MY NEW TOP 10 FOR WEEKEND DEBATE

Here is MY new Top 10 football rankings for Week 2. The Tribune's poll will be out Tuesday.

1. Ubly – Survived major scare at Sandusky. Still the team to beat in the GTE, but may as vulnerable as ever.
2. Reese – I am keeping them  No. 2, but the Rockets are closing in on the Bearcats.
3. Deckerville – An NCTL team in the Top 3? This isn't your normal NCTL squad.
4. Cass City – Have endured a tough schedule to start with games against Sandusky and Brown City.
5. Harbor Beach – The Pirates are 2-0, but the test comes next Friday vs. Reese
6. Vassar – The Vulcans got a HUGE GTW win vs. Lakers.
7. Brown City – Had its chances against Cass City, but couldn't pull it out.
8. Sandusky – Wasted a 21-0 lead against Ubly. Luckily, the Redskins have Mayville next.
9. EPBP – Will be interesting to see how the Lakers respond next week vs. USA.
10. USA – To me, the win over Bay City All Saints is a stunner. Can the Pats make it 2 in a row vs. Lakers?

Next week, Bogan will be covering that USA at Laker game.
Adams will be at Marlette vs. Ubly, where they will dedicate the Ubly football field to Jerry Herp.

Who else has a Top 10?

Red Hawks hang on vs. Brown City

Here's the game story and photos from the Cass City vs. Brown City game:

CASS CITY — In just two short weeks, first-year Cass City coach Ed Stoutenburg has endured a shootout and a slugfest.

The good news is his Red Hawks have showed they can win both kind of games.

After the offense put up major points in a Week 1 victory, the Cass City defense came to play here Thursday night against Brown City. The Red Hawks squelched the Green Devils at the end of each half, limiting them to 130 total yards in a hard-fought 7-6 Greater Thumb Conference crossover win.

“Wow, I am just very happy right now,” Stoutenburg said. “Do they come any tougher than that or what?

“It was a great effort from our defense. We rose up to what we needed to do. They dug in hard when we needed it.”

Brown City had its chances. The Green Devils drove inside Cass City territory on the game’s final possession, but a 15-yard unsportmanlike penalty and sketchy time management enabled the clock to run out. The Green Devils also saw a potential scoring drive stall at the 1-yard line at the end of the opening half.

“We need to work on the two-minute drill — it’s my fault,” said Brown City coach Scott Banks. “We just didn’t do a very good job at the end of each half.”

Cass City’s lone score came midway through the second quarter on an 8-yard run from Alex Varney. He also added the game-deciding PAT.

Nathan Primeau answered for Brown City late in the third quarter on a 1-yard dive. The Green Devils, though, were thwarted on their potential go-ahead 2-point try when Cass City’s Brandon Stine sacked quarterback Trenton Wood.

“We had the right play called, but we had some confusion and didn’t convert,” Banks said.

Cass City won despite four turnovers, including two fumbles, an interception and a botched punt.

“We definitely have a few things we have to work on — we have to get better,” Stoutenburg said. “We knew it was going to be a very tough game coming in here. Brown City is a very good team.”

Overall, Josh Jensen led the Red Hawks with 58 yards on 16 carries while Varney added 43 yards on 13 carries and had three receptions for 47 yards. Quarterback Justin Ketterer completed four passes for 50 yards.

The Red Hawks scored on an 80-yard, six-minute drive, converting a couple of critical third-and-short situations en route to the end zone.

Meanwhile, the Green Devils couldn’t take advantage of the Cass City turnovers. Brown City’s Jon Marks recovered a Red Hawk fumble at the Cass City 28-yard line with 2:15 to play in the half, but the Green Devils couldn’t score. They actually converted a fourth-and-nine inside the 15-yard line late, driving all the way to the 1 when time ran out.

They did the same thing at the end of the game, taking over at their own 40 with 4:10 left. The Green Devils drove to the Cass City 25 with less than two minutes to play on a completed pass near the sideline. The Brown City coaches actually thought their receiver went out of bounds to stop the clock. Instead, the clock kept running — and their questioning of that call led to an unsportsmanlike penalty.

“I didn’t say anything bad to the referee,” Banks said. “I am not quite sure what happened. All I asked was if he was out of bounds why was the clock still running.”

The penalty moved the ball all the way back to near midfield. With no timeouts, the game ended with Wood getting sacked as time expired.

“The kids played their hearts out,” Banks said. “We knew Cass City would be physical and this would be a hard-hitting contest. Both teams I thought were exhausted at the end.

“Cass City is a good football team and they are going to win some games this season.”

Primeau and Cody Anderson each had 48 yards rushing for the Green Devils.

Defensively for the Red Hawks, Mitch O’Dell had nine tackles while Nick Adkins and Corey Haney added seven stops each. Jensen and Alex Zaleski added six tackles.

For Brown City, Primeau had 13 tackles and an interception while Anderson and Travis Yonkowski added eight stop apiece.

Cass City will look to make it three straight victories when it opens GTW play next Friday at home against winless Bad Axe.

“We’re excited about the start,” Stoutenburg said. “But we just take it one week at a time.”

Brown City hosts 1-1 North Huron next week.

“I think we’re going to be pretty upset next week,” Banks said. “We will learn from this one, regroup and get ready for North Huron.”

Photos...

WHAT I THINK

This week, Cass City showed it can win with its defense, limiting a very good Brown City team to 130 total yards. The Green Devils, though, didn’t do themselves any favors. Sketchy time management killed a potential scoring drive at the end of the first half. And then a questionable unsportsmanlike penalty hurt them at the end of the game. 

Both of these teams have the potential to make the playoffs.

Thursday night finals and standings

Here are the area standings and Thursday night finals...

GREATER THUMB WEST

Team W L W L PF PA

Reese 1 0 2 0 77 20

USA 1 0 1 1 27 50

Vassar 1 0 1 1 33 20

Cass City 0 0 2 0 41 27

BCAS 0 1 1 1 54   39

EPBP 0 1 1 1 16 20

Bad Axe 0 1 0 2 06 102

GREATER THUMB EAST

Team W L W L PF PA

Ubly 1 0 2 0 68 28

Marlette 1 0 1 1 42 49

H. Beach 0 0 2 0 81 14

Brown City 0 0 1 1 55 19

Mayville 0 1 0 2 20 90

Sandusky 0 1 0 2 49 74

NORTH CENTRAL THUMB

Team W L W L PF PA

Deckerville 1 0 2 0 102 07

Memphis 0 0 1 1 42 49

North Huron 0 0 1 1 48 68

Peck 0 0 0 2 12 82

Kingston 0 1 1 1 50 69

8-MAN

Team W L W L PF PA

CPS 0 0 2 0 117 42

Owen-Gage 0 0 1 1 64 70

A-Fairgrove 0 0 0 2 16 66

THURSDAY’S RESULTS

GTW

Reese 55, Bad Axe 6

Vassar 20, EPBP 0

USA 27, BCAS 12 

GTE

Marlette 42, Mayville 14

Ubly 30, Sandusky 28

NCTL

Deckerville 48, Kingston 7

NON-LEAGUE

Cass City 7, Brown City 6 

Harbor Beach 34, North Huron 14

Memphis 35 MC Cardinal Mooney 6

Whittemore-Prescott 33, Peck 0

8-MAN

Owen-Gage 38, Burr Oak 36

CPS 62, Tekonsha 28

Posen 28, A-Fairgrove 8

NEXT THURSDAY’S GAME

8-MAN

CPS at Flint MSD

NEXT FRIDAY’S GAMES

GTW

Bad Axe at Cass City

Vassar at BCAS

USA at EPBP

GTE

Marlette at Ubly

Sandusky at Mayville

NCTL

Deckerville at Peck

Kingston at Memphis

NON-LEAGUE

Harbor Beach at Reese

North Huron at Brown City

8-MAN

E. Washtenaw at A-Fairgrove

NEXT SATURDAY’S GAME

Wyoming Tri-Unity at Owen-Gage

Week 1 Blog Contest Winner – Chiuk Czlek

Congrats to Chiuk Czlek, who is the winner of the Week 1 Tribune Sports Blog Football Contest.
He lost only 3 games, and won all five 3 point games...
Email me with your address and I will get the 20 bucks out to you...

Here are the overall standings after Week 1 of the BLOG CONTEST... The Week 1 standings of the I Beat Bogan contest are on the Tribune website at michigansthumb.com

Chiuk Czlek 26
Bogan 24
Braylonisnumberone 23
Bossick 22
kbechtel 22
coachestake 22
DAGreen 21
rockefeller 21
oldtymer75 21
dan gentner 21
halfwayed 20
twocentsworth 20
thumbtailgater 20
John Woycik 19
NCTL Alum 19
budman_48413 19
kellenbickel 19
Gary Hunkins 18
JEH34 18
EagleDad#2 18
Fan77 18
lakers65 18
Willow run 17
jymcheck 17
bodeen 17
spartyon 17
Cracker Snake 16
Horseshoe 15
papasmurf 14
jcreguer 14
jillms22 12

Pay to Play? Is it worth it?

I am curious to see how area people feel about this subject.
Is paying to play sports in high school worth it? And, if so, what's the magic dollar number when it isn't?
Feel free to comment...

The use of participation fees to help fund interscholastic athletics in Michigan high schools has nearly doubled in the past seven years, and in that same time period the fees paid have increased by more than 30 percent, according to surveys taken by the Michigan High School Athletic Association of its member institutions.

The most recently completed survey indicates that of 475 member schools participating in the survey, 221 schools – 47 percent – charged participation fees during the 2009-10 school year.  There are 768 senior high schools in the MHSAA membership – the survey generated a response rate of 62 percent.  This was the sixth survey of schools since the 2003-04 school year, when members reported that fees were being used in 24 percent of schools.  In the last survey in 2007-08, fees were being used at 43 percent of schools participating.

The most popular method of assessing participation fees continues to be a payment for each sport a youngster goes out for, used by 42 percent of schools in 2009-10.  A standardized annual fee per student was used by 28 percent of schools in the past year.  Both of these percentages have remained stable over the last five surveys.

Since the fall 2003 survey, the median cost per sport has increased from $50 in 2003-04 to $70 in 2009-10 – a 40 percent increase.  In that same time span, the standardized annual fee for a student-athlete has increased from $75 to $100 – a 33 percent increase.

Beginning with the 2004-05 survey, schools were asked in the survey if they had a cap on what individual student-athletes and families could be charged.  Caps on student fees have been used by the majority of schools, but that number has dropped from 71.3 percent in 2004-05 to 54 percent in 2009-10.  The number of schools instituting a cap on what a family pays has fluctuated from 41 percent having a limit in 2004-05 to 46 percent in 2007-08 and back down to 43 percent in 2009-10.

Other data from the survey in 2009-10 shows that 68 percent of schools with participation fees have some kind of fee reduction or waiver program in place based on existing programs for subsidized lunch and milk; that 14 percent of schools using fees report a drop in participation; and that less than 1 percent of schools report losing students to other school districts because they are charging fees.  

  The fee waiver number is up from 60 percent in 2003-04; and the number of students transferring out has been in the 1 to 3 percent range over the course of the six surveys.  

   Five percent of schools not assessing fees responding to the survey in 2009-10 report transfers to their districts because of the absence of fees.  This number has ranged between 2 and 7 percent over the six surveys.

GTC to stand pat – for now

Here is a story which appeared in the Tribune's Fall Sports Preview about the future of the Greater Thumb Conference.

“Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.” – Arnold Bennett

UPPER THUMB — Even with its current 13-team alignment, Greater Thumb Conference officials say they’re content right now with the way things are set up and will wait a while to make any changes — delicate or drastic — in the way they conduct business.

That’s the message GTC president Steve Budzynski pointed out earlier this week in an interview in his office in Harbor Beach.

“Obviously, we’d like to have another team to help with scheduling,” said Budzynski, who also serves as Harbor Beach athletic director. “But we feel right now we have a solid conference. We are just always looking to see what’s best for the league, the student-athletes and those communities.”

The league’s latest conundrum comes after Deckerville, a member of the GTC since its inception in 1997, made the move to the mostly-Class D North Central Thumb League for the start of the 2010-11 school year. Deckerville, a Class D school since 2007, has lost students every year since 2002. And while it had applied for membership to the NCTL several times, it was finally accepted for this school year.

Deckerville’s departure left the GTC with an uneven 13-team alignment, with seven teams in the Greater Thumb West and six in the Greater Thumb East.

The biggest problem, as Budzynski pointed out, has been scheduling, especially for football. GTE teams have had to find one additional non-league game, which has been difficult for many schools.

Scheduling problems, though, haven’t been limited to just football. Since finding out about Deckerville’s imminent move, league athletic directors have met several times to discuss the issue.

“There has been quite a bit of discussion not only about football scheduling, but all the sports,” Budzynski said. “It’s been tough, but we’re working through it.”

An easy solution would be to bring in another school. And, Budzynski said, Memphis and Millington have applied to the GTC for membership. Right now, though, plans on adding schools are on hold.

“The general consensus is that we just wanted to wait and see what happened this year,” Budzynski said. “We want to make sure we make the right decision...”

There are tentative plans, however, to merge scheduling, specifically football, with the NCTL. Budzynski said that under the proposal the football league would be broken into three, six-team divisions. Sources have said Mayville would move to the ‘new’ NCTL while Bad Axe would slide from the GTW to the GTE. That alignment is only preliminary, though, and would apply to just football.

Officials from both leagues were slated to meet Wednesday to discuss the issue.

“It’s not a change in leagues, it’s just a change in the way we schedule,” Budzynski said. 

 Budzynski said, if approved, that football alignment could be implemented as early as next fall. Issues, including all-league honors and the assurance that the smaller schools will still offer 11-player football and not switch to 8-player, however, have to be hammered out.

“We want to make sure it’s beneficial for everyone,” Budzynski said.

The GTC is also looking into a slight modification in its basketball schedule, with the hopes of playing most league games on Friday nights. In the past, many crossover games have been scheduled that night. That would not be implemented until 2011-12.

The GTC, however, did make one subtle change for this school year, realigning its divisions for soccer while adding Memphis to the league.

Now, the new Greater Thumb North consists of Harbor Beach, Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port, Bad Axe, Unionville-Sebewaing Area and Caseville. The Greater Thumb South consists of Memphis, Marlette, Cass City, Sandusky and Brown City.

“There have to be changes,” Budzynski said. “Change is difficult for everybody, but there comes a time when they have to be made.

“Every school is losing kids. That’s not a Thumb thing. That’s a state thing.”

Red Hawks give coach memorable win in debut

CASS CITY — There have been easier, less stressful coaching debuts.

But not many have been more rewarding.

Cass City gave first-year varsity coach Ed Stoutenburg an introduction to remember last Friday, scoring three fourth-quarter touchdowns en route to a come-from-behind 34-21 Greater Thumb Conference crossover victory over Sandusky.

Now, the 1-0 Red Hawks are hoping to give Stoutenburg an encore presentation Thursday whey they host 1-0 Brown City in another GTC crossover contest.

“We have two (2009) playoff teams right off the bat, but after getting that one last week the kids are excited,” Stoutenburg said. “It was a big win against a very tough team. We really have some good senior leadership. Most of them are very focused and they really push each other in practice.”

The Redskins certainly pushed the Red Hawks in last week’s season opener. Sandusky held a 21-14 edge heading into the fourth quarter before the Cass City offense turned it on, scoring 20 unanswered points in the final 6:18.

Quarterback Justin Ketterer hit Josh Jensen on a 38-yard scoring strike midway through the quarter for the first score. The PAT, though, was blocked, keeping the Redskins ahead by a point.

Less than two minutes later, Brandon Stine put the Red Hawks in the lead with a 6-yard scoring run. Stine also added the 2-pointer, good for a 28-21 advantage.

Austin Osentoski put the finishing touches on the comeback, rumbling in from 15 yards with 2:02 to play to make for the winning margin.

“Sandusky turned the ball over in the fourth quarter and we were able to take advantage,” Stoutenburg said. “Once we got the jitters out in the first half, we settled down and were OK.”

Offensively, four running back had at least seven carries, led by Alex Varney’s 12 totes for 93 yards and one score. Osentoski added seven carries for 60 yards while Jensen had nine carries for 58 yards, and Stine eight totes for 43 yards.

“We actually have six running backs we can interchange,” Stoutenburg said. “We can rotate each one and keep everyone fresh. That’s a big thing for us.”

Ketterer was 10-of-21 for 140 yards.

“We have a good quarterback with a good arm,” Stoutenburg said. “We’re going to try to be as balanced as we can be on offense.”

This week, the Red Hawks will be trying to stop the Green Devils, who come in after a 49-12 win over Peck in their season opener.

Brown City lived off big plays last week against the Pirates, with six of their seven scores coming from 14 yards or more.

Tailback Nathan Primeau rushed for 169 yards on 10 carries, including scoring runs of 46 and 77 yards.

“Brown City is a tough football team,” Stoutenburg said. “It’s going to be another challenge for us.”

Now that the season has started, Stoutenburg, who has been with the program for many years as junior varsity coach, is enjoying being on the sideline.

“I like the football aspect,” he said. “That part is not a lot different (from junior varsity). 

“We have a good group of kids. I have had a lot of them for three years. The kids have bought into our philosophy. We’re going to try and build on every week and not look past anyone. The most important game of the year is the next one.

“I heard a player talking the other day about a game later in the season. I told him, ‘That one isn’t going to mean anything if we don’t get this one.’ That’s how we’re taking it.”

Tell us what you think...

We hope this NEW Tribune Sports Blog is going to be just like the old one we had for the last several years.
When our old one went down earlier this summer, and because we no longer have an IT person on site, we weren't sure what we were going to do.
But now, we're setting it up via blogspot and it should be just like the old one.
So, be sure to save this one in your favorites and we will be at 100 percent starting this week.
Also, feel free to comment and let us know if this one is better than the one we have through our website now, and any other suggestions.
Once again, thanks for your patience.
BOGAN

Hatchet Invitational

Here are some photos from Saturday's Hatchet Invitational...

Post No. 1 on the NEW Tribune Sports Blog

Hello all,
And welcome to the NEW Huron Daily Tribune Sports Blog.
We are in the process of creating this blog, so please have some patience.
But we hope over the next few days, we can get it up and running 100 percent.
Thanks for checking in, and we will be updating just like we have in the past...
Thanks,
BOGAN