By John Raffel
MaxPreps.com
It's not easy for any baseball team to do better than a 38-1 record.
But Grosse Pointe North High School, under head coach Frank Sumbera, defeated the University of Detroit Jesuit 7-5 in last season's Michigan Division I baseball state championship game and wound up having won 38 of its 39 games.
In 1980, Sumbera coached the GPN team that finished 29-4 and won the Class A crown with a 9-6 victory over Royal Oak Kimball. But he's hoping there won't be a 27-year gap before his team's next title.
"The key last year was that we had a good group of seniors," Sumbera said. "We had eight young senior men on that squad. They had great leadership and skills. I had six go on to play college baseball."
That includes pitcher Michael Kaiser, a second-team All-American that racked up an impressive 13-0 record on the mound. Kaiser is a starting second baseman for Aquinas College near Grand Rapids.
"We had some good kids playing hard," Sumbera said. "We hit .405 as a team, it was an outstanding year."
Kaiser batted .481 last season while Lawence Briski hit an even .500.
This season, Grosse Pointe North has started out 1-1. A 12-3 loss to Detroit Country Day stopped GPN's 31-game winning streak this week.
But Sumbera thinks he has enough talent to make a run at another title. Matt Koppinger is the team's No. 1 pitcher. Michael D'Agnese plays centerfield and batted .372 last year.
"We have a chance to repeat, definitely," Sumbera said. "It's a good solid squad."
Girls Track
Ann Arbor Pioneer hopes to continue its dominance in girls track this season. Pioneer and coach Bryan Westfield won the state Division I title last season and also took it in 2001 and 2002. The other seasons - 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005 - the Ann Arbor finished as state runners-up.
The state changed for track from classes to divisions in 2000. Prior to that, Westfield coached the school to titles for seven-straight years 1985 to 1991, and four-straight years from 1996 to 1999, with runner-up seasons in 1992 and 1995.
"For 24 consecutive years in the state, we've been first, second or third in the state meet," Westfield said. "Last year, everyone that qualified for the state meet from the regionals scored points for us at state. Our hurdlers and sprinters did what they were supposed to do. You have to be a competitive team to win a title.
"It's too early to determine if his team can win another state title. It depends on how you do at regionals to qualify for state finals. From last year, we have some kids back who have earned points. Most of our relays are coming back."
Chidimma Uche won the 100-meter hurdles as a sophomore and was second as a junior in the state meet. She was the state champion in the 300 hurdles last season. She's a senior this season.
Boys Track
Saline and coach Brian Boze reigned supreme as state Division I champion last season in boys track, the first title for the school in the sport.
"We had an outstanding thrower, Vincent Helmuth, who has graduated already this spring and is going to Michigan (for football and track)," Boze said. "But this season, we expect to be competitive. We have a very competitive league and regional. We had the No. 1, 3, 4 and 6th-place teams in the state in our regional.
"We anticipate this year being in the top 10. We're strong in the sprints and hurdles. We're strong across the board."
Brandon Post leads the team in sprints and hurdles while Joe Everett is doing the job in the throws.
Detroit Mumford, Pinckney, Romulus and Ann Arbor are among the teams to beat for the state title, Boze said.
Boys Lacrosse
East Grand Rapids was the Division 2 state runner-up for the second-straight season a year ago. Coach Adam Vincent's team has started the season with a 2-1 record that includes wins over Lansing Waverly and Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central and a 6-4 loss to Novi Detroit Catholic Central.
"We graduated a lot of talent from last year," Vincent said. "We got a winning attitude. The guys have to know how to play against some talented teams. We're not very consistent right now. We need to be pretty good in June. We're not overly concerned with how good we are now."
But his team, Vincent said, faces a tough schedule.
"We have potential to be one of the better teams at East Grand Rapids. We need more experience. We'll find out in a hurry how good we are."
