The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Best and worst of winter
Jerry Hinnen, Fun & Games
PUBLISHED: March 6, 2008
With the winter high school season over for all but the swimmers and a handful of wrestlers (and two gymnasts — good job, Paige and Kristy), it's time to take a look back at some of the coolest developments and moments of the season, as well as some of the, well, least cool developments and moments.
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Here's the "Fun and Games" list of the "best of" and "worst of" winter:
Best Steps Forward: If the 2006-2007 seasons for the Saline basketball and hockey squads had replayed themselves, it would have been a long, dark winter for the Hornets. Those three programs had combined for just 12 regular season wins the previous year, over just seven different opposing schools (both hockey wins came over the same team; every hoops conference victory came at the expense of Adrian, Tecumseh or Lincoln).
But thanks to an infusion of young talent, fresh coaching, hard work and even a dash of Swedish exchange student (in the person of hockey forward Daniel Filipsson), all three programs showed dramatic improvement this winter. Those 12 wins became 36 and a league title (from hockey) as all three more than doubled their win total.
Add that to the continued improvement from the Hornet wrestlers and swimmers, and the big strides taken by the fledgling competitive cheer and bowling programs, and it was a very good winter for Saline athletics indeed.
Worst/Best Break: It seems near-certain the Milan girls' basketball team would have likewise seen a big jump in the win column if point guard Lindsey Lammers hadn't suffered the hideous-looking knee injury she did in the Big Reds' third game of the season. Lammers returned in time to spark Milan to its two late-season victories, but her absence clearly played a huge role in he Big Reds' rocky start.
But unlucky as the injury was, speaking as someone who was there when it happened, it looked much worse — a twist of the knee that's usually a certain season-ender and possibly the kind of multiple-ligament tear that ends a career. That Lammers came back this season at all was extraordinary.
Best Return From Injury: Saline sophomore swimmer Jake Engelmeier missed his entire freshman season with a knee injury, but you'd have never known it from his season-long comeback in which he played a major role on the Hornets' relays, racked up the wins in several events in meets throughout the season, and qualified for the state meet.
Engelmeier capped his return with a stellar performance at the SEC meet two weekends ago in which he qualified for three more individual events and helped the Hornets breathe down the neck of state No. 2 Ann Arbor Huron all meet long. He will now join the underclassman-laden Saline state squad as it looks to repeat the top-10 finish of a year ago — a finish that would stamp the Hornets as a force to be dealt with at the state level for the next few seasons.
Worst Officiating: Like every passionate sports fan, I'm certainly not above a vocal expression or two over a particular official's call I disagree with, appropriate for a reporter or not. (For the record, it's, uh, not.)
But I've never specifically griped about officials in this space, for good reason. They deserve the benefit of the doubt 99 percent of the time and do a job that very few of us would be willing to take on for far less credit than most of us would be happy with. I've devoted an entire column to this in the past.
That said, if there's one thing I can't abide in officials, it's ego-serving calls designed to bring the attention to the official and away from the game at hand. I have to emphasize that these are extremely rare; virtually every official in every sport is more than happy to leave the focus on the players and only step out of the background when necessary.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with one gentleman who called both Milan's first-round games in the basketball districts. This official routinely overruled calls made by his two colleagues, whistled fouls the other two officials were in better position to call and let go, and generally made double-sure his influence was being felt on the game.
In the worst instance, he wiped a Milan girls' three-pointer off the board (with great flair at the scorer's table, it has to be said) for an off-the-ball foul that clearly came after the shot, again without consulting either of the other two officials as to the shot's timing.
I'm only left to guess he failed to receive the memo (that, again, virtually every official does) that the fans were there to see the players play rather than an official blow his whistle.
Best Futures: I've spent some time at "Fun and Games" discussing the future of the girls' basketball teams, but there's a couple of teams in Milan whose prospects look bright enough to force the proverbial wearing of shades.
For starters, there's Gary Jonseck's Big Red wrestlers, who have continued their steady progress of the last few seasons by either coming within a win of claiming a Huron League title, claiming their first team district win of Jonseck's tenure over a solid Adrian team or seeing all three Big Reds who qualified for individual Regionals go right ahead and qualify for state, including regional champion heavyweight David Box.
The best part? All three of those state qualifiers will return next season as will nine of their 13 starters.
There are several seniors among the state meet qualifiers on Milan's boys' swim team, but that's not going to be the case next year, when the Big Reds vastly talented freshman class — a class that narrowly missed out on their state cuts this year — takes the next step and qualifies en masse. The traditionally strong Big Red program isn't going anywhere.
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