Delta County's three high school softball teams had a successful weekend at the ninth annual Northern Michigan University "Spring Swing" softball tournament. The Rapid River Rockets won all three of their games, the Escanaba Eskymos went 2-1, and the Gladstone Braves went 1-1-1, with their only loss coming to the Rockets. And the Escanaba junior varsity team won all three of its games in the two-day event. See all of the scores by clicking the picture above.(Pictured: Rapid River's Neena Brockway digs in during a game during last year's regional tournament)
The Escanaba Eskymos have just three seniors on their roster, but heavy plenty of young talent as the 2012 high school baseball season begins Tuesday evening. Escanaba will host the Marquette Redmen in the first game under new head coach Kirk Schwalbach.
"Senior Night" ceremonies won't take long, with only Alex DeHaan, Austin Young, and Ian DeMarse making up the Class of 2012. But the Eskymos do have talent in returning junior starters Nick Vandermissen and Dave Falish.
The Norway Speedway is a third mile oval track thatis slightly banked. The track, originally a dirt track, was built in 1942 and was blacktopped in 1979.
The 2012 high school softball season got under way Friday with the ninth-annual Northern Michigan University Spring Swing Softball tournament at the Superior Dome. The Rapid River Rockets beat the Superior Central Cougars, 10-1, as Shannon Wolf hit two home runs and Heather Sanderson added an inside-the-park homer. The Escanaba Eskymos opened the season on a positive note Friday, beating the Marquette Redettes, 6-1, at the Dome. Codi Jenshak picked up the win on the mound.
The Atlanta Knights won the USA Hockey Junior A Tier III National Championship on Tuesday afternoon, beating the Long Island (NY) Royals, 4-3, in Rochester, Minn. Escanaba High School graduate Brent Kallio scored the first two goals of the game and then the Knights held on from there. Kallio finished the tournament with seven points (3G, 4A) in five games. "It's pretty hard to put my exact emotions into one word," Kallio said after the title game. "It is the craziest feeling of happiness that I've ever had in my life."
The Keweenaw Storm Under-19 girls hockey team lost Saturday in the quarterfinals of the USA Hockey National Tournament in Irving, Texas. The girls fell to the Alaskan state champions, 1-0, to drop out of the running for a national championship. The Storm lost despite outshooting Alaska, 29-11.
While the high school softball season is still in pre-practice mode, the college softball season is under way. And Gladstone High School graduate MacKenzie Shepeck is making the most of her opportunity as a freshman at Western Michigan University. Shepeck picked up her second pitching victory of the young season on Sunday as she pitched three scoreless innings to shut down the Miami (Ohio) Red Hawks, 5-1.
The Carney-Nadeau High School basketball team cleaned up on post-season awards this week following an improbable run to the Class D state semifinals. The Wolves were named the Upper Peninsula's Class D Team of the Year by the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
The Wolves received 14 votes, while Ewen-Trout Creek got four votes and Munising three. Carney-Nadeau senior Lucas Moreau and Wolves junior Wade Schetter were both named to the Class D First Team. Bark River-Harris senior Jake Kleiman was also named to the Class D First Team, and Mid Peninsula junior Brett Branstrom was selected to the All-Class Dream Team.
The Gladstone High School girls basketball team had a dream season this winter, winning 24 games in a row and winning a Class B regional championship for the second year in a row. Now the Braves are being recognized for that success.
Gladstone was named the Upper Peninsula Class A-B Team of the Year by the U-P Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association. Braves Coach Karl Dollhopf was named the Class A-B-C Coach of the Year for the third time in his career.Gladstone senior forward Jammie Botruff was named the Class A-B-C Player of the Year, sharing the title with Escanaba senior Olivia Nash.
Jim Hansen was hired Tuesday to become the new head coach of the Escanaba Eskymo varsity football team. The 29-year-old Hansen is a 2001 Escanaba High School graduate, and has spent the last six years as an assistant coach under Dan Flynn, who retired earlier this year.
"I'm extremely honored, and humbled, and thankful to everybody involved in the school," Hansen said, "I'm so happy and excited to have this opportunity."
The Escanaba School Board voted 7-0 to hire Hansen, who becomes just the third head coach in the last half-century in the Escanaba football program, after Jerry Cvengros coached from 1963 to 1985, and Flynn from '85 until this past year.
There's a new team in town.
The Escanaba Rollin' Hellcats Women's Roller Derby team played at the Wells Sports Complex over the weekend, before a packed crowd of more than 500. The Esky ladies lost their game to the Kingsford Krush, 180-60, but it was a fun night for everyone involved. The Hellcats practice at a small venue near Escanaba Public Safety, but this was their first actual competition.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association on Monday announced the "classes" that its 760 member schools will compete in during the 2012-'13 school year. They used enrollment figures to determine whether a school is Class A, B, C, or D. This is only used for boys and girls basketball and girls volleyball. Other sports use a "division" system. Here in the Upper Peninsula, Sault Ste. Marie moves from Class B to Class A, while Rudyard and St. Ignace move from Class C to Class D.
Police and fire sirens could be heard from Harris to Carney on Saturday as the Carney-Nadeau boys basketball team returned home from East Lansing, following the team's appearance in the Class D state semfiinals. Several hundred people turned out as the boys enjoyed an escort from the county line to the school.
They just stood there on the ice. Stunned. A feeling of disbelief. Could it really be all over, just like that? After all of the ups and downs the Escanaba Eskymos have faced this hockey season, every boy truly believed that after upsetting Marquette in the regional semifinals, the hockey gods were finally smiling on them.
And when the boys rallied from two goals down Sunday in the regional championship game, well, that just reinforced the confidence that somehow, someway, this team would find a way to pull out a dramatic win over the Traverse City Central Trojans.
The USA Hockey Tier III National Championships are going on in Rochester, Minnesota, and there is a local connection to one of the teams that will play for a national championship Tuesday afternoon. 2010 Escanaba High School graduate Brent Kallio is a member of the Atlanta Knights, which beat Billings (Mont.), 4-2, in the national semifinals Monday afternoon. Kallio had two assists in the game, and now has five points in four games in the tourney.
The magical post-season run of the Carney-Nadeau Wolves came to an end Thursday night, as the Wolves dropped a 52-44 decision to the Climax-Scotts in the Class D State Semifinal at Michigan State University's Breslin Center.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association lists the Carney-Nadeau School with an enrollment of 71 students. But on Thursday, the Wolves boys basketball team will play in the state's biggest venue: Michigan State University's Breslin Center.
SAULT STE. MARIE---They weren't supposed to win either of their conferences. They weren't supposed to win their district. They certainly weren't supposed to win their regional. And the Carney-Nadeau boys basketball team most certainly wasn't supposed to beat the Pellston Hornets in the Class D state quarterfinal game Tuesday night in Sault Ste. Marie.
The Negaunee Miners lost in the Class C state quarterfinals Tuesday night at Petoskey High School, falling to a talented Traverse City St. Francis team, 71-60.
Escanaba nine-year-old Nicole Kamin won the championship at the Elks Hoop Shoot Regional Finals over the weekend in Angola, Ind. She made 19 of her 25 shots, and then made all five shots in a tiebreaker to take first place in the competition.
The Negaunee High School boys basketball team will face a tough challenge Tuesday when the Miners take on Traverse City St. Francis in the Class C state quarterfinal in Petoskey.
Carney-Nadeau boys basketball team will face a powerful Pellston Hornets team in the Class D state quarterfinal Tuesday night in Sault Ste. Marie. The Hornets are led by senior Chris Hass, who has scored 2,492 points in his career and will attend Bucknell University next year.
The Escanaba Junior Hockey Association held its annual banquet Monday night, and announced its top awards winners for the just-completed hockey season. The top award, the Ovid Provo Award, went to graduating senior John LeMire. LeMire was a defenseman on the Eskymo hockey team this season, scoring three goals and nine assists this season. He had a +9 rating. Also, Erin Gregoire of the Great Lakes Wolfpack Under-19 girls hockey team won the Herbert Kristen Award.
The Escanaba High School Fan Club held its annual "Spring Fling" event over the weekend, and as part of the evening, two awards were handed out.
The Escanaba School Board voted 5-1 Monday night to hire Kirk Schwalbach as the high school's varsity baseball coach. Schwalbach served as assistant coach for the past three years under Don Lauscher. Lauscher resigned last fall after five years in charge.
Schwalbach has coached five different Gladstone Little League Baseball All-Star teams over the past decade. He was the manager of the Delta County Senior All-Stars that earned a state tournament appearance in 2009. He is a 1979 Escanaba HS graduate.
The Michigan Tech Huskies were less than five minutes away from their first WCHA Final Five win in more than 15 years before ninth-ranked Denver turned the tables and came away with a 3-2 overtime victory in front of 11,489 fans in St. Paul, Minn., Thursday. The Huskies led, 2-1, before DU's Luke Salazar scored, sending the game to overtime. Then, 2:38 into the extra session, Denver’s Jason Zucker scored the game-winner.
The Upper Peninsula will not be home to a high school girls basketball state champion this year as the Saint Ignace Saints and Crystal Falls Forest Park Trojans both lost their state semifinal games on Thursday at Michigan State University.
The 74th annual Gold Medal Basketball Tournament is being held this weekend in the small Menominee County town of Hermansville. The tournament began Thursday night with four games, and five more games were held Friday.
The temperatures were 70 degrees and the skies were sunny on Wednesday, so the Escanaba high School boys baseball and girls softball teams took advantage by holding scrimmages and practices outside, rather than in the gym
