Blog # 83 – “The UCLA of Senior High Basketball”
September 26th – It’s game day and that means the second halftime show of the marching band season for the Hartland High School Marching Band. But before that event took place, a couple of other things made news today in the world of Mike Beardslee.
During second hour Study Hall, an announcement came over the PA system stating that all senior class members needed to head for the gymnasium. I was unsure of what this command was for until I walked into the location where I hoped to be playing varsity basketball rather than being a member of the basketball pep band in a little over two months.
As soon as I arrived, however, it dawned on me what the deal was. It’s the fourth Friday of the school year, which means today is “Fourth Count Friday!!” If that is not a great name for a title of a “Chip Hilton” novel authored by Clair Bee, then one does not exist on the face of this earth.
Fourth Count Friday has a different importance to school personnel than it does to Mike Beardslee. My mother during a slow, slow drive home from Flint one Saturday afternoon explained the real purpose and the importance of this function to me.
This is the day of the year that a school district determines the actual population of their students. That information is sent to the state of Michigan, where upon any necessary verification completed by the state, a school district will then receive school financial aid in “x number of dollars per student.” The larger the school district is, the more state dollars they are eligible for.
My mother added that this has a huge impact financially to all the school districts in the state of Michigan. Which means, that when the four of us former Fenton High School students transferred to Hartland High School for the 1969-70 school year, that in theory, there was four less” x number of dollars per student” for the Fenton Area Schools and some more drachmas in the treasure chest of the Hartland Consolidated Schools.
For Mike Beardslee, however, Fourth Count Friday means something entirely different and in my viewpoint, an issue that is far, far, more important than how much money an individual school district receives. Well, at least in my little mind it does.
When the state of Michigan officially tallies up the head count for all their statewide schools, it uses that official number to put these institutes in a classification. I.E.; Class A; Class B; Class C; and Class D; with the largest categorization of schools being “A” and descending in size by alphabetical division order.
This is also the determining factor as to how a high school’s basketball team is slotted to play in a certain grouping when it comes time for the Michigan High School Athletic Association Basketball Tournament. Only the greatest time of the year in state of Michigan athletics!! One and done!! When a team loses, they are out of the tournament which now allows those basketball players whose basketball season has come to an abrupt end, more time to get ready to gorge themselves silly of Easter candy.
In the Genesee-Livingston County Conference, it’s always interesting to see come tournament time where our league teams are classified. Some schools participate in the Class A tournament and believe it or not, there are a couple of schools in the GL that are on the bubble every year to see whether they participate in the Class B or Class C tournament. It varies every year. For example:
- Ainsworth High School – They always border between being a Class A or Class B classification. Last year Ainsworth played in the Class A tournament and I hope that they stay there again for this year, too.
- Fenton High School – My former high school has always been a solid Class B school. I see no change in that, despite losing us four former “Fentonites” to the Hartland Consolidated Schools within this past month.
- Hartland High School – They fluctuate between a Class B and Class C classification. While they were a Class B school last year when it came basketball tournament time, they have a long history of being a Class C school. Strictly for basketball tournament purposes, I hope that the Hartland Eagles play at the Class C level this winter.
- Howell High School – The same thing with the Ainsworth Spartans, Howell High School borders on Class A and Class B classification with the last few years showing the Highlanders playing in the Class B portion of the basketball tournament. This always surprises me because Livingston County is such a large county. In fact, the actual physical location of “12074 White Lake Road” and it’s 51 acres are in Livingston County. To break it down even further, the Beardslee family resides in Tyrone Township. Which means, that for any county issues or payment of taxes, my folks have to call or travel all the way to the city of Howell, rather than Fenton, to get any matters settled. Strange.
- Swartz Creek – Last year for the first time in their school athletic history, the Dragons had to play in the Class A tournament. When you have high level high school athletic programs like: Flint Northern, Flint Central, Flint Northwestern and Flint Southwestern, just a stone’s throw from the Swartz Creek school boundary lines; that makes for a short basketball tournament run. I hope that Swartz Creek remains at the Class A level for the 1969-70 school year because they’re going to have a varsity basketball team that will border on being a powerhouse come this winter.
While the basketball players who are seniors here at Hartland High School and played in what is known as the two years of “The UCLA of Junior High Basketball” era, there is another school here in the state of Michigan that can rightfully call themselves, “The UCLA of Senior High Basketball.” And that would be the River Rouge Panthers.
Over say, the past 15 years, they have won, oh, off of the top of my head, at least seven or eight Class B State basketball championships. They are just an impressive basketball program. In fact, there was a story that one season River Rouge had such a talented team, that their second and third string players were just as good as the starters. So, the River Rouge basketball coach, Mr. Lofton Greene, would simply substitute a whole new unit instead of just one individual player into the game.
I still remember the excitement that this caused in the town of Fenton when Fenton High School faced “Rouge” in the Class B quarter-finals on a cold Wednesday night in March of 1965. Even with Terry Walker leading the way, which sadly, turned out to be the last game that he would ever play as a Fenton Tiger, because that night the panther species proved to be superior to a group of subspecies tigers.
I mention the River Rouge High School varsity basketball team only because today is Fourth Count Friday. In the state of Michigan High School basketball world of gossip, you would traditionally hear how River Rough High School would always “ship a few kids out of their school system” just before the official student count was scheduled. And that is how “Rouge” was always able to stay as a Class B High School and continue to win as many of these classification’s championships that they have. I mean this “River Rouge must be shipping out a few students today” story comes up every year just before the start of the high school basketball tournaments. Guaranteed, you could set your calendar by that story.
Whether those rumors/stories were true or not, I don’t know. What I do know is this, that during their championship winning seasons, the Mr. Lofton Greene coached River Rouge Panthers were probably the best high school squad, regardless of classification in the state of Michigan. But like every other Class B high school in the Wolverine State, Mike Beardslee hopes and prays that this is the year that River Rouge High School forgets to “ship out some students” and participates in the basketball tournament as a Class A High School.
As the Hartland High School Senior Class contingency was making way out of the gymnasium for the class of 1971’s turn to be counted, I was on the end of a, “Hey, Beardslee. Come here.” I looked around and I saw Ric Adams motioning for me to come over his way. As I was walking towards him, I thought to myself, “Please, please don’t bring up the topic of why I didn’t make a serious effort for the drum major position to me.”
Well, thank goodness, the subject to be discussed was an entirely different issue. Ric Adams stated, “I saw Coach Decker earlier this morning and he made a good suggestion about the upcoming basketball season that I wanted to share with you.”
“With Coach Decker being the varsity basketball coach this season and not affiliated with the varsity football team at all, he came up with the idea that after all of the Homecoming events are out of the way, that starting the week of October 13th, any Hartland High School male student that is interested in trying out for the men’s varsity basketball team, meet on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights right after school for about an hour. During that time, we could shoot baskets, free throws, play some one-on-one games, etc. As Coach Decker pointed out, it would allow us to start to get into basketball shape, mentally and physically.”
Ric Adams further went on to explain, “This is for the guys who aren’t involved in football or cross country, so there will not be a huge crowd. Dan Brown, a sophomore, who is 6’5”, but with very, very limited basketball experience, wants to be a part of these sessions as well.”
“Coach Decker outlined a time frame as to how all of this would take place. Football season for the varsity team will be completed on October 31st. He will give guys like Tom Moran, Pete Mason and Steve Gilmore and other interested football players the following week off before official basketball tryouts are to take place on November 10th and November 11th.”
“The cross-country season will be over on November 1st. Max Perry, Al Dowty, Tom Beaver and Jason Shattuck, plus any other cross-country guys interested in trying out for the varsity basketball squad will also be given one week off to rest up and hit the books.”
“So, Coach Decker will want the pre-season basketball skills practices to run for the weeks of October 13th, October 20th and October 27th. And then everyone shows up for the actual tryouts with our first game of the season scheduled for November 29th against Whitmore Lake High School.
“So, what do you think? Is this something that you would be interested in signing up for?”
I liked that idea. I liked it a lot in fact. I need something to get me motivated to get into basketball shape. And this would do it. It would allow me to get a head start basketball skills wise on other players that also want to make the varsity squad. And Mike Beardslee will need every edge that I can get. So, my response to Ric Adams was a simple, “Sign me up.”
Some GWI Information
I have made mention of something throughout these blogs of an athletic conference by the name of the “GL Conference.” This is an imaginary conference that I made up strictly for the purpose of this story. There was no rocket scientist course work required as I simply selected five schools from Genesee County and the remaining educational facilities from Livingston County. You’re absolutely right. It would have taken centuries for a lesser person to come up with this same format.
From a research stand point it was extremely interesting to see what the actual conferences that the 10 teams consisting of the GL conference were in for the 1969-70 school year:
- Ainsworth High School – Flint Metro League
- Brighton High School – Wayne-Oakland County League
- Fenton High School – Flint Metro League
- Fowlerville High School – Ingham County League
- Hartland High School – Flint Suburban Conference
- Howell High School – Capital City Circuit
- Lake Fenton High School – Flint Suburban Conference
- Linden High School – Flint Suburban Conference
- Pinckney High School – Ingham County League
- Swartz Creek High School- Flint Metro League
And for equal time purposes, so as to not leave out some of the other people having graduated from a high school in the state of Michigan, that are also receiving these blogs or have parts in the story, their high school alma maters and conferences are listed below:
- Livonia Bentley High School – Suburban Six Athletic Activities Association
- Hazel Park High School – Southeastern Michigan Association
- Northville High School – Wayne-Oakland County League
- Buchanan High School – Blossom Land Conference
- Mattawan High School – Kalamazoo Valley Athletic Association
As always, thank you for taking the time to read these blogs. Take care!!
michaelbeardslee 