Tuscola County Sports

'Muth fires past NB : I went to the Frankenmuth-North Branch game last Friday night (I had to present the All-Thumb trophies to Bone and the North Branch football team.) A few impressions: first, Brad Redford is all he's cracked up to be! Redford got off to a fast start, hitting for 11 points in the first quarter, and he finished the game with 24 as his Eagles beat the Broncos, 66-58. NB's coach Jim Marshall had a great game plan: use his best athletes, namely Bone and Brandin Friske, to cover Redford one-on-one, and for the most part, the plan worked. Frankenmuth coach Tim Crawford told me after the game that he thought that NB had the best athletes he's seen all year, and that includes Bridgeport. By the 7:42 mark of the first quarter, Bone had already been whistled for two fouls, which freed up Redford a little, and the junior guard responded by hitting three from behind the arc in the first, and the Eagles opened a 17-5 lead after the first. Marshall told me after t

Vikings stink it up: What happened? A-F played really good in their first two games. They defeated Areanac-Eastern last Tuesday, behind Mike Allen's 21 points, and they played close to Peck last Friday night. Allen scored 25 points on Friday, including 16 in the fourth. Allen was so good that we named him TCA Athlete of the Week for the first week of the boys basketball season. So, last night, with Port Hope making the long trip to the Fairgrove, I decided to make the trip there as well, almost positive that I was going there to cover an easy Viking victory. So what happened? A-F scored three lousy points in the second quarter, Port Hope scored 15, and the Blue Stars poured it on in the second half, putting a serious 60-41 whooping on the Vikes. I thought I was going there to see an up and coming talented team; what I saw was a team that would have a difficult time defeating most other schools JV teams. Port Hope ran a box-on-one on Allen, and A-F had no other option to score. Por

It's been awhile since I wrote anything in here...I have been super busy at work, with the All-Thumb football teams coming out this past week and the girls basketball arriving in area papers this Wednesday. The girls team is pretty solid. We also put out the boys basketball preview this past week--I will try to post a picture of the cover sometime this week. I came up with the concept design, took the picture that we feature on the cover, and then got everyone at the paper working on the layout. I like it--I think it turned out great, and I am really proud of the work we did on the preview. That being said, here are a few impressions from the first week of the young season. Brad Redford is the man. The junior guard from Frankenmuth had quite a first week. Even though his team lost twice (albeit to a really good Flint SWA team on Tuesday followed up by a close loss to a really good Bridgeport team), Redford shot the lights out! Against SWA, Redford poured in 37 points! The