SAC Sound-Off: One Team, One Community
December 3, 2012
By Matt Freeman
Owosso senior
OWOSSO, Michigan (population 15,000) – To our town, the high school football program had been in a tailspin since its first playoff appearance in 2001.
A group of 24 seniors, 11 juniors and one sophomore decided to change that direction this fall.
Owosso, 3-6 in 2010 and 5-4 in 2011, had tasted success during the previous two years – especially considering our four straight 1-8 finishes from 2006-09. Although the program had not returned to the level of competitiveness set by teams of the mid-1990s, there was hope leading into this fall.
So naturally, during the spring and summer leading up to the beginning of practice, my teammates and coaches were bombarded with questions about this year’s team. It was simple; if we played the way we knew we could, then we would have a great opportunity in front of us. And as the season rolled on, I came to understand just how much our town was cheering us on.
Growing up in a rural community in a family that has lived here since the turn of the 20th century, if I don’t know someone, someone else in my family knows that person. So I was tied in some way to many of the people packing the stands and hoping for us to achieve our lofty expectations.
Splitting the first two games and winning a nail-biter against Haslett, we landed ourselves at 2-1 to start. After two losses and a win, we found ourselves at 3-3 with three games to play: against Ionia, Birmingham Groves and Eaton Rapids. We had to win all three to make the playoffs for the first time in 11 years – and we pulled it off, with three of our four biggest wins of the entire regular season.
Next up was the Sunday Selection Show and more backing from our neighbors. For the event, the whole team and lots of fans went to one of our local restaurants that had supported us throughout the season. The show came on at 6 p.m., and we were pretty sure we were going to be in Division 3; we just didn't know who our opponent would be.
Finally it came across the screen: CADILLAC. We were going to play Cadillac that Friday at 7 p.m. We were excited, but also a bit disappointed; the game was so far away. To us, this meant that we would not have a good crowd – just the die-hard parents would be willing to make the trip.
Soon, I learned just how much our team meant to the rest of our fans.
Our football team was the buzz of the school that week, but we tried to stay all business. We knew we had the opportunity to do what no football team in the history of our school had done before – actually win a playoff game. That thought alone drove us. We had the best week of practice since the beginning of the season. Everyone was sharp and focused on one common goal. But we still knew it was going to take a lot more than a couple good practices to win this game.
I stop at our local Speedway station, north of town, to get a coffee almost every day on my way to school. That Thursday, Nov. 1, was no different. Yes, it was the day before a game, but I was not about to break my routine.
I was standing in line with my large coffee waiting to pay when I heard a voice next to me. An older man, wearing old jeans and an old coat that had seen more winters than I had, looked at me and said, “Very proud of what you boys are doing.”
“Thank you,” I said, not expecting the conversation to go further.
“I've been to every home game this year, and I’ll be making the drive to Cadillac tomorrow too. Keep it up,” he then added.
I said thank you again, paid for my coffee and left. I then realized what had just happened
Suddenly, I was hit with a lot of questions. Who was this man? How did he know me? Did I know him and just forget? I then realized that I was wearing my varsity jacket, and that solved how he knew I was on the football team.
After stewing on it for a while, I came to the conclusion that no, I didn't know him, nor did he know me. But yet, he felt like he knew me, because of the jersey I was putting on every Friday at 7.
I posted about it on Facebook and told my team, but no one felt what I felt. He didn't know me from Adam. We very easily could have passed by, not knowing each other, and not caring much about it. But he didn't pass by; he stopped because I had on a blue and gold coat, and he was blue and gold in his heart.
To this day I don’t know his name, and I probably never will. But I know he was in the stands come Friday, cheering us on.
When Friday rolled around, the nerves set in. In fact, that day from 8 a.m. until the end of school was a blur. But 2 p.m. did eventually roll around, and we got on the bus and started our 2-hour, 30-minute ride north to Cadillac. We had a police and fire truck escort to the outskirts of town, which was so amazing. As we neared the city limits, our coach stood up and told us to look out the window. Lining both sides of the street were our player signs, with everyone’s names and numbers on them. A local resident had done this so we could see them as we left town. That was our first hint that this was going to be different than any game we’d played in before.
With a few stops we rolled into Cadillac at 5 p.m. Chomping at the bit to play the game, we went into the locker room and came out about 6 to see the visitor stands already half full, while our two student buses hadn't arrived. We warmed up and went in the locker room with 15 minutes until game time.
When the time came for the National Anthem, we gathered two by two and trotted our way to the field. We quickly noticed our visitor stands were over-flowing with people, with the Cadillac stands not 60 percent full at kickoff. Owosso, a town 130-plus miles away, had more people in its stands than the home team. We were all so proud of our team, our coaches and our community. It was then that we realized just what this team meant to our town.
We won that game with a dominating second half; the Trojans of Owosso finally had their first-ever playoff win. Without a doubt, the mass of fans in the stands was remarkable, as was the way the team played that night.
I've been around Owosso football ever since I can remember, and the volume and energy that night rivaled our best home games. I don’t think there is a guy on our team who will forget that night, ever. I know I won’t, and I do not think our community will either.
Matt Freeman, Owosso senior
- Sports: Football and basketball.
- Non-sports activities: Hunting and fishing.
- Favorite class: Mythology
- Up next: Freeman is considering multiple college football scholarship offers. He intends to study business.
- Shining moment: Freeman was a significant contributor this season as Owosso made the football playoffs for the second time ever and won its first playoff game in school history. The Trojans beat Cadillac 27-14.
- Pump-up jams: Anything classic rock; bands like Journey, Boston and Van Halen.
- Must-see TV: "MythBusters," "Pawn Stars," and ESPN "SportsCenter."
- Favorite films: "The Italian Job," "Remember the Titans," and "S.W.A.T."
PHOTO: Owosso senior Matt Freeman begins emerging from his defensive stance during his team's playoff win over Cadillac this season. Freeman, a two-way lineman, was recently named Division 3 all-state by the Detroit Free Press and earned Division 3-4 all-state honorable mention from The Associated Press. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Scholar-Athlete Awards Finalists Named
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 25, 2012
The 120 finalists for the Michigan High School Athletic Association's Scholar-Athlete Award for the 2011-12 school year -- including three each from three schools -- have been announced.
The program, which has been recognizing student-athletes since the 1989-90 school year, will honor 32 individuals from MHSAA member schools who participate in at least one sport in which the Association sponsors a postseason tournament. Farm Bureau Insurance underwrites the Scholar-Athlete Award, and will present a $1,000 scholarship to each recipient. Since the beginning of the program, 544 scholarships have been awarded.
Scholarships will be presented proportionately by school classification, with 12 scholarships to be awarded to Class A student-athletes, six female and six male; eight scholarships will be awarded to Class B student-athletes, four female and four male; six scholarships will be awarded to Class C student-athletes, three female and three male; and four scholarships will be awarded to Class D student-athletes, two female and two male. In addition, there also will be two at-large honorees which also are part of the general judging process, may come from any classification, and are designated by their school at the time of entry.
Every MHSAA member high school could submit as many applications as there are scholarships available in its classification, and could have more than one finalist. Marlette, Northville and Rochester Adams each have three finalists this year, while 20 schools have two: Bay City Central, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice, Birmingham Groves, Dearborn, Delton Kellogg, East Lansing, Frankfort, Hillsdale Academy, Hopkins, Jenison, Kinde-North Huron, Midland, Midland Dow, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, Rochester, Spring Lake, Springport, Tecumseh, White Lake Lakeland and Williamston.
Multiple-sport participation remains the norm among applicants. The average sport participation rate of the finalists is 2.58, while the average of the application pool was 2.13 – both within a tenth of last year’s rates in those categories. There are 66 three-plus sport participants in the finalist field, and all but three of the 28 sports in which the MHSAA sponsors postseason tournaments are represented.
Of 386 schools which submitted applicants, 51 submitted the maximum allowed. This year, 1,636 applications were received. All will be presented with certificates commemorating their achievement. Additional Scholar-Athlete information, including a complete list of scholarship nominees, can be found on this MHSAA Website link.
The applications were judged by a 62-member committee of school coaches, counselors, faculty members, administrators and board members from MHSAA member schools. Selection of the 32 scholarship recipients will take place in early February. Class C and D scholarship recipients will be announced on February 7; Class B scholarship recipients will be announced on February 14, and Class A scholarship recipients will be announced on February 21. All announcements will be made on the MHSAA Web site.
To honor the 32 Scholar-Athlete Award recipients, a ceremony will take place during halftime of the Class C Boys Basketball Final, March 24 at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing.
To be eligible for the award, students must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 (on a 4.0 scale), and previously have won a varsity letter in at least one sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament. Students also were asked to respond to a series of short essay questions, submit two letters of recommendation and submit a 500-word essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics.
Farm Bureau Insurance, one of Michigan's major insurers, has a statewide force of more than 400 agents serving more than 380,000 Michigan policyholders. Besides providing life, home, auto, farm, business and retirement insurance, the company also sponsors life-saving, real-time Doppler weather tracking systems in several Michigan communities.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,600 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.
2011-12 Scholar-Athlete Award Finalists
BOYS CLASS A
Matthew Alexander Beem, Traverse City West
Brendon Clover, White Lake Lakeland
Ryan Denison, Dearborn
Saeed El Saghir, Bay City Central
Steven Alexander Fox, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central
Christopher Robert Hagan, East Lansing
Alexander Hassan, Ann Arbor Huron
Joshua M. Heinze, Plymouth
Knute Hoffman, Midland
Hunter Holtrop, Okemos
Josh Hoogendoorn, Jenison
Nick Iacobellis, DeWitt
Jeremy Kozler, Livonia Stevenson
Conrad Arthur Lather, Midland Dow
Alec Latta, Northville
Gabriel Martinez, Livonia Franklin
Robert Paul, Bay City Central
Andrew Poterala, Northville
Nick Rao, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice
Christopher Sesi, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice
Blaine Stannard, Birmingham Groves
Alex Taylor, Rochester Adams
Daniel Tzou, Midland Dow
Garret Zuk, White Lake Lakeland
GIRLS CLASS A
Kelsey Adamski, Richland Gull Lake
Ellery Alexander, Caledonia
Kortnie L. Bush, Southgate Anderson
Jaymie Dyer, Hartland
Bethany Easom, Saline
Yara Nidal Fakhoury, Dearborn
Heather Smith, Farmington Hills Mercy
Amanda Marie Fodera, Fraser
Alexa Giovanatti, Rochester Adams
Morgan Hawver, Grand Haven
Hannah Marie Howarth, Gibraltar Carlson
Kelsey Kerin, St Clair
Hannah Lee, Rochester Adams
Maria Lepore, Rochester
Kelly Lunghamer, Birmingham Marian
Nicole McDermott, Mason
Gina Marie McNamara, Northville
Katelyn Alexandra Pekala, Midland
Abigail Rawling, Rochester
Dana Schrauben, Lake Orion
Alexis Stanton, Jenison
Alexandra Trecha, East Lansing
Jessica Turner, Birmingham Groves
Abigail Wilson, Trenton
BOYS CLASS B
Jordan S. Daley, Grand Rapids Christian
Griffin Dean, Grayling
Nathaniel P. Gaynor, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep
Mason E. Geno, Essexville Garber
Jeffrey John Gregory, Kingsford
Nathaniel Ferris Iveson, Middleville Thornapple Kellogg
Andrew Kelley, Allegan
Nathan Kossey, Tecumseh
Joseph Longstreet, Hastings
Dan Macalka, Comstock Park
Dillon McCarthy, Whitehall
Jacob Mineau, Marysville
Nick Huston Parnell, Spring Lake
Caleb Pung, Portland
Craig Zebell, Dowagiac
Alan Zhen, Livonia Clarenceville
GIRLS CLASS B
Sara Marie Barron, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep
Kathryn MacDermid Bollman, Williamston
Julie Buursma, Holland Christian
Kristin Gilbert, Hopkins
Hannah Grischke, Williamston
Sarah Hartley, Birch Run
Emily Kendro, Spring Lake
Nathalie Kenny, Manistee
Keara Kilbane, Hopkins
Laurin Masnari, Three Rivers
Erin Moser, Midland Bullock Creek
Rachel Neumann, Flint Powers Catholic
Brianne Nowak-Scott, Tecumseh
Emily Oren, Hamilton
Miranda Scott, Charlotte
Kaitlyn Stevens, Ovid-Elsie
BOYS CLASS C
Zachary French, Ishpeming Westwood
Dakota M. Hard, Quincy
Jonathan Andrew Harper, Clare
Ryan Hook, Delton Kellogg
Kolby Lange, Marlette
Trevor Lewis, Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port Laker
Gregory Long, Sand Creek
Sean McBrayer, Unionville-Sebewaing
David Powers, Jr., Michigan Center
Benjamin Rebertus, Negaunee
Dirk E. Stoneman, Breckenridge
Ryan Watson, Delton Kellogg
GIRLS CLASS C
Brandy Bowers, Springport
Cayla Broton, Hesperia
Emily Crick, East Jordan
Lauren Dietrich, Gobles
Megan Kangas, Norway
Rachel Leightner, Springport
Lena Madison, New Buffalo
Rachel McEwen, Marlette
Karley Sauder, Marlette
Elyse Ann Louise Starck, Morley-Stanwood
Kelcey Stauffer, Sandusky
Isabella Yzerman, Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart
BOYS CLASS D
Evan Chalker, Buckley
Evan Dhyse, Kinde-North Huron
Seth Kintigh, Jackson Christian
Timothy Logghe, Peck
Joseph Nugent, Frankfort
Adam Plumstead, Frankfort
Sabeek Pradhan, Hillsdale Academy
Benjamin Ross, Lawrence
GIRLS CLASS D
Haley Buckey, Caseville
Kelsey Butcher, Morrice
Quinnlin Daily, Kingston
Natalija Galens, Watervliet Grace Christian
Haley Moore, Kinde-North Huron
Margaret Aileen Ryan, Hillsdale Academy
Jamie Lyn Seppanen, Eben Junction Superior Central
Alexandria Whitman, Fulton