Any women’s basketball standout from Southeast Michigan, concluding an accomplished college career, should not be surprised if Dreyon Wynn reaches out to them. Wynn, President and General Manager of the Flint Monarchs bills himself as an “encyclopedia of women’s basketball.” That knowledge, combined with uncanny people skills, passion for the game and the ability to create a welcoming environment, has allowed Wynn to put together rosters overflowing with talent since taking over the only professional women’s basketball team in the city’s history, in 2011.
Gabrielle Anzalone rounded the final turn of last December’s California International Marathon, anticipating the finish line coming into view, but unsure of what time the clock above it would read.
IN 1909, just eight years after the Detroit Tigers began playing at Michigan and Trumbull, the Flint City Baseball League was born.
A Youtube video posted after Flint Powers Catholic won its second girls soccer state championship in dominating fashion last June, perfectly captures the camaraderie, skills, team chemistry and resiliency that make the program one of the state’s finest.
With her trim, toned build, distinctive mohawk hairstyle and confident stare, Louise Ogadinma looks nothing like she did a decade ago. Back then, as she puts it, she was an “unathletic” senior at Detroit Renaissance High School whose only extra-circular interest was choir.
The moment Joey Spencer had envisioned since he was in kindergarten was drawing near.
During the past decade, Kearsley High School has earned a well-deserved reputation for being one of the state’s most fiercely competitive girls bowling programs.
St. Clair Shores Falcons hockey coach, Jeff Jackson, had watched team captain, Ron Rolston, mature and grow both on and off the ice during his two seasons with the team. The teenager’s affinity for the sport, along with the manner in which he conducted himself, impressed Jackson and in the early spring of 1986, he felt the time had come to express that to the Fenton, MI native.
As Steve Schmidt reflects on the remarkable men’s basketball program he has built at Mott Community College, evidence of that success adorns the wall behind him.
Activity surrounding the first day of Grand Blanc’s eighth-grade football practice came to a virtual standstill when Alicia Woollcott entered the room.
The youngest players seem almost too small for their bodies to support a helmet and pads, but their passion for football is unmistakable. The Great Lakes Recreational Football League (GLRFL), with players as young as seven, kicked off its inaugural season this fall. Games feature the same sights (thrilling plays, vocal coaches, enthusiastic cheerleaders), sounds (smack of pads, shrill of whistles) and smells (concession-stand fare, freshly-cut grass) as typical high school games – only on a smaller scale. The size of the hearts of those involved, however, is the same.
Lacing up a pair of boxing gloves and stepping into a ring was the furthest thing from an 11-year-old Claressa Shields’ mind. She was too busy dealing with a difficult, at times transient childhood, and just trying to fit in at the Beecher School District’s Dailey Elementary.
