New Sports Repoter Joins Staff

As our faithful readers will learn tomorrow, we have a news sports reporter at The Saline Reporter and Milan News-Leader. Jana Miller, a 2004 Saline High School graduate who earned a bachelor's degree in sports management with an English emphasis from the University of Michigan, started Monday, succeeding Jerry Hinnen, who was at the helm for two years and was my first new-hire for the papers while I was serving as interim editor in the summer of 2006.

Jana started Monday and has been introducing, or in many cases reintroducing, herself to coaches in Saline and Milan. She has a column that will appear in tomorrow's editions and next week will be her first sports section on her own. I am sure readers are just as excited to have her as I am, in particular since we've limped along since Jerry left in mid-August. In fact, poor Milan sports fans, have a young boy throwing a ball at a milk jug as their main art on the sports front in tomorrow's edition. Sorry about that. I know Jana will do better.

Jana is a former high school athlete, a four-year varsity letter winner in high school golf and tennis, and captain of the golf and tennis teams during her junior and senior years of high school. She previously served as Web site editor at Fans Know Best, and was an intern at the Golf Association of Michigan in Farmington Hills. She also served as a coach for Girls on the Run in the fall of 2004. Diners may recognize her from the Travis Pointe Country Club, where she worked as a hostess and server from 2003 to 2006.

Like Jerry did previously, Jana will be in charge of the Saline and Milan sports sections, writing sports stories, formatting and editing sports submissions, taking photographs, designing both sports sections weekly, producing video of high school athletic events and posting to this blog. If it sounds like it's a lot, it is. So, be patient with her as she adjusts to this new position. It's a big responsibility and I am confident she's up for the task.

Please join me in welcoming Jana to our staff.

Good luck, Jana. I am happy to have you on our team.

Celtic Festival sports a must-see

I'm posting this a few minutes after 5 on Thursday afternoon, just a few minutes away from the official kickoff of the Saline Celtic Festival's 2008 program of athletic events.

Michelle posted a bit about some of the musical and cultural events below, but believe me, the athletic events are more than worth your time as well. Tonight is Rugby Night at Henne Field, and if you've never watched a match of rugby (or, like me up until last year's event, watched it and thought it made about as much organized sense as the demolition derby) you're in luck. I doubt there's any better way of understanding what on earth's going on than getting an up-close look at the sport and an announcer who knows his audience and is willing to explain what's happening. Not to mention the sport itself is plenty exciting, with lots of tough tackles and sharp passing and impressive athleticism. Plus, the price is pretty nice, what with admission being free. If you don't make it this year, go next.

Tomorrow night is Gaelic football, also at Henne Field. I've never seen a single second of Gaelic football, but a) it's a kind of football, so no compaints there b) I wasn't too familiar with rubgy heading into last year either, and now I'm stoked for tonight's performance c) it should be a nice night outdoors and, again, admission is free ... so why wouldn't you want to give it a shot?

Then on Saturday, it's the main event as Saline hosts the Masters World Championships of Highland Athletics. You can read a ton of reasons why the Highland Games are worth checking out in this week's Reporter's preview of the Championships, but suffice it to say you're going to see some athletic feats you won't see anywhere else done by people who you'd never expect to do the sorts of things they do. It's impossible to watch and not come away impressed. There's more information on the Championships at the official Scottish Masters page here.

See you there!

More info on Steve Sherer's fight for place on U.S. Olympic squad

If you've read this week's edition, you know former Hornet track star Steve Sherer is on his way to Eugene, Ore. to run in the U.S. Olympic trials. Sherer will run the 1,500 meters, needing a top-three finish to earn his way to Beijing.

It won't be easy--he'll enter the race with what currently ranks as the seventh-fastest time in the seedings, which you can see here. (Sherer was placed sixth earlier this week; you can also see at that link that--I think--he's narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 800 meters as well. They take the top-30 and he appears to be around 35th.) Still, being the seventh-fastest guy in America in the 1,500 means that you are, regardless, one incredibly, incredibly fast dude.

What's most remarkable about Sherer's story is that he's pulled off that kind of accomplishment without the help of any kind of sponsorship or team. When I caught up with Sherer last July, he'd been living with fellow track star Nick Willis in Ann Arbor but essentially training alone. He was poised then to move to California and out of the Michigan winters (which were just a bit unsuitable for outdoor training), and while he's since found someone he refers to as "an advisor" in this interview with LetsRun.com, he's still designing his own training schedule, working out alone, and paying his own way. (That's an excellent and highly recommended interview, by the way.)

For the world of big-time track, that seems to be just about unheard of, which is why it was apparently a shock to those who follow the sport when Sherer ran a 3:56 the first week of February at an indoor meet at the University of Washington.

Here's to hoping Steve just keeps on shocking people all the way to China.

Pain, risk isn't confined to one team

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column for the Reporter and News-Leader about losing in sports. Not just any type of loss, though--the kind that stays with you, month after month, year after year. The examples I used were my own personal defeat in my sixth-grade country spelling bee back in Alabama and the loss by the Milan baseball team in their district tournament final. It was during the conversation with an audibly disappointed head coach Adam Gilles--a conversation over the phone, a few days after the fact--that reminded me how much it can hurt to lose.

I thought about including a few other examples of painful losses from Saline and Milan's very recent history--the Hornet softball team losing a late lead against Taylor-Kennedy, for instance, or the Saline girls' soccer team seeing their run of four straight district titles ended by Ann Arbor Huron. I'm sure that in one sense, the Hornet soccer players might be comforted by the fact that Huron would go on to win the state championship in a more dominating fashion than they won over the Hornets. In another sense, though, it might make the pain even worse--Saline was never outclassed in three games against the Rats (the first two were both 1-0 Huron wins with the goals coming in the final seconds) and by all accounts played their best half against them yet in the first half of the district final. There wasn't much, if any, talent difference between the two sides; a break here, a break there, and could it be Saline in the state title game?

So it's worth pointing out that there was more than one painful loss this spring. The column's length meant that said pointing out had to be relocated here, but rest assured I was aware there were plenty other examples of how much emotional risk is involved in high school athletics.

Snow day WOOOOOO?

So it's Friday, there's a half-foot or so of snow on the ground, and like the many high school student-athletes I cover for a living, I'm at home. Unlike those student-athletes, though, who are likely playing the cool new videogame they got for Christmas (I wanna try that Bioshock game I've heard is fun) or browsing through a hundred Facebook messages, I'm working. Or at least trying to when not staring wistfully out the window.

This is one of the uncool things about working for newspapers. There are dozens of cool things, of course, so don't take this the wrong way ... but holidays and snow days and any other days where other people aren't working aren't one of those things, because we usually are. Martin Luther King Day? Worked it. Fourth of July? Worked it. Christmas Eve? Left the office at noon, but yeah, I worked that morning. Even the big holidays don't feel quite as much like holidays as they used to, because we have two papers to get out the door every Thursday whether it's New Year's or Thanksgiving or Labor Day or not, and whatever work we don't do on our day off gets done in double-time the next day.

This is the part where you, the reader, say "Geez, Jerry, would you like some cheese with that whine?" and I say "Well, yeah, I am whining, but I would like some cheese if you're offering. Some smoked cheddar sounds good right now." Because a) I like cheese b) my whine has a point, sort of: the newspaper that arrives on your doorstep or in the box on the corner has an awful lot of hard work put in by a lot of good people, people that occasionally the sort of small workin'on-a-snow-day sacrifice that has to be made days to make sure that paper is worth your 75 cents (or less, if you're one of those smart people who subscribe).

I am NOT suggesting we're all some kind of martrys for it, mind you. There are a ton of jobs out there that require the same thing or much, much worse, and even a couple--doctors, firemen, etc.--who I guess do things more important than reporting on the local basketball teams. It's just something to remember, occasionally, when you crack open your new paper on Thursdays.

Two quick notes on the area's girls' basketball teams ...

--Perhaps this weeks' biggest game is this coming Monday in Milan, where the Big Red girls will be looking to get their first win of the season against Dundee. The Big Reds have several winnable games to close the season, but Dundee is one of only two home games and arguably more manageable of the two (with the other being Airport, who beat Milan by 16 in their first meeting). It's not "do-or-die" for the Big Reds in terms of a potential winless season, but it might be their single best shot at a W.

The good news? Milan is currently playing their best basketball of the year, having stayed within single digits of both Grosse Ile and St. Mary Catholic Central into the fourth quarter last week (not that straight score comparisons are ever that meaningful, but it might be worth looking at what, say, Airport did against SMCC their last go-round vs. Milan's performance against the Kestrels). Those two teams have easily been the class of the league for multiple seasons, and if the Big Reds can continue that level of play Monday, they'll have a great shot. It won't be easy, but it won't be the scaling-of-Everest challenge of SMCC or Ida, either.

--Entering Thursday night, the Saline girls had lost only four times all season, with two of those L's coming to SEC Red leader and state Division 1 No. 10 Bedford, and one to Bedford's closest SEC challenger in Ann Arbor Huron. The only "upset" Saline had suffered this season came at the hands of Tecumseh, by two points Jan. 4. But that result didn't look quite so surprising this week, after Tecumseh pushed Bedford all the way to the wire in a 42-38 loss. The upshot of that surprise is that a) neither Saline's first loss to the Indians nor Thursday night's road loss in Tecumseh should really be viewed as an "upset" b) a district field that already looked challenging now looks downright murderous. Lincoln looks like the odd team out and Adrian is right around .500, but the other four teams--Bedford, Saline, Tecumseh, and Monroe--are all well over .500 and enjoying terrific seasons. It's going to be a dogfight.

Other cheers I miss

Thursday night I traveled down to Bedford High to see Saline's girls' hoops team try and extend their winning streak, and, to a lesser extent, visit Bedford, the only Southeastern Conference school I'd never visited. I can't say I had the most pleasurable viewing experience, as Bedford's gym has been expanded at some point and the upper, additional rows are separated on a kind of balcony level over what was already a packed lower level by the time I got there. That wasn't a biggie ... but the huge support pole you had to look past if you were one of the unfortunate souls in the upper section? Yeah, I didn't care for that so much.

But the Bedford gym did have something going for it: namely, that their auxiliary gym floor was right behind the main gym, divided by a giant vinyl curtain, and that the Bedford cheer team was practicing there. The result was that although the fans could hear a squad of cheerleaders cheering on the Bedford athletes, you couldn't actually see them (except for a couple of quick glimpses of hands over the top of the curtain when they practiced their lifts or, I don't know, flew around). It was like watching a game in a gym haunted by cheerleader ghosts who had taken their Bedford pep and school spirit with them beyond the grave, or something.

All of which reminded me that this week's column had a brief cheerleading note and that I'd left several other cheers I enjoyed as a youth out for space reasons (and because they are, occasionally, cheered by Saline's and Milan's cheer squads). Anyway, here's a few of those chestnuts that would still get me on my feet (well, almost) today:

1. "Our team is DYNAMITE! Our team is DYNAMITE! Our team is tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-BOOM! DYNAMITE!" Any cheer that combines explosions and onomatopoeia (there's your useless poetry glossary term of the day, kiddos) is a good one.

2. "Be! Aggressive! Be, be! Aggressive! B-E-A-GG-RESSIVE!" Probably the single catchiest cheer ever created. Gets stuck in the head more easily than most commercial jingles, in my experience.

3. "L-E-T-S-G-O, that's the way we spell 'Let's Go!' Let's Go! Hey, hey, let's go!" The implication that other people might spell "let's go" in a different way but that this cheer squad, basketball team, fan section, etc. spells it L-E-T-S-G-O just amuses me.

I should probably take a moment to mention the cheer I have heard most often around here I really like, and that's the "We've got spirit, yes we do! We've got spirit, how 'bout YOU?" call-and-response, capped by competing "We've got more! We've got more!" chants at the end. We had the "We've got spirit ... " part back in the day, but the "We've got more!" face-off at the end must be a recent--and rather ingenious--invention.

Assorted observations

For my first post on this blog in absolutely forever, I should probably do something grand. But I've just got a little while before leaving for tonight's Milan-Flat Rock girls basketball game (a quick Congrats here to the Milan boys' team, which got their first win of the season Thursday night on the road at New Boston Huron), so instead here's five quickie thoughts from various sporting events I've covered the last few weeks:

1. It can't really come across in our normal game articles (though I've tried to make it clear), but Saline's senior center Kyle Larsen has been playing like a house afire (to borrow a fun colloquial phrase) all season. Other guys he's played against might have been taller, stronger, etc., but not one of them has been any craftier or smarter or more fundamental about playing the low block. I doubt anyone's keeping track of "most And-1's drawn" as a statistic, but I imagine he'd be the area's runaway leader. It's been a blast watching him play.

2. Can't say it's a coincidence that the same game 6-8 center Erik Gunderson returned to the Milan boys' basketball line-up after a brief injury absence resulted in the Big Reds' first win. Without him, Milan didn't have a player on the roster listed taller than 6-2, and frankly, I doubt a few of those guys are quite that tall, even. (If you've never heard, listed heights on a roster sheet are regularly an inch or two higher than a player's actual height ... even in the NBA, sometimes.) It's been admirable, actually, that Milan has been so close to pulling off so many big victories (vs. solid teams from Jefferson and Napoleon, for instance) when they faced such a staggering disadvantage. But it might work out for the best. Milan's shooting and ball-handling confidence seemed to improve with Gunderson out, so I wonder if that, combined with "Gundy"'s ability to keep the boards clean, might make the win in New Boston just the start of things.

3. I don't know enough about hockey to fully explain the difference between the '06-'07 Saline hockey team and this year's model, which is 7-6 currently (following a 10-2 pasting of a Lincoln team they drew a season ago) after losing their first dozen-plus games last year. At a glance, it seems like last year's bunch (with excellent senior players like Grant Phillips and Kelly O'Sullivan) couldn't have been that much less talented than this year's. My guess is that it's two things: 1) last year's team had talent at the top but not as much depth because of the strength of the previous year's team (which went to the state finals), whereas most of the players who absorbed their baptism-by-fire last year came back with plenty of ice time under their belts and much more ready to contribute 2) they started out with a couple of wins and have been able to keep their confidence level high. Of course, it might be something else entirely.

4. The word is that Milan's Lindsey Lammers will be back and playing for the girls' basketball team this season, which is nothing short of miraculous if you saw her injure her knee earlier this season. Put as simply as I can, her body went one way and her knee went in a direction that was not compatible with the way her body was headed. I've watched a lot of sports in my time, and it was the most painful-looking injry I've ever seen in person, in any sport on any level. I felt VERY confident her season was over and wondered if she'd ever play basketball again. Now she's apparently going to be back in just a few short weeks. Unbelievable, and unbelievably good news for a Milan team that could sure use her.

5. Just to give you a sneak peek on next week's column for the paper, it's about cool stuff that goes on at basketball games, and I discuss how much I love the song "The Final Countdown," used as entrance music in Milan and by the pep band in Saline. But I'll use this space to specify that "Carry On Wayward Son" will always and forever be my favorite pep band selection, hands down, no argument.

Timeline of Freshman Football controversy

The events leading up to the cancellation of the Saline freshman football season began back in August and came to a head the first week of October, according to an incident report obtained by the Saline Reporter. Other dates were provided by Saline High School principal Ben Williams in an report to the school board Saturday morning.

Aug. 27:
(approx. 5:30 p.m.) A Saline freshman football player is said to have swore at a coach during a conditioning practice. Approximately an hour later, head coach Jared Falkowski reports the incident to athletic director Rob White. White requests statements on the incident from Falkowski, assistant coach Mike Burchyett, and assistant coach Brian Buchanan.

Aug. 28:
(approx. 1:30 p.m.) White, Falkowski and Saline High School principal Ben Williams meet with the athelte and his parents. The student denies any swearing. The family accuses the coaches of denying the player water, of using abusive, intimidating and derogatory language, to the student-athletes and of violating the Michigan High School Athletic Association guidelines on hydration. Williams and White assure the family that an investigation into the incident would be held. The athlete was put on hiatus from practice pending the investigation.

After the meeting, Williams and White interview five freshman football players who the family said were witnesses of the incident and could corrobroate their son's story. The administrators also interview all four freshman coaches. Based on the interviews with athletes and coaches, Williams and White conclude that the freshman football staff broke no rules. They further conclude that the student conducted himself with "Gross Disrespect by cussing and threatening staff with lawsuits during practice." Williams and White uphold the coaches' decision to expel the student from the freshman football team.

Sept.
Over the next month, the family appeals the decision and meets no less than three times with Superintendent Beverley Geltner. Dates of the those meetings have not been obtained.

Oct. 1
Williams receives an evening phone call from Geltner, informing him she has new information on the incident. They arrange an 8 a.m. meeting for the following day.

Oct. 2
(8 a.m.) Geltner meets with Williams where they review MHSAA guidelines for hydration and Geltner announces her decision to reinstate the student. Assistant coach Mike Burchyett resigns later that afternoon in objection to the reversal. Freshman football practice is cancelled.

Oct. 3
Sometime during the day, according to a letter from the team doctor obtained by the Reporter, Geltner has a phone conversation with Dr. Sean C. Adelman, in which they discuss in general terms hydration policies for athletic practices and games.

Prior to lunch, Geltner meets with Falkowski to discuss the status of the freshman football program.

After lunch, Geltner meets with Williams and White, at which time they tell her they have heard rumors that the other three freshman coaches might resign. Williams requested additional police presence on campus from Pittsfield Township, expecting student and parental emotions to run high. Prior to practice that afternoon, the coaches announce to the players they are stepping down. Practice is canceled. The Adrian game scheduled for the following evening is also canceled.

Oct. 4
7:15 a.m. Williams holds a crisis management meeting at the high school, anticipating upset students and parents. There are no incidents. Williams decides it would be "prudent" to provide the reinstated football player a security escort as needed throughout the day.

William and White begin considering options available to save the freshman football season. They find no good answers.

Oct. 5
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Graden, Geltner, board president Lisa Slawson, and deputy superintendent of curriculum Betty Rosen-Leacher meet on and off to discuss options. Shortly before 4 p.m., the district announces the cancellation of the freshman football season.

Oct. 6
8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. A special school board meeting is held in the Union School gym. Nearly 200 parents, coaches, teachers, and students attend. More than 30 address the board, many calling for the superintendent's dismissal.

11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The board confers in closed session.

The next regularly scheduled school board meeting is 7 p.m. Oct. 9 at Union School.

Back in the saddle

Hoo boy, been way too long since I posted something here. Trying to wrangle on-time previews for all the various Saline and Milan sports and then put together the Gameday Guide special section (out this week with schedules, rosters, player profiles, and more! ... though, OK, the "more" means "photographs." Trust me, it's still a heck of a resource if you take your local sports seriously) puts a serious dent in one's blogging time.

But from here on out, updates should be regular and reliable. If I attend a Saline or Milan sporting event, you're going to hear about it here, usually not too long after said event. For now, the fall season has finally gotten revved up and in full swing. Here's a few observations and impressions from the opening weeks:

1. As a first-rate sucker for being as close to the action as possible when I cover football, I spend my time on the sidelines rather than in the press box or the stands. At Saline's Friday night football in Flint, vs. Carman-Ainsworth, I maybe should have ignored this policy for once. The storm front that wreaked havoc with kickoff times across the state drenched the Cavalier field and turned it into a glorified mud hole. The players' cleats turned most of the sideline to goo, and what wasn't goo was two-inch deep puddles. By the end of the game, you could easily spot how much playing time a particular Saline player had gotten--the filthier his white jersey had gotten, the more he'd spent on the field.

Of course, I'm doing all this complaining and all I had to do was watch what was goign on, much less try to play a hard-nosed game of football in it. Kudos to the Hornets for slugging out the win in conditions that I would favored Carman-Ainsworth's more straight-ahead running attack--their far-and-away leading rusher was quarterback Will Cummings, who seemed to take a shotgun snap, fake a handoff, then plunge off-tackle for abotu 27 consecutive plays in the second half--than Saline's precision misdirection running and greater reliance on the pass.

2. Kudos are also in order for the Milan football team, who took a first giant step towards a return to the playoffs with their 41-6 blizting of Ionia.There must have been some worry when the Big Reds put the Bulldogs on the schedule; after all, Milan didn't make the playoffs in 2006 even after opening with their traditional Week 1 pounding of Lincoln. Instead they were opening the year with a team that hasn't had a losing record in seven years and hasn't failed to miss the playoffs since 2001.

Well, so much for all that. No time for the Big Reds to rest on their laurels, though, with a trip to Carleton to take on the Airport Jets this week. Airport took third in last year's Huron League race and if Milan wants to make a charge at the Huron title--not out of the question based on last week's result--this is one they've got to have.

3. Took in two Saline sporting events Tuesday evening, the first being the Hornets' 2-2 draw in boys' soccer against ann Arbor Huron.To be frank, it was a game Saline should have won. The Hornets had the lion's share of possession and probably three times the number of good looks at goal Huron did, but wayward finishing and some officiating calls I'm going to be generous and call "questionable"--including the penalty kick that got Huron back into the match after trailing 2-0, for a foul that from where I sat appeared to be so far outside the box that Saline started setting up a wall before realizing it had bee nruled a PK--came back to haunt them.

The silver lining is that, in my experience, bad questionable calls and superiority of play tend to even out over the course of the season. If Saline continues playing at the level they did Tuesday and maybe wind up on the other end of the whistle's favor, they'll get their share of wins.

3. The Saline volleyball team lost to Pioneer in four that same night. You wouldn't think playing conditions inside a gym would be an issue, but I honestly wonder if the surprisingly intense heat inside the Pioneer gym was factor. The Pioneers' gym is connected to their pool, and between the heat and humidity the word "stifling" doesn't even begin to describe the atmosphere inside the gym. I felt like I should have been sitting around in a towel and wondering how warm the coals had gotten.

The heat was the same for both teams, but, of course, it was Pioneer's gym and they've been practicing in it for a while. I know no one on the Saline volleyball team is going to use that as an excuse and it's not, of course, the reason Saline struggled through the first couple of games. But athletes in any somewhat extreme and unusual playing conditions are going to at least start the game thinking "Oh my gosh it's so hot/cold/snowy/infested with moths in/out here" and not about, say, volleyball. Saline should have a better time of it at home.

It's almost almost here

I wouldn't say the fall sports season has started just yet, nor would I say we're on the eve of it just yet. But we're on the eve of the eve. Football practice kicks off Monday, girls' golf hits the links Thursday, with everybody else having their first official practice the 13th, the same day Saline's girls' golf team gets things officially started with a tournament in Mason.

I have two reactions to that news, the first being that I am more than ready to get the high school sports party started. We haven't had football since early last November, haven't had volleyball since March, and though I know it might not be everyone's cup of tea, we haven't had a good exciting cross country race since last October. It's time.

Then again, where on earth did the summer go? Obviously, it hasn't quite gone yet--it is a solid 96 degrees outside as I write this--but cripes, we were turning out the lights on the track season and the baseball quarterfinals just last week, weren't we?

In any case, this week's "Fun and Games" column listed a few of the big stories we're going to be keeping a very close eye on here at the Reporter and News-Leader in honor of the impending season. The following aren't stories, but they are a few relevant thoughts that might have made the column if the column had been twice as long:

1. The football teams need to be ready in a hurry. As Brian discussed this week, Milan has replaced yearly opening-week ... how do I put this nicely ... "very likely win" Ypsilanti-Lincoln with Ionia, a team that hasn't done any worse than 7-4 since 2002. Between these guys and Chelsea, Milan may have the most difficult non-conference schedule in the area, arguably aside from ... Saline, who will still face the Railsplitters in Week 2. But they open at Flint Carman-Ainsworth, who they beat in Ypsilanti last year as part of the Big Day Prep Showdown. FCA has lost some key, NCAA Division I-quality players since then, but of course, so has Saline. And it will be very different traveling to Flint than taking the ten-minute ride to EMU.

2. Both area volleyball teams will benefit from the season switch more than their competition. I'm not sure how clear I really made it in my article today on Milan making the switch, so let me expound a bit here. Milan is a stronger program than they were a few years ago, but they're still definitely more in the "building" stage than the "maintaining" stage. Saline had an SEC champion team last year, one of their strongest in a few seasons. But they lost five seniors, four of them key members (the fifth, Emily Lloyd, was lost to injury early in the year). They've got tons of talent, but there may be some growing pains here or there.

So what both teams need is more practice time, more development time, more time to work on their games. Having the summer immediately ahead of the season (rather than basketball) helps with that, but of course it helps every team. But because there may be more room for improvement for Milan and Saline than for their league rivals, it will help them more. Think of it this way: for almost every skill, the better you are, the harder it is to improve. It's easier to go from hitting 50 percent of your free throws to 80 percent, for instance, than it is from 80 to 90, easier to go from being a good cook to opening a restaurant than from opening the restaurant to getting five stars. While other, more experienced volleyball teams might already be about as good as they're going to be, Milan and Saline can still use their extra time to take greater strides--and if there's more talent than their opponents to start with, those strides might just takle them where they want to go.

3. Me personally, I'm glad girls' basketball is now a winter sport. I totally understand why so many players, coaches, fans, etc. were opposed to the season switch. I nunderstand why some were for it. But for someone who grew up elsewhere, girls' basketball--any basketball--in the fall never felt quite right. Football, basketball, and baseball (no offense to all the other sports and with the understanding this was back in those unfortunate times when girls' sports were nonexistent) were the first three major sports in high schools and those were the three sports the high school athletic calendar was originally built around: football in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball in the spring. Having never seen hoops played in the fall before, watching basketball one night and then football the next just felt ... awkward. This is why I think girls' basketball won't suffer for moving to winter: I think I'm not the only one who feels this way, and I think more fans will be in the mood for basketball, any basketball, played by either gender, in the winter than when the football's still flying around outside.

Coaching ch-ch-ch-changes

It's the dead middle of summer, traditionally the slowest time of the year for sports news (fun fact: the days before and after the MLB All-Star Game are the only two of the entire year when none of the four major American professional sports leagues--MLB, the NFL, NBA, and NHL--have a single game scheduled). But I'd like to think we had some big stories in this week's edition: Saline lacrosse coach John Phillips stepped down, we reported the hiring of Jeff Davis to coach the Milan girls' basketball varsity, and new Saline boys' basketball head coach Mike Brown talked about the summer's role in the team's adjustment period.

Because the article reporting Phillips's resignation also covered the post-season awards earned by the Saline lacrosse team following its 19-1 dream season--a topic I'm sure John would want front-and-center--I wasn't able to include in the newspaper an important piece of information I had on his decision: namely, that Phillips isn't about to just leave the program he helped build from scratch in his wake. His current plans include running a series of summer clinics for young lacrosse players in Saline, generating ideas for and possibly overseeing new fund raisers to help the program, and and helping in the continuing development of the middle school program.

In other words, Phillips will still be playing a major role in building a deeper, better Saline lacrosse team. That role just won't be "head coach." As noted in today's article, Phillips is taking on this new role in order to spend more time supporting and cheering on his kids (including Claire, a standout defender for the Saline girls' soccer team) and we at the Reporter wish him the best of luck.

On the surface, Davis and Brown are taking on similarly difficult projects. The Milan girls won four games last year, the Saline boys five. Both will enter their 2007-2008 season with heavy graduation losses. The Hornets lost seven lettermen from last season's 12-man opening-game roster; the Big Reds lost only two, but those two were leading scorer and rebounder Nicole Greer and starting point guard Chelsey Green.

But looking past the surface, Davis has a much taller ladder to climb. When previous Saline head coach Terry Breneman resigned in March (like Phillips, to spend more time with his college-age kids), he left behind a program with many more winning seasons than losing, a program that had reached the 15-win plateau in both 2005 and 2006. The 2007 record was much more an aberration (brought about, in large part, by a spate of unfortunate injuries and suspensions) of Breneman's outstanding 13-year tenure than the norm.

The Milan girls, however, last had a winning season in I-don't-know-when. Literally, I don't know when. But the winning record posted by the boys last season was the first in at least six years, and my guess is that it's been longer than that for the Big Red girls. (If I'm wrong, anybody out there who knows, feel free to correct me.)

There's no question that both programs have loads of potential (both JV squads posted much better records than their varsity counterparts), or, from my end at least, that both these coaches have the intelligence and guile to tap into it. But I also don't think there would be much question that it will be easier to get a program back in the habit of winning -- as Brown will seek to do -- than to make it one for the first time.

(Thanks to David Bowie for the post title, by the way.)

Sherer runs to third in Eugene

If you enjoyed the article from this week's Reporter on Saline's Steve Sherer, former Michigan St. All-American and one of the country's top middle-distance runners, you might be interested in the video below. It's Sherer's third-place finish at the Road to Eugene '08 meet in May, in which Sherer ran a personal-best 3:41.0 and showed a difficult winter training season (apparently, it's not so easy to run in a foot of snow ... who knew?) wouldn't keep him out of this year's US. Nationals.

In the video, Sherer has a kind of "flat-top" haircut, is wearing a dark blue "Athletes in Action" jersey, and is shown shaking the hand of the winner afterward. He's also, uh, the guy who finishes third. Enjoy.

Home-field Advantage: Don Richter's Take

Local high school sports facilities among area's best

For relatively small towns, the Heritage Newspapers-West communities of Chelsea, Dexter, Manchester, Milan and Saline have some of the area's top high school sports facilities.

Topping the list of local athletic facilities has to be Saline High School's football field, er, should I say, stadium. The Hornets' gridiron complex is as close to a legitimate stadium as this area gets. Basically enclosed on three of the synthetic field's four sides, the stadium has the feel of a small college atmosphere when packed to capacity. During my career, I've covered Division III college football games at numerous MIAA schools and Saline's stadium and facilites are as good, if not better, than some of the collegiate fields I've visited.

Also topping the list of facilities in our area has to be Chelsea's dynamic baseball and softball stadiums. I've been to many a ball field throughout the years and the Bulldogs' complex is second to none. With stadium seating at each field wrapping around home plate between both dugouts, along with top-of-the-line press boxes crowning each field's stands, covered fencing lining the outfield, electronic scoreboards and manicured fields that would make Detroit's Comerica Park jealous, Chelsea's baseball and softball stadiums are arguably two of the best, not only in the area, but in the state.

In Dexter, the Dreadnaughts have one of the county's best, all around sports facilities. With a sparkling gymnasium, elevated track and the area's premier soccer stadium, Dexter's athletic facilities match the school's sports success. This past school year, the Dreadnaughts captured four state championships, with one each in boys' cross country, boys' soccer, girls' golf and boys' track and field. Just missing a state crown was Dexter's girls' soccer team which was ousted in the state semifinals. Not many schools throughout the state can match the Dreadnaughts' success on the field, or facilities-wise.

Over in Manchester and Milan, both schools have outstanding facilities. Manchester's football field is one of the area's gridiron jewels, while Milan's gymnasium is cozy, yet modern, and can be one of the area's loudest when packed to the gills.

All in all, for their size, the small communities dotting western Washtenaw County's landscape have some of the top high school sports facilities and programs in the state.

Posted by Don Richter, sports editor The Chelsea Standard/The Dexter Leader

Facilities addendum

Just wanted to tack on a couple of additional Saline- and Milan-based points to Ed Patino's informative article in today's edition on area high school sports facilities:

1) What I especially like about Saline's football complex isn't just the obviously dynamite main stadium itself, but that the designers added the second field / track right behind it. Unless you're planning on hosting the state meet itself (and East Kentwood would appear to have the D-I meet on lock-down at the moment), football-size seating capacity isn't entirely necessary for track, and the track takes fans further away from the football action. Just as important, placing the fields back-to-back allows for two events to be held at the same site simultaneously -- letting fans of the school catch some of both and making each one feel a little bit bigger. I spent one night last fall perched in the very corner of the main stadium bleachers, watching the varsity boy's soccer game in front of me and turning during the breaks in the action to keep an eye on the JV football game behind me.

2) The Milan football field is in the process of getting a nice new set of bleachers and becoming its own complex of sorts, which is certainly good news. Have to say I'm glad it doesn't appear that FieldTurf is part of the Milan plans--I don't have anything against turf, totally understand why so many area schools have installed/are installing it, love the sort of "spring in your step" bounce you get walking across it, etc. (I'm less enthused about the many tiny fragments of rubber that find their way into one's shoe and later into one's carpet.) But very few of the of the football / lacrosse / soccer / track events I attended over the past year featured grass, and to be honest, I missed the real stuff at times. Coming from Alabama (where you could count the number of high schools in the entire state with turf fields on one hand), grass still feels just a little bit more ... high-schoolish, I guess, to me. (That's a good thing.) Again, turf is great. I'm just glad we get to cover one school with each.

3) As for the rest of Saline and Milan's facilities, well, as I wrote in my Thanksgiving column last November, I just hope the athletes here appreciate what they have. At the time, I pointed out the gaping gulf between the Hornets' and Big Reds' gyms, tracks, baseball fields, wrestling rooms, etc. and the crumbling ones I saw back down South, but the fact is that Saline and Milan have it better than a number of their contemporaries here in Michigan, too: I'm much rather play basketball in Milan's gym than Airport's or Canton's or even Ann Arbor Pioneer's, would rather swim in Saline's pool than ... well, any other high school's pool I've been to yet, I'll say that.