This Week In High School Sports

THIS WEEK

In today’s edition, we announce our latest “Performance of the Week” and “Team of the Month” – both from girls basketball – and also feature a girls hoops “family” taking advantage of longtime connections during a successful run. We feature a wrestling champion looking to repeat and announce a national honor for one of Michigan’s most highly-regarded tennis coaches.

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AROUND THE STATE

Performance: White Pigeon’s Claycee West

The 5-foot-8 senior guard scored a school-record 41 points during a 58-39 win over Marcellus on Jan. 7, breaking her previous single-game school record of 38 points scored as a sophomore to earn the MHSAA “Performance of the Week.” West also became her school’s all-time leading scorer Dec. 17 against Bangor, breaking her coach Brooke McClure’s career points record of 1,224, and West is since up to 1,308 after eight games this winter.

Byron ‘Family’ Filled With Family Ties

Every team refers to itself as a family in athletics. But the Byron girls basketball team takes that concept to a new level. There are two sets of sisters, a set of cousins, and three of the four coaches on the team coach their own daughters. But, assistant coach Brandy Forgie said, there’s more than that. “The family aspect doesn’t just come from being blood-related,” she said. “We’re all from Byron, born and raised, all but one of us as coaches, too.”

Champ Lilly Honed In On Historic Quest

Chris Lilly could have plenty of thoughts racing through his mind as he goes through his senior wrestling season at Croswell-Lexington. It’s his final year wrestling for his dad, Cros-Lex coach Joe Lilly, who has been in his corner since he began wrestling at 7 years old. It could be his final year wrestling competitively period, as he’s not sure he’ll continue with the sport in college.

Armada’s Fredette Receives NFHS Honor

Longtime Armada tennis coach David Fredette has been named one of 23 National Coaches of the Year for 2018-19 by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NHFS) Coaches Association. Fredette was selected first at the state level and then from among the eight sections that make up the NFHS – Michigan is part of Section 4 with Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Hartland Sets Sights On Unprecedented Heights

This season isn’t half over for the Hartland girls basketball team. And as impressive as they’ve performed over the first six weeks, there are lessons from the last few seasons they must continue to recall with expectations high this winter. Take last week’s 50-40 win over Plymouth. The Eagles trailed early 14-1 – reinforcing coach Don Palmer’s message that every opponent is aiming to bring its best against a Hartland team with championship aspirations.

MHSAA TV Set To Top 600 Events Again

The Winter sports season is in full swing on MHSAA.tv and the NFHS Network. For the second straight week, more than 600 high school sporting events will have live streaming video. Here’s the complete schedule of varsity events on MHSAA.tv – more than 300 events on this week’s schedule will be competed at the Junior High/Middle School, Freshman, or Junior Varsity levels and are not shown. Visit MHSAA.tv to look for all upcoming games.

Be The Referee: Wrestling Tie-Breaker

This week, MHSAA officials coordinator Sam Davis discusses an addition this winter to the tie-breaker criteria for dual wrestling meets. Be The Referee is a series of short messages designed to help educate people on the rules of different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.