Genesee Christian celebrates its Division 4 soccer state championship.

A sports championship banner will be raised at Genesee Christian High School for the first time in school history — and Jesse Oliver played a large role.

The Soldiers completed an undefeated season (28-0) when Oliver scored with 65 seconds left in the first overtime with an assist from junior Riley Buchalski for a 3-2 win over Kalamazoo Hackett (21-5-1) in the Division 4 state title game Saturday afternoon at Brighton.

The Soldiers had never won a state title in any sport. Hackett has five state titles, the last coming in 1995.

“Coach (Doug Anderson) told me to do a job; I did it well and God gave us this win, so we’re going to praise him for it,” said Oliver, a senior midfielder who scored his fifth goal of the year. “The ball was being juggled around towards the end-line and the ball just shot out towards the middle and I was in the right spot at the right time. We were playing a little bit lazy, but we were able to get our tempo back up.

“It’s incredible. I’ve been on the team four years. We went to states our freshman year, but we were able to come back with some strong juniors and bring it back.”

Those strong juniors included Buchalski and Cole Russell, who scored his 35th goal of the season during the game.

“First time in any sport to win a state championship is great for the school,” said Russell. “To be a part of it, first hand, is unbelievable. I’m so proud of every single players on this team. Riley is just tremendous and we’ll be able to come back together next year and try to do this again.”

The Soldiers offense ran through Russell, who came into the game with 34 goals, and Caleb DuPree, who chipped in with 22.

Most of Hackett’s attack went through Kiernan O’Brien, a physical senior midfielder.

Russell scored first for the Soldiers, his 35th of the season, getting an assist from Ryan Deweese for a 1-0 lead.

That might have held up in most games because of 18 shutouts this season by Genesee Christian goalie Zach Noecker. But not this time.

DuPree kept the pressure on and the Soldiers nearly got a goal from Buchalski.

However, it was Hackett’s Will Knoll who tied the game for the Irish, putting in a header at the 29:12 mark of the second half with an assist from O’Brien. It was Knoll’s 25th goal of the season.

Russell personally kept the pressure on the Irish goalkeeper and the Soldiers scored with exactly nine minutes left on the clock on Tyler Rose’s goal with a huge assist from Russell to make it 2-1.

Genesee Christian had given up two goals in a game just once until James Amat, with an assist from Max Keenan after a free kick, tied the score at 2-2.

In the overtime, Hackett went with O’Brien in goal over starter Matthew Carpenter.

“We had a motto all year,” said winning coach Doug Anderson. “Team first, team last and team always and they just bought right into it.”

Contact Perry A. Farrell: 313-222-2555 or pafarrell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @farrellperry.

Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central celebrates its Division 1 boys soccer state championship Nov. 7, 2015, at Brighton High School.

Anthony Bowie now has rock star status at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central.

After not being able to play last year because of a knee injury, the senior forward scored what proved to be the game-winning goal in the Division 1 soccer championship game at Brighton, ending Canton’s 11-game tournament winning streak in a 2-0 victory.

The Rangers finished the year 23-0-3.

Canton was the defending state champs out of the tough Kensington Lakes Athletic Association. Second-ranked Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central previously won in Division 2 in 2004.

Bowie got the Rangers on the board first at the 17:25 mark, with an assist from Max Postlewait, when he beat Steven Page to give Forest Hills a 1-0 lead. It was his 41st goal of the season.

“It has been such a long season and I owe it to my teammates to get that opportunity,” said Bowie. “My teammate Max put a ball over the top and it was falling down and I was all by myself and I just hit it out of the air.

“We went out in the second half we knew we had a 1-0 lead, so we knew as long as we didn’t give up a goal we’d win the game. We just looked for chances to counterattack and get a goal off one of those and we got one at the end.”

Mohamed Haji scored with 90 seconds left to secure the victory.

It was the 10th straight year the Division 1 championship game ended in a shutout.

“Anytime you can keep a team like Canton off the board it’s a tremendous feat,” said Forest Hills Central coach Blair Lincoln. “Jared (Ireland) came up with some huge saves in the second half to keep up us 1-0.”

Canton, ranked ninth coming into the tournament, went into the second half without a clear direction offensively as the Rangers’ defense controlled play. Haji and Bowie kept constant pressure on the Canton defense, attacking whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Div. 4 soccer: Oliver kicks Genesee to first state title

“We defend with 11,” Lincoln said. “Our whole team was working on keeping them off the board. (Haji and Bowie) Their partnership is unreal. Their chemistry. They know when and where to make runs. They play extremely well together. It’s fitting they each got one tonight.”

Jimmy Walkinshaw tried to ignite the Canton offense, but the Chiefs couldn’t get untracked. Forward Sam DeLoy neared caught Ireland off guard with 4:17 left but the goalie recovered in time to make the save and preserve the lead.

Page said Canton’s run was nothing short of amazing.

“It’s tough, but sometimes that’s the way it is,” said Page. “It was a great accomplishment overall. Just to get back here for the second year in a row. I can’t complain about the loss. We lost to a great team.”

DIVISION 2: Late goals by Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern’s Travis Barrington and Mason’s Holden Dippel sent the Division 2 final to overtime tied at 2, with Mason taking the title, 4-3, in a shoot-out at Comstock Park. Christian Jordan also scored for Mason (24-3), and Evan VanNortwick had a first-half goal for Forest Hills Northern (22-2-3).

DIVISION 3: After a scoreless regulation and overtime, Grand Rapids South Christian prevailed over Williamston in a shoot-out, 5-3, at Comstock Park. Carter Selvius made 15 saves for South Christian (20-3-3), which also won titles in 2010 and 2012. Williamston outshot South Christian, 24-5, and finished with a 19-6 record.

Contact Perry A. Farrell: 313-222-2555 or pafarrell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @farrellperry.

Onsted center Austin Davis signs his national letter of intent with Michigan on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015.

ONSTED — Austin Davis stood in the doorway, nearly too tall to pass through, and gave high-fives, handshakes and fist bumps to much smaller kids this morning.

Of course, everyone in the Onsted High School gym would stare up at the 6-foot-10 gentle giant, who became the Michigan basketball team’s first signee of the 2016 basketball recruiting class. But he thanked every student from Onsted Elementary School as they filed out.

His mother, Marsha, is the elementary school’s principal, but today was about more than that connection. It was about a village of around 1,000 people embracing its first Division I basketball recruit.

The band played U-M’s “The Victors.” His high school teammates taunted him from the bleachers as he posed with a gaggle of girls. The community filled the gym’s stands and cheered his name.

They wanted to share in his moment.

“That’s just Austin and what he’s done,” said Onsted coach Brad Maska, who recalled Davis running around as a fourth-grader in his gym class, never imagining this day. “He helps out in the elementary all year, so all these kids know him. They see him in the hallways, they see him coming down to see me in my classroom. So they love him. The community loves him, and I think that’s what you get in a small, tight-knit community like this. This doesn’t happen very often, and when this does happen, they just get around him and support the heck out of him.”

Recruiting: Full coverage

Signing Day 2016: Feb. 3

U-M football, hoops recruits

MSU football, hoops recruits

Photos: Michigan’s 2016 football recruits

Photos: MSU’s 2016 football recruits

Photos: 2015 Sound Mind Sound Body

More recruiting news

Though naturally quiet, Davis was excited for the signing ceremony this morning. Popping up before his alarm — usually set just before 6 a.m. for workouts — he knew this was going to be a day he would remember.

Wearing a navy blue suit, blue tie with yellow M’s and stripes, and a gold lapel pin, Davis arrived early and wandered the gym with his family and friends before the students entered.

Once he had their attention, he thanked the veterans on Veterans Day, ran through a list of friends, school officials and his younger brother and sister, then thanked his parents for their support, if not their favorable genes.

He verbally committed to U-M in April, but now he’s officially bound to the Wolverines. And he’s still young, having just turned 17.

“The feeling would be a little different, but it’s still amazing,” he said. “It feels great to make it official and know that I’m definitely going there.”

He connected with U-M’s other 2016 recruits — Medina, Ohio, center Jon Teske; Pickerington, Ohio, wing Ibi Watson; and Lima, Ohio, point guard Xavier Simpson — on their official visits the weekend of the Michigan State football game.

And Michigan is getting a different player than it expected in April. When U-M coach John Beilein said he wanted to see Davis in better shape, to be able to run the length of the court with less trouble, Davis internalized it.

Since last basketball season, when he led Onsted to its first district title in three decades, he remade his body, dropping from his peak of 270 pounds and an estimated 20% body fat all the way down to 225 pounds. Then he began the climb back up with muscle.

Using tips from U-M strength coach Jon Sanderson and a renovated diet, Davis is a svelte 232 pounds with 11% body fat.

No more of his favorite O-Town Pizza — “now we just walk past,” he said. Davis focused instead on chicken, whole grain rice and, recently, venison. He snagged his first doe and seven-point buck this fall, hunting on his family’s property.

With the off-season work concluded — more than 25,000 shots put up since the end of the school year, according to his father, Eric — the real season begins Monday.

“That’s the thing that’s been so impressive, as a coach — each year, I have to keep challenging him and find new things to challenge him with,” Maska said. “It’s been a long road, and it hasn’t been without its struggles, but we’re so proud of him.”

At 6 a.m. Monday, the Onsted Wildcats will gather for the most anticipated season in local history.

Davis is in better shape, can comfortably hit a three-pointer and is evolving into a player far beyond the one who scored 51 points as a sophomore, days after Michigan State assistant Dane Fife and Michigan assistant LaVall Jordan showed him high-major recruiting interest.

“We were fortunate coach Beilein and the University of Michigan found Austin in our little town of Onsted,” Maska said to the crowd. “Unfortunately for them, he has another year with us and the Wildcats.”

Contact Mark Snyder at msnyder@freepress.com . Follow him on Twitter at @mark__snyder. Download our new Wolverines Xtra app on iTunesand Android!

Michigan State’s Tom Izzo gives instructions during the second half of an NCAA college basketball exhibition game against Ferris State, Monday, Nov. 9, 2015, in East Lansing, Mich. Michigan State won 93-57.

EAST LANSING – Tom Izzo didn’t win a national title Wednesday. But he signed the players to do it.

Whether Izzo’s latest recruiting class will lead the Michigan State coach to an elusive second championship is now a matter of luck and health. Because it’s no longer a matter of talent, and it had been the last several times MSU reached the Final Four.

Think back to last spring when Izzo’s plucky squad got overwhelmed by Duke’s trifecta of NBA draft picks. Yes, MSU didn’t play well in the national semis, but even a perfect game wasn’t going to beat the Blue Devils at their best.

And Izzo knew it. Talked about it, too, with his staff, in meetings after the loss — strategy sessions designed to recalibrate the recruiting attack, to discuss how to close the deal on the top-shelf talent they’d been missing out on the last several seasons.

Jabari Parker?

Jahlil Okafor?

Tyus Jones?

Heck, even Caleb Swanigan spurned MSU last spring at the last minute, though Swanigan is not the caliber of player of the other three.

In any case, there was talk, some of it loud chatter, about whether Izzo could sell his program to the kids ending up at Duke and Kansas and Kentucky.

“It gets to be a stigma,” Izzo said Wednesday.

All those Final Fours were great for the fans and for the coach’s legacy, but what truly sells programs to the elite prospects is a pipeline to the NBA. MSU had lost its connection for a while, until Draymond Green re-upped the link three years ago.

That the former Spartan All-American started for the NBA champs last summer and signed an $85-million contract with Golden State did more to re-establish the college-to-pros path in East Lansing than anyone since Magic Johnson.

It was critical.

Miles Bridges, the 6-7 wing who grew up in Flint but played for a prep high school in West Virginia, gives Izzo his first one-and-done possibility since Zack Randolph left MSU in 2001.

Bridges is the star of the four-player class, a top-10 talent whose athletic gifts equal Branden Dawson’s but whose skill far surpasses his. In fact, Izzo’s never signed a player like Bridges before.

“He’s an animal,” Izzo said. “I don’t know if I’ve had many guys with his athleticism, skill level and toughness. I mean, he is a monster on the boards. He just, he attacks the basket. So he’s kind of got all three things. And there hasn’t been many players like that.”

Izzo’s certainly recruited the sort of kids that will arrive with Bridges. Just never so many in one class.

Cassius Winston (U-D Jesuit, Detroit), Nick Ward (Lincoln High School, Gahanna, Ohio) and Joshua Langford (Madison Academy, Huntsville, Ala.) are all top-39 recruits who would make up one of Izzo’s better recruiting classes on their own.

But landing Bridges makes this his best ever.

As for the stigma of missing out on the one-and-done guys?

“I think that has been broken a little bit,” Izzo said.

If Bridges follows through on his potential and leaves after next year, the stigma will be shattered even more. After all, NBA contracts are more powerful recruiting tools than NCAA titles.

“No question,” said Mike Garland, MSU’s assistant who took the lead in pursuing Bridges.

Getting him, Garland admitted, brought some relief. He and the rest of the assistants had spent hundreds of nights on the road the last several years chasing after players who ultimately signed elsewhere. That forced them to reconsider their strategy, along with the continued losses to the big dogs in the Final Four.

So they went after Bridges even harder. Tag-teamed him on the recruiting trail, so that when Garland wasn’t around, DJ Stephens was. Instead of each coach taking one kid, they all took everyone. They spent more time with the players’ families, too.

Izzo thinks the approach worked. It’s hard to argue otherwise.

The class he just signed is ESPN’s No. 2, behind Duke’s, of course. Still, if the teams meet again in the future, MSU will have the pieces to compete.

It’s up to Izzo and his staff to figure out how to use them.

MSU’s Izzo trumpets ‘best class ever’ as 4 sign
Trice high on MSU recruit Bridges: He’s ‘a pro’

Up first for Spartans

Matchup: Michigan State vs. Florida Atlantic, season opener.

When: 7 p.m. Friday.

Where: Breslin Center, East Lansing.

TV/radio: ESPN3; WJR-AM (760).

Detroit High school sports

Sacrifice.

It has put Birmingham Detroit Country Day two games from reaching Ford Field.

Junior Tim Jackson probably would want to be playing anywhere but along the offensive line. The same is true for Adam Fakih, normally a tight end and linebacker by trade. Then there’s sophomore Christian Love, who has joined the guys up front, and they’ve made it work without a lot of notoriety.

If the threesome didn’t abandon more glamorous positions to join center Will Humenny across the Yellowjackets’ front, coach Dan MacLean said the team wouldn’t be 10-1 and headed for a 1 p.m. showdown against visiting Milan on Saturday in a Division 4 regional final.

“I greatly admire those kids because they’re put in positions that I wouldn’t want to be in,” said senior running back/defensive lineman/defensive back Jeremiah Tyler, who leads the team with 121/2 sacks. “They stepped up to the role. Tim Jackson … he’s not an offensive lineman, but he converted to one because we needed it. That has played a tremendous role in our season — the amount of sacrifice those guys have made and the dedication they have.”

MacLean has a son, Mike MacLean, on the team, and a nephew, James MacLean, another offensive/defensive lineman.

Mike’s sacrifice is having to watch because of a broken right foot. It frustrates MacLean because Mike is a senior running back/linebacker — and now an assistant coach.

“He’s like my right arm,” coach MacLean. “I communicate with him without even thinking about it. It’s tough not having him out there. He’s been a starter since his sophomore year, and he’s a captain. He’s handling it a lot better than I am. I’m devastated.”

“It sucks,” said Mike, who watched the team’s Tuesday practice on crutches from the sideline. “It’s pretty disappointing. Obviously, my dad takes it as his son being injured and another guy on the team going down. It’s tough for me and him. Hopefully we can get it going in the right direction over the next couple of weeks and we’ll be playing for a championship.”

Like Tyler and MacLean, Mike realizes the unselfishness Jackson, Fakih and Love have shown is exemplary.

“Unbelievable what those guys did,” coach MacLean said. “Coming into the year a lot of those guys thought they’d be getting the ball or something, but they gave it up for the team. It goes to show the success we’ve had because of those guys. It doesn’t matter about rushing or catching touchdowns. They’re in the trenches doing a great job.”

Steve Mann has completed 79 of 156 passes for 1,248 yards with 18 touchdowns and two interceptions. The leading rusher is Larry Penson with 478 yards; three receivers have double-digit catches, led by Roy McCree with 14 for 234 yards.

Nothing eye-popping, but with a stingy defense led by Tyler and the big guys up front, Country Day is in the regional final.

“I think we try to have balance, but Steve Mann, our quarterback, has been real good,” MacLean said. “He makes good decisions. He’s a good runner and throws the ball well. We’re starting to run the ball better. We have a good tailback in Larry Penson. He’s been over 100 yards the last couple of weeks. He was responsible for our playoff run last year when we made it to the semis.

“We have some other good playmakers.”

But it starts with the line.

“Seriously, in football kids want to be in a position where they can get the ball, the glamour positions,” MacLean said. “With the injury and concussion issue, mothers really don’t want them playing somewhere where they’re going to be banging all the time. It’s just a shortage. I’ve talked to some friends, and everybody’s struggling with getting offensive linemen who are committed.

“If you have a really good offensive line, that’s a good foundation.”

It’s apparent the Yellowjackets have that.

Contact Perry A. Farrell: 313-222-2555 or pafarrell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @farrellperry.

Michigan high school football regional finals schedule

Romeo was dishing out a taste of Novi Detroit Catholic Central’s medicine.

Smaller and quicker, host Romeo took the opening drive of the second half 86 yards, taking 13 plays and using up 7 minutes, 35 seconds.

The Bulldogs even passed three times, all completions. And when quarterback Paul Hurley passed 7 yards to Mitch Heimbuch for the score, Romeo led, 28-7, with 4:25 left in the third.

“Whenever you keep a team like that on the sideline, you’re in good shape,” Romeo co-coach Curt Rienas said. “I think the kids were a little concerned about the weather going into the week, but we built this team around running the football.”

CC (9-3) made it interesting, but ouldn’t stop the Bulldogs’ ground game in a 40-29 Romeo victory Friday night in the regional final.

The Bulldogs (11-1) will face Grand Ledge in the Division 1 semifinals Saturday at a site to be determined.

“It took a great team effort, and that was the key,” said Rienas, whose team rushed for 313 yards. Lucas Schimon gained 113 yards on 15 carries.

“The coaches kept coming up with great plays,” Schimon said. “Our line had an outstanding game. We had the biggest holes we’ve had all season.”

The Shamrocks scored on one play after the Romeo drive, a 72-yard bomb from freshman Austin Brown to Alex Bock.

On the ensuing kickoff, Brad Tanner fell at the 2, and Hurley was intercepted by Austin Darkangelo. Two plays later, Philip Schmitz went up the middle from 9 yards to make it 28-21 with 3:20 left in the third.

Tanner made up for his miscue, returning the kickoff 63 yards and setting up Domenic Bongornio’s 4-yard TD run to make it 34-21.

“We kicked it to the wrong guy,” CC coach Tom Mach said. “We made a game of it. After their long drive, we got close. They did a nice job possessing the ball and keeping us off the field.”

Tanner came up with another big play when he intercepted Brown’s pass with 29.8 seconds left in the third.

“I’m not going to say I wasn’t worried, but Brad came up with a big play,” Rienas said.

Hunberto Flores scored from the 5 to make it 40-21.

Romeo went six plays, getting an 11-yard TD run by Tanner to give the home team a 7-0 lead with 6:23 left in the first quarter.

The momentum didn’t last as Bock returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yards for a score to tie the game at 7 only 14 seconds later.

Contact Perry A. Farrell: 313-222-2555 or pafarrell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @farrellperry.

Michigan prep football regionals results and schedule

Avon (Ind.) quarterback and Michigan commit Brandon Peters

GREENWOOD, Ind. – Brandon Peters laid on the ground at the goal line, living his greatest high school football moment.

Yet it may have been the most physically painful.

The Avon, Ind., senior quarterback, who is committed to Michigan for the 2016 class, had just used a second effort quarterback sneak on fourth-and-1 to put his team ahead by a touchdown, 34-27, in double-overtime on Cedar Grove’s home field.

HS football: No. 1 Center Grove heads to state after winning instant classic

But he wasn’t moving much as his teammates cleared out for the extra point.

Eventually he got to his knees, then got up and slowly walked off the field — his coach Mark Bless later saying “it just knocked the air out of him” — expecting at worst to have a third overtime.

But Center Grove matched Peters’ score, then risked the state semifinal 6A game and a trip to Lucas Oil Stadium by going for the two-point conversion. With Peters and his offensive teammates watching from the sidelines, Center Grove ran in the conversion and won the game, ending Avon’s season and Peters’ high school career, 35-34.

It was a game worthy of the stage and he played like it, despite battling undefeated Cedar Grove (13-0).

Peters threw a touchdown to tie the game at 10 just before halftime, led an 80-yard, clock-eating third-quarter drive to take the 17-10 lead and connect on a 47-yard up-and-out route to set up a late go-ahead fourth-quarter field goal at 20-17.

He threw a strike over the middle for the first-overtime touchdown and ran in that last one for the final lead.

Finishing 30 of 48 for 294 yards and two passing touchdowns, plus the nine carries for 4 yards and the rushing score, he performed on the pressure stage.

U-M recruit Peters named All-America player of week

And all this with his helmet stickers arranged to look like the Michigan winged helmet.

Avon (10-3) was on the verge of reaching its first state final – then it was gone.

There were some close calls in the fourth quarter, a few fourth downs and sideline catches where the inches were on Center Grove’s side, setting them up for the overtime-forcing drive, running a 2-minute drill.

After leading for much of the game and expecting a different result, there were understandably tears for Avon.

But Peters’ quiet leadership – he even went in to try to block Cedar Grove’s final seconds-tying field goal in regulation – was appreciated by his team.

“Everything wasn’t starting to go our way (early) in the passing department, but he was persistent, stuck to his fundamentals and did a heck of a job for us and I’m proud of him,” Bless said. “Center Grove brought some pretty good pressure on him and I thought he handled it well.”

It was a landmark moment for Avon, which had not been this far in the state playoffs in 10 years, and with 34 seniors, the whole community understood this was a moment. Making the 30-45 minute drive they packed the visitor bleachers (which a few Michigan sweatshirts and blankets mixed in) and had a massive student presence as well, hoping to see something more.

“He did a great job, we didn’t get to him as well as we should have,” said Center Grove coach Eric Moore, who said he has a longstanding friendship with U-M coach Jim Harbaugh from when Harbaugh coached at San Diego. “He’s a great player… He was a tough kid. He really threw the ball well.”

Peters was too emotional to talk after the game, but the impact he left on Avon through his college career will linger, even as he heads to Ann Arbor.

“He’s been somebody that’s put us on his back for the past three years,” Bless said. “Coming in as a sophomore and starting, maybe a little intimidated being in the huddle with a bunch of seniors, he learned some lesson, valuable lessons. I thought as a junior really exploded. … As a senior everything he could to help us win.”

The crowd was filled with people who have known Peters for years, even with his eighth-grade coach Chris Gullion on the sidelines, recalling the moments back when Peters began making his impression.

Avon’s community came to Center Grove hoping the night would mean one more game on the biggest stage.

Instead, they left with another reminder of what they’ll be missing when Peters is in Ann Arbor next year.

Contact Mark Snyder at msnyder@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @mark__snyder. Download our new Wolverines Xtra app on iTunes and Android!

Gia Milana a senior on the Romeo high school volleyball team practices with her team.

It was already a big day at Romeo High School.

The football team, one of four left in the Division 1 football playoffs, was being honored at an assembly.

The girls golf team, swim and diving teams, boys and girls cross country, and the volleyball team were being honored.

They didn’t know that a Lady Bulldog was being recognized as the best volleyball player in the state of Michigan.

Gia Milana, who led Romeo to the Division 1 state title a year ago, was named Miss Volleyball by the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association.

She received 299 votes to dominate the field.

Victoria Iacobelli of Novi was second with 125 votes, Dylynn Otte of Grand Rapids Christian third with 105, and Emily Tanski of Gabriel Richard fourth with 92.

“I’m just so blessed by God that I have the ability and opportunity to do this,” Milana said in front of a packed gym. “I’m just really excited right now and thankful to everyone that contributed to my success.”

Gina Milana was asked what she wanted the world to know about her daughter.

She couldn’t immediately answer.

However, she did say one of the best things that happened to Gia was a disappointment she experienced over the summer.

She was one of 20 high school volleyball players picked to try out for the High Performance Youth National Team. The group trained in Colorado Springs.

Twelve made the team and competed in Lima, Peru.

She was one of eight cut.

“That was probably one of the best things that could’ve happened to be honest,” said Gina. “I don’t think she has ever been told she wasn’t good enough in volleyball. I think it’s very easy to get by on what has always gotten you through. I think when she walked into that gym with those girls she felt for the first time she might not had everything that it took. As much as it hurt, it drove her and focused her on what she really needed to do if she wanted to take the sport to the level that she wants to be playing it at.”

Today, she had everything that it took. She realized that she’s not the same because of what she went through over the summer.

“When you’re training with the top 20 girls in the country and they’re hitting balls at you and you can’t let the ball touch the floor there’s a lot on you,” said Milana. “It’s a lot to learn. I matured a lot over the summer. Being in that atmosphere and being held accountable for every touch that I had, it all mattered. I learned a lot.”

Teammate and friend Breanna Olley said there was an adjustment period.

“We saw it; we knew she was more advanced than us,” said Olley. “The way she approached the game…She taught us when she knew. She brought her knowledge to the game and made us and herself better players.”

She was so focused on the task at hand, playing Traverse City West at Midland High today, she didn’t know when the award was handed out.

“I knew it was going to be announced soon, but I didn’t know when,” she said. “I want to make the most out of what this team can do and get the farthest that we can.”

Her mother then realized what she wanted people to know about her daughter they didn’t know.

“She hates losing more than she loves winning, how’s that?”

Good.

2015 Miss Volleyball voting:

Gia Milana, Romeo, 299 points

Victoria Iacobelli, Novi, 125

Dylynn Otte, Grand Rapids Christian, 105

Emily Tanski, Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard, 92

Emma Kowalkowski, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, 59

Sarah DeVries, Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian, 56

Courtney Wightman, Lake Orion, 55

Emily Lachmann, Grand Haven, 47

Skylar Iott, Monroe St. Mary’s Catholic Central, 45

Taylor Wiese, Mattawan, 43

Contact Perry A. Farrell: 313-222-2555 or pafarrell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @farrellperry.

Past winners

2003: Linsey Taatjes, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern

2004: Angie McGinnis, Fraser

2005: Stephanie Booms, Marysville

2006: Alisha Glass, Leland

2007: Lauren Jones, East Kentwood

2007: Kyndra Abron, Livonia Churchill

2008: Olivia Kohler, North Branch

2009: Alexandra Cocklin, Birmingham Marian

2010: Jordan Fish, North Branch

2011: Maddy Doyle, Farmington Hills Mercy

2012: Amanda McKinzie, Battle Creek St. Philip

2013: Carli Snyder, Macomb Dakota

2014: Katharine Carlson, Notre Dame Prep

Battle Creek St. Philip’s Abby McKinzie hits a shot between two Plymouth Christian defenders Thursday. McKinzie led St. Philip with 25 kills.

BATTLE CREEK – Only two teams keep Battle Creek St. Philip from completing a decade of dominance in Class D. One was Thursday’s semifinal opponent, Plymouth Christian, which did everything it could to end the Tigers’ streak.

The Eagles won the first game against the winners of nine straight state titles and were up, 23-21, in the second, 16-10, in the fourth.

The Tigers (46-16-2) were down, but not out, winning, 24-26, 25-23, 25-16 and 28-26 to advance to Saturday’s championship match against Leland.

“I don’t know what transpired,” St. Philip coach Vicky Groat said. “Just a lot of want from the girls, especially after Game 3. We served really well in Game 3.

“They came out firing in Game 4, but this is how we play. We’re going to battle. We’re not going to get down and frustrated with ourselves. We know we’re capable of making runs ourselves. I think in Game 1 we were tipping a lot of balls. We’re a better team when we attack.

“I’m so thrilled right now. We have another day of practice and we get to play for a state championship. It’s awesome. This is like the first time ever being here.”

When the Tigers were down, senior outside hitter Abby McKinzie started flying all over the court, leading the defending champs with 25 kills, two more than the Eagles’ Olivia Mady.

“It’s mental,” McKinzie said. “Nothing had been won. Coach says no one has won until you get to 25. Even if you’re down, 0-2, the match is not over. You have to come out mentally strong and ready to go.”

The Tigers seemed to have things under control in the first game, 21-17, but Plymouth came charging back and tied it at 21. Down, 23-21, the Eagles rallied again to tie the game at 23 on an ace by Divna Roi. When McKinzie’s kill attempt was ruled long, the Eagles had broken through to go up, 1-0.

In the second game, the Tigers quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but by the time Groat had to call a time-out, her team trailed again, 7-5. Things didn’t get much better as the Eagles took advantage of Tigers’ mistakes to take control, 11-7.

But the champs rallied to win nine of the next 11 points to take a 16-13 lead on a couple of aces by senior Morgan Luoma (14 kills), and gained life when the Eagles hit into the net down, 24-23, to end the second game.

Plymouth (35-6-1) struggled in the third game when three straight aces by junior Kameron Haley gave St. Philip a 10-4 lead.

“Aces and blocks really help momentum,” McKinzie said.

Trailing, 2-1, the Eagles played better in the fourth game, dominating at the net in taking a 16-10 lead before the Tigers rallied.

“The girls played great all season; they’ve exceeded expectations,” Plymouth Christian coach D.J. Kellogg said. “We set up a game plan, and they stuck to it all season. You can only do so much. We had the momentum, but they’re experienced and mentally tough.”

Contact Perry A. Farrell: 313-222-2555 or pafarrell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @farrellperry.

Girls volleyball semifinals and finals schedule

Bronson players celebrate after a point during semi-finals against TC St. Francis.

BATTLE CREEK – Bronson will seek its first Class C volleyball title since 2009 after advancing to today’s championship match at Kellogg Arena following a solid performance against Traverse City St. Francis in a 25-18, 25-27, 25-15, 25-23 semifinal victory Friday.

A team of hard-working players, the Vikings (56-10-3) seemed to cover every inch of the court in frustrating the Gladiators.

The game plan seemed simple: run all over the court and stay away from St. Francis’ Juliana Phillips (12 kills), a 6-foot-4 terror at the net.

“We watched film on them and realized they’re big hitters,” said junior Jill Pyles. “We knew where she (Phillips) was and we tried to be prepared. We’re all about effort and making sure the ball doesn’t hit the floor.

“We see that 2009 banner and team picture every day we go into the gym so we’d like to hang another one.”

Bronson didn’t experience much pressure in the first game and kept the momentum going in the second game by scoring five of the first six points to keep the Gladiators (51-7-3) on their heels.

St. Francis rallied by scoring 12 of the next eight 18 points to take a 13-11 lead. Phillips started making her presence felt along the front line and the Gladiators took advantage of some errors at the net and service line by Bronson.

Tied at 25, St. Francis evened the match at 1-1 as Bronson hit two shots into the net.

Bronson recharged its battery in the third game, jumping out to a 9-4 lead, forcing St. Francis to call a timeout. Bronson’s athleticism was on full display as the Vikings raced around the court, seemingly hunting down every shot the Gladiators took and dominating play.

St. Francis appeared in a great position to tie the match up 20-18 in the fourth game, but the Vikings scored the next four points.

“I thought they (St. Francis) played a great game,” said Bronson coach Jean LaClair. “I thought we kept fighting. We were struggling to get into our offense a little bit. We just kept running down balls that they were hitting back at us.

“We tried to stay away from her (Phillips) a little bit, but we’ve got to run the offense that we run. I felt that my middles are pretty good. We’re usually a good serving team. We had to keep them out of their offense, because they’re very much like us; a good offensive team.”

Senior Kirin Cekander led Bronson with 15 kills, and Pyles added nine.

“I don’t think Jill crunched balls or served like she usually does, but she kept us in the game,” LaClair said.

She’ll get another chance today.

Contact Perry A. Farrell: 313-222-2555 or pafarrell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @farrellperry.

Girls volleyball semifinals and finals schedule

BATTLE CREEK – Nationally ranked and undefeated, Ann Arbor Richard (41-0) is one victory away from completing a perfect season.

Goodrich found out just how good the Fighting Irish were in Friday night’s Class B semifinal at Kellogg Arena, As Richard won in three games, 25-17, 25-9, 25-14, to advance to today’s final.

Richard, winners earlier this season against Novi, a Class A finalist, came out firing even in warmups and was flawless from the opening serve, and never challenged.

Senior Emily Tanski was a Miss Volleyball finalist, but junior Jurnee Tipton was drawing attention by rifling lasers across the net in preparation for the match; right in the face of the Goodrich players.

The 5-foot-8 outside hitter kept it up throughout the match, finishing with 15 kills. Tanski also had 15.

“Jurnee has been hitting like that for us all season,” said Richard coach Mayssa Bazzi. “I still think she took it a little easy tonight. Every time she took a swing I said ‘I’ve yet to see it.’ I think she’s saving it for tomorrow. I don’t think a single one of our hitters took the swing that we took Tuesday night against (Lake Odessa) Lakewood.”

Tipton said it was nerves.

“We’ve never made it this far,” said Tipton. “It’s exciting, but also it is nerve-wracking. Emily is a great hitter. From my freshman year I looked up to her a lot. She was always able to put the ball away. She always looked like she was having fun. She’s also very kind. Whenever we’re in the hallway she’ll always greet us. She has a good vibe to her.”

That’s because her teammates are like a family to her.

“We’re motivated,” said Tanski. “We want to win it. We’re dedicated. We’re a family. We love each other. I’m so blessed to be able to share this experience with them. I wouldn’t want to have any other team by my side.

“Our tournaments and playing against Class A schools got us ready for this. Going undefeated it was a surprise to us. It shows the character of our team. We’ve been down in games, but we’ve never stop. We keep pushing.”

Goodrich got as close as 19-16 in the first game before the Fighting Irish closed it out by winning six of the next seven points.

With three kills early in the second game, Tipton helped the winners take an 8-2 lead as the Irish continued to dominate the net.

On full throttle not even a timeout could stop the Irish offensive onslaught.

Senior middle blocker Sydney Burton (12 kills), Tipton and junior India Woods provided Tanski plenty of help on an imposing front line.

The Catholic League champs also scored the first five points of the third game.

Contact Perry A. Farrell: 313-222-2555 or pafarrell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @farrellperry.

Girls volleyball semifinal results and finals schedule

BATTLE CREEK – The last 11 Class D state volleyball titles entering Saturday morning’s championship game at Kellogg Arena belonged to finalists Battle Creek St. Philip (10, including nine in a row) and Leland (one).

St. Philip coach Vicky Groat and Leland coach Laurie Glass have known each other “forever.” “About 25 years,” said Groat. “I met her when my mom was coaching and I’ve been coaching 18 years.”

So Saturday’s game meant the streak of consecutive titles between the two schools would reach 12 — but only one friend would go home a winner.

This time it was Glass and Leland knocking off the champs, 25-20, 25-23 and 25-23, to end the Tigers’ title win streak.

Leading the Comets were two super freshmen: setter Ella Siddall and outside hitter Allie Martin (six kills), with senior leadership from Maddie Trumbull.

“I’ll take the first one, I’ll take the last one, I’ll take the next one; anyone she (Groat) wants to give me,” said Glass. “We have all season long run a pretty fast offense. We run a lot of different things. Thursday when we played in the semifinals, we weren’t able to pass well enough to do that. I thought we passed well today to run a variety of options. I thought we served very well.

“Allie Martin has been fearless all year. She doesn’t know she shouldn’t be doing this. The two freshmen were our managers for two years. They’ve been in the gym playing with us so we felt there were lots of good things to come.”

Trumbull was a part of last year’s team which lost to St. Philip in the final. The senior responded with 14 kills to tie the Tigers’ Abby McKinzie for tops in the match.

“She’s a banger,” said Glass. “She made a couple of big digs when it was really tight. Flying on the floor to get balls. She was willing to lay it all on the line in her last match.”

Said Trumbull: “We’re used to digging ourselves out (of deficits). It was awesome. We didn’t let them through. I will remember this forever.”

The Tigers came out swinging, scoring the first four points, but Leland responded by scoring nine of the next 10 points to go up, 9-5. From there the teams went shot for shot until the Comets scored three straight points to lead 20-17. Leland never relinquished the lead in going up 1-0.

The Tigers led through most of the second game, building an 18-14 lead, but couldn’t contain the momentum. The Comets tied the game at 23 and used an ace from Siddall to go up 2-0.

Leland didn’t stop swinging, scoring the first three points of the third game, attacking the middle of the Tigers defense.

Groat kept her calm so her team wouldn’t get rattled, but did call a timeout down 11-8.

“They kept hitting,” said Groat of Leland. “They took us out of our comfort zone. We couldn’t swing at the ball or serve very well. You can’t pass, setting’s off, hitting’s off. They just did what they had to do to beat us. That was the better team today.”

Girls volleyball semifinal results and finals schedule

Novi’s Ally Cummings hugs Victoria Iacobelli as the Wildcats celebrate winning the Class A state championship.

BATTLE CREEK – The best player in the state lost to the best team in the Class A volleyball final at Kellogg Arena Saturday afternoon.

Novi had been ranked No. 1 for most of the season. Romeo, the defending state champs, featured the best player in Miss Volleyball Gia Milana.

The Bulldogs prevailed last year in a five-game thriller and Novi wanted revenge. They got it, winning in impressive fashion, 25-16, 20-25, 25-21 and 25-17, capping off a 55-2 season for the Wildcats.

“They’re a great team and we watched a lot of film and kind of had an idea of what they were going to bring at us,” said Novi coach Jennifer Cottrill. “Gia’s a phenomenal player and pretty much impossible to stop. We had to have a plan to defend everybody else.

“I was confident if we played our game we could defeat them, but they’re teenage girls. You are never quite sure what you are going to get.”

The Wildcats got 20 kills from Paulina Iacobelli, and 13 from Victoria, her sister, who was runner-up to Milana in the Miss Volleyball voting.

“Our game plan has always been pass and defend,” said Victoria. “If we’re passing well and take them out of their system there’s no one that can really stop us. We knew what we had to do going in. By serving touch and passing and making sure we defend.

“Obviously there was a little more motivation coming in from last year. I knew as soon as we knew Romeo was our opponent there was a lot of motivation.”

Novi continually took advantage of Romeo’s backline, which struggled with the lasers coming from the Iacobellis or Ally Cummings (17 kills).

Only Milana’s brilliance kept the Bulldogs from getting swept by winning the second game. She finished with 29 kills.

“Defense and passing killed us,” said Milana, who was blocked at the net on the championship point. “They were hungry coming in, but we just needed to say no to them. We didn’t say no. We played with them instead of at them. We let them take the wheel and do whatever they wanted.”

Novi came out firing, scoring seven of the game’s first eight points. The Wildcats never let up, building a 15-7 lead with strong play at the net and neutralizing Milana.

Unforced errors led to Romeo’s undoing as the short serves had the Bulldogs defense off-balanced. Novi doubled the score, 20-10 and was cruising. When Payton Klein served long the defending champs found itself down 1-0.

Romeo opened up an 11-6 lead to start the second game, but Novi took advantage of Bulldogs’ errors near the net to draw to an 11-11 tie.

But Milana dominated the rest of the game net, hurling her body through the air to nail cross-court winners at the Wildcats defense, including the final kill to tie the championship at 1.

The third game saw the Wildcats charge ahead 9-6 and 16-10 by attacking the Bulldogs’ backline.

Girls volleyball semifinal results and finals schedule

Muskegon Catholic Central ‘s Jacob Holt carries the trophy after a 7-0 victory over Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes in the MHSAA Division 8 state football championship at Ford Field in Detroit on Friday, Nov. 27, 2015.

Of course it was a defensive play that started Muskegon Catholic Central’s game-winning touchdown drive in the Division 8 state championship game.

Christian Martinez grabbed an interception, then ended the drive with an eight-yard TD run with 10:20 left in the fourth quarter against Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes.

It gave the Crusaders a 7-0 victory. MCC stuffed an offense that hadn’t scored fewer than 32 points in a game this season.

Martinez’s interception with 62 seconds left in the third quarter was the third of four thrown by Lakers senior quarterback Clay Senerius. Starting at its own 36-yard line, MCC (11-3) passed only one time on the 64-yard drive, a 12-yarder from Martinez to Logan Helton.

Martinez had a 14-yard run, and Walker Christoffersen contributed a 24-yard run to the Lakers 8. Martinez scored on the next play.

“We had some key plays,’’ Martinez said. “We had a third down where the line blocked perfect. That kept the drive going. We had an explosive run by Walker that set up the touchdown. On the touchdown, Jacob Holt got around the edge and blocked two guys. He set it up perfectly for me to get in.’’

Live: Audio, scores, tweets from football state finals

Waterford Our Lady (13-1) tried to respond, driving from its own 30 to the Crusaders’ 13. On second-and-8, Senerius tried to hit Chris Cartier in the right corner of the end zone, but Christoffersen stepped in front of the pass with 3:21 remaining for yet another interception.

“It was really good knowing that, during practice this week, all we went over was stay deep and stay on your man,’’ Christoffersen said. “He ran a flag route, and I knew if I got to him in time, I could break on the ball. We had good coaching and good teaching throughout the week, and it resulted in the interception.’’

This is the Crusaders’ third straight championship. MCC might not be as talented as its previous two championship teams, but coach Steve Czerwon gladly accepted the hardware.

“It was a hard-fought battle out there,’’ he said. “I don’t think anyone that watched these two teams expected it to be 7-0. We’ve been in quite a few close games. A lot of grit and integrity out of these guys today.’’

Christoffersen led the offense with 113 yards on 18 carries.

While the Crusaders moved the ball, the Lakers were stymied in their first two possessions until Senerius hit Cartier with a 29-yard pass for the team’s initial first down.

Waterford Our Lady finally put a drive together midway through the second quarter, until Brody Kieft broke through for a six-yard loss on Cartier. Devin Senerius, Clay’s twin, then missed a 35-yard field goal.

The Lakers had another scoring opportunity inside two minutes of the first half, but a fourth-down pass by Clay Senerius was tipped away in the end zone.

Clay provided the offense, completing 17 of 27 passes for 193 yards. But the interceptions were killers.

“I made some bad reads; it was my fault,’’ he said.

Coach Josh Sawicki corrected him.

“It was our fault,’’ he said. “We had the most wins in school history and scored the most points. That was a physical, physical football game. In close games, it always comes down to one or two plays that you have to make. Unfortunately, it didn’t fall our way today.’’

Contact Perry A. Farrell: 313-222-2555 or pafarrell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @farrellperry.

Detroit Martin Luther King QB Armani Posey tries to avoid being tackeld by Lowell LB Max Dean, during the second quarter of the Michigan High School Athletic Association football finals at Ford Field in Detroit on Friday, Nov. 27, 2015.

Detroit King, which trailed by as many 18 points in the third quarter, had the ball on its 3-yard line, trailing, 38-34, with only 37 seconds left on the clock.

“Give me some time back here,” King quarterback Armani Posey told his offensive linemen.

That was the first incredible part of this game — which King marched down the field to win, 40-38 — that Posey was the quarterback. He had been a wide receiver for the first three games.

But then the starter broke a team rule, and King coach Dale Harvel inserted Posey.

“He was the next guy who had the quarterback experience,” Harvel said.

Yes he was. But when did Posey get his experience at quarterback?

“Little league,” Posey said. “That’s it.”

• More: Michigan high school football championship coverage

Harvel shrugged his shoulders. He had no other real option other than Posey.

“Well, that’s what we had,” Harvel said. “He was our third quarterback, but in order to throw the football consistently we had to use Posey because he’s more of a true passer, even though he never played quarterback.”

But on Friday afternoon at Ford Field — especially on one of the greatest drives in state championship game history — Posey looked like Tom Brady, completing 19 of 27 passes for 383 yards with five touchdown passes.

With the ball on the 3, Posey quickly passed 22 yards to Lavert Hill and then found Donnie Corley for 10 yards. After an incompletion he fired a 25-yard strike to Donte Boyd, who was knocked into next week and had to be helped from the field.

Boyd’s catch put the ball at the Lowell 40-yard line, and only 10 seconds were left.

“To me,” Corley said, “that was the biggest play of the game.”

One incompletion later, just two seconds remained when King broke the huddle and Corley lined up split to the left.

“I saw the corner trying to tell the safety to get over the top,” Corley said. “But he wasn’t listening to him so I knew I was one-on-one.”

Posey noticed the same thing and nodded to Corley — the best receiver in the state who is trying to decide between attending Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State and Notre Dame — who nodded back.

“I looked at him; he looked back,” Posey said. “It was that connection.”

On the sidelines, Harvel knew what he hoped would happen.

“When I didn’t see the safety move over, I repeated: ‘Throw it to Donnie, throw it do Donnie,’” Harvel said. “Could nobody hear me, but I repeated it over and over.”

Posey received the snap from center and had about a day-and-a-half to look around before he launched a pass toward Corley streaking into the end zone.

“I knew that I put the ball in the right area,” Posey said. “We work on that in practice all day, every day.”

As he watched the ball come his way, a moment of panic set in.

“I think I’m about to be out of bounds in the back of the end zone,” Corley thought. “I took a quick look and I saw I was in bounds.”

Then it became a matter of outjumping the Lowell cornerback, who had good coverage on him.

Corley, 6-feet-2, said he has a 37-inch vertical leap.

“I needed all 37 on that play,” he said, shaking his head.

At the peak of his jump, Corley snatched the ball — and the Division 2 state championship — out of the air and fell to the ground in the back corner of the end zone, giving King a heart-stopping victory over an inspired Lowell team.

And like a Michigan State game, King took its only lead of the game with 0:00 left on the clock.

“That’s amazing,” Corley said. “Who would have thought?”

Nobody.

Contact Mick McCabe: 313-223-4744 or mmccabe@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1.

Div. 2, 8: King fooled twice; tough final for Our Lady

Romeo TE Mitchell Heimbuch is surrounded by his teammates after they defeated Detroit Cass Tech 41-27, during the Michigan High School Athletic Association football Division 1 finals at Ford Field in Detroit on Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015.

Detroit Cass Tech QB is tackled by Romeo DB Jacob Hernden and Domenico Bongiorno after gaining yards, during the first half of the Michigan High School Athletic Association football Division 1 finals at Ford Field in Detroit on Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015.

The year was 2002 and Romeo needed a head football coach.

Curt Rienas and Jason Couch were assistant coaches there and were two of the three finalists. When the other finalist dropped out, Couch and Rienas met.

“What do you think?” Couch asked Rienas. “What’s your vision?”

Couch listed and then gave Rienas his vision.

• More: Michigan high school football championship coverage

Neither one is sure who said it first, but one of them said: “How about doing this together?”

Romeo football hasn’t been the same since.

Rienas and Couch became the first co-coaches in playoff history to win a state championship today when their Bulldogs upset Detroit Cass Tech, 41-27, in Ford Field.

The two met when Rienas joined the Romeo varsity as a sophomore and Couch was a senior.

“He was the captain, the leader of our team,” Rienas said. “He was kind of spiritual leader of the group. He kind of took me under his wing when I was the young guy that everybody wanted to see if he was really ready for this or not.”

Rienas was ready and together they helped the Bulldogs win a regional title and advance to the semifinals. It was the furthest any Romeo team had been . . . until this Romeo team. Their Romeo team.

The friendship grew from there. After college they returned to coach as assistants, but their idea of co-coaches wasn’t welcomed with open arms.

Everyone athletic director Greg Brynaert asked about having co-coaches advised him against it. Even when he agreed to it, Brynaert told them the first time he saw one of them point the finger at the other he was pulling the plug.

He is still waiting for the first finger to be pointed.

Couch runs the offense and Rienas runs the defense and they are sounding boards for each other.

The Couch-Rienas relationship is like a marriage . . . except better. There is no bickering.

“Seriously, there’s none; I’m dead serious,” Couch said. “We communicate all the time. My wife jokes about how we talk more than her and I do because that’s what you have to do. It’s like any relationship, you’ve got to have communication.”

Actually, it’s better than a marriage. Each of their wives refers to the other coach as her husband’s “girlfriend.”

There are no harsh words between the two. The worst it gets is when one poses a question.

“There’s probably things, like in a marriage, where you ask: ‘Are you sure?’ ‘’ Rienas said. “But whenever you have open dialogue you’re going to end up with the best answer at the end. You might not initially agree, but when you have the same mission, you’re on the same page anyway.”

The mission here has always been the same: a state championship.

This week the two have received text messages and e-mails from guys who played for them in 2003 and remembered Couch’s opening remarks as a co-coach.

Couch told them that Sterling Heights Stevenson had played in the state championship game and so had Utica Eisenhower. Then he asked the players a question:

“Why can’t Romeo? Let’s do this.”

Well, they did it and Couch and Rienas did it together.

The key is their egos don’t get in the way of what is best for the team.

“There’s no egos,” Couch said. “I don’t care about the title, I really don’t. I’m just proud to be a Bulldog and I love every minute about this.”

Before they left Ford Field they talked about returning to the school where their seniors will take the annual “senior walk.”

The underclassmen make a tunnel and the players walk through it.

This senior walk will be different in one not-so-little way.

“We always said: ‘The last game, you end sad . . . unless,” Couch said. “And here we are.”

Here they are together.

Contact Mick McCabe: 313-223-4744 or mmccabe@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1.

Be sure that you follow Freep Sports on Twitter (@freepsports) and Instagram and like us on on Facebook.

Storybook ending for Romeo in Div. 1 title game
Peoples-Jones, quarterbacks give Cass Tech hope

Grand Rapids West Catholic’s Gaetano Vallone runs behind the block of Kurtis Schultz during 1st quarter of West Catholic’s 40-34 win over River Rouge in the Division 5 state final Saturday at Ford Field.

River Rouge was big, but Grand Rapids West Catholic was experienced with two straight Division 5 football titles.

West Catholic prevailed, 40-34, despite going against an offensive line that went 280, 290, 300, 340 and 350 in front of elusive quarterback Antoine Burgess (13 of 19, 354 yards, three TDs) for a three-peat.

The Falcons’ run game (363 yards) and the Panthers’ mistakes proved to be the difference.

“We had a small senior class and I think a lot of people doubted this group,” said West Catholic coach Dan Rohn. “This means a lot. We’re a small school trying to get kids come to our school. This helps a lot.

“We got off to a 1-2 start. We got blown out by a good Forest Hills Eastern team.”

David Fox had 152 yards on 10 carries for the Falcons and three TDs. Gaetano Vallone rushed 19 times for 115 yards even though he was slowed by an ankle injury, and Denny Alt had 79 yards on 13 carries.

“It feels great; to be able to come to West Catholic,” said Fox, who was replaced by Vallone as the team’s quarterback after he hurt his shoulder. “Ever since my freshman year we’ve been able to come to Ford Field. This is my third ring and we’re hoping for another one.”

West Catholic stunned the Panthers with a 64-yard TD run by Fox, bursting up the middle and out-racing the River Rouge secondary with 44 seconds left in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead.

Rouge got a 43-yard pass from Burgess to Aaron Vinson to get the offense in scoring position.

Burgess’ passing yards were the second most in finals history.

“We were playing West Catholic,” said Panthers Coach Corey Parker of the team’s slow start. “I don’t discredit what we were doing, but they were doing an awesome job creating some issues up front that we couldn’t go deep down the field in our passing game. We had to make some blocking adjustments. Once we did that we were able to create some time for Antoine.”

Burgess hit Ashawnti Howard for an 11-yard score with 8:51 left in the half, but failed on the two-point conversion.

Fox burned the Panthers with another long run, sprinting 38-yards for his second TD with 2:33 left in the first half to make it 14-6.

Burgess completed a 41-yard pass to Giavonni Turner to set up another possible score, but two plays later was intercepted by Connor Bolthouse with 27 seconds left in the half to end the threat.

By halftime, Fox had already lit up the Panthers’ defense for 106 yards on just four carries.

The Falcons (12-2) didn’t miss a beat to start the second half, getting a 53-yard run from Gaetano Vallone to the Rouge 12.

Fox literally walked in from there just 16 seconds into the third quarter to make it 21-6.

Burgess finally struck gold when he hit Vinson in stride for a 63-yard TD pass with 3:56 left in the third. He hit Turner for the two-point conversion pass and the Panthers (12-2) were on the prowl, down just seven.

West Catholic responded with a 9-yard TD pass from Vallone to Aaron Hall with 14 seconds left in the third to make it 28-14.

Still firing, Burgess hit Howard with a 51-yarder to the 1-yard line, where Burgess scored two plays later with 10:54 to play.

Succumbing to a fake punt, River Rouge still had a chance to get back into the game, but a West Catholic punt to the Panthers’ 2 was followed by a fumbled snap by Burress. He was tackled in the end zone for a safety, making it a nine-point game with just 7:15 left.

West Catholic got a 31-yard field goal from Liam Putz to extend the lead to 33-21.

“That was a big sequence,” said Parker.

Burgess kept going deep using just 37 seconds to go 65 yards and throwing a 23-yard TD pass to Turner with 3:36 left.

“My thing was to keep fighting,” said Burgess. “Every time we got the ball back I said let’s score.”

Said Parker: “My guys fought and fought. That’s our mantra.”

Contact Perry A. Farrell: 313-222-2555 or pafarrell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @farrellperry.

Michigan assistant coach Tyrone Wheatley speaks Sunday at the Dearborn Inn. Before he starred at U-M and in the NFL, Wheatley led Dearborn Heights Robichaud to the Class B state title in 1990, rushing, passing, kicking and punting.

Tyrone Wheatley couldn’t believe it had been 25 years.

Honored by the National Football Foundation Sunday for the 25th anniversary of his appearing on the Free Press Dream Team, Wheatley was stunned at where the years had gone.

One of the greatest football players in state history, shining especially in 1990 with his 2,010 rushing yards and 33 touchdowns, he warranted the honor.

Later he starred at Michigan, then played more than a decade in the NFL.

But remembering how in 1990 he carried Dearborn Heights Robichaud to the Class B state title, rushing, passing, kicking and punting in the title-game win, the memories were thick.

With that perspective and his family in attendance, he wanted to tell the current Dream Teamers to appreciate where they are — because it’s fleeting.

“This is an exclusive club,” Wheatley said. “Be exclusive, don’t try to be like everybody else. Because you’re not, everybody else isn’t sitting up here with you. …

“When you go to your selected colleges, make Michigan proud. Because when you sit in that locker room, you’re going to have guys from other places in other states. I’m just telling you from experience, even if you make it to the NFL, make Michigan proud. Represent the state of Michigan.”

After a career that spanned from New York, playing for the Giants, to California, playing for the Oakland Raiders, Wheatley returned to Michigan, embracing his roots.

He worked as an assistant track coach at Michigan, following his passion for that sport. Discovering his high school needed a football coach, he took on that task for a year and re-energized that program. He became an Eastern Michigan assistant.

Wheatley could have lived anywhere or done anything given his on-field success. Yet he felt a connection to his state, so it meant something to build his coaching career here.

That’s why when he took the podium to accept the award Sunday, he was able to recall Jerome Bettis, who starred on the Dream Team the year before him in 1989, and Mill Coleman, a rare two-time Dream Teamer, who gave Sunday’s invocation and was every bit as electric as Wheatley in high school.

Returning to the state was his passion. To advance in his coaching career, Wheatley had left in 2010, working for Syracuse and then the Buffalo Bills.

But when another fork arrived in his career last January, he chose to come back and become Michigan’s running backs coach.

Coming back to Ann Arbor to work for Jim Harbaugh has been a unique experience.

Wheatley loved his time as a Michigan athlete and, like Harbaugh, he wanted to help bring the U-M program back to prominence.

So in that sense, this season has been a success.

“Anytime you’re on the positive side, the winning side, it’s good,” he said before the banquet, referring to the Wolverines’ four-win improvement to 9-3 with the Jan. 1 Citrus Bowl against Florida remaining. “But you always want, the competitor in you, you want your expectations to be always high. I think Coach Harbaugh said it best, we got our dignity back. At the same time, you still want to get double-digit wins in the regular season.”

He has evaluated players across the country and is recruiting everywhere, shown by his appearance in Alabama last week with U-M tailback commitment Kingston Davis.

At home, though, are players he feels are worth more than many claim.

“I know I shouldn’t say this, but I don’t like when people say: ‘Texas is the greatest state of football.’ I don’t like when they talk about Florida, and they say, ‘Florida is the greatest state of football,’ ” he said. “I’ll be damned if I take this group of guys right here and we’ll go out and play anybody in another state and whoop them.

“I’m honored to be here with you guys. Make the most of it and make Michigan proud.”

Contact Mark Snyder at msnyder@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @mark__snyder. Download our new Wolverines Xtra app on iTunes and Android!