Thursday, March 6, 2008

High school athletes gear up for weekend of championships

It's championship
season for the dedicated athletes of less-heralded sports

Tim Twentyman /
The Detroit
News

Every championship trophy won and individual
medal earned has a story.

Many of those tales will play out in arenas,
ice rinks and pools across the state this weekend.

It's one of the busiest sports weekends of
the year for Michigan
high school athletes. The winter season is winding down, and participants in
sports like boys swimming, boys and girls hockey,
competitive cheer, gymnastics and individual wrestling will compete for
championships -- and a lifetime of memories. The Michigan High School
Athletic Association, which conducts tournaments in sanctioned sports, calls
it "March Magic."

Often, however, it's "magic" only
for the athletes and their small circle of fans. These athletes in the
so-called "minor sports" are often lost in the fanfare of the more
popular football, volleyball, and boys and girls basketball.

But there's nothing insignificant about
their efforts, or what this weekend means.

They have some remarkable stories to tell.

As an inexperienced and scrawny freshman,
Josh Miller was cut from the Trenton High hockey team. For as long as he can
remember, Miller has wanted to play hockey for Trenton, and being cut was devastating.

But instead of quitting or feeling sorry for
himself, Miller went to work. Three years later, he's a captain and Mr.
Hockey candidate for the No. 1 team in Division 2.

"It was really difficult being cut, but
it was eye-opening to me," Miller said. "It showed me that I had a
lot of work to do and it was really a self-motivator for me."

At a sturdy 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds, Miller
is a force on the ice.

"He can do it all," coach Mike Turner
said. "He skates through you. He skates around you. He's just a great
talent."

Miller was first team Division 2 All-State
last season and enters today's semifinal against Grand Rapids Forest Eastern
as the top scorer in the state with 75 points (36 goals, 39 assists).

Ask Paula Guzik
who the real athletes are at Livonia Churchill High, and she'll tell
you without hesitation the gymnasts.

"It's exciting to bring people out that
don't know what it is we do," Guzik said,
referring to this weekend's gymnastics championships at the DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids.
"It's fun to show how athletic we are compared to those bulky football
players."

Guzik's athleticism has
been on display the last three years, and she's hoping to "step it up to
another level" this year. Guzik will be
defending her individual title on the balance beam at the same time trying to
improve on the fifth place finish in the all-around.

"I didn't expect that at all last
year," Guzik said. "The seniors were just
starting to get to the top and for it to come so quickly for me was a bit
surprising."

In all, Guzik
finished in the top five in every event last year, earning All-State
recognition in each.

Detroit Catholic Central senior Mike Martin
joined the wrestling team as a junior, having never wrestled before. A star
defensive tackle, who has earned a football scholarship from Michigan, Martin
started wrestling to stay in shape and develop a little attitude for
football.

Martin always has been gifted athletically,
but wrestling didn't come naturally. He lost the first four matches at 285
pounds and was so frustrated he contemplated quitting.

"I've been good at everything I've ever
done my whole life, but I was getting my butt kicked," Martin said
before his senior season. "My coaches told me to hang in for a little
while longer, and if I did, I would be a state champion."

Martin stuck it out, and three months later
won an individual state championship.

Martin has only gotten better over the last
year and enters this weekend's individual championship at The Palace as the
top-ranked heavyweight in the state with only one loss this season.

In about a year and a half, Martin has gone
from wrestling whipping boy to heavyweight power.

Annie Shepard and
Alex Rentz are stars in their own right.

But together, they've made Grosse Pointe
South unbeatable in the Michigan Metro Girls High School Hockey League
heading into this weekend's finals at the City Ice Arena in Detroit.

Shepard is the second
leading scorer in the state with 49 points (22 goals and 27 assists), and Rentz is third with 43 points (20 goals, 23 assists).

"Shepard and Rentz form our top line and are outstanding hockey
players," coach Bill Fox said. "Not only are they great hockey
players, but they are girls you don't have to worry about doing the wrong
things. Annie is getting an academic award and Alex has like a 3.99
grade-point average. They are very smart players and having them on the ice
is like having a coach on the ice."

Shepard and Rentz are four-year varsity players.

"It's a lot of fun to play next to
Alex," Shepard said. "We've been playing
together as freshmen and we have a lot of chemistry on the ice. We know how
to play together and we know where the other one is going to be on the
ice."

Grosse Pointe South won the Metro League
with a 16-0-2 record and earned a bye in the first round of the playoffs. Led
by Shepard and Rentz,
South is the top scoring team in the state with 127 goals.

"It's really good to have someone you
feel you can always depend and someone that can help you finish a play,"
Rentz said.

Mark Schramm is one of the best high school
swimmers you've probably never heard of. That's because he doesn't swim for a
perennial power like Ann Arbor Pioneer or Ann Arbor Huron and hasn't been a
part of championship team.

But all Schramm does is win -- unassumingly
and inconspicuously -- like he's done the last three years.

The Monroe High senior is the defending
200-meter freestyle champion and finished third in the 500-meter freestyle at
last year's championships. He is on track to be a double-champion in the 200-
and 500-yard freestyles at the Division 1 championships at Oakland University.

The Monroe
team probably won't finish in the top 10. So, without a team goal, Schramm is
on an individual mission.

"It's fun to go against the Hurons and the Pioneers," Schramm said. "We
bring 25 swimmers to those schools for a meet and they have 45 guys that have
to compete with each other every day just to get into the pool. When I go to
an event like this I miss the team camaraderie a little bit, but I'll have my
supporters."

Schramm is seeded No. 1 in the 500 freestyle
and No. 2 in the 200 freestyle (he's defeated the No. 1 swimmer in the 200
this year).

To say the Rochester competitive cheer team has been
dominant the last 14 years would be a bit of an understatement.

Rochester has won the last
three Division 1 championships and 11 of the last 14. Leading Rochester this season
is a core group of three senior captains and junior captain Emily Kmiec.

"In my 27 years I'd say a dozen or
fewer captains have been juniors," coach Susan Wood said. "It takes
some extreme work ethic and motivation as a junior to have your teammates
vote for you. They are often very talented, but it's the work ethic and
motivation that make them such good leaders and role models.

"Many seniors are great leaders, so it
is definitely a statement to a junior's character and maturity to be chosen.
She's just so mature. Talking to her is like talking to a 25-year-old."

Of the 29 girls on Wood's top-ranked squad,
15 are returning state champions. A lot of girls have won championships and a
lot have experience, but it's the intangibles that set Kmiec
apart.

"I've never been afraid to speak up and
I think I lead by example," Kmiec said.

"A captain is the first person to
practice and the last one to leave and gives 100 percent even when they're
maybe doubting themselves. "We have had a great
legacy here and it's up to me and the other girls to uphold that and step it
up."