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James Cook: All-star hoops hit ground running

james cook, the record-eagle, traverse city, mich.
·5 min read

Jul. 22—The inaugural Record-Eagle Summer Classic boys and girls basketball senior all-star games went off almost without a hitch Wednesday.

Thanks to a lot of people volunteering time and effort to make the contests a success, and hopefully most fans didn't even notice the few small glitches. We'll do better next time. Experience is king; and hopefully, these games become an annual tradition that future senior classes get to enjoy participating in.

The dunk contest, in particular, seemed to be a hit, so next year's seniors should get working on their dunk routines in preparation.

But enough about the future. Here's some tidbits from the games:

* Lake City coach Bill Tisron, who helped lead the National team to a four-point girls victory over the American squad, also accomplished his first head-to-head win against Glen Lake's Jason Bradford. Their teams met in last year's Division 3 quarterfinals just across town at TC Central.

* Numerous area coaches and players came to cheer on teammates. One of those was Grayling guard Caleb Caul, supporting teammate Dylan Cragg. Caul was invited to play but tore a ligament in his left foot playing pickup hoops and wasn't able to participate in Wednesday's all-star game. Instead, he and Cragg stayed well after the festivities finished and put up plenty of shots on the Gladiators' court. Caul said he'll stay in a boot for about three weeks, but should be all good for his freshman season at Kalamazoo College.

* Cragg wore a Rambo-style green headband in the game, which is appropriate, because he drew first blood on the St. Francis hoop, throwing down two big dunks in the first three minutes, starting with a two-handed jam from the baseline and then a powerful one-hander.

* Announcing the game was Trey Reed, the new athletic director at McBain Northern Michigan Christian. I heard Reed call games the last several years at Cedar Springs whenever any area soccer teams would make a run to the semifinals, and remembered that voice enough that upon seeing he was moving up north, immediately asked if he could call the all-star game.

* Referees stopped the boys game with 3:59 left in the first quarter to make three players take off necklaces.

* Grace Bradford won the girls 3-point contest with a final-round score of 20, one that would have also won the boys contest.

* American coach Jason Bradford used the top draft pick on his niece, Emily Grant of Lake Leelanau St. Mary. Grant finished third on the team in scoring, behind 17 from Grace Bradford and 10 by Johannesburg-Lewiston's Kennedy Johnson. Glen Lake's Jessica Robbins also scored seven and Frankfort's Tara Townsend five.

* Taylor Petrosky, the girls game MVP, led the balanced National team with 11 points, as Bellaire's Charlie Boyce and TC St. Francis' Colleen Hegewald scored nine each, Grand Traverse Academy's Claudia Burley added eight and Gaylord St. Mary's Bailey Murrell chipped in five.

* Benzie Central guard Nate Childers led all scorers in both games with 21, including 18 in the first half, on his way to winning both the MVP and 3-point contest while wearing jersey No. 3. Petoskey forward and National teammate Brady Ewing, the slam dunk champion, scored 14, McBain Northern Michigan Christian's Trevin Winkle, Benzie's Quinn Zickert and Buckley's Kyle Kaczanowski with nine each. Lake Leelanau's August Schaub added seven.

* Traverse City Christian's Brock Broderick led the American team with 18, with Charlevoix's Evan Solomon pitching in 10, TC St. Francis' Adam Gerberding and Kingsley's Gage Hessem seven each and Ellsworth's Brayden Steenwyk with five.

* St. Francis forward Charlie Peterson had one of the biggest cheering sections, with several fans holding up large head cut-outs of the Gladiators star on his home court. Kaczanowski may have had the loudest, though, with three fans holding up large signs and yelling each time he scored some of his nine points. Kaczanowski could have hit double digits, if not for opposing nearby players making distracting noises while he shot free throws, which drew a smile from the Bears standout, even though he missed both.

* Lake Leelanau St. Mary (Schaub, Grant and Zoe Korson) and TC St. Francis (Gerberding, Peterson and Hegewald) led the way with three players each between the teams. Grayling would also have fielded three if Caul has been able to play, with Makenzie Castle in the girls game. Mesick also had players in both games (Connor Simmer and Jillian Hillier), as did Johannesburg-Lewiston (Johnson and Preston Marlatt). Several schools fielded only one (Carson Bourdo for TC Central and Blaine Barkovich for Kalkaska).

* The two teams that drafted height won their games. The boys National team featured 6-9 Jenema, 6-7 Ewing, 6-6 Gavin Bisballe and 6-5 players in Trevin Winkle and Jon O'Connor. At one time, they fielded a lineup where 6-3 forward Zickert was the shortest. The girls National team boasted 6-foot Mariah Jackson, 5-11 Petrosky and Burley along with 5-10 Hegewald and Logan Reasoner, plus 5-9 guards in Bailey Murrell and Charlie Boyce.

* Glen Lake senior Connor Ciolek declined an all-star invite, saying he wanted his last high school game to be a Lakers uniform.

* Six players in the boys basketball game also appeared in the baseball all-star game three weeks ago — Peterson, Evan Douglass (Kingsley), Broderick, Marlatt, Simmer and Schaub. None on the girls side played in both, although several from the softball contests were invited to the basketball event that couldn't play for various reasons.

Follow @Jamescook14 on Twitter.