SPORTSBEAT by Peter Jakey: Chasing history on the tournament trail
The Huron wrestling team made history over the weekend by going as far into the team wrestling tournament as they could without winning a state championship. It took six trips to the quarterfinals at Battle Creek before Rogers City could finally break through. The Posen basketball players are chasing history themselves, and looking to go where no Posen boys basketball team has gone since Lyndon B. Johnson was president.
It has been 38 years since a Viking basketball team has won a regional tournament. There have been a few trips to regional title games, but no trophies or trips to the elite-eight. A member of the 1967 team, Dennis Misiak, still has his 1967 regional medal. The regional medal, which Misiak loaned to me for a photo, is not much bigger than my thumbnail, but earning it, and saying he was a part of something that hasn’t been equaled in nearly four decades, means so much more than the hardware.
Following Tuesday’s win in the regional semifinals, Misiak said it’s time for that 38-year streak to come to an end. The boys are one step closer to making that happen.
The Viking players are looking for more than regional medals, as they would like to earn a berth in Tuesday’s quarterfinal game. Unfortunately, when Posen takes the court on Friday, they’ll be battling more than the five players from the other school. Some of the players, including senior Matt Ponik and Aaron Hincka, who combined for 48 of the Vikings 57 points against Mackinaw City, are fighting through the flu.
“We’ve got the flu bug hitting us,” said coach Misiak. “The timing is not great, but hopefully we can weather the storm. We did it today.” Senior James Sobek didn’t play much in the district championship game and is still recovering. It was hard for some of the players to enjoy the victory Tuesday. Hincka, who is less than 20 points from 1,000 career points, was looking like he needed to find a corner to crawl in on the charter bus home. Memo to the team managers: Bring the water bottles and a lot of cold and flu medicine to Newberry.
Just before my trip to Newberry on Tuesday, I had to take pictures of the junior high wrestlers and talked with some of the Huron wrestlers who helped capture a state runner-up trophy. I congratulated Brent Freel, Chris Rhode, Brian Krueger, and Mark Grulke. “Nice job…”
Oops, I caught myself. Was I going to call him Markie
“I had had it,” he said on Tuesday, of the physically draining experience. Grulke said his teammates wanted to hug him and pat him on the back after he won, but Mark wanted them to stay away for a few moments. Grulke gave every ounce of energy he had to pull out the victory. The hero of Battle Creek? Absolutely. The only one deserving of the glory? No.
Every point was needed. It was truly a team effort. Continued next week…