By John Raffel
MaxPreps.com
Saginaw High is making its bid for to be recognized as the best boys basketball team in Michigan.
Saginaw, a Class A school, has gotten off to a 10-1 start under coach Lou Dawkins.
"We're playing well right now," Dawkins said, indicating that injuries have affected his team. "But a couple of my reserves have played good basketball for me. We're sharing the ball much better. If you don't share the ball you won't win many games."
But while his team is off to a strong start, Dawkins isn't 100 percent happy.
"We have to improve in every aspect of basketball especially on defense," he said. "I have a very athletic basketball team. I need guys to leave it all on the floor for me. We're doing OK right now."
Draymond Green, a 6-foot-7 junior forward, is averaging 25 points and 13 rebounds a game for Saginaw.
Josh Southern is at 13 points and 11 rebounds a game. But Dawkins is hoping his 6-foot-10 senior center can overcome an ailing big toe.
"We have some rough games coming up," he said. "It will be an interesting second half of the season. We have a tough district (during the post-season playoffs) with teams like Arthur Hill in it."
Volleyball
Grand Rapids South Christian was Class B state runners-up last year and coach Heather Kwantes' team is hoping to make its bid to go all the way to the state title this winter.
So far, so good. South Christian is off to a 44-3 start.
"We're playing quite well; we have some big matches ahead of us," Kwantes said. "We also face Byron Center and Caledonia, two of the top teams in our (O-K Gold) Conference. Next week, we'll face Fruitport which is also a strong team. We have some big matches coming up.
"But a tough regular-season schedule will prepare us for the state tournament. We're seeing tough competition on a regular basis."
But Kwantes also likes her own team's prospects.
"This is a very athletic group," Kwantes said. "They've been making big plays at key times."
South Christian has had standout blockers and hitters from the likes of Kendra Potgeter and sisters Jordan Skinner, a sophomore, and Jennifer Skinner, a senior.
"They're good all-around hitters," Kwantes said.
Wrestling
Sometimes, which weight class a team has to start out at makes a huge difference in its hopes for a conference title.
For instance, Belding and Sparta, two Class B wrestling powers, were 5-0 when they met for a league match last week. Sparta won 41-33 and goes into the conference tournament on Feb. 10 as the clear league favorite. Belding would have to win the tournament to at least claim a share of the overall title. The conference title is determined 50 percent by regular season records and tournament performance.
The Belding-Sparta match, from a random draw, started in the middle weights.
"We're strong in the lower weights and in the upper weights but weak in the middleweights," said Belding Coach Jon McNinch. "So I didn't want to start the match in the middle."
But they did and Belding fell behind 31-0. thanks to upper and lower-weight class success, Belding put the score to 37-33 with one class remaining. But Sparta was able to put it away.
"It put too much pressure on us to fall that far behind," McNinch said.
