January 14th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
Our sports editor, Ron Montri, posted a list of all the Region boys basketball players to be averaging in double figures so far this season. Devon Crain of Flat Rock leads the Region with an average of 25.6. Josh DuPree of Whiteford is second at 20.9 and Brad Puchalsky of Lutheran South is third at 20.9. The Prep Basketball book has a complete list of those winning Region basketball scoring championships over the years, plus a story about how Roy Couch of Bedford might have actually led the region one year but wasn’t credited with doing so. Anyway, the interesting thing about the list I noticed was there is no State Line Christian player among the leaders. The Patriots have had 8 scoring champs since 1993 when Dan Weber led area scorers. What’s more interesting, since that season, the Region’s scoring leader has come from only a handful of schools: State Line Christian has had eight top scorers, Whiteford five, Summerfield one and Lutheran South one. Could this be the year someone breaks that string?
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January 11th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
I received an unexpected gift last night. Kris Hubbard, the varsity softball coach and former varsity girls basketball (and volleyball and track) coach at Whiteford gave me a box that contained decades of old scorebooks from Whiteford girls basketball and softball games. I could have stayed up all night going through them. I told her it was like finding one more gift under the Christmas tree.
My affinity for scorebooks goes way back. I was in high school at Whiteford when basketball coach John Rice first asked me to do some stat work for him. I loved the idea and started to search for some records. Whiteford, at the time, had little info. So, I began looking for scorebooks. I found every scorebook except two from Coach Rice’s seasons, dating back to 1973-74 and that started my data collection of Whiteford sports and has since expanded into all Region schools. When I called a former Whiteford coach, he told me he had recently moved and, probably, trashed some of the earlier scorebooks. I was crushed.
But, my scorebook collection continues to grow. I have dozens of old scorebooks from Monroe County Region games covered by former sports editors Hap Funk and Bill Brenton. I have nearly all Whiteford girls and boys basketball scorebooks from the early 1970s until now.
So, a note to coaches and athletic directors: Don’t throw away the scorebook! Save them. Put them in a safe place. You never know when someone might need to verify some information (like me).
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January 9th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
Whitmore Lake is turning some heads with its most recent two games. The Trojans — from the Tri-County Conference — began the season by scoring 20, 32, 38, 28 and 30 points in their first five games. Then the Trojans exploded with 74 points Friday against Deerfield, tying a TCC record with 13 3-pointers in the game. Then, last night, Whitmore Lake scored 89 points in a 90-89 loss to Britton. WL made 12 3-pointers. Whitmore Lake has upcoming games against Whiteford (Jan. 28) and Summerfield (Feb. 14).
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January 9th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
What a win for Summerfield Tuesday! The Bulldogs beat Adrian Madison 55-53 , handing the Trojans their first loss of the season. It was probably Summerfield’s biggest win in several years.
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January 8th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
Speaking of the state tournament, I was peaking ahead at the Michigan High School Athletic Association Web site (www.mhsaa.com) for the District, Regional and quarterfinal pairings in the boys bracket, especially the Class C bracket. There are a lot of local ties and potential there. Whiteford and Summerfield are part of the Blissfield District. The winner of that District plays in the Regional at Adrian Madison. SMCC is in a District at Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard. The winner of that District is in the Madison Regional, too. The Adrian Madison Regional is also host to District winners from Napoleon and Jonesville. Hanover Horton and Hillsdale are in the Jonesville District. Anyway, the Madison Regional is shaping up to be quite a good one. In today’s state rankings Whiteford (6-0, No. 11), SMCC (6-1, No. 7), Hanover-Horton (5-0, No. 10) and Hillsdale (5-1, No.8) all appear. AA Richard has the potential to develop into a state title contender. Adrian Madison is 6-0 and unranked so far. Morenci is 3-2. Clinton is 4-2. Sand Creek is 5-1. Napoleon is 5-1. Michigan Center is 5-1. Vandercook Lake is 4-2. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but that Madison Regional could be a fun couple of nights of basketball. The winner plays at the Whitmore Lake quarterfinal.
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January 8th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
Is it too early to start thinking about the post-season? Why not. Here’s some details:
GIRLS BASKETBALL STATE TOURNAMENT:Districts are: Feb. 18-22. Local teams to host Districts are Milan, New Boston Huron and Whiteford. The Regionals are Feb. 26-28.
BOYS BASKETBALL STATE TOURNAMENT:Districts: Games will be played Feb. 25, 27 and 29.Bedford and Milan will host District tournament games. The Regionals will be the following week (March 3 & 5).
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January 8th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
Several Monroe County Region teams have made the first weekly Associated Press prep basketball poll of the season. In boys basketball, St. Mary Catholic Central (6-1) is ranked No. 7 in Class C and Whiteford (6-0) is among the honorable mention choices. In the first girls basketball poll of the year Bedford (Class A) and Ida (Class B) are among the honorable mention choices. Look for all of the rankings in today’s Evening News.
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January 4th, 2008 Doug Donnelly
I plan on being at the Whiteford-Summerfield game tonight. There’s been a lot of great games between the two teams over the years, one of which is detailed in the Prep Basketball Record Book. That note is about Chris DuPree making two free throws with no time on the clock to give state-ranked Whiteford a 72-71 win over the Bulldogs in 1989. The note is in a section of the book called “Unlikely victories, upsets and last-second heroics.” Other Whiteford-Summerfield games have come down to the wire, too. There’s also a big Summerfield win not included in the section that probably should have been. That, of course, is Steve Lubinski’s game-winning shot in overtime against Sand Creek in February, 1995. The shot was huge as it gave Summerfield the inside track on its only TCC championship. Lubinski had transferred to Summerfield from Toledo Central Catholic that season and played only the one year with Summerfield. he scored 6 points in that win, All-Stater Jared Boll had 16 and Chad Secor - now the Summerfield head coach — scored 6 points. The next day The Evening News’ headline called it the “shot heard round the TCC.”
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January 3rd, 2008 Doug Donnelly
I’ve been asked a few times recently when the Associated Press poll starts. I believe next Tuesday (Jan.8) will be the first AP poll of the new year. It’s been a while since a Monroe County region team was ranked. The last region team to end the season ranked was Whiteford’s undefeated 2002-03 team which finished 7th in Class C. SMCC was No. 8 in 2002’s final Class C ranking. Milan was No. 10 that year. Incidentally, the highest ranking by a region team ever at the end of a season was the 1964 Dundee team and 1975 Milan team, both which finished the season No. 2. You can find all of the poll info on page 8 of the 2008 Region Prep Basketball Record Book.
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