Brown quarterbacked Center’s historic season, takes home JTV Sports Player of the Year
By Mike Moore (Photo by Ryan Kerwin, JTV Sports) Staff Writer Michigan Center — Travis Gaddy was asked about Kylen Brown, a simple and forthright question. The Michigan Center boys basketball coach couldn’t answer quickly enough. “He’s a great kid,” Gaddy said of his senior guard. “He’s such a fierce competitor. We challenged him before the year started about keeping everyone involved and making sure we had the entire offense getting chances. And he did that all year.” Brown quarterbacked the Center squad to 23 wins in a row before falling in the regional round of the Class C state playoffs, and this week he was named JTV Sports Boys Basketball Player of the Year. “He was the distributor for our offense, and at the same time, an outstanding rebounder,” Gaddy said. “He’s a kid that can dictate and dominate a game in so many ways.” He wasn’t alone on this year’s Center team, but he certainly led the way. The Cardinals finished the regular season 20-0 overall and 14-0 in the Cascades Conference. …
Cabana was ‘silent leader’ for Grass Lake, and JTV Sports Girls Basketball Player of the Year
By Mike Moore Staff Writer Grass Lake — If Andrea Cabana had her way, and more often than not, the Grass Lake girls basketball coach did, she’d have three or four players scoring in double figures. She’d have that balanced offensive attack that was tough to predict and tougher to defend. No superstar, but no let downs. Still, for that equation to play itself out, the Warriors’ coach needed an engineer. She didn’t have to look far. “She’s a great ball handler and able to make good passes,” Cabana said of her daughter, Gracie. “She was very balanced in the way she attacked the basket and the way she could share the ball.” Gracie’s play got everyone involved, helped lead Grass Lake to an 18-7 record, a league title, a trip to the regional finals, and a personal nod as the 2017 JTV Sports Girls Basketball Player of the Year. “I think this was an unusual team in the sense everyone did their part,” Gracie said, adding her shock when informed of her Player of the Year nod. “It made for a special year because of how everyone played together.” “I really…
After record-setting season, Travis Gaddy earns JTV Sports boys basketball Coach of the Year
By Mike Moore Staff Writer Michigan Center — This was one to remember, a group of young men and their historical season. This was a winter that may never be bettered by teams yet to come, and forever cherished by those who were a part of it, or served as a witness from the stands. Some 24 times Travis Gaddy led his Michigan Center boys basketball team into battle. Only once, on the final night, were the Cardinals on the wrong end of the scoreboard. “It was a great ride, it really was,” Gaddy said. And that may be an understatement from a coach who’s slowly built Center into the power it is, and for the 2016-17 season, earned JTV Sports Coach of the Year honor. “I enjoyed every minute of it,” Gaddy said late Monday night. “There were times at practice, and I’d talk to the training staff or coaches and really talk about how we’re going to miss these kids and this group. They’ve really grown up in front of us.” This year’s finish, a 23-1 record, wasn’t some flash in the pan. In fact, Gaddy has been slowly…
Michigan Center’s Joe Lusk is JTV Sports girls basketball Coach of the Year
By Mike Moore (Photo by Ryan Kerwin, JTV Sports) Staff Writer Michigan Center — There was some math to be done, a mapping, if you will, as to the projection the 2016-17 season may take. One year after finishing with just six wins, Michigan Center girls basketball coach Joe Lusk knew things had to be different. “So we talked, and we figured maybe 10 conference wins, a couple splits here and there, maybe 15 wins or so,” Lusk recalled of a meeting prior to the season starting. “But truthfully, we didn’t expect a season like this.” And this season, where Lusk took a team with just one senior to 20 wins and the regional round of the state playoffs, is one the Center sideline general earned JTV Sports girls Coach of the Year. “You must have the wrong guy,” Lusk said with a laugh Thursday morning. In fact, Lusk was the man for the Cardinals’ job this year, transforming a six-win team from last winter into one that…
Northwest Grad Kaitlyn Arnold receives NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship
Alma, Mich. - Senior Kaitlyn Arnold (Jackson, Mich./Northwest), a member of the Alma College women's cross country and track and field teams, has been awarded the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, it was announced recently by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Arnold, an integrative physiology and health science major with a 4.0 grade-point average, was one of 29 recipients for the 2016 women's fall sports season and will receive a one-time, non-renewable scholarship of $7,500. She plans to use the funds to pursue a Doctor of Optometry degree at the Michigan College of Optometry at Ferris State University. "I was really overjoyed when I received it," Arnold said. "This is the largest scholarship I've ever received and it was a very rewarding feeling. "As a Division III student-athlete, we participate in athletics because we love it, not because we get monetary incentives to do so. I'm pleased the NCAA has a program like this to reward hard-working student-athletes from all divisions pursing higher education. This has definitely made all of the hard work and sacrifices to be a student-athlete competing at a high level worth it." Arnold qualified for the NCAA III Championships in her final season with the…
