COLUMN: SPORTSBEAT by Peter Jakey—Junior High Perfection in Posen
Quick quiz.
There?s an area sports team that has won all of its games over the last two years. Do you know who it is? How about the players from the Posen eighth grade girls basketball team who finished perfect junior high careers by winning 23 basketball games? As eighth graders this group went 11-0 and while in seventh grade they were 12-0.
And according to Steve Hentkowski of the Presque Isle County Basketball Association (PIBA), they didn?t lose any games at that level either. The Posen basketball program looks to be in good shape in the coming years. The varsity has a lot of players coming back with experience, and with an infusion of some good ball players from the JV, varsity coach Tom Schellie should win a lot of games, and with the junior high players coming up to the high school program, the winning should continue.
The players on the eighth grade roster this season were Mary Calhoun, Roxanne Hincka, Jenny Ciarkowski, Megan Pieczynski, Brittany Styma, Michelle Mulka, and Elisha Perrault.
The girls blew out nearly every opponent. I?m sure the Atlanta players were glad when their game against Posen was over. In this year?s contest, the Vikings took a 28-0 lead before allowing Atlanta to score, then didn?t give up another point. The final was 50-2. But that wasn?t the biggest blowout for the Vikings in the two years of crushing teams. Their biggest margin of victory was 60. In seventh grade, Posen defeated Atlanta 60-0.
Eighth grade coach Judy Klimaszewski said the girls liked playing defense.
?They are very athletic, they work good together,? said Klimaszewski. ?They play as a team, not as individuals.?
?They are very talented,? said Amy Momrik, seventh grade coach.
The closest the Vikings came to losing a game in the 2002 season was during the post-season tournament in Posen against Hillman.
?They were not used to having a little tougher competition,? said Klimaszewski. ?Hillman brought up a couple of seventh graders who started.? It was a back and forth contest and Posen trailed with a little under two minutes.
Key free throws from Calhoun down the stretch won the game and kept the undefeated season intact. The tournament final was close early but the Vikings polished off Fairview to win their last junior high game.
?They have a great bunch of athletes coming up,? added Klimaszewski. ?There?s going to be some tough competition coming from Posen.?
*** *** ***
AT ITS FALL meeting Friday in Mt. Pleasant, the representative council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) may vote to add one or more additional post-season tournaments to the existing 24 events it already sponsors.
The fall meeting of the 19-member legislative body of the MHSAA?s 1,300 plus member schools is one of three regularly-scheduled sessions each year, featuring an agenda which will include reports from a variety of ad hoc committees convened by the association to study a variety of other issues impacting high school athletics.
Utilizing student interest surveys conducted in 1997-98 and 2001-02, its annual sports participation survey of member schools, and a follow-up survey in the summer of 2002 about sports in which the MHSAA does not currently offer post-season tournaments, the MHSAA executive committee appointed study groups to evaluate bowling, lacrosse, field hockey and girls ice hockey.
MHSAA staff have also met with the statewide leadership of the water polo and equestrian communities.
The representative council is focusing on the sports that show the most potential for growth in female participation in all types of schools and communities in Michigan, but the council may not avoid a sport simply because it also has participation by boys.
The last addition to the MHSAA tournament schedule occurred in the 1993-94 school year, when the first girls competitive cheer tournament took place. Boys and girls soccer tournaments were initiated in the 1982-83 school year.
*** *** ***
DEAR MR. FORD,
I really like Ford Field but I really would like to see some better football.
It?s been a while since my last letter to you but the themes of these correspondences never seem to change which is extremely disappointing.
I?m always complaining about your football teams and nothing seems to get done. There have been changes, but no progress.
Ford Field is a gem and I look forward to another visit, but probably not for football. Maybe for a concert, or a circus, or something
I know you parade your clowns out on the
I prefer to stay home and scream at my color television instead of paying $40 for a ticket.
What?s really frustrating is I see other National Football League teams improve and turn around their seasons.
The Baltimore Ravens, who won the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, were decimated by the salary cap and lost a lot of their key players to free agency. They have a lot of rookies and inexperienced players on this year?s team and are 6-6.
Your Lions haven?t won that many games the last two seasons.
So come on, Clay, get with it.
Pete
