Tuscola County Sports

Leveille moving on. Initial news reports surfaced last week that Vassar football coach Vince Leveille has accepted a new job to be an assistant at SVSU and will thus be leaving the Vulcans sidelines after ten years. Hopefully, I will have more on this story in this weekends Advertiser. Over the last two years, I have had many dealings with Leveille while covering Vassar football, and I don't believe there's a nicer man in this area. He was always polite and well spoken in interviews, even after a tough loss, which is something that every sports writer appreciates. Leveille came into a tough situation at Vassar and has done a pretty decent job with a traditionally unstable program. Leveille took over a team ten years ago that was coming off of back-to-back winless seasons, and took them into the 2003 playoffs with an 8-1 record and one TVE title in the same year (co-champs with Caro). He will stay on as assistant vice principal at the high school while he ventures into new ter...

WHY? I was going to post about something earlier this week, but the tragedy at Virginia Tech on Monday had kind of put things in perspective for me over the last couple of days. At times like this, sports just don't seem all that important. First off, I want to offer my condolances for all the victim's families. As this thing plays out, and numerous media sources try to make sense out of a senseless act, the one thing that always seems to be forgotten are the victims. 32 innocent people were killed on Monday in what has become the deadliest school shooting in American history...and the media outlets are doing nothing over the last two days but broadcasting pictures and film of the coward responsible for this act. So he sent a so-called 'manifesto' to NBC the day of the massacre, so what? Do we really need to see this? NBC felt the need to broadcast what he sent, and then share the pics with every other media outlet in the country. Is there really a need for the gener...

Was it right? I was going to write about the Don Imus controversy and then I came across this gem written by Jason Whitlock. After realizing that I was only trying to hit a home run, Whitlock's grand slam made me put aside my article and I wanted to share what he wrote right here. COMMENTARY Imus isn’t the real bad guy Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture. By JASON WHITLOCK - Columnist Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem. You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality. You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor. Thank you, Don Imus. You extended...

Vassar leaving TVE. After almost two years of rumors, the Vassar school board of education voted on Monday night to accept an initial offer from the Greater Thumb West conference to join the league beginning in the 2008-09 season. Now, Vassar just has to wait for the governing board of the GTC to approve the move, which is pretty much a given. This is a good move for the Vulcans. Early projections have Vassar's enrollment falling to somewhere around 450 students within the next two years, which will drop the Vulcans to Class C. Cass City recently fell to Class C as well, meaning that every team in the GTC, with the exception of Bay City All Saints (D), will be a C school. Just for the the sake of competition, this is a good move. It has become clear that with the growing enrollment at some of the other TVE schools (i.e. North Branch, Bridgeport), the ability for Vassar to compete has become extremely difficult. It's a numbers issue....every school has a few good players, but ...

How long did I sleep? I awoke this morning to a ground covered in snow and flakes the size of a childs hand falling from the sky, which caused me to ask my wife this morning, "Exactly how long did I sleep?" Feeling a little like Rip Van Winkle, I tried to shake off the doldrums of slumber, made my way to the kitchen and glanced at the calender to remind myself that it is almost Easter. Ofcourse, this is Michigan, so the 180 degree change in the recent weather should not surprise me; I believe the old saying states that if you don't like the weather here, just wait five minutes and it will change. I hear on Tuesday that it will be 60...not exactly five minutes from now but the sudden change sounds about right. GO TIGERS!! If the first two games of the 2007 season for the Tigers tell us anything, it's that we are in for a great ride. Trailing by three on Monday, the Tigers fought back and tied the game at 3-3 before losing to Toronto in 10 innings, 5-3. Yesterday, t...

From the Saginaw News Sports seasons: Time to move on Wednesday, April 04, 2007 SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS, coaches and some sports writers were lamenting the end to a decade-old lawsuit this week that will upend Michigan's high school sports seasons and eliminate discrimination against girl athletes. With the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to hear an appeal this week, it is time for the Michigan High School Athletic Association and the other captains of high school sports to quit fighting and work out the logistics of moving girls basketball to the winter from fall and volleyball to fall from winter. Golf, soccer and tennis schedules for boys and girls also will change. The state athletic association has played a full-court press since 2001, when U.S. District Court Judge Richard Enslen ruled that Michigan's sports scheduling discriminated against girls. In every other state, girls play volleyball in the fall. Michigan is one of only two states -- Hawaii is the other -- that plays gir...

It's about time. This is from the AP.... MHSAA Denied Certiorari By U.S. Supreme Court In Sports Seasons Litigation The United States Supreme Court today denied a certiorari request by the Michigan High School Athletic Association in its Sports Seasons Litigation. As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision, the previous changes in seasons ordered by lower courts will occur beginning with the 2007-08 school year: girls basketball will move from Fall to Winter; girls volleyball will move from Winter to Fall; boys golf and girls tennis in the Lower Peninsula will move from Fall to Spring; girls golf and boys tennis in the Lower Peninsula will move from Spring to Fall; and the MHSAA will offer Upper Peninsula post-season tournaments in soccer for girls in the Fall and boys in the Spring. The MHSAA issued the following statement after the announcement: “The MHSAA is disappointed that the Supreme Court has decided against reviewing this case. Now is the time for our schools to step up ...