Hikers celebrate Centennial Hike at Jens Jensen Preserve

HCH President Pat Fisher (right) discusses the nature of the preserve

HCH President Pat Fisher welcomes the hikers The hikers enter the preserve

The hikers enter the preserve HCH President Pat Fisher discusses the variety of trees at the preserve

All Pat Fisher wanted to do was share his fascination with the widespread species and their respective ecosystems that blanket southwest Michigan with residents and visitors to the area.

“I’d been doing a lot of hikes on my own and decided all the unique things I’d seen – I wanted them to see it too,” he said.

He caught the attention of Bob Mueller, who went on a few hikes on the series of trails behind New Buffalo Elementary School with Fisher, HCH president, and heard his series of talks at the New Buffalo Township Public Library.

Mueller approached him about starting a hiking club – which would later be known as the Harbor Country Hikers.

“I thought, ‘This is really cool, more people ought to know about this stuff,’” he said.

Nearly five years later, that hiking club was celebrating its 100th organized hike on the balmy afternoon of Saturday, March 5, at Jens Jensen Preserve. Mueller, who’s now HCH treasurer, said the first hike was held May 20, 2017, at New Buffalo Public Beach with member Janet Schrader.

In the approximately five years it’s been in existence, the group has accumulated a little over 200 members. Currently, hikes average around 30 participants – a far cry from the fewer than 12 hikers who showed up for that first one.

A little over 50 hikers (52 people and four dogs, to be exact) had gathered for HCH’s March 5 hike.

The organization runs several service projects as well as nature hikes for students through New Buffalo Elementary School’s Bison Afterschool Enrichment (BASE) program.

The group has also worked on bringing signage to the area’s various trails. Fisher has worked with Chikaming Open Lands (COL) and the Three Oaks and Chikaming Township parks in getting the trails organized and maintained. Through COL, he’s become the steward of Turtle Creek Nature Preserve in New Buffalo as well as the steward of the Nature Study Trails behind the elementary school (next to Turtle Creek).

The organization has also expanded its hiking area to include spots outside of Harbor

BY FRANCESCA SAGALA Country and even Michigan, including the Indiana Dunes National Park. For the 100th hike, though, the group had chosen to stick close to home – at the Jens Jensen Preserve, located in Sawyer. The preserve was named after Jens Jensen, who many claim invented landscape architecture. After moving from Florida to Chicago in the 1800s, he got a job in the West Park Commission, one of 22 park districts in Chicago. In 1835, he rose to being superintendent of Humboldt Park. Legend has it that Jensen planted some exotic flowers in a park garden early in his career that later died. As a result, he started using native plants and “never looked back.” In the first decades of the 20th century, he “guided the creation of the Forest Preserve Act of Illinois,” which became law in 1913 and led to the creation of the Cook County Forest Preserve. Jensen, along with Henry Cowles, founded the Prairie Club in 1908. “The Prairie Club is an offshoot of the Playground Association, a group that sponsored educational walks all over Chicago – not too much different in principle than the Hikers, I’d like to think,” Mueller said.

For Fisher, he hopes to educate the public on how the various ecosystems must coexist.

“If you destroy one of them, you destroy both – you destroy a wetland and an upland, it no longer has the reptiles it has today because it takes the wetland to breathe and grow the reptiles,” he said. According to Fisher, the area (which includes the Indiana Dunes) has been classified by the National Park Service as one of the “most biodiverse parks in the country Seeing how many hikers had shown up for the trek through Jens Jensen Preserve that day, Fisher said he was pleased to see he was well on his way to achieving his goal – which was made possible by taking Mueller up on his offer to start Harbor Country Hikers. “I’m glad I did it - it has brought a lot of people out and into the area,” he said. For more information on Harbor Country Hikers, visit www.harborcountryhikers.org or follow them on Facebook.

Bison regain No. 1 ranking after defeating Bridgman Bees

BY STAN MADDUX

Add a conference title to the milestones achieved this year by the New Buffalo High School boys’ basketball team. running down from the bleachers to celebrate the division championship. Lijewski finished with 33 points on 70% shooting from the floor. “I guess I was just hitting. I kind

The Bison (19-1) defeated Bridgman Thursday, March 3, in front of a packed home crowd 70-44.

A New Buffalo defeat would have meant both teams sharing the conference title in their division of the Berrien Cass St. Joseph Conference, which has two divisions.

The Bison regained their No. 1 ranking in the Michigan High School Athletic Association power rankings after the victory.

The Bees controlling the ball to slow the fast paced New Buffalo offense ranked No. 6 nationwide in scoring jumped out to a 6-0 lead.

However, a driving lay-up by Mark Shaw seemed to ignite the Bison, who scored 20 of the next 22 points.

The run included multiple buckets from Jeremiah Mitchell, Anthony Lijewski and Anthony Anderson.

New Buffalo went into halftime leading 32-21.

The lead grew to as much as 16 points in the third quarter with help from the three-point shooting of Lijewski, but the Bees kept fighting back to remain in striking distance.

A short turn around baseline jumper from Lijewski after he grabbed an offensive rebound gave the Bison a 14 point lead early in the fourth quarter.

The lead grew to 17 points with less than three points remaining in the game from jump shots by Lijewski and Mitchell.

Lijewski continued his offensive show with four more buckets, including three from beyond the three point line in the final 90 seconds of play.

The players then joined fans of felt weightless. It was fun. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the moment,” Lijewski said. Ryan Vinson, who scored a number of key buckets down low, finished with 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Vinson said he and several teammates were battling chest colds and met several times prior to the game to go over the game plan to help make up for what they might be lacking physically. “We each know we have a certain job so we didn’t try to do everything ourselves. Our coach came up with a magnificent plan, a good defensive scheme and we put it all together,” he said.

The Bison came into the match averaging 84 points a game.

Officials believe no basketball team at New Buffalo High School has ever been this high in either of the state or national rankings. The mission for the Bison is winning a state title after losing in the first round of the regionals last year. Vinson said the Bison will likely have to defeat River Valley and Eau Claire to repeat as District 4 champions but he’s confident in his teammates. Eau Claire is ranked No. 14 and River Valley is ranked No. 19 in the Class D power rankings. The Bison twice soundly defeated both teams during the regular season. “We think we got them scouted pretty good. We’ll have it under control,” he said.

SPORTS

From the Bleachers

COLUMN BY KURT MARGGRAF IN CHICAGO

Because I’ve been a

Chicagoan for most of my life, professional sports take precedence over college and amateur sports for me, but it wasn’t always that way.

When I was in high school, a few friends and I traveled from the south side all the way to the north side, a distance of more than 20 miles, on public transportation, to watch the Loyola Ramblers play basketball.

The Ramblers were really good that year, but we didn’t realize how good. They made it into the NCAA tournament that year and beat the University of Illinois, Duke, and finally number one ranked Cincinnati to win the championship.

A few years later, DePaul had some great teams lead by Terry Cummings and Mark Aguirre. They couldn’t quite make it over the hump and win the title, but they did finish as high as third one year and brought their fans a ton of entertainment. In between the Chicago team’s success, I was in college and saw Southern Illinois University win the NIT tournament, which had much more prestige then, than it does now. SIU was led by Walt Frazier, who went on to be an all star for the New York Knicks.

For me, those were the heydays of college basketball. It wasn’t long until the Bulls drafted a kid from North Carolina named Michael Jordan and every basketball fan in Chicago turned their attention to the NBA.

My interest in college basketball was limited to an occasional trip to Vegas and filling out the brackets to try to show my friends and coworkers how much knowledge I have.

Many sport’s fans feel different than me. March Madness is a huge deal for basketball fans. Many companies have a slow down in productivity as employees try to handicap the tournament and then follow the games to see how their brackets are doing. I must admit that this year has me more interested than I’ve been for quite some time.

Loyola is back in the tournament again, and with 102-year-old Sister Jean rooting for them, anything can happen. The University of Illinois won a share of the Big Ten title and could be a force in the tournament as well. Duke will be a sentimental favorite because their highly respected coach, Mike Krzyzewski, is retiring.

This week, Duke played their final home game under coach K and tickets were, to say the least, at a premium. One of the secondary ticket sellers reported that the cheapest seat was more expensive than the cheapest seat to the Super Bowl. So, let’s choose our favorites, fill out our brackets, and enjoy March Madness.

Some Chicagoans took the Polar Plunge today to raise money for the Special Olympics. I’m entirely too timid to join them, but the participants are among those who make Chicago Proud.

Mahatma Gandhi said “I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed”. Talk to you next week. Peace, love, and happiness.

Bison regain No. 1 ranking for post season

BY STAN MADDUX

The New Buffalo High School boys’ basketball team is beginning the post season ranked No. 1 in Class D.

The Bison (19-1) fell from the “I think in the end, overall, if we were to say if it was a plus or a minus, I’d say I think it’s a plus,” he said. The Bison also ended the regular season at No. 7 for scoring nationwide averaging close No. 1 ranking after suffering their only loss of the season to Brandywine in early February.

Ever since, New Buffalo remained in the top 5 in the Michigan High School Athletic Association power rankings.

A 26-point victory over Bridgman at home Thursday, March 3, put New Buffalo back at the top of the rankings based largely on strength of schedule.

Bridgman finished the regular season ranked No. 24 in Class C. Brandywine goes into the post season ranked No. 11 in Class C.

Head Coach Nate Tripp said he’s “super excited” for his team to be top ranked to start the District 4 tournament held this year at River Valley High School.

Tripp said his players invested a lot of time and effort during the off-season to make a state title run after a disappointing loss in the regional opener last season to Howardsville Christian.

He said the off season included time in the weight room and six games against larger schools in June at Cadillac.

“It’s a huge honor. We’re really proud because we worked really hard for it,” Tripp said.

Tripp said the No. 1 ranking, though, might cause their post season opponents to play harder.

“We’ve got a giant target on our back and every team is going to give us their best and every team wants to knock us down,” he said.

However, Tripp said his players are ready to defend the No. 1 ranking following a regular season where opponents tried their very best to trip them up. to 84 points a game, according to MaxPreps, an information resource for high school athletic programs across the country. The Bison also finished with the best regular season record of any boys’ basketball team in New Buffalo High School history. The only boys’ high school basketball squad in New Buffalo to win a state title was the Class C team from 1963. That team was 13-3 in the regular season and finished at 20-3. “There’s just a long list of phenomenal accomplishments by our team this regular season. But, make no mistake about it, we want to be a post season team. We have not hit any of our goals as of yet,” he said.

He said the first goal is repeating as District 4 champions then winning the regionals and advancing to the quarter finals and semi-finals and winning the state finals.

New Buffalo High School Athletic Director Matt Johnson said the success of this year’s team has given students and the entire community something to rally behind after a challenging two years of COVID-19.

He said it’s also shown that even a small school can achieve at a high level.

“They’ve worked very hard. They’re athletic. Those kids see the court really, really well and they know the game of basketball. So, it’s just one of those things where I think things are coming together at the right time for them,” Johnson said. The Bison, who are ranked No. 1 in Class D, seemed primed for an upset in their District 4 high school boys’ basketball tournament opener with arch rival River Valley Wednesday, March 9.

However, New Buffalo pulled ahead to stay in the third quarter to win 74-54 before a packed crowd at River Valley High School.

Ranked No. 20 in Class D, the Mustangs jumped out to a 10-4 lead on a lay-up by Cadden Krieger off a nifty pass from Josh Siefert.

Seifert later hit a three-point shot to give River Valley a 2013 edge going into the second quarter.

Using a trapping zone and their size advantage, the Mustangs kept smothering an obviously frustrated highpowered Bison offense also hampered by turnovers.

The Bison were also getting badly outrebounded.

Several buckets from Anthony Lijewski kept the Bison from getting blown out early until the rest of his teammates started scoring and cutting into the lead.

On a jump shot from Lijewski, the Bison went into halftime at the buzzer, trailing 32-31.

Kaden Parmley and Mark Shaw put the team on their shoulders in the third quarter to quickly give the Bison a fivepoint lead

The lead grew to nine points on three-point buckets from Lijewski and Parmley, who celebrated by raising his arms to the roar of the crowd.

Jump shots by Krieger and Evan Gatz pulled the Mustangs to within four points late in the quarter but that was as close as River Valley would get the rest of the way.

Jeremiah Mitchell opened the fourth quarter by sinking a three-point shot.

Parmley returned by pump faking his way in for a lay-up.

Anthony Anderson then pretty much sealed the game by hitting a shot from beyond the three-point line to give the Bison a 13-point lead with under five minutes left on the game clock.

The Mustangs pulled to within 10 points but trailed by 17 points when Shaw took a rebound full court for a lay-up with about 60 seconds until the final buzzer.

Head Coach Nate Tripp said he was never worried once his players in the second half began moving the ball like they’ve done all season to find open shooters.

The inside then opened for New Buffalo to score after Mustang defenders moved away from the rim to guard the outside shooters for the Bison.

“Those are all things that we celebrated with success all year. In the first half, we had none of that,” Tripp said.

Parmley and Shaw led the Bison with 20 points apiece while Lijewski contributed 17 points.

Bison defeat Mustangs in boys’ basketball tournament opener

BY STAN MADDUX