The Prep Blog

In addition to my "Random Thoughts" blog, I will be posting regularly about high school sports in the Mid-Michigan Area.

Congratulations to the Haslett girls volleyball team, who saw their season come to an end last Tuesday night at Holt HS with a straight-set loss to East Grand Rapids.  Not too bad for a school in their first season in Class A.  Watch out for both boys and girls basketball teams at Haslett HS this winter.

The three area teams (if you count Ithaca) all have tough semifinal games this Saturday.  In Division 3, unbeaten DeWitt faces 11-1 St. Clair at Goodrich HS.  Division 4 has unbeaten Sexton taking on 11-1 Marine City at Ortonville-Brandon HS.  And in Division 6, 12-0 Ithaca, with the 54-game winning streak, battles fellow unbeaten Montrose Hill-McCloy at Midland HS.  I expect all three games to be close, tight affairs.  But I've got all three area teams winning and moving on to Ford Field.  We'll have the Sexton-Marine City game on The Game 730 AM WVFN beginning with the General RV Pregame Show at 12:00, and then Nick Chase and Jack Ebling have the call beginning at 1:00.  Good luck to all of them.

Basketball season is just around the corner, and I see the quantity of "power teams" to be much more so in girls basketball, rather than the boys this season.  In the CAAC Blue, Class A Quarterfinalist Grand Ledge has 3 Division 1 commits in two different sports returning for head coach David Jones.  Holt looks strong again for coach Doug Harkema.  And you can never count out East Lansing, but I expect them to be down this year.

In the CAAC Red, Haslett looks to be the favorite, but DeWitt is always right there.  The CAAC Gold looks really good with Waverly, Jackson NW, and Eaton Rapids fighting for the league title.  And the White has Corunna and Portland looking to win the title in the White's final year.

The CMAC favorites look to be P-W and Portland St. Pat's, but remember, none of the area league champions even made it out of the district phase of the tournament last season.  So you never know.

The boys side won't be as deep, I don't think.  But we've got a good one coming up for Opening Night, December 10th.  The two best teams coming into the season in my opinion, Holt and Waverly will do battle at Waverly's Phil Odlum Gymnasium.  We'll have the broadcast on The Game 730 AM WVFN with Nick Chase on the call.

I'll review the football semifinals next week on The Prep Blog, but until then,  this is Brock Palmbos, signing off.