sport: April 2011

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BIG-Time Champs Lansing Sexton Rules Class B, Erases All Doubts

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MAT KINGS

KEVIN SHAW

Fifield, Jackson Share Wins, More

Earns Raves As Sports Filmmaker

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contents

FEATURES 10 DIFFERENT STROKES

Summer Camps Offer Something For Everyone

BY CHIP MUNDY

14 KINDRED MAT KINGS

Friendship, Championships For Jackson, Fifield

BY CHIP MUNDY

22 ISN’T LIFE GRAND

DeWitt’s Eible Still Versatile At GVSU

BY CHIP MUNDY

24 LASTING IMAGES

Filmmaker Kevin Shaw Was Shaped By MSU

BY ANDREA NELSON

26 FAN-TASY FEVER

18

Perfect Game For Baseball Make-Believers

BY ANDY FLANAGAN

BIG HEARTS, BIG REDS

Valentine Leads Sexton To First State Title In 51 Years

BY DAN KILBRIDGE

DEPARTMENTS eb-servation

05 Sexton Appeal

Valentine’s Team Captures Our Hearts

BY JACK EBLING

sports authority

08 Minor League Baseball A Regional Asset

The Lugnuts’ Impact On The Community Is a True Double Play

BY BRENDAN DWYER

news + notes

30 More Mr./Ms. Basketballs Anderson, Hines Latest Stars Bound For MSU

BY CHIP MUNDY

finish line

32 Worth The Wait

Sexton’s State Title Stirs Memories

BY CHRIS FERGUSON

Volume #3 • Issue #4 APRIL 2011

APRIL 2011

3

assists

EDITOR Jack Ebling Jack has covered sports and more as a writer and broadcaster in Mid-Michigan since 1978. A three-time Michigan Sportswriter of the Year, he was a 2006 inductee into the Greater Lansing Area Sports Hall of Fame. He has written four books on Michigan State and one on the Detroit Tigers and is finishing book six, Heart of a Spartan (www.heartofaspartanbook.com). He has contributed more than 125 pieces for national publications and is a founding partner in Sportswriters Direct, a new freelance business. The former English teacher and coach spent nearly a quarter-century as a beat writer and columnist for the Lansing State Journal and won 21 major writing awards. A two-time graduate of MSU, he has lived in Greater Lansing for 38 years. With his wife, Robin, he has helped raise two remarkable young adults, Zach and Ali.

CONTRIBUTORS Mike Major Born and raised in the Lansing area, Mike was always a huge sports fan, participating in baseball, football, basketball and golf in his youth. He served as the head boys basketball coach at Lansing Sexton from 1989-2005. Since leaving the coaching ranks, sports photography has filled that void. Mike can often be seen photographing area youth sports or playing a round of golf.

Chip Mundy Chip has spent his entire life in Mid-Michigan and always has had a passion for sports. He spent more than 25 years in the sports department at the Jackson Citizen Patriot and covered everything from Super Bowls and World Series to Little League Baseball and the rodeo. Chip’s first book, “Michigan Sports Trivia,” was published in November of 2010.

Publisher Sport Community Publishing Editor Jack Ebling Assistant EditorS Andy Flanagan Andrea Nelson WRITING Brendan Dwyer Jack Ebling Chris Ferguson Dan Kilbridge Andy Flanagan Chip Mundy Andrea Nelson PhotographY 23 Films Jacky Bastion Grand Valley State University Mike Major Kevin Shaw Chris Vasilion Doug Witte MAGAZINE Design & LAYOUT Traction www.projecttraction.com Printing Millbrook Printing, Co. Mailer ICS Editorial Office 617 East Michigan Avenue Lansing, Michigan 48912 (517) 455-7810 www.SportLansing.com

Greater Lansing Sport Magazine is published monthly by Sport Community Publishing with offices at 617 East Michigan Avenue, Lansing, Michigan 48912. Postage is paid under USPS Permit #407.

Subscriptions: One copy of the Greater Lansing Sport Magazine, is mailed complimentary to qualified business addresses in the Greater Lansing metropolitan area. Residential, promotional, out-of-area and additional subscriptions are available for $36 per year (a saving of 40% off the $5 cover price per issue) by mailing a check to Sport Community Publishing or paying online at www.

SportLansing.com. When available, back issues can be purchased online for $10 each.

Postmaster: Address changes should be sent to: Sport Community Publishing, 617 East Michigan Avenue, Lansing, Michigan 48912.

4 APRIL 2011

Copyright © 2011 Sport Community Publishing All rights reserved.

eb-servation

Sexton Appeal Valentine’s Team Captures Our Hearts

BY JACK EBLING

This was supposed to be a baseball issue. No one had an issue with that.

Photography MIKE MAJOR

But for the third straight year, someone forgot to tell the area’s best basketball team – the Michigan State men the past two seasons and the Sexton Big Reds this time around.

And that’s perfectly OK. If back-to-back Final Four appearances and an MHSAA Class B title meant we needed to push our spring covers back, so be it. If heaven can wait, so can sacrifice bunts.

It isn’t every day that Sexton High wins a boys hoops state championship. In fact, it isn’t every 18,625 of them. The last time that happened was 1960, late in the Eisenhower administration.

Of course, current Big Reds star Denzel Valentine hadn’t been born yet. Neither had his father, Carlton, the team’s head coach. But who cares?

The former MSU forward made up for lost time with sweat equity and one of the most entertaining teams this area has produced. And that’s saying something in Mid-Michigan, which has given us seven champs in the 21st century.

Like Waverly in 2000, Everett in 2004, Holt and Olivet in 2005, Bath in 2007 and Lansing Catholic in 2008, Sexton provided a perfect example of what can happen when everyone believes.

No one did that more than the senior Valentine, who couldn’t erase the rancid taste of last year’s 24-point pounding by mighty Detroit County Day in the B final with industrial-strength mouthwash.

So what did “V” do? He made that nightmare a daily companion, hanging a haunting, runner-up medal from his car’s mirror and keeping a sad, second-place team photo on his phone.

This time was going to be different, he vowed.

And different it was – a semifinal unlike any other. The Big Reds turned a six-point deficit into an eight-point lead over Country Day with 8 near-perfect minutes in the third quarter.

Sexton scored 32 points in that span, a pace that would’ve netted 160 in a 40-minute college game and 192 in a regulation NBA contest.

Junior guard Bryn Forbes outscored DCD 19-18 alone in that period and didn’t miss a shot.

The story of that 69-59 triumph and a championship victory 24 hours later is told here by Dan Kilbridge of 24 7 Sports. And when the Big Reds coach was done with his last post-game “Wooooo!” the question wasn’t who? It was how many?

Chris Ferguson, a Sexton state champ as a player in ’59 and again as an assistant coach 51 years later, suggested as much in our Finish Line back-page column. He also unveiled a plan to name the Big Reds’ court after legendary coach Clayton Kowalk next season.

And who better to provide photographs for those pieces? None other than freelancer Mike Major, another former head hoops coach at Sexton.

Elsewhere in our 25th issue, two other amazing state titlists are profiled, as newspaper veteran Chip Mundy checks in with Leslie’s Brandon Fifield and Eastern’s Camryn Jackson, close friends but opposites in many ways.

In a comprehensive guide to summer sports camps, Mundy visits with Dale Beard, Steve Haney, Charles Tucker and Steve Finamore to explain some of the options. Then, sport offers one of the best resources a parent could have to help make an informed decision.

In the lone baseball piece that wasn’t pushed back, Assistant Editor Andy Flanagan presents a look at fantasy baseball in Greater Lansing, the 101st different activity to grace these pages.

Though it may be one of the most sedentary, it’s one of the most addicting.

Mundy also offers a look at ex-DeWitt High star Kristen Eible, who completed her soccer career at Grand Valley State, then decided to play basketball again. The former national Punt, Pass & Kick champ probably deserves a rest this spring.

The rest of this issue has several surprises, including our first look at incoming Spartans

Reaching For The Top The Sexton Big Reds were a championship team, not just a collection of talented individuals, in 2010-11.

from Northern Michigan, Dwaun Anderson and Jasmine Hines, Mr. and Miss Basketball, respectively, for 2011.

Included in that News + Notes package is a historical look at all the winners of those awards who played high school ball in MidMichigan or went on to compete at MSU. Finally, we introduce a new feature, highlighting Spartan alums and their success stories after leaving campus. The first profile from Assistant Editor Andrea Nelson is of filmmaker extraordinaire Kevin Shaw, a former newspaper colleague who went on to bigger, better things.

Shaw is part of Big Ten Network team that was just nominated for an Emmy for The Journey, the best basketball show on television. And his feature-film documentary The Street Stops Here on prep powerhouse St. Anthony High in Jersey City is the most compelling hoops viewing since Hoop Dreams.

Shaw would’ve loved watching Sexton’s triumphs en route to their third state crown, the most for any school in the area. And he would’ve understood the bond that swept over Breslin Center again for everyone within 20 miles of Lansing – for the Big Reds and Class C runner-up Fulton.

You can’t spell community without unity.

That’s Greater Lansing’s greatest sporting strength. H APRIL 2011

5

your shot

Send Us Your Photos! www.SportLansing.com Published photos will receive a poster commemorating Your Shot, courtesy of Capital Imaging.

Mowin’ Em Down Glenn VanEpps (14) cuts loose on a modified lawn mower in a race at Lake Alliance in Potterville. The tractors have 60+ horsepower and can reach speeds of close to 60 mph.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY Chris Vasilion

greater lansing sports authority

Minor League Baseball A Regional Asset The Lugnuts’ Impact On The Community Is A True Double Play

BY BRENDAN DWYER

As a solid leisure attraction in downtown Lansing for over a decade and a half, the Lugnuts have helped make a trip to our city more memorable for youth groups, conference attendees, area college students and thousands of families from a vast number of surrounding communities. In fact, going NUTS at Cooley Law School Stadium has become as iconic to the area as General Motors, Michigan State University or the State Capitol Building.

“The Lugnuts are a fixture on the Greater Lansing attraction landscape and we couldn’t be more pleased,” said Tracy Padot, Vice President of Marketing Communications for the Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We have all kinds of leisure visitors, from bus-loads of kids to a conference of professionals, get caught up in the fun of baseball and create pleasant memories of our community at a Lugnuts game. When we can send visitors home with a warm and positive feeling like that – we know they’ll be back.”

Feeder-businesses that have popped up around the stadium have also helped create a reinvigorated and walk-able downtown with a fun and lively atmosphere that was lacking before Lugnuts baseball hit the Capital City.

“Leisure travelers and convention attendees want to feel like they are visiting a community with a lot of action and opportunities for fun,” continued Padot. “A Lugnuts game on a summer evening, a patio party at the Nuthouse and a 8 APRIL 2011

bus-load of MSU students arriving downtown on the Entertainment Express creates energy and a downtown buzz of which we can be proud.”

While clearly an established leisure draw to the area, the Lansing Lugnuts and their stateof-the-art, meticulously kept home at the heart of the Stadium District serve another major role for the region. As the staff of the Greater Lansing Sports Authority (GLSA) will tell you, this is a high-profile, Cadillac-quality venue they are able to sell as a site for visiting baseball tournaments.

“Cooley Stadium is a truly professional-grade facility that is a real stand-out offering when we are selling sports tournament rights holders on the Greater Lansing community,” said Mike Price, Manager of Sports Development with the GLSA. “We’ve had a lot of success with events at Cooley, including the opening ceremonies for the Baseball Players Association World Series and the Capital City Classic Triple Crown Youth Baseball Tournament, which is one of the strongestgrowing in the state with over 50 teams involved.”

Price was quick to credit not just the facility, but the flexible and creative marketing staff with the Lugnuts and governing entity for the park, Lansing Entertainment and Public Facility Authority (LEPFA).

“We have great partnerships with LEPFA and the Lugnuts, which is a big plus when we bring in events. The Lugnuts and LEPFA have always been open-minded and help us look for creative solutions

to ensure satisfaction of tournament groups that use the field,” added Price. “Continued work with these great local entities will help position Greater Lansing as a high-demand Midwestern location for baseball tournaments for years to come.”

Going Nuts! (left to right) Mike Price, T.J. Hawkins and Meghan Carmody of the GLSA work to leverage community athletic venues to bring in sports tournaments and events.

So as an enticing leisure draw and potential big-time tournament venue, the existence of the Lugnuts and their shining facility in downtown Lansing has turned a solid double play for the community. But maybe that’s not all. Perhaps the most impactful benefit of this solid community partner is the quality product it has produced, year after year since 1996 – exposure to the timehonored tradition of the great American game of baseball and the fun and family-friendly stadium experience right here in downtown Lansing.

“I’m told you don’t even need to be a fan of baseball to have fun at a Lugnuts game, but I wouldn’t know – I’ve loved baseball my entire life,” said Price. “Having a minor league baseball component to our downtown is a big win for so many reasons; I hope someday this community is celebrating 150 years of the Lansing Lugnuts.” H

Photography JACKY BASTION

Baseball. Aptly dubbed America’s Pastime, it’s a game that can wildly thrill fans just as quickly as it can put them at restful ease. It’s a game, that while exciting, plays slow and allows fans to take in not only the hits, tags and fantastic catches taking place on the field, but the feel of the sun, the smell of traditional ballpark cuisine and the sound of the crowd as it cheers on the home team.

For Greater Lansing, that home team is the Lansing Lugnuts and their presence in the community has made an indelible impact on Michigan’s Capital City.

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Different Summer Camps Offer Something For Everyone

BY CHIP MUNDY

10 APRIL 2011

Strokes Dale Beard didn’t have to go to a basketball camp in the mid1970s, when he was still a junior in high school.

After all, he was a member of the Everett Vikings, who would go on to win the Class A state title in ’77. And one of his best friends, teammate Magic Johnson, was the top high school player in Michigan.

But together, they had the desire to get better and attended Dr. Charles Tucker’s new camp, then held at Everett High. Soon, Beard became a believer.

“At the time, there were not a lot of camps to go to,” Beard said. “It helped me as a player and gave me a chance to not only play against all the kids from the area but a lot of kids from out of the area.”

Beard later would help out on the staff of the camp he had attended. Years later, when his son, Jason Franklin, was old enough to attend camp, Beard made sure he would have the chance to enjoy the experience and learn from it as well.

“I told him to go to camp and be prepared to work hard,” Beard said. “I said, ‘Pay attention and learn from the camp staff. Consume as much information as you can. And after you leave, continue to work on it.’ That’s the important thing.”

Another ex-Viking, Steve Haney, who went on to play at Loyola Marymount and San Jose State, has a similar story about his son, Steve, an Eastern High sophomore.

“I wanted my son to share the same experience that I had,” Haney said. “When I was a kid, Everett had kind of been a hub in the area for all the best kids to gather and play.

It was sort of a way for the top players to get together and play in a controlled environment, so it was only natural to go to Dr. Tucker’s camp.

“The thing about that camp is that it

instilled a lot of discipline, and there was a big emphasis on eating right and fitness, so it wasn’t all just basketball.”

Tucker calls it teaching “skills of life.” In addition to the basketball, nutrition and fitness, he likes to instruct his campers on how to treat others with respect.

“I tell them that some of them might be asked for autographs at some point, and if they are, they should do more than just sign their name,” Tucker said. “They should ask the youngster his or her name, what position they play, where they live, anything to show that they are thankful that the person took enough interest in them to ask for an autograph.

“Those are the skills of life, and they aren’t just all about basketball or athletics.”

Tucker’s camp was ahead of its time, and today there are hundreds of camps around the nation and several in Michigan. And they’re not just aimed at basketball players. Virtually every sport imaginable – from football to lacrosse to water polo – has a camp available somewhere in Michigan.

Most four-year colleges in Michigan run some sort of summer camps, and most of them have camps for several sports. Michigan State University is home to camps for 14 sports, while the University of Michigan hosts 17.

Most college camps are directed by the school’s coaching staffs, so by attending football or basketball camps at MSU and U-M, campers

will be exposed to head coaches Mark Dantonio, Tom Izzo, Brady Hoke and John Beilein.

In turn, the colleges benefit financially and are able to identify potential future recruits and begin to establish relationships with young athletes.

Also growing in popularity are team camps, where entire high school varsity or junior varsity squads can improve their skills, develop timing and bond as a group. Some schools even offer to bring their staff to a high school and offer instruction on-site.

However, colleges aren’t the only places to find summer sports camps. Dr. Tucker’s camp in Lansing is one of the oldest, while a school just for football quarterbacks is available in Pontiac, and there are two national kicking camps that will be held in Michigan this summer.

Parents can place their children at camps while in elementary school. And even if a child is older but not among the most talented in his group, something can be gained from the camps.

“You never know what a kid will turn out to be,” Beard said. “I’ve seen some kids just moping around during camp and later I see them playing AAU ball or in high school.”

East Lansing boys basketball coach Steve Finamore has run several camps in the past. He is a former head coach at Jackson Community College, so he has seen the process from many angles.

“Camps are great for young kids to learn the game,” Finamore said. “For a role player, they need to take the drills they learn from the camp and work on them the rest of the summer.

“As for an elite player who attends a camp like Nike or Five-Star, it’s a way to be seen on the national level. It’s a chance for college recruiters to see you and also a way to compare yourself against other competition from across the country.”

For most players who will never compete beyond their senior season in high school, it’s still a great way to develop their skills and be the best they can be. H APRIL 2011

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different strokes

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CO L L E G E S P O R T S CAMPS IN MICHIGAN 1. Michigan State University www.sportcamps.msu.edu

5

2. Calvin College http://trxn.co/dH7CS

3

3. Central Michigan University www.cmuchippewas.com 4. Eastern Michigan University www.trxn.co/H4XgE

2 6

1

10

8 9

5. Ferris State University http://trxn.co/AnJSz

4

6. Hope College www.hope.edu/camps 7. Northern Michigan University http://trxn.co/SbsEE

9. University of Michigan www.mgoblue.com/camps

8. Oakland University http://trxn.co/89EXg

10. Western Michigan University www.wmubroncos.com/camps

L OC A L H I G H S C H OO L S Most offer camps for every sport for every age. Contact your local high school first, though students can usually attend any school.

O T H E R N O TA B L E S P O R T C A M P S Dr. Tucker’s Basketball Camp 517-290-5552

Ray Guy Kicking Academy (Football) http://trxn.co/K7ahc

USSC Nike Sports Camps (All Sports) http://trxn.co/2GUWH

Top Recruit Kicking (Football) www.toprecruitkicking.com

All-State Quarterback School (Football) www.quarterbackschool.com

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Kindred Mat Friendship, Championships For Jackson, Fifield

BY CHIP MUNDY

Three years ago, when Camryn Jackson met Brandon Fifield at a wrestling camp at Olivet College, there was no reason to expect them to forge a close friendship.

“Brandon already was an elite-level wrestler, and I wasn’t very good,” Jackson said. “A lot of the guys who are really good don’t pay much attention to the other guys, but he was really nice.

14 APRIL 2011

Kings “We just kind of clicked.”

Still, the difference in their abilities at the time wasn’t the only reason a friendship was unlikely.

Jackson is black, somewhat reserved and attends a high school in the city; Fifield is white, intense and attends a rural high school.

They’re even headed in opposite directions for college: Jackson will graduate from Eastern High and wrestle at the University of Michigan, while Fifield will compete at Michigan State University after graduating from Leslie.

Spartans, Wolverines; black, white; big school, small school – none of it matters because the respect and friendship they have formed through wrestling is bigger than all of that.

Last month, each won an individual state

championship on the same day at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

It was the second consecutive state title for Fifield, and it came with a sweet taste of revenge. In the Division 4 individual regional final, Fifield lost to Bela Nemeth of New Lothrop 7-6, and prior to the state meet he conceded that he would like a rematch.

“Yeah, I would enjoy wrestling him again,” Fifield said. “I have a better idea of what to do against him now.”

The rematch came off in the match for the state championship, and Fifield went on to post an 11-3 major decision over Nemeth.

Meanwhile, Jackson was chasing his first state championship. But he didn’t have revenge

on his mind when he decisioned Joe Johnson of South Lyon 3-1 in the title match.

Eastern has a strong wrestling tradition – 63 individual state championships among 51 athletes – but the last title came in 1991.

Three weeks after winning state titles, Fifield and Jackson were on the Michigan team that competed in Pittsburgh’s prestigious Dapper Dan Wrestling Classic, which calls itself the Rose Bowl of wrestling.

Competing against the top-notch wrestlers of Pennsylvania, Fifield lost his match 2-1, and Jackson was defeated 9-2.

It seems they win together, and they lose together, but they took different routes to get to this point.

APRIL 2011

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kindred mat kings

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sixth-place finish at 130 pounds. Later that Jackson’s father, Brant Bowlin, has been summer, Jackson agreed to accept a scholarship coaching young wrestlers for more than 10 to wrestle at the University of Michigan. years, and he introduced Camryn to wrestling at the age of 5.

“He was successful, but he would cry after matches because he didn’t like the hand-to-hand combat thing,” Bowlin said. “I never wanted to push any of my kids into wrestling. If they didn’t want to do it, I was fine with it. But when he was in the eighth grade, he came to me and said, ‘I want to get back in that wrestling thing,’ and I said, ‘YES.’” Jackson was enjoying the sport more but wasn’t totally dedicated to it, either. That was about to change when he accompanied high school Camryn-Ready Lansing Eastern High state champion Camryn teammate Chris Beal to the Jackson will wrestle collegiately at Michigan.

Massa’s Maniacs workout room for elite wrestlers, run by “I was always a Michigan State fan since I Rodger Massa. grew up not far from there,” Jackson said. “But “It was hard, but that’s what got me here,” it wasn’t a tough decision to go to Michigan Jackson said. “We train harder than anyone in because they showed a lot more interest in me. the country. We do some crazy stuff.”

“I can remember a couple of years ago being Jackson said when he saw all the elite on the Internet and going to the Michigan wrestlers working out at Massa’s Maniacs, he wrestling site and reading about all those guys. became more motivated to be the best wrestler I never dreamed that I could be there some day.” that he could be, and he has shown steady, The All-America status and scholarship to dramatic improvement since then.

Michigan got Jackson noticed around the state “Camryn was a late bloomer,” his father said, as well. He entered the season ranked No. 8 “but he’s where he’s at because of his hard among all high school seniors at any weight work. We probably practice 362 days out of the class by Michigan Grappler. Going into the year, and half of those days are two-a-days. individual state meet with a 44-3 record, he That’s his choice.” was ranked the No. 2 wrestler at 135 pounds in Lansing Eastern wrestling coach Adam Fedewa Division 2 by Michigan Grappler. was able to explain the reason for Jackson’s “He’s the hardest-working kid I have,” success in one sentence: “He has a combination Rodger Massa said of Jackson. “When he first of quickness and athleticism and determination, came to me, he had very little experience and which is why he has done so well.” got his butt kicked a lot. But he just worked Jackson qualified for the Division I individual hard to get better. He has worked his butt off state meet last year at 119 pounds, and he won to get where he is.” his first match before losing to the eventual Bowlin, Jackson’s father, said a lot of the state runner-up. He then won two matches credit should go to Massa and his work with in the consolation bracket before a sprained elite-level wrestlers. ankle in the match for fifth place resulted in “I wish I could find the word to give him an injury default. He settled for sixth place and enough credit,” Bowlin said. “He has changed a 40-8 record. my son’s life forever. Wrestling is a vehicle that That summer, Jackson went with Massa’s Camryn used to get a college scholarship.

Manaics to the Cadet & Junior Freestyle & “My son will have a different life because Greco-Roman national championships in Fargo, of wrestling.”

N.D., and earned All-American status with a

Photography MIKE MAJOR

Jackson: A late bloomer

Fifield: Animal on the mat

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The biggest problem with being in a wheelchair for so long – aside from not being on the wrestling mat – was that Fifield was not able to keep in wrestling shape.

“I think he became frustrated with himself because he’s always in peak shape – always in the best shape of anyone in a tournament.

It’s tough to get back into wrestling shape,” Manson said. “I wasn’t surprised that he came back and was so successful right away, but I was fearful that he might hurt himself trying to do too much too soon.”

Fifield projects to wrestle at 133 collegiately, and Jackson is likely to be one weight class higher. So it is not out of the realm of possibility that the two could meet on the mat at some point during an MSU-Michigan meet.

“When I met him, we were freshmen in high school, and we both weighed 80 pounds,” Fifield said. “We worked out together last year before the state meet, and we stay in touch by texting each other.”

However, Fifield’s announcement that he was going to MSU on a wrestling scholarship took Jackson by surprise.

“I knew he was being looked at by some smaller schools, and then all of a sudden the bigger schools got involved,” Jackson said.

“Then one day I heard that he was going to Michigan State. We kind of joked about it, but it’s cool. It’s a great opportunity for both of us.”

Bowlin, Jackson’s father, looks at Fifield with a lot of respect.

“Brandon is a great kid – a kid as good as my kid, and I mean that as a person,” Bowlin said. “Brandon’s got an edge about him, though. He’s a beast. He’s an animal on the mat, but he’s a great kid from a great family.

“I think the world of Brandon, and truthfully, I hope he and Camryn never have to wrestle each other.

Tops In His Field Leslie High star Brandon Fifield, a two-time I don’t want to have to root state titlist, will compete at Michigan State. against Brandon because I’m always rooting for him.”

Manson knows the feeling.

“I’m very excited about the chance to be able wrestle. When he was not able to walk or attend school right after the surgery, he spent his time to go and watch him compete locally,” Manson on the couch watching wrestling matches online. said of Fifield. “Tactically, he’s never fearful of “It killed me not to be able to wrestle, being out of position, and he can attack from but I got pretty good at getting around in a top to bottom. He’s very good on his feet.

“The sky is the limit for him.” H wheelchair,” Fifield said with a chuckle.

Fifield was faced with a huge decision after he went 54-1 and won the 112-pound Division 4 state championship last year. With his right knee bothering him because of built-up scar tissue, he had to choose whether to undergo surgery and possibly miss his entire senior season or continue to wrestle and put his collegiate career in jeopardy.

Fifield, ranked as the preseason No. 7 high school senior in the state regardless of weight class by Michigan Grappler, chose surgery.

“After he committed to Michigan State, he felt that it was right that he have the surgery,” Leslie co-coach George Manson said. “We didn’t anticipate him returning this season.”

After the operation on December 7, doctors told Fifield that he would not be able to wrestle in his senior year, and he would be off his feet for 8 to 10 weeks.

“I believed them when they told me that, but I kind of knew in the back of my mind that I was going to be back at some point during the season,” said Fifield, who was confined to a wheelchair as doctors did not want him to put any weight on his knee.

When he did return, he won 10 of 11 matches to earn a spot in the individual state meet, giving him the chance to become a repeat state champion.

“Two state championships sound a lot better than one,” Fifield said a week before the meet.

Unlike Jackson, Fifield seemingly was born to

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18 APRIL 2011

Photography MIKE MAJOR

Valentine Leads Sexton To First State Title In 51 Years

BY DAN KILBRIDGE

Lansing Sexton emptied its bench in the final moments of this year’s Class B State Quarterfinal at Marshall High, the outcome already determined. The Big Reds were on their way back to the MHSAA State Finals at Breslin Center, with just seconds remaining in a 66-42 win over Dearborn Divine Child.

Both student sections had engaged in backand-forth banter throughout the game. And just before the final buzzer, Divine Child’s fans delivered a message loud and clear to Sexton’s players: “Don’t choke like last year.”

As if the Big Reds needed a reminder.

Sexton entered the 2010 Class B State Championship with a 21-5 record, searching for the school’s first state title since 1960. The

championship hopes came to an abrupt end, as the Big Reds were humbled in a 71-47 loss to Detroit Country Day. Yet again, a mantra of “Wait ‘til next year!” would have to do.

But then-sophomore point guard and coach’s son Denzel Valentine didn’t take sorrow during the on-court trophy ceremony following the game. He took notes.

“I was looking at the seniors,” Valentine said. “They were crying and sad, and I was just

like ‘Dang, I don’t want to go out like this.’

I just put it in the back of my mind like a memory card, saved it and said, ‘I’m not losing a state championship again!’”

Valentine made good on his word this year, as Sexton capped a remarkable 26-2 season with a 75-60 win over Muskegon Heights in the Class B State Championship game. The Big Reds certainly didn’t choke en route to their historic state title. Choked-up might be a better term to describe Sexton and its fans immediately following the final triumph.

“We’re kind of speechless,” Coach Carlton Valentine said after the game. “It has been 50 years since Lansing Sexton had the opportunity to win a state championship. Just unbelievable.”

More than half a century in the making, a blend of togetherness and experience – good APRIL 2011

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and bad - helped mold this championship team.

Juniors Anthony Clemmons, Bryn Forbes and Denzel Valentine all started as sophomores on the 2010 runner up-team, creating a solid backbone alongside senior forward Tyrin Wade.

Perhaps most critical to this team was the experience of seeing a potential-championship season end in an instant.

“I think it stung a lot, because you have it right on the tip of your fingers and you don’t get there,” Carlton Valentine said. “It was right in your reach, right in your grasp, and you don’t get it. I think it was in the minds of a lot of guys that if we get back into that situation again, we weren’t gonna let it slip away. And they played like it. They defended, they executed, they had team chemistry. This team was a piggy-back off last year, plus a little bit more.”

A little bit more is sometimes all that separates a great season from a championship season. Wade gave a little bit more this season, something the Big Reds needed following the departure of 6-foot-8 center James Suttles.

Wade led Sexton with 17.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, all to ensure his team wouldn’t let another opportunity slip away.

“We knew it was gonna be hard, and we had a singular focus,” Wade said. “The coaches preached to us all year, stay inside the system, take smart shots, execute on defense, and we did that. It started in preseason. We went to camps, leagues, everything, and it all paid off.”

The Big Reds attended three camps last summer – at Michigan State, Oakland and Eastern Michigan. They joined not one but two summer leagues in order to prepare for the upcoming season. With hoards of talent on its roster, Sexton simply needed to get a feel for one another on the court.

“When you have four offensive threats, at first you might not know how to play together,” Denzel Valentine said. “So I think those summer games…they made us feel secure about next year. We hit the ground running by playing those summer league games.”

Thus, four scorers learned to play as unselfishly as possible in order to achieve the goal. Aside from Wade, Forbes averaged 13.6 points this season and Clemmons 12.5.

Valentine, who has verbally committed to Michigan State for 2012, averaged 10.2 points and 7.6 assists. The seamless transition should come as no surprise, given the junior trio’s background. Valentine and Forbes met when they were 7 years old, playing for the same junior pro team, while Valentine met Clemmons through youth football the next year. Even then, the three of them talked about winning a state championship one day. But things didn’t

go as planned when they began their varsity careers together in 2010.

Expected to be one of the area’s top teams, Sexton started the season with a disappointing 6-4 record. Sensing turmoil, it was time for a team meeting. Once it became clear there were multiple issues to hash out, the coaches left the players alone. Among a variety of topics that day was the group of sophomores.

Driven To Win Sexton junior Kyren Kemp drives the lane against Muskegon Heights for the deep, determined Class B state champs.

“The seniors kind of got on me, Anthony and Bryn,” Denzel Valentine said. “We were losing games and (the sophomores) were taking up all the minutes. So they were questioning my dad about why they were playing us. We used that as motivation to get better.”

All told, the team emerged from the locker room nearly 90 minutes later. While most of what was said in that meeting will stay between its participants, the results were nearly immediate. Sexton lost just one more regular-season game.

“Everything went in a different direction after that meeting. I don’t know what was said, I don’t care, but the attitude was different,” Carlton Valentine said. “A lot of things got aired out in that meeting and it definitely carried over, because there was none of that this year.”

The Big Reds looked more like family than teammates this season, particularly during a

meticulous pre-game routine. They play the same song on a stereo in their locker room, then form a circle and do a team chant right before they take the floor. Next is a full lap around the gym, followed by another chant at center court. Off go the warmup pants, and Sexton completes one final chant before tipoff.

While the pre-game tradition is often misconstrued by opposing fans and even referees, it has nothing to do with hot-dogging.

Like most aspects of this team, the routine stemmed from last season’s disappointments and a lackluster practice.

“So I said, ‘We’re just gonna run – we’re gonna run 50 laps,’” Carlton Valentine said.

“So they started running around the gym.

And after about lap 20, they started chanting and clapping. It was just like ‘Remember the Titans.’ Lap number 40, they just kept on doing it, and it just became part of what we do. They turned lemons into lemonade.”

The Big Reds raced off to a 17-0 start this season, with just four of those games decided by single digits. At 11-0 in CAAC Red play, Sexton needed one more win over 10-1 Lansing Waverly to secure the CAAC Red championship outright.

But the Warriors had other plans, and downed Sexton 75-70 to clinch a share of the title.

“It was a reality check,” Denzel Valentine said. “We kind of thought that we couldn’t be beat and we were just gonna go 28-0 and win the state championship. As soon as you’re 17-0 you’ve got that target, and I don’t think we realized how big it was.”

The point was made again the following

game, as Lansing Eastern blew out Sexton 88-72 behind 28 points from star forward LaDontae Henton. When district play began the following week, the Big Reds quickly returned to form and beat Haslett, DeWitt and Lansing Catholic by an average of 25 points. After cruising through regional and quarterfinal play, Sexton was back at Breslin Center to face a familiar foe in the state semifinals – Detroit Country Day. While Sexton was reminded of last year’s loss following the Divine Child game, it didn’t end there.

“I’m not sure if anybody at our school thought we were gonna win,” Forbes said. “I had people coming up to me talking about how we were gonna lose, even people outside of school. They were doubting us.”

Country Day led 28-22 at halftime, while Sexton shot just 28.1 percent in the first half.

Facing what would be a crippling loss, Denzel referred back to the memories he stored on the same court one year prior.

“Every time we played a district game or a regional game, every time we got down or a team was making a run, that memory card just popped back up in my head,” Valentine said.

Sexton outscored Country Day 32-18 in the third quarter, during which Forbes scored 19 points and didn’t miss a single shot. The Big Reds went on to win 69-59 and would face Muskegon Heights the following night in the championship game, a team they already defeated in January. Wade, Valentine, Clemmons and Forbes each scored in double digits, as the Big Reds easily bested Muskegon Heights to capture the state title.

“At the time it felt like I was dreaming,” Forbes said. “Now it’s sunk in and it feels real.”

Following the post-game festivities at Breslin Center, Sexton boarded the team bus and arrived back at the high school around midnight. A large crowd of family, friends and staff members greeted the team in the gymnasium for a celebration, with team members seated in chairs on the basketball court. When it was all over, Sexton cut down the nets on its home floor as state champions for the first time since 1960.

“I think it was like an exhale,” Carlton Valentine said. “An exhale from a lot of years of wanting to win a state title. But I think we had to go through some of that suffering and some of that rough stuff to get to the good stuff.” H

Dunkin’ Denzel Though he had more than his share of dunks, Sexton junior Denzel Valentine dazzled as a passer all season.

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DeWitt’s Eible Still Versatile At GVSU

BY CHIP MUNDY

22 APRIL 2011

Ready, Willing & Eible Kristen Eible of DeWitt starred in soccer for Grand Valley State before returning to the basketball court.

Kristen Eible looked at an ending and saw a beginning to her athletic career at Grand Valley State University.

Photography doug witte, grand valley state university

Eible, a graduate of DeWitt High, finished her successful career on the women’s soccer team with back-to-back NCAA Division II national championships. But Eible didn’t take much time to celebrate. She joined the Grand Valley State women’s basketball team to resume a career that had ended when she graduated from high school.

“It’s definitely been a challenge,” Eible said of playing organized basketball for the first time in four years. “It’s just something that I wanted to do.”

It seems that when Eible puts her mind to something, she accomplishes it. She is a two-time finalist in the national Punt, Pass & Kick competition and won the national championship in her first attempt. But even though she earned all-state honors in basketball while at DeWitt, it is on the soccer field where Eible has tasted the most success, breaking the Panthers’ career record for goals with more than a year left to play.

Eible, a 5-foot-6 midfielder, made an impact in her first season at Grand Valley State. She was a first-team all-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference pick and the GLIAC Freshman of the Year after registering six goals a eight assists. She repeated as a first-team AllGLIAC selection as a sophomore, which set the stage for a memorable junior season.

In the national semifinal game, Eible had a goal and an assist as the Lakers defeated Saint Rose 3-2 in overtime. Eible had the game-winning goal 4 minutes, 54 seconds into overtime when she beat goalkeeper Shannon Murphy to the

lower left corner of the net. It was the only time in the game that the Lakers held a lead.

Eible was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA tournament after Grand Valley State wrapped up the title with a 22-0-4 record.

“Playing in my first national championship game, that was huge,” Eible said. “It was really important to win that for the seniors that year.

That was just unbelievable.”

Then, the Lakers pulled off a repeat in Eible’s senior season. Grand Valley State posted a 22-1-2 record and capped it with a 4-0 victory over UC San Diego in the national championship game in Louisville, Ky. Eible nearly scored in that game when she headed the ball off a corner kick, but it sailed just wide of the net.

“Winning the national championship definitely was something that we wanted to have happen,” Eible said. “Our class had talked about that after winning in our junior year.

“Not many people get to win their last game of their senior year.”

Not many college seniors decide to resume participation in a sport that they haven’t played since high school, but Eible made up her mind that she wasn’t done with basketball.

“The thing is, when I was finished with soccer, I felt like I could focus on something else,” Eible said. “I didn’t want to try to play basketball when I still had some soccer left in me.”

The Grand Valley State women’s basketball team was coming off an 18-10 season, so it wasn’t like the team needed an influx of talent. In fact, Eible knew there would be little playing time available for her as a first-year senior, but that did not deter her motivation to join the team.

“I wanted to see if I could still do it,” she said.

Grand Valley State went 20-5 in the regular season, and Eible appeared in 12 games. Most of the games that she missed was because the basketball season was a month old when the soccer season ended. She averaged 5.4 minutes per game and finished with four points and 10 rebounds for the season.

“I knew that I wasn’t going to get a lot of playing time, but I wanted to play basketball again and do whatever I could to help the team win.”

Aside from the obvious differences in the sports, Eible said the transition from soccer to basketball was not terribly difficult.

“I was already in shape because of soccer,” she said, “and everybody was very helpful and welcomed me to the team.”

Somehow, through all of the athletic success, Eible found time to excel in the classroom as well. She was one of 12 recipients of the GLIAC Commissioner’s Award for the fall season of 2010. Six male student-athletes and six female student-athletes are honored each season with the award for excellence in the classroom and on the field of play.

Eible has a 3.65 grade-point average in biomedical science, and she is a student teacher at Allendale High School.

It seems there is no end to the things Eible is achieving at Grand Valley State. H APRIL 2011

23

spartans will

Lasting Images Filmmaker Kevin Shaw Was Shaped By MSU ESPN. The Journey. Law and Order. National Treasure. The Street Stops Here.

Welcome to Kevin Shaw’s career. And that’s only part of it. worked as a trainee on the TV series Law and Order and Jerry Bruckkheimer’s film National Treasure. Shaw also produced a few of his own films, including The Street Stops Here, a documentary about the nation’s best high school basketball coach, Bob Hurley. He currently owns his own production company, 23 Films, which produces documentary programming such as the Big Ten Network’s The Journey.

Shaw’s professional success had to start somewhere, and that somewhere was Mid-Michigan. Originally from Chicago, MSU’s journalism program first attracted Shaw to East Lansing.

It didn’t take long for him to make a final decision.

“I think when I got to the campus at Michigan State…I think that is what won me over,” Shaw said. “I just fell in love with it. I loved the nature, the natural aspect of it. It just felt like to me, as a high school senior, what college is all about.”

His favorite place on campus?

Simple.

“The Red Cedar River,” Shaw said.

“There’s something about it…it flows through campus past the library, past Kevinly Feeling MSU alumnus Kevin Shaw is one of the best Beaumont Tower. It’s just quiet and in the business at chronicling sports. peaceful. I’m the kind of guy who likes to have moments of tranquility Shaw worked his way up to become an Associate in the midst of the chaotic life I sometimes live.”

The chaos familiar to journalists started early Producer at ESPN over the next five years. When in Shaw’s career. He began working at The State most people would never dream of giving up such a News during his freshman year and was eventually job, Shaw’s passion for filmmaking led him to leave named sports editor. He was also a sports stringer ESPN and pursue a degree in cinematography. He for the Lansing State Journal and an intern at the knew he’d be back.

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau.

“I just had to explore,” Shaw said. “I didn’t Aside from work, Shaw’s experience as a want to have any regrets thinking about ‘what if’ and ‘if only I had,’ looking back on life. It was student helped shape him into the person he is today. He said MSU exposed him to people from just the right time to go ahead and pursue it.” different backgrounds and viewpoints, allowing Since earning his second degree, Shaw has moved up fast in the filmmaking world. He him to learn about them in a nonjudgmental way.

Since graduating from Michigan State University’s School of Journalism in 1995, Shaw has had more success in 16 years than some do in a lifetime. His first job offer out of college was as a production assistant for ESPN, and he hasn’t looked back.

“I’ve been fortunate and blessed to work with good people and work on great projects,” Shaw said. “It goes a long way in some of those accomplishments. I’m just blessed.”

24 APRIL 2011

“I think it just opened my eyes to it’s a big world that we live in,” Shaw said. “It’s a big soup bowl full of ideas and cultures that are different from your own experience. So that informs your life experience, to learn that people grew up a different way than you.”

That understanding and desire to discover things about people helped Shaw become a talented storyteller. When writing a feature story about former head football coach George Perles, Shaw said he tried to give true insight on the type of person Perles really was and why he made certain decisions. If he could change negative viewpoints with truth, he was doing his job.

“People are quick to make snap judgments based off their own experiences,” Shaw said.

“When you sit there and have empathy and understand where a person is coming from and why they made that decision is because of their life experience, then you have a greater understanding of that individual.”

Shaw said he thinks that insight is important to building key relationships. He still considers the friends he made at MSU some of his best and sees them when he produces The Journey in East Lansing.

But the friendships he’s maintained are one of the few things that haven’t changed since he graduated. When working with MSU Athletic Director Mark Hollis on The Journey, they took a trip to one of the latest additions on campus.

“He took me and the crew to Brody Complex and the new Brody Square cafeteria,” Shaw said. “That certainly didn’t exist when I was there. Those students have it going. They are a lucky, lucky bunch.”

Some things at MSU may have changed, but the success its graduates have had professionally continues. Shaw is proof of that. He has won 18 awards for his work, including two Emmys.

But what makes Shaw proudest is knowing his films are impacting lives.

“When you have that kind of impact immediately, it just shows you the power of visual storytelling, of what a good film can do,” Shaw said. “It can change lives. It can make an impact. And for me that’s been the best.

No award can ever touch that.” H

Photography kevin shaw, 23 films

BY andrea nelson

Being a Spartan, iS Being aBle

TO COACH HOOPS WITHOUT HAVING TO

JUMP THROUGH THEM! April 30, 2007 marked an important day of transition for Suzy Merchant.

That’s when she was hired as head coach for the MSU women’s basketball program — the day she began her career as a Spartan.

It wasn’t easy, but four years later, she still loves her job.

“Basketball has taken me all over the country, but my heart has always been here,” Merchant said.

No matter where they’re destined to go, there’s sure to be a network of Spartans ready to cheer them on to victory and help with the transition.

“At some point, our players will graduate and face the realities and challenges of life after college,” Merchant said. “Sure, they have the skills to dribble the ball down the court and score points, but will they succeed after graduation when it’s time to hoof the pavement, put their degree to work and find a job or place to live? There’s a real power in our worldwide network of alumni and friends. They’re doctors, nurses, lawyers, bankers, teachers, parents ... friends. On the court, they make a deafening noise and go stark raving mad to distract our opponent at the free-throw line. Off the court, they give us job leads, provide a helping hand and recommend places to go and places to live.

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26 APRIL 2011

Perfect Game For Baseball Make-Believers

BY ANDY FLANAGAN

For baseball fans, this is why we’ve endured the winter – for April, the start of another season. Optimism reigns supreme.

Even Cubs fans can picture their team in the World Series – at least for another month, anyway.

For another set of fans, this is also our favorite time of year. We follow the games in a slightly different way than regular fans, though. For you, if the Detroit Tigers win, it’s probably a great day. I like it when the Tigers win, too. But for me and millions of others like me, happiness is dependent on more than just players who wear the Old English D. We don’t just follow real teams. We follow our own make-believe teams, living and dying each day on the successes and failures of our players.

We are fantasy baseball players.

I got involved in this silly little game in 1990, when I recruited my brother to round up enough guys for a 10-team Rotisserie baseball league.

(You’ll often hear terms like “Rotisserie” or “roto” to describe fantasy baseball. They’re interchangeable terms.)

He worked his network of friends, and I was able to persuade a coterie of media folks – I was working for a news service that covered Capitol politics and the Lansing State Journal – to make up the other half of the league.

This year marks my 22nd year playing fantasy baseball. The granddaddy of all fantasy games is still very popular, according to Paul Charchian, president of the Fantasy Sports

APRIL 2011

27

fan-tasy fever

Trade Association. His organization estimates there are 10 million fantasy baseball players.

If you’ve never played the game – and if you haven’t, what’s wrong with you? – here’s how it works: Each team either drafts or, in our league’s case, bids on a set amount of players.

Most leagues play with 23 players (nine pitchers, 14 position players). In auction leagues, each team has a salary cap, usually $260. Teams collect points for how their players perform in different categories. The most common stats used for hitters are batting average, home runs, RBIs and stolen bases. For pitchers it’s typically wins, saves, ERA and WHIP, a category that’s found its way into the mainstream press.

Simply put, WHIP is a pitcher’s hits plus walks divided by innings pitched.

It’s meant to be easy to play, and it is – to a degree. But if you follow baseball and think you’d ace fantasy, be forewarned: Real baseball doesn’t translate perfectly to fantasy baseball.

For instance, anybody who played in the 1990s remembers the astronomical salaries that players like Vince Coleman would command in the bidding, simply because they possessed speed, a valuable but rare commodity.

If you play the game for any length of time – say a week or two – you’ll soon discover that some of the players you drafted or won via auction don’t always perform as expected.

Usually it’s pitchers who cause owners to turn apoplectic, especially when they’ve given up 6 runs in 1 1/3 innings. I remember in the early days of our league, before we had a reserve roster in which we could switch players in and out, the only way you could remove a player from your roster was if he was sent down or went on the disabled list. Mark Hornbeck, who worked for The Detroit News at the time, was so peeved at one of the pitchers he was stuck with that he wondered how much a hit man would cost.

Hornbeck was kidding. But not by much.

After you play this game – and it really is a “Silly Little Game,” the apt title of the ESPN 30 for 30 show that explained how fantasy

baseball was born in 1980 – you either give it up very quickly or you become addicted. Most of us fall into the latter category. The allure is you assume the role of a major league GM. You not only draft a team, you get to call the shots on trades and waiver claims, as well as players not affiliated with anyone’s team.

It can be too rigorous for the casual fan, and fantasy has sent many of those players to the sidelines. You have to follow your team every day over a six-month span, ready to act upon an injury, a player being sent down to the minors, or a decision on what to do with a player who isn’t performing. You get trade offers that also require thought, and you have to decide as the season progresses if you’re team is capable of finishing “in the money,” or, if you’re in a league that retains players from one year to the next, whether you need to plan for next season.

Win and the reward can be lucrative. One league I played in paid about $1,000 to the lucky owner who placed first. Not a bad return on a $200 investment. But while the money’s nice, it’s not what drives most people to play. I have my own reasons for playing. But I wanted to find out why others play fantasy baseball.

Let’s take a look at what some other veteran players had to say…

To play fantasy baseball for over 20 years, you have to love baseball. But unless you’re a hermit who plays in an online league and doesn’t want to know his fellow owners – and I don’t know anyone who plays fantasy that way – the bigger allure is probably the friendships you strike up among your league’s fellow owners.

“I like the camaraderie. That’s great fun,” said Jeff Rudnick, a former sportswriter for the Lansing State Journal who is now a retirement planner and has played in

the same fantasy league since 1986. “We get together, you know all the guys. Just knowing you’re going to see the same guys at the draft, the same guys at the winter meeting, that’s a big part of it.”

What about playing in an online league?

Rudnick was quick to dismiss such an idea.

“That to me wouldn’t be any fun at all.”

Jim Lammers is another local guy who began playing in 1986. He started playing with a bunch of friends, many who had an Ann Arbor connection, in part because many went to college at Michigan.

“It’s just really liking the guys,” said Lammers, who noted his league includes owners who live in Pennsylvania, Chicago and Washington, D.C. “All of the guys we play with have a very good sense of humor. There’s lots of laughing at the draft. Some take it very seriously, but everybody has a good sense of humor and there’s a lot of laughing and ribbing that goes on.”

When I asked Mark Nowlin of Okemos what was appealing about fantasy baseball, he took a few minutes to gather his thoughts. Then he let loose with this gem: “My wife asks me that same question every year when I write the check, and again at the end of the year when I come home without a check.”

Nowlin was an original owner in the league I formed in 1990. Besides his great sense of humor, Nowlin also possesses a deep love for baseball. It has been a lifelong passion for him – “It’s just something that has gotten into my blood,” he says. Fantasy allows him to intertwine his love of baseball with the social aspect of the game.”

And he’s certainly not alone.

“A lot of (the appeal of fantasy baseball) is what I call the loose confederacy of baseball fans that playing in a fantasy baseball league lets you canoodle with,” Nowlin said. “You have a chance to develop friendships around something you have a real strong regard for.

It’s something you want to invest in yourself someway, not just financially. I love the rhythm of it, the friendships I’ve developed out of it.”

“You have a chance to develop friendships around something you have a real strong regard for. It’s something you want to invest in yourself someway, not just financially.”

MARK NOWLIN

28 APRIL 2011

There are other reasons that people keep coming back to fantasy baseball every year.

For Fred Heumann, it’s the draft.

“That’s the fun,” said Heumann, the sports director at WLNS-TV, Channel 6 in Lansing.

But his league’s drafts have had to be

rescheduled a few times in the last dozen years due to Michigan State’s success in the NCAA tournament. The Final Four is always in early April, right around the time most league owners gather for their drafts or auctions. And if you work in sports as Heumann does, you have to go to where the Final Four is held.

“There have been a lot of years when Michigan State has really screwed up our league,” Heumann says. “Tom Izzo is the worst thing that has happened to the league. Six Final Fours in 12 years has caused havoc.”

Former Lansing resident Ed Wright started his league in 1985, back in fantasy baseball’s early days. His league has been able to retain five of its original owners, and three others who still play joined within the first two years of the league’s start.

“I attribute the league’s longevity to a couple of things: The game’s appeal is amazing – you get to be (Tigers GM) Dave Dombrowski without all of Dave Dombrowski’s headaches,” Wright said. “And the group of guys I assembled all get along for the most part.”

One of those guys Wright referred to is Eddie Drawert of Delta Township. He’s been in Wright’s league since its inception.

Drawert likes how the league’s owners have stuck together.

“As long as the same base of owners – meaning friends – stay together, I have no problem staying in it,” he said, noting the competitive aspect, too. “You always want to prove your general managing skills and knowledge is better than the other owners’.”

That’s why some longtime fantasy players have remained in the game. All of the reasons they listed – friendships, the draft/auction, being a GM – all appeal to me. But I have a different reason for playing the game.

Around 1997 Eric Wills, who is the commissioner of the fantasy league I currently play in, said his league had an opening and asked if I wanted in. I said sure, then at the suggestion of my brilliant wife, I asked my son, then 13, if he wanted to help me run the team.

We’ve been partners ever since.

Fantasy baseball has provided me with innumerable hours of enjoyment for the past 21 years, but the biggest thing it has given me is a closer bond with my son. That’s something all the first-place finishes in the world can’t beat. H

news + notes

More Mr./Ms. Basketballs Anderson, Hines Latest Stars Bound For MSU

BY CHIP MUNDY

Michigan State University continues to be the destination of the State of Michigan’s top high school boys and girls basketball players. Both the Mr. Basketball winner and the Miss Basketball winner have made commitments to continue their basketball career at MSU. Dwaun Anderson of Suttons Bay is the 2011 Mr. Basketball. He will join Derrick Nix, the 2009 winner, and Keith Appling, the 2010 honoree, on Tom Izzo’s roster. Anderson will be the 12th of 31 winners to play for the Spartans.

Anderson, a 6-foot-4 guard/forward, averaged 20 points, 10 rebounds and 4.8 assists for Suttons Bay this season. LaDontae Henton of Eastern finished second in the Mr. Basketball voting but was named the Class A Player of the Year by the Associated Press.

“I had no idea I would be in the running,” Anderson told The Detroit News. “If it was up to me, I would have said LaDontae. He put up the numbers. I had a chance to play with him in

AAU (Michigan Mustangs) this past summer.”

Miss Basketball for 2011 is Jasmine Hines of Central Lake, the second straight winner to commit to MSU coach Suzy Merchant and the eighth honoree to come to East Lansing.

Hines, a 6-3 forward, broke Michigan High School Athletic Association career records in scoring (3,040 points) and rebounds (1,693).

She is the state’s first player – male or female – to reach 3,000 career points. She also holds the girls single-season record for points with 935, set last season.

She averaged 25 points and 16 rebounds as Central Lake advanced to the Class D semifinals. H

CHARLOTTE

EAST LANSING

The Charlotte High girls bowling team won the Division 2 state championship at Century Lanes in Waterford. The Orioles defeated Bay City John Glenn, 1,399-1,338.

The final match featured two Baker games (each of the five bowlers takes turn bowling frames) and one regular game. The totals of the five individual games is added to the Baker score for the final score.

Charlotte had 126 and 224 in its Baker games.

In the regular game, Charlotte averaged 209.8 to top Bay City John Glenn. Raychel Wolever fired 256 to lead the Orioles, while Ciarra Landry had 247, Brittni Noelker 199, Taylor Thocker 186 and Allie Neal 161.

Tom Anastos, commissioner of the CCHA since 1998, was named MSU’s new hockey coach, succeeding Rick Comley. Anastos, 47, was a four-year letter-winner in hockey at Michigan State (1981-85), a head coach at MichiganDearborn and a two-year assistant to Spartan coaching legend Ron Mason. Anastos received the program’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2004.

LANSING Davenport University took a 37-0 record into the NAIA Division II National Championship in women’s basketball in Sioux City, Iowa. The Panthers lost to defending champ Northwestern College (Iowa), 88-83.

Do you have News + Notes? Please send them to news@SportLansing.com 30 APRIL 2011

Davenport senior Kallie Benike, a 5-foot-8 guard from Campbellsport, Wis., led the team with 15.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.

She was named to the 10-player NAIA Division II All-American team and also received firstteam all-tournament honors.

Clyde McKinney, a member of Everett High’s 2004 Class A titlists, was named to the allWolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference second team in men’s basketball. McKinney, a 5-foot-11 senior guard at Indiana Tech, originally played at Ferris State before transferring. He was 60-for134 from 3-point range (.448) and averaged 14.3 points per game for the Warriors (22-11).

Sexton High graduate Sam Lockhart can call herself an All-American and a national champ after the Grand Valley State University women’s indoor track team captured the NCAA Division II national championship. Lockhart finished second in the shot put with a toss of 51 feet, 6.5 inches and earned all-American status with her finish.

Adrienne Chandler, an Okemos High graduate, ran a leg on the Lakers’ 4x400 relay team that finished ninth in 3 minutes, 51.93 seconds.

In the men’s portion of the national meet, Matt Armstrong, another Sexton graduate, finished third in the shot put to earn NCAA Division II All-American honors. Armstrong, a junior, had a toss of 60 feet, 7.25 inches.

LESLIE Ryan Clark, a Leslie High graduate, was named to the All-Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association second team in men’s basketball. Clark, a senior at Kalamazoo College, averaged 14.9 points and 6.9 rebounds for the Hornets, who finished 9-17.

ST. JOHNS History was made when Brandon LaBar became the first St. Johns High diver to win a state championship. LaBar, a sophomore, won the Division 2 state title with 453.10 points. He was the last diver to complete his 11 dives, and he needed at least 29 points on his final dive to win.

He got 42 when he did a back one-and-a-half with a half-twist, a dive with a 2.1 degree of difficulty.

The last St. Johns swimmer to win a state championship was Cody Stinnett, who won the 50 freestyle in 2006.

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finish line

Worth The Wait Sexton’s State Title Stirs Memories Fifty-one years is a long time between titles. But I don’t think we’ll have to wait long the next time.

Sexton High is back on top. And the Big Reds’ roll through the Class B State Basketball Tournament brought back so many memories that Class A championships in 1959 and 1960 seemed like yesterday.

I had the distinct privilege of playing for a great coach, the late Clayton Kowalk, in ’59 and the thrill of assisting my former assistant at East Lansing, Carlton Valentine, this season.

Besides winning the last games we played, those teams had some striking similarities, especially in terms of unselfishness and chemistry.

Everything we accomplished as players was because of Clayt. We learned it all from him and were so team-oriented we never cared who scored. If the right-color jersey was open, that’s where the ball went. He didn’t believe in individual stats.

It was more than just cohesion on the court, though. He made us all love each other. It was the epitome of teamwork. And a lot of us are still that close today.

In a lot of ways, that’s how it was this year, too.

You could see the love. No one cared who scored the basket. But that unselfishness always starts at the top and is engrained into kids. They learn that if we’re successful, they’re successful.

Collectively and individually, that started with Carlton. The players all learned that they’d get theirs when we got ours. There’s a lot of attention and credit for everyone when you’re 26-2.

I knew that a long time ago. We rallied for one of the great wins in tournament history, down 15 with a few minutes left against Hamtramck in ’59.

And we’d have won three in a row if my brother, Brian, hadn’t graduated in January. We lost at the buzzer to Jackson after beating them twice.

This year’s team was really the same way as far as sharing the basketball went. And I knew it was a special group two years ago, when Denzel Valentine, Anthony Clemmons and Bryn Forbes were freshmen and Tyrin Wade was a sophomore.

I thought we were going to win it all last year. But I didn’t know Ray McCallum Jr. was so good until we met Detroit Country Day for 32 APRIL 2011

Just Like Old Times Chris Ferguson has won state titles as a player and a veteran assistant coach for the Sexton Big Reds. the title. We were like a deer in the headlights.

And they beat the heck out of us.

This time, I knew it’d be different. We beat a lot of good teams – Haslett, DeWitt, Lansing Catholic, Williamston, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard and Dearborn Divine Child – to get to the semis.

The closest any team got to us was 13 points.

That gave us another shot at Country Day. I knew it’d be different. I never thought we’d score 32 points in the third quarter. But I did think Bryn Forbes would have a big game.

When the players were warming up, Bryn was on fire. I don’t think he missed a shot. And I’ve seen that work the other way, too, where a guy can’t miss before the game and can’t make one during it. I said, “I hope he’s not all used up.” He wasn’t. He scored 19 in the third quarter alone.

At halftime, I told the other coaches, “We’re

better than these guys!” It didn’t matter that we were behind. Their big guy in the middle, Amir Williams, had altered a million shots. We just had to keep taking the ball to the basket and not let one guy beat us. We ran and ran and wore them out.

When the game was over, we were up by 10. And that was really a special feeling, after they’d beaten us by 24 last year. We weren’t about to let up then and beat Muskegon Heights for the second time this year, this time by 15 in the championship game.

But this group isn’t done winning. It has a lot of winners, including some kids off the bench. It’ll have a great group of seniors with the three guys I mentioned. And Jalen Hayes should really be good inside as a junior.

It’s great to see those guys develop and mature. Tyrin will be attending Ferris State.

Denzel is going to Michigan State. Anthony will get a chance. And Bryn is really a special kid.

He wants to go to Stanford. But I know Mark Montgomery is salivating over him and would love to have him at Northern Illinois.

It feels so good when you win a title, you want to repeat it. You get addicted to it. And I know how hard those guys will work to do that. I know also know their coaches will be there every step of the way.

I’ll be turning 70 in August. But this season has been so much fun, working with the players and Carlton. I was the head coach at East Lansing for 12 years. And helping me there made him want to be a head coach. When he asked me to help him, I felt humbled.

I also want to be around to get the court named for Clayton Kowalk and to see another banner raised, ideally on the same night when we open the season. Eight of Clayt’s former players have agreed to pay to get the floor named: Art Frank, Jerry Sutton, my brother Joel, Doug Herner, Otis Davis, Greg Eaton, Pete Cunningham and me.

I haven’t talked to Carlton about the schedule yet. But I hope we play a good opponent. We opened at Eastern this season, so maybe that game will be here next time. Or Everett would be good, since Johnny Jones was Clayt’s protégé.

I know it’ll be a great memory. We’ve had a lot of them lately. H

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