spoRTSBEAT by Peter Jakey: Hurons get off to a fast start
?The season is a marathon, not a sprint,? said Huron boys? basketball coach Karl Grambau earlier this week. Even though Rogers City lost their first game of the season against defending league champ Sault Ste. Marie, Grambau was happy with the first leg of the race The Hurons are 4-1 coming out of turn one and are locked in on a couple of goals as part two of the season gets underway Friday at Alcona. Grambau said one of the goals at the beginning of the season was to keep things rolling in 2006. Rogers City won the district championship during an emotion-filled week of playoff action in Rogers City, and earned a spot in the regional tournament before losing. Grambau wanted the boys to pick right up where they left off in March. That they did. The Hurons rattled off four straight wins before last Friday?s loss. The other goals include going a game further in the playoffs and to win the conference. Grambau believes they?ll have to play better defense.
OFFENSIVELY, THE coach said, ?We did some good things against the Soo.? Especially from the field. Both squads were tied with an equal amount of threes, but Rogers City made two more field goals. Free throws were another story. The Soo made eight more. The positive note Grambau took from the loss was that the scoring was spread throughout the lineup. There were three players in double figures and two players with eight points each. ?We are finding the open player,? said Grambau. Bret Karsten led RC with 10 assists.
?We have to do a better job on the boards,? the coach said. ?They were bigger and they beat us on the boards. We are working on defense.? What made Friday?s loss a tough one to swallow was the Hurons let a seven point, third quarter lead get away from them. Adjust the sweatband, get a swig of water, and keep prodding on. That?s what good marathon runners do. Before they get to the halfway point there are going to be some big tests for the orange and black. Three of the next four games are against schools with winning records. The games include Alcona, undefeated St. Ignace, and 5-2 Posen.
?We have a good mix of players and we get along,? said Grambau. There are six seniors, five juniors, and two sophomores. ?It?s been a lot of fun so far.? He also has appreciated the time put in by assistant coaches Mike Tulgestke, Mike Grulke, and Karl Momrik. In the coming games, the coach also is counting on the sixth man to give the Hurons a lift through some tough ball games. Don?t forget to pace yourself and have something left for the stretch run. All right, not all of the running analogies fit in this article.
*** *** ***
SPORTS NOTES: ?Posen basketball fans left last Friday?s gym with smiles on their faces as the Vikings absolutely dominated a Hale squad that many thought would be in the running for the North Star League title. Posen served notice that, if they play tough defense and are unselfish, they will be a force to be recko
?There were 50 days between the time Ohio State knocked off Michigan and Monday?s championship game. I don?t care if there were 10. Florida played with a chip on their shoulder and ran the Buckeyes into the Arizona turf. (I loved every minute of it). What if Michigan would have won on November 18? The Wolverines would have went into the National Title game with an undefeated record. I think the result would have been the same.
Defense wins championship, as they say, and Florida?s was far superior to Ohio State?s. Michigan?s defense did not play particularly well in the last two games of the season, so the result would not have been much different.