’s no way to do justice to nearly a century’s worth of history in some sports. Complicating matters was the abundance of information and photographs for some, and the scant amount of detailed data and images for others.
MHSAA historian Ron Pesch was given an equally challenging task: recount a “Top 10” list from his days covering various MHSAA Finals. He shares them here and, he adds, they are in no order of favorites.
The Shot: 1986 Class B Boys Basketball Final at Crisler Arena – Saginaw Buena Vista’s Chris Coles’ desperation shot, launched at the buzzer from well beyond half court, dropped through the hoop to give the Knights a 33-32 win over defending champion Flint Beecher in a rematch of the 1985 Class B title game. The shot was Coles’ first of the second half and his only points in the contest.
The Smurfs: 1986 Class A Football Final at the Pontiac Silverdome – The "Smurfs" – Muskegon Coach Dave Taylor's nickname for his small, quick swarming defensive linemen – limited heavily favored Sterling Heights Stevenson to four yards rushing and 73 yards of total offense in a 10-0 win. As a 1979 graduate of Muskegon High School, I was elated.
The Drive: 1989 Class B Football Final at the Pontiac Silverdome – I slid down from the press box into the stands at the Silverdome for the end of this one. With 2:20 remaining, the atmosphere was simply electric, as Farmington Hills Harrison’s lauded quarterback Mill Coleman took the reins with his team down 27-21 to DeWitt. The senior executed a flawless two-minute drill, guiding his team to the DeWitt 9 before scampering into the end zone for the tying points. Steve Hill added his fourth PAT for the lead, then secured the victory with an interception on the next series.
King Kool: 2005 Class B Boys Basketball Final, Breslin Center, East Lansing – David Kool was a flawless 20 for 20 from the free-throw line and scored 43 points as Grand Rapids South Christian downed Muskegon Heights 67-60.
The Parade: 2004 Individual Wrestling Finals, The Palace of Auburn Hills – In 2004, I traveled to Auburn Hills to watch the MHSAA Individual Wrestling Finals for the first time. The pageantry of the Grand March, the skills on display, the roar of the massive crowd, and the ensuing beauty and chaos of a wrestling extravaganza of this scale is truly a sight to see.
A Marathon: 2007 Division 3 Football Final, Ford Field, Detroit – East Grand Rapids and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s ended regulation tied 14-14, and this would turn into a five overtime battle that required an extra hour of play. No previous football playoff game, from Districts up, had ever gone beyond four overtimes. After exchanging field goals, touchdowns, extra points and two-point conversions, East Grand Rapids emerged with a 46-39 victory.
Tawana Towers: 1994 Class A Girls Basketball Final at Kellogg Arena, Battle Creek – Flint Northern, coached by Leteia Hughley and led by 6-4 freshman Tawana McDonald, defeated 1993 runner-up Detroit Martin Luther King, 46-32, for the Class A championship. McDonald batted down an MHSAA-record 10 shots, pulled down 13 rebounds and added five points and seven assists in a stellar performance.
Never Quit: 2008 Division 2 Football Semifinal, Spartan Stadium, East Lansing – Unbeaten, No. 1-ranked and heavily favored Muskegon trailed Davison by 22 late in the third quarter and 16 with less than five minutes to play. In perhaps the greatest comeback in playoff history, Muskegon recovered two onside kicks and scored 19 points in the final 4:31 to escape with a 38-35 victory and its third trip in five years to an MHSAA Final.
MHSAA Legends: 1998-2008 – For 10 years, the MHSAA showcased great teams from the past with their Legends of the Game series. From a historian’s perspective it was a chance to meet and learn more about folks I had often known only from the pages of microfilm. It was quite the treat to see years fall away as coaches, team managers and players reunited, in many cases for the first time after decades apart.
The MHSAA Record Books: Online, 1994 – One of my first efforts as state historian was to expand the record books beyond their primary focus on football, basketball, track & field and swimming & diving. With the arrival of the internet, an enhanced version of the record books was brought online. Coaches and fans were quick to respond with letters and e-mails, happily listing entries that had been “missed.” Soon, five category headings in a sport grew to 20, then to 50 and beyond.
Kids: 2004 Football Finals, Pontiac Silverdome – (OK, this is No. 11 ... consider it an extra point). For the first time, my sons joined me for my annual excursion to Metro Detroit for a Thanksgiving Day football weekend. They got to see the Silverdome before the move of the MHSAA Football Finals to beautiful Ford Field. Future Big Reds, they also got to see their future alma mater win another title.
PHOTOS: (Top) An MHSAA boys basketball tournament game is played at Olympia Stadium in Detroit. (Middle) Flint Northern's Tawana McDonald blocks a shot during the 1994 Class A Final.
Visser Relishing Rockford Run In Return After Missed Season
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
November 20, 2024
ROCKFORD – The Rockford volleyball team is in the midst of an impressive postseason run, and just two wins away from a Division 1 championship.
Senior Layla Visser is beyond grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it after an injury derailed her junior season.
Visser missed it entirely after having shoulder surgery. She didn’t return to the court until midway through this fall, but has been a major contributor in the team’s success as the Rams enter Thursday’s Division 1 Semifinal against Fenton (30-2) at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena.
“It’s amazing to be back,” Visser said. “I love volleyball more now than I ever have.”
Visser started feeling pain in her right shoulder following her sophomore season. Doctors discovered that she had a torn labrum, rotator cuff and biceps tendon.
Being away from the sport she loves took its toll.
“It was a lot harder than I expected it to be, but it really pushed me,” Visser said. “It was really emotionally and mentally hard, unlike anything I’ve ever been through because volleyball is my passion and my identity. So not being able to play or be a part of that was hard.
“All of these girls are really special to me, and I’ve been playing with them for a long time now. To finally be able to be on the court again with them and playing at a high level feels really good and special.”
Rockford junior Liv Hosford is thrilled to have her friend and teammate back on the court, helping the Rams in their pursuit of the program’s first Finals title since 2011.
“It’s definitely huge to have her back, and even when she wasn't playing she was a huge part of our team with her positivity on the bench and keeping the energy up and giving us extra motivation sometimes when we didn't have any,” Hosford said. “She’s been a huge part of our team and our success with her wall of a block, and her hits are becoming so good.”
Rams coach Kelly Delacher said Visser has been a welcome addition to a team abounding with veteran experience and young talent.
“She didn’t play at all last year and the first month of this season, so it was incredible to get her back,” he said. “We converted her to a middle hitter, which she has never played before, but she has been great as far as leadership and blocking and giving us some offense out of the middle.”
Rockford (39-9), which has dropped only two sets during the MHSAA Tournament, swept Traverse City Central 3-0 in a Division 1 Quarterfinal.
A grueling and lengthy third set saw the Rams prevail, 36-34.
“That was the longest single set I’ve been a part of, but they were a very solid team with some scary hitters and our kids came out and were focused from point one,” Delacher said. “We did a good job of exploiting a couple of matchups, and our outside hitter Mallory Wandel had a big night with 27 kills.”
Depth and talent, combined with a tight-knit bond, have been staples for the Rams.
“I knew right from the beginning that we had something special,” Delacher said. “We had a great mix of seniors with some young talented players, and I give a lot of credit to our captains and our seniors for creating a great chemistry and bond where they are not worried about their individual goals. They just want to win and support each other in the process.”
Hosford echoed those sentiments:
“One of the biggest things is our team chemistry,” she said. “I feel like we are a big family, and we’ve clicked from the first practice and we've continued to build that. We just have so much trust in each other, and we are all working toward the same goal.
The Rams, who won the Ottawa-Kent Conference Red title this year, have appeared in the Finals twice since that championship run in 2011. They were Division 1 runners-up in 2018 after a loss to Lake Orion, and Class A runner-up in 2016 after falling to Novi.
“There are very good teams left in Fenton, which has had a great season with only a couple of losses, and Northville and Marian on the other side of the bracket are very good teams,” Delacher said. “It’s going to take us playing our best volleyball, and I believe our kids our starting to believe that. We’ve matched up against four straight ranked opponents, and we’ve played pretty well so I feel like our confidence is pretty high. We feel like we have as good a chance as anybody.”
Dean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for five years after serving at the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years along with shorter stints at the Ionia Sentinel and WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Rockford celebrates its Quarterfinal win over Traverse City Central on Tuesday at Big Rapids High School. (Middle) Layla Visser (1) winds up for a kill attempt with Izzie Delacher setting and Liz Hosford (14) also approaching the net. (Photos by Miles Postema.)